Since there are many kinds of educational software available, a language teacher should be aware of each common category of the software to
be able to select the best software to achieve his objectives. In fact, there are many other available academic software games outside are mentioned in the
table 2 such as
Hang Man, Spelvin, Uer o Talk, P lay and Lear n with English, Basic English
and many more, which can be used in language teaching. The previous software are examples of software that are included in English
Vocabulary games category which presents vocabulary with visual, audio, and sentence context in such a motivating and fun nuance environment so that they
could be valuable input for the teacher in teaching English, especially teaching vocabulary. In this research, the researcher uses three software games namely
P lay and Lear n with English, Basic English, and Uer otalk.
8. The Procedure of Using Software Games to Improve Vocabulary Mastery
The procedure of using software games in class varies according to the availability of computer in the school, students’ background knowledge on the
computer, the software games being used, the level of the students, and the topic in syllabus
. Because of this, procedure of using software games to teach
vocabulary in one school could be different from others. The first thing to do in order to use software games is to select the
appropriate software games for the topic in the syllabus. Based on the topic
stated in the syllabus, the researcher explores the games which are available in the internet, in the software rental and in other sources. From the games found,
considering the guidelines of selecting vocabulary proposed by Haycraft, he selects the most appropriate games for the topic. The fourth grade students of
SD Negeri Karangutat 01 are in their first year of learning English. This means that they are in the elementary level, so that games used should be games for
the elementary level and the vocabularies in the games should match the guidelines. In this research, the researcher found that the games namely
P lay and Lear n with English
and
Basic English
are suitable and appropriate to the topics namely
Alphabet
and
Calendar .
In addition he found that the game namely
Eur otalk
is appropriate to the topic ‘Calendar’, however it is not appropriate to the level of the students, but it is needed to motivate students
more. As it is explained in the previous section, the main tool needed in order
to use software games in teaching-learning process is computer. Without computer, software games cannot be used. SD Negeri Karangputat 01 has not
had a set of computer yet. Because of this, the next step is to provide a set of computer to play the game, LCD projector to display the game in order to
make students able to see the game, and good loud speaker in order to make all the students able to hear the pronunciation model.
Considering the use of many electronic tools, it is important to have good electricity. Before starting the class, the researcher has to make sure that
the power supply for the tools is available .
The fourth grade students of SD Negeri Karangputat 01 know nothing about computer, so in this research, the researcher operates the computer while
students do the instructions related to the software games guided by the researcher. One who plays the game and follows the instruction in the game is
not the researcher but the students although it is the researcher who operates the computer. Nevertheless, students are given a chance to operate the
computer in playing the game.
9. The Advantages and the Obstacles of Using Software Games in Language
