Using word games to improve students` vocabulary in XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
ABSTRACT
Febriyanti, Riska Riani. (2013). Using Word Games to Improve Students’
Vocabulary in XI IPA Class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta.
Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma
University.
English is often assumed as a difficult subject to learn, especially for those
who learn English as subject in a high school. It happens because students find
difficulties in learning English. XI IPA students of SMA Taman Madya Jetis
Yogyakarta also had difficulties in learning English, especially in understanding
the meaning of certain words or texts. The problem was they had very limited
vocabulary. Based on the researcher observation and informal interview, the
students had difficulties in answering comprehension questions when they were
doing reading comprehension exercises. Most of the students did not know the
meaning of text. Therefore, the students could not answer the questions well. In
this research, the researcher applied word games as the solution to this problem.
This research was conducted to improve students’ vocabulary in XI IPA
class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta. The research method used in this
research was classroom action research. The participants of this research were 24
students in XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta academic year
2012/2013. The research instruments were field notes, observation sheets,
vocabulary assessments, interview, and questionnaire.
Word games helped the students in understanding texts easily. Moreover,
by applying the vocabulary assessments, the researcher could know the students’
vocabulary improvement during this research. Therefore, the goals or the criteria
of success to improve students’ vocabulary were also achieved. More than half of
the whole students fulfilled the minimum passing grade of English subject in
SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta, which is 70.The number of students who
fulfilled the passing grade increased.More than half of the students can
successfully answer the questions in the assessments.The number of students who
can successfully answer the questions in the assessments increased. It is
concluded that word games helped the students in improving their vocabulary.
It is suggested that teachers use word games to improve students’
vocabulary in order to achieve goals in reading class. Word games help students
to understand the meanings of texts and improve their vocabulary knowledge.
Students are also suggested to improve their vocabulary knowledge by playing
word games in the internet, such as jumbled letters, scrabble, or crosswords. Then,
the students can take notes of the words, and they may translate, find the similar
or opposite meanings, or find verb present, past, or perfect of the words.
Therefore, the students can practice their English while improving their
vocabulary mastery.
Keywords: vocabulary, texts, word games
vi
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
ABSTRAK
Febriyanti, Riska Riani. (2013). Using Word Games to Improve Students’
Vocabulary in XI IPA Class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta.
Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata
Dharma.
Bahasa Inggris sering diasumsikan sebagai pelajaran yang sulit untuk
dipelajari, khususnya bagi mereka yang belajar Bahasa Inggris sebagai mata
pelajaran di sekolah menengah.Hal itu terjadi dikarenakan para siswa mengalami
beberapa kesulitan dalam belajar Bahasa Inggris.Seperti yang dialami oleh para
siswa di kelas XI IPA SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta.Para siswa tersebut
juga megalami kesulitan dalam belajar Bahasa Inggris, khususnya dalam
memahami arti kata atau teks bacaan.Hal itu dikarenakan keterbatasan
pemahaman kosa kata Bahasa Inggris yang dimiliki siswa.Berdasarkan hasil
pengamatan dan wawancara informal yang dilakukan oleh peneliti, para siswa
tersebut mengalami kesulitan dalam menjawab berbagai pertanyaan tentang
pemahaman teks yang terdapat dalam soal-soal latihan yang diberikan.Oleh sebab
itu, peneliti memberikan permainan kata sebagai solusi untuk mengatasi masalah
tersebut dalam penelitian ini.
Penelitin ini dilakukan bertujuan untuk memperbaiki pemahaman kosa
kata yang dimiliki para siswa di kelas XI IPA SMA Taman Madya Jetis
Yogyakarta tahun akademik 2012/2013.Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian
ini adalah penelitan tindakan kelas.Partisipan dalam penelitian ini adalah siswasiswa kelas XI IPA berjumlah 24 orang.Instrumen yang digunakan adalah catatan
lapangan, lembar pengamatan, penilaian kosa kata, wawancara, dan kuesioner.
Permainan kata membantu para siswa dalam memahami teks dengan
mudah.Selain itu, dengan menerapkan beberapa penilaian kosa kata, peneliti dapat
mengetahui perbaikan pemahaman kosa kata yang dimiliki siswa selama
penelitian berlangsung, sehingga tujuan dari perbaikan kosa kata dalam
memahami teks juga tercapai.Lebih dari setengah jumlah siswa mencapai Kriteria
Ketuntasan Minimal (KKM) yaitu 70.Jumlah siswa yang mencapai KKM
meningkat.Selain itu, lebih dari setengah siswa menjawab dengan benar pertanyan
yang ada pada penilaian kosa kata.Jumlah siswa yang menjawab dengan benar
pertanyaan yang ada pada penilaian kosa kata juga meningkat.Hal ini dapat
disimpulkan bahwa permainan kata membantu para siswa dalam memperbaiki
pemahaman kosa kata yang dimiliki.
Permainan kata ini disarankan bagi guru untuk memperbaiki pemahaman
kosa kata yang dimiliki siswa sehingga tujuan dari kelas membaca dapat
tercapai.Para siswa juga disarankan untuk memperbaiki penguasaan kosa kata
dengan mencari permainan kata yang terdapat pada Internet, seperti menyusun
huruf, scrabble, atau mengisi teka-teki silang sehingga selain dapat melatih
belajar Bahasa Inggris juga meningkatkan penguasaan kosa kata yang dimiliki.
Kata kunci: kosa kata, teks, permainan kata
vii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
USING WORD GAMES TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY
IN XI IPA CLASS OF SMA TAMAN MADYA JETIS YOGYAKARTA
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Riska Riani Febriyanti
Student Number: 081214109
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
USING WORD GAMES TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY
IN XI IPA CLASS OF SMA TAMAN MADYA JETIS YOGYAKARTA
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Riska Riani Febriyanti
Student Number: 081214109
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013
i
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
A SarjanaPendidikan Thesis on
USING WORD GAMES TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY
IN XI IPA CLASS OF SMA TAMAN MADYA JETIS YOGYAKARTA
By
RiskaRianiFebriyanti
Student Number: 081214109
Approved by
Advisor
Date
March 18,2013
Made FridaYulia, S.Pd.,M.Pd.
ii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
iii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the
work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations
and the references, as a scientific paper should.
Yogyakarta, March 18, 2013
The Writer
RiskaRianiFebriyanti
081214109
iv
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama
: Riska Riani Febriyanti
Nomor Mahasiswa
: 081214109
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
USING WORD GAMES TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY
IN XI IPA CLASS OF SMA TAMAN MADYA JETIS YOGYAKARTA
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya
memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk
menyimpan, mengalihkan, dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk
pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di
Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin
dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan
nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal 19 April 2013
Yang menyatakan
Riska Riani Febriyanti
v
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
ABSTRACT
Febriyanti, Riska Riani. (2013). Using Word Games to Improve Students’
Vocabulary in XI IPA Class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta.
Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma
University.
English is often assumed as a difficult subject to learn, especially for those
who learn English as subject in a high school. It happens because students find
difficulties in learning English. XI IPA students of SMA Taman Madya Jetis
Yogyakarta also had difficulties in learning English, especially in understanding
the meaning of certain words or texts. The problem was they had very limited
vocabulary. Based on the researcher observation and informal interview, the
students had difficulties in answering comprehension questions when they were
doing reading comprehension exercises. Most of the students did not know the
meaning of text. Therefore, the students could not answer the questions well. In
this research, the researcher applied word games as the solution to this problem.
This research was conducted to improve students’ vocabulary in XI IPA
class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta. The research method used in this
research was classroom action research. The participants of this research were 24
students in XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta academic year
2012/2013. The research instruments were field notes, observation sheets,
vocabulary assessments, interview, and questionnaire.
Word games helped the students in understanding texts easily. Moreover,
by applying the vocabulary assessments, the researcher could know the students’
vocabulary improvement during this research. Therefore, the goals or the criteria
of success to improve students’ vocabulary were also achieved. More than half of
the whole students fulfilled the minimum passing grade of English subject in
SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta, which is 70.The number of students who
fulfilled the passing grade increased.More than half of the students can
successfully answer the questions in the assessments.The number of students who
can successfully answer the questions in the assessments increased. It is
concluded that word games helped the students in improving their vocabulary.
It is suggested that teachers use word games to improve students’
vocabulary in order to achieve goals in reading class. Word games help students
to understand the meanings of texts and improve their vocabulary knowledge.
Students are also suggested to improve their vocabulary knowledge by playing
word games in the internet, such as jumbled letters, scrabble, or crosswords. Then,
the students can take notes of the words, and they may translate, find the similar
or opposite meanings, or find verb present, past, or perfect of the words.
Therefore, the students can practice their English while improving their
vocabulary mastery.
Keywords: vocabulary, texts, word games
vi
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
ABSTRAK
Febriyanti, Riska Riani. (2013). Using Word Games to Improve Students’
Vocabulary in XI IPA Class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta.
Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata
Dharma.
Bahasa Inggris sering diasumsikan sebagai pelajaran yang sulit untuk
dipelajari, khususnya bagi mereka yang belajar Bahasa Inggris sebagai mata
pelajaran di sekolah menengah.Hal itu terjadi dikarenakan para siswa mengalami
beberapa kesulitan dalam belajar Bahasa Inggris.Seperti yang dialami oleh para
siswa di kelas XI IPA SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta.Para siswa tersebut
juga megalami kesulitan dalam belajar Bahasa Inggris, khususnya dalam
memahami arti kata atau teks bacaan.Hal itu dikarenakan keterbatasan
pemahaman kosa kata Bahasa Inggris yang dimiliki siswa.Berdasarkan hasil
pengamatan dan wawancara informal yang dilakukan oleh peneliti, para siswa
tersebut mengalami kesulitan dalam menjawab berbagai pertanyaan tentang
pemahaman teks yang terdapat dalam soal-soal latihan yang diberikan.Oleh sebab
itu, peneliti memberikan permainan kata sebagai solusi untuk mengatasi masalah
tersebut dalam penelitian ini.
Penelitin ini dilakukan bertujuan untuk memperbaiki pemahaman kosa
kata yang dimiliki para siswa di kelas XI IPA SMA Taman Madya Jetis
Yogyakarta tahun akademik 2012/2013.Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian
ini adalah penelitan tindakan kelas.Partisipan dalam penelitian ini adalah siswasiswa kelas XI IPA berjumlah 24 orang.Instrumen yang digunakan adalah catatan
lapangan, lembar pengamatan, penilaian kosa kata, wawancara, dan kuesioner.
Permainan kata membantu para siswa dalam memahami teks dengan
mudah.Selain itu, dengan menerapkan beberapa penilaian kosa kata, peneliti dapat
mengetahui perbaikan pemahaman kosa kata yang dimiliki siswa selama
penelitian berlangsung, sehingga tujuan dari perbaikan kosa kata dalam
memahami teks juga tercapai.Lebih dari setengah jumlah siswa mencapai Kriteria
Ketuntasan Minimal (KKM) yaitu 70.Jumlah siswa yang mencapai KKM
meningkat.Selain itu, lebih dari setengah siswa menjawab dengan benar pertanyan
yang ada pada penilaian kosa kata.Jumlah siswa yang menjawab dengan benar
pertanyaan yang ada pada penilaian kosa kata juga meningkat.Hal ini dapat
disimpulkan bahwa permainan kata membantu para siswa dalam memperbaiki
pemahaman kosa kata yang dimiliki.
Permainan kata ini disarankan bagi guru untuk memperbaiki pemahaman
kosa kata yang dimiliki siswa sehingga tujuan dari kelas membaca dapat
tercapai.Para siswa juga disarankan untuk memperbaiki penguasaan kosa kata
dengan mencari permainan kata yang terdapat pada Internet, seperti menyusun
huruf, scrabble, atau mengisi teka-teki silang sehingga selain dapat melatih
belajar Bahasa Inggris juga meningkatkan penguasaan kosa kata yang dimiliki.
Kata kunci: kosa kata, teks, permainan kata
vii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Allah SWT for His
love, guidance, grace, strength that are given to me, especially when I had to plan,
conduct, and finally report this research.
Secondly, I would also thank my
supervisor, Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd. for her guidance, motivation,
suggestions, and willingness to solve my problems during the process of doing
this research and writing this thesis.
I also thank Agustina Wikansih Nugroho, S.Pd.who has permitted me to
conduct this research in her classroom. I would also thank her guidance,
suggestion, and motivation. I also thank Sriyana, S.Pd. the principal of SMA
Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta who has permitted me to conduct this research in
SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta. The next gratitude goes to the whole
students of XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta 2012/2013
academic year for being friendly and cooperative during my research.
My greatest gratitude goes to my beloved family. My parents, Juni Sapto
Riyanto and Sri Erawati who always love, support, and motivate me to finish my
thesis. I thank my little sister, SintaKristanti Puspita for her jokes and love. The
next gratitude goes to Adi Ariyanto for his love, care, and support that are given
to me.
I would like to thank all PBI lecturers who have helped, taught, given so
many experiences during the process of teaching and learning in PBI. I also would
like to thank Michael Dani Grikaryaand Adrian Bayu Aji Wicaksono for their
viii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
help to become my observer of my research, and all their support, motivation, and
willingness to solve my problems during the process of conducting this research. I
also thank Desya, Sherly, Lia, and Mas Adi for their help to proofread my thesis
draft.
I would also like to thank my great friends in PBI, especially Siska, Mike,
Agatha, Vinsen, and Seto who have become my best friends during my study in
PBI. I thank all my friends in PBI 2008, and also in Sanata Dharma University
whose name I could not mention one by one. I am very happy and lucky to meet
and have all of my great friends in PBI Sanata Dharma University.
Riska Riani Febriyanti
ix
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE ...............................................................................................
i
APPROVAL PAGES ...................................................................................
ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ................................................. iv
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ...............................................
v
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... vi
ABSTRAK ..................................................................................................... vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................... viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................
x
LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................... xiii
LIST OF FIGURE ....................................................................................... xiv
LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................. xv
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................
1
A. Research Background ......................................................
1
B. Research Problem ..........................................................
3
C. Problem Limitation .........................................................
4
D. Research Objective .........................................................
4
E. Research Benefits ...........................................................
5
F. Definition of Terms .........................................................
6
CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE .............................
9
A. Theoretical Description ...................................................
9
1.
Word Games ...........................................................
9
a.
Definition of Word Games .............................
9
b.
Kinds of Word Games ..................................
10
c.
Benefits of Applying Word Games ...............
10
x
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
2.
Vocabulary ............................................................. 11
a.
Definition of Vocabulary ................................ 11
b.
Learning Vocabulary ...................................... 12
3. Vocabulary Assessment ........................................... 12
a.
Definition of Assessment ................................ 12
b.
The Aims of Vocabulary Assessment ............. 13
c.
Principles of Vocabulary Assessment ............. 13
4. Reading Comprehension .......................................... 16
a.
Definition of Reading Comprehension ............. 16
b.
The Aim of Reading Comprehension ............... 17
c.
The Role of Reading Comprehension .............. 17
d.
The Relation Between Reading
Comprehension and Vocabulary ...................... 17
B. Theoretical Framework ................................................... 18
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ......................................... 20
A. Research Method ............................................................ 20
B. Research Setting ............................................................. 21
C. Research Participants ...................................................... 21
D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique ..................... 22
E. Data Analysis Technique ................................................ 26
F. Research Procedure ........................................................ 27
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ..................... 30
A. Research Findings on the First Cycle .............................. 30
B. Research Findings on the Second Cycle .......................... 40
C. The Improvement on the First tothe Second Cycles ............ 50
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................. 60
A. Conclusions .................................................................... 60
B. Recommendations ........................................................... 61
xi
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
REFERENCES ............................................................................................ 63
APPENDICES ............................................................................................. 65
xii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
LIST OF TABLES
Table
Page
4.1 Students’ Results of the First Cycle ......................................................
35
4.2 Students’ Results of the Second Cycle .................................................
46
4.3 Students’ Improvement on the First to the Second Cycles ....................
52
xiii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
LIST OF FIGURE
Figure
Page
4.1 The Students’ Results on the First to the Second Cycles ......................
xiv
54
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix
Page
Appendix 1. Covering Letter for the Governor DIY ....................................
66
Appendix 2. Permission Letter from the Governor of DIY ..........................
68
Appendix 3. Permission Letter from the Mayor of Yogyakarta ....................
70
Appendix 4. Lesson Plan and Teaching Materials of the First Cycle ............. 72
Appendix 5. Sample of Word Games of the First Cycle ..............................
83
Appendix 6. Field Notes .............................................................................
86
Appendix 7. Observation Sheets of the First Cycle ......................................
89
Appendix 8. Sample of Students’ Assessments of the First Cycle ................
92
Appendix 9. The Interview Guide of the First Cycle ...................................
98
Appendix 10. The Interview Transcript of the First Cycle .........................
100
Appendix 11. Lesson Plan and Teaching Materials of the Second Cycle ..... 103
Appendix 12. Sample of Word Games of the Second Cycle ........................ 115
Appendix 13. Observation Sheets of the Second Cycle ............................... 117
Appendix 14. Sample of Students’ Assessments of the Second Cycle ......... 120
Appendix 15. The Interview Guide of the Second Cycle ............................. 127
Appendix 16. The Interview Transcript of the Second Cycle ....................... 129
Appendix 17. The Questionnaire ................................................................. 132
Appendix 18. The Raw Data of the Questionnaire ....................................... 137
xv
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the researcher presents research background, research
problem, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits, and definition
of terms in the research.
A. Research Background
English is a foreign language for Indonesian learners and it is often
assumed as a difficult subject to learn, especially for those who learn English as a
subject in a high school. Many high school students find difficulties in learning
English, especially in understanding the meanings of certain words or texts. The
reason is the students have very limited vocabulary. Therefore, when the students
are faced with comprehension questions based on texts, the students do not know
the meanings of the texts itself. As a result, the students cannot answer the
questions correctly. Therefore, a lot of students feel uncomfortable, bored, and
uninterested in learning English at school.
Generally, a lot of high school students have difficulties in all skills, such
as speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Yet, in this case the students’ main
problem is in reading skill, especially comprehension questions texts section.
Therefore, the students’ difficulties become a big problem for the students to
know the meanings of words and understand the texts.
This problem was found in XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis
Yogyakarta when the researcher practiced teaching and handled four classes, XA,
1
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
2
XB, XI IPA, and XI IPS in the school. The problem happened when the students
of XI IPA class were learning reading skill. Then, the researcher gave some
exercises in the form of comprehension questions texts to the students. As a result,
the students did not know the meanings of the texts in the exercises, because the
students had misinterpretation in answering those questions, and the students did
not answer the questions to the exercises correctly.
The researcher mostly noticed that the students could not answer the
questions to some exercises in the comprehension questions texts section. Firstly,
the researcher asked the students to open their dictionary, but most of the students
did not bring it. As a result, the students gave up before understanding the
questions. This condition happened because most of the students came from low
family background and motivation in learning English. Moreover, the condition
also affected the students’ achievements in midterm test and small tests. Most of
the students obtained low score in those tests. When the researcher checked the
students’ answers, the students did not do the comprehension questions text
section in the midterm test. It meant that the students had difficulties in
understanding texts and the questions. “Reading not only improves your writing
skills but also your vocabulary as well” (Anonymous, 2012). It means that
improving vocabulary can be done through reading texts in order to understand
the vocabulary in the texts.
In order to overcome the problem, the researcher provides word games to
improve the students’ vocabulary in learning English in the class. The researcher
thinks that word games are one of the ways to build the students’ vocabulary. It is
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
3
because the students learn vocabulary in the games and the vocabulary is repeated
in the assessments. Therefore, there is a process of remembering the vocabulary
and the students improve their vocabulary by playing word games and doing the
assessments. These kinds of games are a part of communicative games which
contains spelling, meanings, using words for making sentences, words in contexts
and word for categorizing according to grammatical use. As Leo and Cely (2010)
state, these games aim to give relaxed atmosphere, fun, and enjoyable to the
students. The purpose of doing the game is to avoid a frustrating situation in the
classroom (p. 6).
Nation (1990) states, “Written exercises on vocabulary can follow a
reading text” (p. 128). Nation also gives additional information that the exercises
can be a list of definitions, and the learners have to find the defined words in the
text. It means that the learners should understand the questions in the exercises in
order to answer the questions.
Moreover, through word games the students will have a clue what the
students are going to learn during this research. Therefore, the role of word games
can be a solution for XI IPA students of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta
academic year 2012/2013 to improve their vocabulary.
B. Research Problem
In this part, the researcher presents a research problem based on the
research background. The research question is this one:
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
4
How do word games improve students’ vocabulary in XI IPAclass of SMA
Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta academic year 2012/2013?
C. Problem Limitation
In this part, the researcher presents problem limitation based on the
research problem above. The research is limited to the way in improving
vocabulary in XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta academic
year 2011/2012. Although in all skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and
writing are needed in learning English, in this research the researcher will only
focus on the students’ improvement in understanding the vocabulary of texts by
doing assessments.
The students’ problem in XI IPA class was on the difficulty in
understanding the vocabulary of texts. Therefore, the researcher used word games
to improve the students’ vocabulary by doing assessments in order to know the
meanings of the texts. Since the researcher found the problem in XI IPA class of
SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta, the researcher wanted to solve the problem
through a research in the class. Therefore, the researcher used Classroom Action
Research (CAR) as the methodology of this research.
D. Research Objective
In this part, the researcher presents the research objective based on the
research question. The objective of the research is to overcome the problem in
improving vocabulary faced by XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
5
Yogyakata academic year 2012/2013. Using word games and doing assessments
will be a solution to the problem in this research. The aim of these
implementations is to figure out the role of word games in improving the students’
vocabulary in XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta academic
year 2012/2013.
E. Research Benefits
There are several benefits which can be obtained from this research. This
research is expected to give valuable contribution to the people as follows.
1.
XI IPA Students of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta
By conducting this research, the students are expected to be able to know
the vocabulary of certain words using word games given by the teacher. After
learning about the vocabulary of word games, the students receive an assessment
every meeting. An assessment is divided into three parts. In the first cycle, the
three parts are comprehension questions, matching words, and translating words
into Indonesian. While, in the second cycle the three parts are jumbled letters,
matching words, and translating words into English. All of them have to be
answered by the students in order to know whether the role of word games help
the students to improve their vocabulary. As a result, the students know the
meanings of texts easier through these games. Moreover, the students can enrich
the vocabulary that the students have already before. Therefore, when the students
are reading a text, the students know the vocabulary which is discussed in the
games and the assessments.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
6
2.
The English Teacher of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta
The English Teacher of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta is expected
to create alternative media such as word games to teach reading skill. It was
because when the teacher taught the students, the teacher only used textbook and
LKS (Lembar Kerja Siswa) as the main media in teaching and learning process.
Therefore, the teaching and learning process was only based on those media.
Therefore, the teacher is expected to make these kinds of games to help the
students in understanding the meaning of a text in order to improve the students’
vocabulary.
F. Definition of Terms
In this part, the researcher defines key words or phrases specifically that is
used in this research in order to clarify concepts and avoid misinterpretation. They
are:
1.
Word Games
Betteridge & Buckby (1984), as cited by Leo and Cely (2010), mention
that word games is used for spelling, meanings, using words for making
sentences, words in contexts and word for categorizing according to grammatical
use. Students, in many cases, have to communicate in full sentences, give new
ideas and argue at the same length. In this research, the researcher uses word
games to be applied in XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta
academic year 2012/2013 in the form of jumbled letters and matching words.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
7
These games are implemented in assessments during this research. Moreover, the
researcher provides these games in order to improve the students’ vocabulary.
2.
Vocabulary
In 2011, Lehr, Lehr, Osborn, and Hiebert explain, “Vocabulary as
knowledge of words and word meanings in both oral and print languages and in
productive and receptive forms” (p. 4). More specifically, the use of
vocabulary refers to the kinds of words that students must know to read
increasingly demanding text with comprehension. In this research, the researcher
tries to improve the students’ vocabulary in XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya
Jetis Yogyakarta academic year 2012/2013 through word games contain spelling
and meaning. The researcher knows that the students’ weakness is in
understanding the meanings of words. Therefore, the research tries to solve the
problem through word games. Moreover, in this research the researcher wants to
apply the games which are implemented in the form of assessments. In the
assessments, the researcher prepares questions which are divided into three parts
of each assessment. As a result, the students are expected to answer the questions
in the assessments in order to improve their vocabulary mastery.
3.
XI IPA Students in SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta
SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta is located in Jalan Pakuningratan 34
A, Jetis, Yogyakarta. XI IPA class is one of the classes in SMA Taman Madya
Jetis Yogyakarta. This is the second grade of senior high school level. There are
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
8
24 students in the class. Actually, in the school there are two classes in grade XI,
which are XI IPA and XI IPS. Yet, the researcher conducts the research in XI IPA
class academic year 2012/2013. It was because when the researcher taught in the
class, the problem happened. Therefore, the researcher wants to solve the problem
in the class. Actually, XI IPA students were naturally active, but most of them
have low of motivation in learning English. The students typically have
difficulties in understanding texts, even answering comprehension questions texts.
As a result, the students leave the questions blank if they have given up in
answering the questions. That is why the researcher provides word games and
assessments in the form of reading comprehension in order to improve the
students’ vocabulary.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter, the researcher presents the theoretical description and the
theoretical framework of this research.
A. Theoretical Description
In this part, the researcher discusses three main topics of some theories to
strengthen the results and findings of the research. The first one is word games,
the second one is vocabulary, the third one is vocabulary assessment, and the last
one is reading comprehension.
1.
Word Games
In this part, the researcher discusses the definition and kinds of word
games, and the benefits of applying word games.
a.
Definition of Word Games
Wright, Betteridge & Buckby (1984) define word games as cited by Leo
and Cely (2010), “Word games are used for spelling, meanings, using words for
making sentence, words in contexts and word categorizing according to
grammatical use” (p. 7). Based on the definition above, word games are deal with
arranging the word, constructing a sentence by using several words, and so on.
9
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
10
b. Kinds of Word Games
Wright, Betteridge & Buckby (1984) explain some kinds of word games as
cited by Leo and Cely (2010: 7). They are spelling, meanings, using words for
making sentence, word in context, and word categorizing according to
grammatical use. It means that there are some word games which can be selected
to overcome the problem in the class. Therefore, the researcher selects jumbled
letters and matching words as the games to be applied in this research. The
researcher takes words in the assessments as the games. Moreover, the researcher
mixes part of speech of the words. It can be verb, noun, adjective, or adverb.
Therefore, through these games the process of remembering the words goes well.
Since the students’ problem is lack of vocabulary in understanding texts, the
researcher selects those games to improve the students’ vocabulary in order to
understand the texts. Rowenhors and Reads (2012) state, “Vocabulary, or word
meaning, is one of the keys to comprehension” (p. 4).
c.
Benefits of Applying Word Games
There are some benefits in applying word games. The benefits provide a
context meaningful communication, give more relaxed atmosphere, and increase
the vocabulary. In 2005, Wright, Betteridge, and Buckby state, “Even if the game
involves discrete language items, such as a spelling game, meaningful
communication takes place as students seek to understand how to play the game
and as they communicate about the game: before, during, and after the game” (p.
1).
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
11
The other benefits in applying word games are the students can enrich
their new vocabularies, understand texts, and help in doing the assessments in this
research. “One of the methods for the enhancement of your word power is the
word games. They help you to improve your vocabulary, entertain but also you
learn with great pleasure” (“Anonymous,” 2012). Rowenhors and Reads (2012)
also state, “Playing games is an innovative way to engage students in learning
vocabulary” (p. 11). Prairieprincess (2012) also states, “Vocabulary games are an
ideal method for teaching students to improve their vocabulary skills” (p. 1.).
2.
Vocabulary
There are three topics discussed in this part. They are the definition and
learning vocabulary.
a.
Definition of Vocabulary
In 2011, Lehr, Lehr, Osborn, and Hiebert define, “Vocabulary is
knowledge of words and word meanings” (p. 1). They also add more specifically
about vocabulary, “Kind of words that students must know to read increasingly
demanding text with comprehension” (p. 1). The word vocabulary had a meaning
all of the words which exist in a particular language or subject (“Vocabulary”). It
is related to the objective of this research, which is to improve students’
knowledge of words and word meanings in XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya
Jetis Yogyakarta academic year 2012/2013. In this research, the students learn
some vocabulary through word games and doing assessments.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
12
b. Learning Vocabulary
Nation (1990) divides learning vocabulary into two parts. They are direct
and indirect learning. In direct learning, “The learners do exercises and activities
that focus their attention on vocabulary” (p. 2). Moreover Nation (1990: 2) adds
that the exercises include word-building exercises, guessing words from the
context, learning words in lists, and vocabulary games. In indirect learning, “The
learners’ attention is focused on some other features, usually the message that is
conveyed by a speaker of writer” (p. 2). Based on the explanation above, the
researcher applies direct learning in this research. The students learn vocabulary
through playing word games and doing vocabulary assessments during this
research.
3.
Vocabulary Assessment
There are three topics discussed in this part. They are the definition and the
aim of assessment, the principles of vocabulary assessment, comprehension text,
and the relation between comprehension text and vocabulary.
a.
Definition of Assessment
The word assessment has a meaning an opinion or a judgment about
somebody or something that has been thought about very carefully
(“Assessment”). In this research, the researcher provides word games and some
assessments which have to be done by the students in order to know their
improvement during this research. Therefore, through these assessments the
researcher knows the students’ vocabulary improvement.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
13
b. The Aims of Vocabulary Assessment
Nation (1990) states that there are some reasons in applying vocabulary
assessment, such as to find learners’ total vocabulary size, to compare vocabulary
knowledge before and after the course, to keep a continuing check on progress, to
encourage learning by setting short-term goals, to see the effectiveness of
teaching, and to investigate learning (p. 8). All of them are to know whether the
students improve their vocabulary.
c.
Principles of Vocabulary Assessment
Cushenbery (1985: 48-51) explains that there are ten principles in applying
vocabulary assessment.
1) Choosing the Words in Systematic Manner
The words which are selected in the lesson should be understandable and
comprehended for the students who will read a text. Therefore, the teacher should
be careful in choosing the words in the text which is given to the students.
2) Using Pre-Test may be Helpful as A Tool for Determining the Words
The use of pre-test will facilitate the teacher in selecting the words that
will be taught in the lesson. The pre-test can be in the form of looking for
synonym and definition of certain word, or matching the definition of a word in a
sentence.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
14
3) Finding Useful Various Commercial Instruments for Competency Level
in Vocabulary
Commercial tests may be useful for teachers who have vocabulary
deficiencies.
4) Introducing New Words that would be Taught in the Lessons
The teacher may list the new words that will be learnt in the lesson.
Moreover, the new words should be reviewed and used regularly during the
lesson. Therefore, the students should recall the new words in order to simplify in
remembering the vocabulary.
5) Processing of Remembering Newly Learned Words
The process of remembering the new words should be concerned with
learning process. Therefore, the use of notebook may be useful for taking notes
the newly learned words in forming a sentence and paragraph.
6) Understanding the Pronunciation and Meaning of New Words
In this context, the importance of pronunciation of new words must be
concerned, but the teacher must not forget about affixes and roots which always
exist in a text. Moreover, these affixes may affect in understanding the definition
of words.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
15
7) Providing Lessons and Classroom Activities to Students
The teacher should prepare materials and activities that will be practiced in
the class. The teacher should give explanation to the students that many words in
the English language have different meanings depending upon the placement and
depending on how the words are used in a sentence.
8) Encouraging Students to Participate in Wide Reading
Many new words can be faced in many books or other printed media. The
new words can be learnt to encounter different types of reading material.
However, the students shall pay attention to the words which are underlined,
italicized, or in heavy black.
9) Providing Pictures, Bulletin Boards, Audio-visual Presentations, and
Micro-computer Programs for Students
The role of reading comprehension is to obtain the messages of the text
itself. The messages can be obtained from any kind of media which supports
learning activities. The teacher may provide a picture of an object, a film
depicting some kind of action, or a lesson on the microcomputer in order to grasp
intended meaning.
10) Acting as Role Models to Students
After learning about the new words, the students are expected to remember
the new words. The process of remembering the new words cannot be separated
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
16
from the role of the teacher. In this case, the teacher should give role models relate
to the new words which the students have recently learned. Therefore, the process
of remembering the new words will run well.
4.
Reading Comprehension
In this part, the researcher presents definition and the aim of reading
comprehension, the roles of reading comprehension, and the relation between
reading comprehension and vocabulary. The researcher’s aim discusses this part
because she provides assessments equip comprehension questions texts, and the
vocabulary used in the texts has discussed in the word games. Therefore, by doing
the assessments the students’ process of remembering goes well. Moreover, the
students’ vocabulary improve by answering questions in the assessments, retelling
what stories tell about, and taking the moral values of the stories.
a.
Definition of Reading Comprehension
Miller (1984: 274) defines the definition of reading comprehension as
cited by Cushenbery (1985), “Comprehension or understanding of what is read is
the most important aspect of the reading process” (p. 57).Moreover, Cushenbery
(1985) states, “Comprehension is the end product of the reading act and one of the
most important skills to be developed by all readers” (p. 71). Based on the
definition above, the researcher provides reading comprehension in the
assessments in order to improve the students’ text and vocabulary mastery.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
17
b. The Aim of Reading Comprehension
Quandt (1977: 106) explains the aim of reading comprehension as cited by
Cushenbery (1985: 57) the heart of the reading process is meaning and the aim of
reading is to develop readers who understand and react to what they read. It
means that when the readers face a text or reading comprehension, the readers are
expected to know and understand what they read.
c.
The Role of Reading Comprehension
Cushenbery (1985) states, “Teachers need to understand that reading only
takes place when a word or phrase provides some kind of communication or
message to the reader” (p. 51). Based on the explanation above, the role of reading
comprehension contains messages which can give additional information to the
readers.
d. The Relation between Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary
Nation (1990) reviews Nagy and Herman (1987), Kameenui et al. (1987),
and Beck et al. (1987), “Vocabulary learning is to have a positive effect on
reading comprehension, then this learning not only requires accuracy of word
knowledge, but also fluency of access to meanings in memory, and rich
decontextualized knowledge of words” (p. 192). It means that the positive effects
on reading comprehension, such as accuracy of word knowledge and fluency of
access to meanings in memory should be had in learning vocabulary.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
18
B. Theoretical Framework
In this part, the researcher relates the theory with this research. Wright,
Betteridge & Buckby (1984) define word games as cited by Leo and Cely (2010),
“Word games are used for spelling, meanings, using words for making sentence,
words in context, and words in grammatical used” (p. 7). In this research, the use
of word games is suitable to improve students’ vocabulary. Therefore, the
researcher provides jumbled letters and matching vocabularies as the games to be
applied in the class. Moreover, the researcher prepares the vocabulary assessments
to know the students’ vocabulary improvement in this research, as Rowenhors and
Reads (2012) state, “Vocabulary, or word meaning, is one of the keys to
comprehension” (p. 4).
The researcher uses assessments after applying word games in order to
know the students’ vocabulary improvement in this research. Moreover,
Cushenbery (1985) explains that there are ten principles in applying vocabulary
assessment. They are choosing the words in systematic manner, using pre-test
may be helpful as a tool for determining the words, finding useful various
commercial instruments for competency level in vocabulary, introducing new
words that would be taught in the lessons, processing of remembering newly
learned words, understanding the pronunciation and meaning of new words,
providing lessons and classroom activities to students, encouraging students to
participate in wide reading, providing pictures, bulletin boards, audio-visual
presentations, and micro-computer programs for students, and acting as role
models to students. Yet, the researcher only takes four principles to be applied in
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
19
the class during this researcher. They are choosing the words in systematic
manner, introducing new words that would be taught in the lessons, processing of
remembering newly learned words, providing lessons and classroom activities to
the students. Therefore, through the four principles the process of assessment will
be valid.
The researcher mostly chooses narrative texts in the assessments because
there are a lot of texts which are enriched with vocabulary. Therefore, the students
will learn and improve their vocabulary knowledge through these kinds of texts.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the researcher presents research method, research setting,
research participants/subjects, instruments and data gathering technique, data
analysis technique, and research procedure.
A. Research Method
In this research, the methodology that was used to gather and collect the
data was Classroom Action Research (CAR). CAR is a research done by a teacher
in a class in order to overcome a problem that happ
ABSTRACT
Febriyanti, Riska Riani. (2013). Using Word Games to Improve Students’
Vocabulary in XI IPA Class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta.
Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma
University.
English is often assumed as a difficult subject to learn, especially for those
who learn English as subject in a high school. It happens because students find
difficulties in learning English. XI IPA students of SMA Taman Madya Jetis
Yogyakarta also had difficulties in learning English, especially in understanding
the meaning of certain words or texts. The problem was they had very limited
vocabulary. Based on the researcher observation and informal interview, the
students had difficulties in answering comprehension questions when they were
doing reading comprehension exercises. Most of the students did not know the
meaning of text. Therefore, the students could not answer the questions well. In
this research, the researcher applied word games as the solution to this problem.
This research was conducted to improve students’ vocabulary in XI IPA
class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta. The research method used in this
research was classroom action research. The participants of this research were 24
students in XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta academic year
2012/2013. The research instruments were field notes, observation sheets,
vocabulary assessments, interview, and questionnaire.
Word games helped the students in understanding texts easily. Moreover,
by applying the vocabulary assessments, the researcher could know the students’
vocabulary improvement during this research. Therefore, the goals or the criteria
of success to improve students’ vocabulary were also achieved. More than half of
the whole students fulfilled the minimum passing grade of English subject in
SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta, which is 70.The number of students who
fulfilled the passing grade increased.More than half of the students can
successfully answer the questions in the assessments.The number of students who
can successfully answer the questions in the assessments increased. It is
concluded that word games helped the students in improving their vocabulary.
It is suggested that teachers use word games to improve students’
vocabulary in order to achieve goals in reading class. Word games help students
to understand the meanings of texts and improve their vocabulary knowledge.
Students are also suggested to improve their vocabulary knowledge by playing
word games in the internet, such as jumbled letters, scrabble, or crosswords. Then,
the students can take notes of the words, and they may translate, find the similar
or opposite meanings, or find verb present, past, or perfect of the words.
Therefore, the students can practice their English while improving their
vocabulary mastery.
Keywords: vocabulary, texts, word games
vi
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
ABSTRAK
Febriyanti, Riska Riani. (2013). Using Word Games to Improve Students’
Vocabulary in XI IPA Class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta.
Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata
Dharma.
Bahasa Inggris sering diasumsikan sebagai pelajaran yang sulit untuk
dipelajari, khususnya bagi mereka yang belajar Bahasa Inggris sebagai mata
pelajaran di sekolah menengah.Hal itu terjadi dikarenakan para siswa mengalami
beberapa kesulitan dalam belajar Bahasa Inggris.Seperti yang dialami oleh para
siswa di kelas XI IPA SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta.Para siswa tersebut
juga megalami kesulitan dalam belajar Bahasa Inggris, khususnya dalam
memahami arti kata atau teks bacaan.Hal itu dikarenakan keterbatasan
pemahaman kosa kata Bahasa Inggris yang dimiliki siswa.Berdasarkan hasil
pengamatan dan wawancara informal yang dilakukan oleh peneliti, para siswa
tersebut mengalami kesulitan dalam menjawab berbagai pertanyaan tentang
pemahaman teks yang terdapat dalam soal-soal latihan yang diberikan.Oleh sebab
itu, peneliti memberikan permainan kata sebagai solusi untuk mengatasi masalah
tersebut dalam penelitian ini.
Penelitin ini dilakukan bertujuan untuk memperbaiki pemahaman kosa
kata yang dimiliki para siswa di kelas XI IPA SMA Taman Madya Jetis
Yogyakarta tahun akademik 2012/2013.Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian
ini adalah penelitan tindakan kelas.Partisipan dalam penelitian ini adalah siswasiswa kelas XI IPA berjumlah 24 orang.Instrumen yang digunakan adalah catatan
lapangan, lembar pengamatan, penilaian kosa kata, wawancara, dan kuesioner.
Permainan kata membantu para siswa dalam memahami teks dengan
mudah.Selain itu, dengan menerapkan beberapa penilaian kosa kata, peneliti dapat
mengetahui perbaikan pemahaman kosa kata yang dimiliki siswa selama
penelitian berlangsung, sehingga tujuan dari perbaikan kosa kata dalam
memahami teks juga tercapai.Lebih dari setengah jumlah siswa mencapai Kriteria
Ketuntasan Minimal (KKM) yaitu 70.Jumlah siswa yang mencapai KKM
meningkat.Selain itu, lebih dari setengah siswa menjawab dengan benar pertanyan
yang ada pada penilaian kosa kata.Jumlah siswa yang menjawab dengan benar
pertanyaan yang ada pada penilaian kosa kata juga meningkat.Hal ini dapat
disimpulkan bahwa permainan kata membantu para siswa dalam memperbaiki
pemahaman kosa kata yang dimiliki.
Permainan kata ini disarankan bagi guru untuk memperbaiki pemahaman
kosa kata yang dimiliki siswa sehingga tujuan dari kelas membaca dapat
tercapai.Para siswa juga disarankan untuk memperbaiki penguasaan kosa kata
dengan mencari permainan kata yang terdapat pada Internet, seperti menyusun
huruf, scrabble, atau mengisi teka-teki silang sehingga selain dapat melatih
belajar Bahasa Inggris juga meningkatkan penguasaan kosa kata yang dimiliki.
Kata kunci: kosa kata, teks, permainan kata
vii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
USING WORD GAMES TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY
IN XI IPA CLASS OF SMA TAMAN MADYA JETIS YOGYAKARTA
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Riska Riani Febriyanti
Student Number: 081214109
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
USING WORD GAMES TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY
IN XI IPA CLASS OF SMA TAMAN MADYA JETIS YOGYAKARTA
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Riska Riani Febriyanti
Student Number: 081214109
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013
i
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
A SarjanaPendidikan Thesis on
USING WORD GAMES TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY
IN XI IPA CLASS OF SMA TAMAN MADYA JETIS YOGYAKARTA
By
RiskaRianiFebriyanti
Student Number: 081214109
Approved by
Advisor
Date
March 18,2013
Made FridaYulia, S.Pd.,M.Pd.
ii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
iii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the
work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations
and the references, as a scientific paper should.
Yogyakarta, March 18, 2013
The Writer
RiskaRianiFebriyanti
081214109
iv
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama
: Riska Riani Febriyanti
Nomor Mahasiswa
: 081214109
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
USING WORD GAMES TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY
IN XI IPA CLASS OF SMA TAMAN MADYA JETIS YOGYAKARTA
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya
memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk
menyimpan, mengalihkan, dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk
pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di
Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin
dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan
nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal 19 April 2013
Yang menyatakan
Riska Riani Febriyanti
v
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
ABSTRACT
Febriyanti, Riska Riani. (2013). Using Word Games to Improve Students’
Vocabulary in XI IPA Class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta.
Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma
University.
English is often assumed as a difficult subject to learn, especially for those
who learn English as subject in a high school. It happens because students find
difficulties in learning English. XI IPA students of SMA Taman Madya Jetis
Yogyakarta also had difficulties in learning English, especially in understanding
the meaning of certain words or texts. The problem was they had very limited
vocabulary. Based on the researcher observation and informal interview, the
students had difficulties in answering comprehension questions when they were
doing reading comprehension exercises. Most of the students did not know the
meaning of text. Therefore, the students could not answer the questions well. In
this research, the researcher applied word games as the solution to this problem.
This research was conducted to improve students’ vocabulary in XI IPA
class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta. The research method used in this
research was classroom action research. The participants of this research were 24
students in XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta academic year
2012/2013. The research instruments were field notes, observation sheets,
vocabulary assessments, interview, and questionnaire.
Word games helped the students in understanding texts easily. Moreover,
by applying the vocabulary assessments, the researcher could know the students’
vocabulary improvement during this research. Therefore, the goals or the criteria
of success to improve students’ vocabulary were also achieved. More than half of
the whole students fulfilled the minimum passing grade of English subject in
SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta, which is 70.The number of students who
fulfilled the passing grade increased.More than half of the students can
successfully answer the questions in the assessments.The number of students who
can successfully answer the questions in the assessments increased. It is
concluded that word games helped the students in improving their vocabulary.
It is suggested that teachers use word games to improve students’
vocabulary in order to achieve goals in reading class. Word games help students
to understand the meanings of texts and improve their vocabulary knowledge.
Students are also suggested to improve their vocabulary knowledge by playing
word games in the internet, such as jumbled letters, scrabble, or crosswords. Then,
the students can take notes of the words, and they may translate, find the similar
or opposite meanings, or find verb present, past, or perfect of the words.
Therefore, the students can practice their English while improving their
vocabulary mastery.
Keywords: vocabulary, texts, word games
vi
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
ABSTRAK
Febriyanti, Riska Riani. (2013). Using Word Games to Improve Students’
Vocabulary in XI IPA Class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta.
Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata
Dharma.
Bahasa Inggris sering diasumsikan sebagai pelajaran yang sulit untuk
dipelajari, khususnya bagi mereka yang belajar Bahasa Inggris sebagai mata
pelajaran di sekolah menengah.Hal itu terjadi dikarenakan para siswa mengalami
beberapa kesulitan dalam belajar Bahasa Inggris.Seperti yang dialami oleh para
siswa di kelas XI IPA SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta.Para siswa tersebut
juga megalami kesulitan dalam belajar Bahasa Inggris, khususnya dalam
memahami arti kata atau teks bacaan.Hal itu dikarenakan keterbatasan
pemahaman kosa kata Bahasa Inggris yang dimiliki siswa.Berdasarkan hasil
pengamatan dan wawancara informal yang dilakukan oleh peneliti, para siswa
tersebut mengalami kesulitan dalam menjawab berbagai pertanyaan tentang
pemahaman teks yang terdapat dalam soal-soal latihan yang diberikan.Oleh sebab
itu, peneliti memberikan permainan kata sebagai solusi untuk mengatasi masalah
tersebut dalam penelitian ini.
Penelitin ini dilakukan bertujuan untuk memperbaiki pemahaman kosa
kata yang dimiliki para siswa di kelas XI IPA SMA Taman Madya Jetis
Yogyakarta tahun akademik 2012/2013.Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian
ini adalah penelitan tindakan kelas.Partisipan dalam penelitian ini adalah siswasiswa kelas XI IPA berjumlah 24 orang.Instrumen yang digunakan adalah catatan
lapangan, lembar pengamatan, penilaian kosa kata, wawancara, dan kuesioner.
Permainan kata membantu para siswa dalam memahami teks dengan
mudah.Selain itu, dengan menerapkan beberapa penilaian kosa kata, peneliti dapat
mengetahui perbaikan pemahaman kosa kata yang dimiliki siswa selama
penelitian berlangsung, sehingga tujuan dari perbaikan kosa kata dalam
memahami teks juga tercapai.Lebih dari setengah jumlah siswa mencapai Kriteria
Ketuntasan Minimal (KKM) yaitu 70.Jumlah siswa yang mencapai KKM
meningkat.Selain itu, lebih dari setengah siswa menjawab dengan benar pertanyan
yang ada pada penilaian kosa kata.Jumlah siswa yang menjawab dengan benar
pertanyaan yang ada pada penilaian kosa kata juga meningkat.Hal ini dapat
disimpulkan bahwa permainan kata membantu para siswa dalam memperbaiki
pemahaman kosa kata yang dimiliki.
Permainan kata ini disarankan bagi guru untuk memperbaiki pemahaman
kosa kata yang dimiliki siswa sehingga tujuan dari kelas membaca dapat
tercapai.Para siswa juga disarankan untuk memperbaiki penguasaan kosa kata
dengan mencari permainan kata yang terdapat pada Internet, seperti menyusun
huruf, scrabble, atau mengisi teka-teki silang sehingga selain dapat melatih
belajar Bahasa Inggris juga meningkatkan penguasaan kosa kata yang dimiliki.
Kata kunci: kosa kata, teks, permainan kata
vii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Allah SWT for His
love, guidance, grace, strength that are given to me, especially when I had to plan,
conduct, and finally report this research.
Secondly, I would also thank my
supervisor, Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd. for her guidance, motivation,
suggestions, and willingness to solve my problems during the process of doing
this research and writing this thesis.
I also thank Agustina Wikansih Nugroho, S.Pd.who has permitted me to
conduct this research in her classroom. I would also thank her guidance,
suggestion, and motivation. I also thank Sriyana, S.Pd. the principal of SMA
Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta who has permitted me to conduct this research in
SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta. The next gratitude goes to the whole
students of XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta 2012/2013
academic year for being friendly and cooperative during my research.
My greatest gratitude goes to my beloved family. My parents, Juni Sapto
Riyanto and Sri Erawati who always love, support, and motivate me to finish my
thesis. I thank my little sister, SintaKristanti Puspita for her jokes and love. The
next gratitude goes to Adi Ariyanto for his love, care, and support that are given
to me.
I would like to thank all PBI lecturers who have helped, taught, given so
many experiences during the process of teaching and learning in PBI. I also would
like to thank Michael Dani Grikaryaand Adrian Bayu Aji Wicaksono for their
viii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
help to become my observer of my research, and all their support, motivation, and
willingness to solve my problems during the process of conducting this research. I
also thank Desya, Sherly, Lia, and Mas Adi for their help to proofread my thesis
draft.
I would also like to thank my great friends in PBI, especially Siska, Mike,
Agatha, Vinsen, and Seto who have become my best friends during my study in
PBI. I thank all my friends in PBI 2008, and also in Sanata Dharma University
whose name I could not mention one by one. I am very happy and lucky to meet
and have all of my great friends in PBI Sanata Dharma University.
Riska Riani Febriyanti
ix
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE ...............................................................................................
i
APPROVAL PAGES ...................................................................................
ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ................................................. iv
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ...............................................
v
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... vi
ABSTRAK ..................................................................................................... vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................... viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................
x
LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................... xiii
LIST OF FIGURE ....................................................................................... xiv
LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................. xv
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................
1
A. Research Background ......................................................
1
B. Research Problem ..........................................................
3
C. Problem Limitation .........................................................
4
D. Research Objective .........................................................
4
E. Research Benefits ...........................................................
5
F. Definition of Terms .........................................................
6
CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE .............................
9
A. Theoretical Description ...................................................
9
1.
Word Games ...........................................................
9
a.
Definition of Word Games .............................
9
b.
Kinds of Word Games ..................................
10
c.
Benefits of Applying Word Games ...............
10
x
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
2.
Vocabulary ............................................................. 11
a.
Definition of Vocabulary ................................ 11
b.
Learning Vocabulary ...................................... 12
3. Vocabulary Assessment ........................................... 12
a.
Definition of Assessment ................................ 12
b.
The Aims of Vocabulary Assessment ............. 13
c.
Principles of Vocabulary Assessment ............. 13
4. Reading Comprehension .......................................... 16
a.
Definition of Reading Comprehension ............. 16
b.
The Aim of Reading Comprehension ............... 17
c.
The Role of Reading Comprehension .............. 17
d.
The Relation Between Reading
Comprehension and Vocabulary ...................... 17
B. Theoretical Framework ................................................... 18
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ......................................... 20
A. Research Method ............................................................ 20
B. Research Setting ............................................................. 21
C. Research Participants ...................................................... 21
D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique ..................... 22
E. Data Analysis Technique ................................................ 26
F. Research Procedure ........................................................ 27
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ..................... 30
A. Research Findings on the First Cycle .............................. 30
B. Research Findings on the Second Cycle .......................... 40
C. The Improvement on the First tothe Second Cycles ............ 50
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................. 60
A. Conclusions .................................................................... 60
B. Recommendations ........................................................... 61
xi
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
REFERENCES ............................................................................................ 63
APPENDICES ............................................................................................. 65
xii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
LIST OF TABLES
Table
Page
4.1 Students’ Results of the First Cycle ......................................................
35
4.2 Students’ Results of the Second Cycle .................................................
46
4.3 Students’ Improvement on the First to the Second Cycles ....................
52
xiii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
LIST OF FIGURE
Figure
Page
4.1 The Students’ Results on the First to the Second Cycles ......................
xiv
54
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix
Page
Appendix 1. Covering Letter for the Governor DIY ....................................
66
Appendix 2. Permission Letter from the Governor of DIY ..........................
68
Appendix 3. Permission Letter from the Mayor of Yogyakarta ....................
70
Appendix 4. Lesson Plan and Teaching Materials of the First Cycle ............. 72
Appendix 5. Sample of Word Games of the First Cycle ..............................
83
Appendix 6. Field Notes .............................................................................
86
Appendix 7. Observation Sheets of the First Cycle ......................................
89
Appendix 8. Sample of Students’ Assessments of the First Cycle ................
92
Appendix 9. The Interview Guide of the First Cycle ...................................
98
Appendix 10. The Interview Transcript of the First Cycle .........................
100
Appendix 11. Lesson Plan and Teaching Materials of the Second Cycle ..... 103
Appendix 12. Sample of Word Games of the Second Cycle ........................ 115
Appendix 13. Observation Sheets of the Second Cycle ............................... 117
Appendix 14. Sample of Students’ Assessments of the Second Cycle ......... 120
Appendix 15. The Interview Guide of the Second Cycle ............................. 127
Appendix 16. The Interview Transcript of the Second Cycle ....................... 129
Appendix 17. The Questionnaire ................................................................. 132
Appendix 18. The Raw Data of the Questionnaire ....................................... 137
xv
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the researcher presents research background, research
problem, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits, and definition
of terms in the research.
A. Research Background
English is a foreign language for Indonesian learners and it is often
assumed as a difficult subject to learn, especially for those who learn English as a
subject in a high school. Many high school students find difficulties in learning
English, especially in understanding the meanings of certain words or texts. The
reason is the students have very limited vocabulary. Therefore, when the students
are faced with comprehension questions based on texts, the students do not know
the meanings of the texts itself. As a result, the students cannot answer the
questions correctly. Therefore, a lot of students feel uncomfortable, bored, and
uninterested in learning English at school.
Generally, a lot of high school students have difficulties in all skills, such
as speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Yet, in this case the students’ main
problem is in reading skill, especially comprehension questions texts section.
Therefore, the students’ difficulties become a big problem for the students to
know the meanings of words and understand the texts.
This problem was found in XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis
Yogyakarta when the researcher practiced teaching and handled four classes, XA,
1
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
2
XB, XI IPA, and XI IPS in the school. The problem happened when the students
of XI IPA class were learning reading skill. Then, the researcher gave some
exercises in the form of comprehension questions texts to the students. As a result,
the students did not know the meanings of the texts in the exercises, because the
students had misinterpretation in answering those questions, and the students did
not answer the questions to the exercises correctly.
The researcher mostly noticed that the students could not answer the
questions to some exercises in the comprehension questions texts section. Firstly,
the researcher asked the students to open their dictionary, but most of the students
did not bring it. As a result, the students gave up before understanding the
questions. This condition happened because most of the students came from low
family background and motivation in learning English. Moreover, the condition
also affected the students’ achievements in midterm test and small tests. Most of
the students obtained low score in those tests. When the researcher checked the
students’ answers, the students did not do the comprehension questions text
section in the midterm test. It meant that the students had difficulties in
understanding texts and the questions. “Reading not only improves your writing
skills but also your vocabulary as well” (Anonymous, 2012). It means that
improving vocabulary can be done through reading texts in order to understand
the vocabulary in the texts.
In order to overcome the problem, the researcher provides word games to
improve the students’ vocabulary in learning English in the class. The researcher
thinks that word games are one of the ways to build the students’ vocabulary. It is
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
3
because the students learn vocabulary in the games and the vocabulary is repeated
in the assessments. Therefore, there is a process of remembering the vocabulary
and the students improve their vocabulary by playing word games and doing the
assessments. These kinds of games are a part of communicative games which
contains spelling, meanings, using words for making sentences, words in contexts
and word for categorizing according to grammatical use. As Leo and Cely (2010)
state, these games aim to give relaxed atmosphere, fun, and enjoyable to the
students. The purpose of doing the game is to avoid a frustrating situation in the
classroom (p. 6).
Nation (1990) states, “Written exercises on vocabulary can follow a
reading text” (p. 128). Nation also gives additional information that the exercises
can be a list of definitions, and the learners have to find the defined words in the
text. It means that the learners should understand the questions in the exercises in
order to answer the questions.
Moreover, through word games the students will have a clue what the
students are going to learn during this research. Therefore, the role of word games
can be a solution for XI IPA students of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta
academic year 2012/2013 to improve their vocabulary.
B. Research Problem
In this part, the researcher presents a research problem based on the
research background. The research question is this one:
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
4
How do word games improve students’ vocabulary in XI IPAclass of SMA
Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta academic year 2012/2013?
C. Problem Limitation
In this part, the researcher presents problem limitation based on the
research problem above. The research is limited to the way in improving
vocabulary in XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta academic
year 2011/2012. Although in all skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and
writing are needed in learning English, in this research the researcher will only
focus on the students’ improvement in understanding the vocabulary of texts by
doing assessments.
The students’ problem in XI IPA class was on the difficulty in
understanding the vocabulary of texts. Therefore, the researcher used word games
to improve the students’ vocabulary by doing assessments in order to know the
meanings of the texts. Since the researcher found the problem in XI IPA class of
SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta, the researcher wanted to solve the problem
through a research in the class. Therefore, the researcher used Classroom Action
Research (CAR) as the methodology of this research.
D. Research Objective
In this part, the researcher presents the research objective based on the
research question. The objective of the research is to overcome the problem in
improving vocabulary faced by XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
5
Yogyakata academic year 2012/2013. Using word games and doing assessments
will be a solution to the problem in this research. The aim of these
implementations is to figure out the role of word games in improving the students’
vocabulary in XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta academic
year 2012/2013.
E. Research Benefits
There are several benefits which can be obtained from this research. This
research is expected to give valuable contribution to the people as follows.
1.
XI IPA Students of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta
By conducting this research, the students are expected to be able to know
the vocabulary of certain words using word games given by the teacher. After
learning about the vocabulary of word games, the students receive an assessment
every meeting. An assessment is divided into three parts. In the first cycle, the
three parts are comprehension questions, matching words, and translating words
into Indonesian. While, in the second cycle the three parts are jumbled letters,
matching words, and translating words into English. All of them have to be
answered by the students in order to know whether the role of word games help
the students to improve their vocabulary. As a result, the students know the
meanings of texts easier through these games. Moreover, the students can enrich
the vocabulary that the students have already before. Therefore, when the students
are reading a text, the students know the vocabulary which is discussed in the
games and the assessments.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
6
2.
The English Teacher of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta
The English Teacher of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta is expected
to create alternative media such as word games to teach reading skill. It was
because when the teacher taught the students, the teacher only used textbook and
LKS (Lembar Kerja Siswa) as the main media in teaching and learning process.
Therefore, the teaching and learning process was only based on those media.
Therefore, the teacher is expected to make these kinds of games to help the
students in understanding the meaning of a text in order to improve the students’
vocabulary.
F. Definition of Terms
In this part, the researcher defines key words or phrases specifically that is
used in this research in order to clarify concepts and avoid misinterpretation. They
are:
1.
Word Games
Betteridge & Buckby (1984), as cited by Leo and Cely (2010), mention
that word games is used for spelling, meanings, using words for making
sentences, words in contexts and word for categorizing according to grammatical
use. Students, in many cases, have to communicate in full sentences, give new
ideas and argue at the same length. In this research, the researcher uses word
games to be applied in XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta
academic year 2012/2013 in the form of jumbled letters and matching words.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
7
These games are implemented in assessments during this research. Moreover, the
researcher provides these games in order to improve the students’ vocabulary.
2.
Vocabulary
In 2011, Lehr, Lehr, Osborn, and Hiebert explain, “Vocabulary as
knowledge of words and word meanings in both oral and print languages and in
productive and receptive forms” (p. 4). More specifically, the use of
vocabulary refers to the kinds of words that students must know to read
increasingly demanding text with comprehension. In this research, the researcher
tries to improve the students’ vocabulary in XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya
Jetis Yogyakarta academic year 2012/2013 through word games contain spelling
and meaning. The researcher knows that the students’ weakness is in
understanding the meanings of words. Therefore, the research tries to solve the
problem through word games. Moreover, in this research the researcher wants to
apply the games which are implemented in the form of assessments. In the
assessments, the researcher prepares questions which are divided into three parts
of each assessment. As a result, the students are expected to answer the questions
in the assessments in order to improve their vocabulary mastery.
3.
XI IPA Students in SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta
SMA Taman Madya Jetis Yogyakarta is located in Jalan Pakuningratan 34
A, Jetis, Yogyakarta. XI IPA class is one of the classes in SMA Taman Madya
Jetis Yogyakarta. This is the second grade of senior high school level. There are
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
8
24 students in the class. Actually, in the school there are two classes in grade XI,
which are XI IPA and XI IPS. Yet, the researcher conducts the research in XI IPA
class academic year 2012/2013. It was because when the researcher taught in the
class, the problem happened. Therefore, the researcher wants to solve the problem
in the class. Actually, XI IPA students were naturally active, but most of them
have low of motivation in learning English. The students typically have
difficulties in understanding texts, even answering comprehension questions texts.
As a result, the students leave the questions blank if they have given up in
answering the questions. That is why the researcher provides word games and
assessments in the form of reading comprehension in order to improve the
students’ vocabulary.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter, the researcher presents the theoretical description and the
theoretical framework of this research.
A. Theoretical Description
In this part, the researcher discusses three main topics of some theories to
strengthen the results and findings of the research. The first one is word games,
the second one is vocabulary, the third one is vocabulary assessment, and the last
one is reading comprehension.
1.
Word Games
In this part, the researcher discusses the definition and kinds of word
games, and the benefits of applying word games.
a.
Definition of Word Games
Wright, Betteridge & Buckby (1984) define word games as cited by Leo
and Cely (2010), “Word games are used for spelling, meanings, using words for
making sentence, words in contexts and word categorizing according to
grammatical use” (p. 7). Based on the definition above, word games are deal with
arranging the word, constructing a sentence by using several words, and so on.
9
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
10
b. Kinds of Word Games
Wright, Betteridge & Buckby (1984) explain some kinds of word games as
cited by Leo and Cely (2010: 7). They are spelling, meanings, using words for
making sentence, word in context, and word categorizing according to
grammatical use. It means that there are some word games which can be selected
to overcome the problem in the class. Therefore, the researcher selects jumbled
letters and matching words as the games to be applied in this research. The
researcher takes words in the assessments as the games. Moreover, the researcher
mixes part of speech of the words. It can be verb, noun, adjective, or adverb.
Therefore, through these games the process of remembering the words goes well.
Since the students’ problem is lack of vocabulary in understanding texts, the
researcher selects those games to improve the students’ vocabulary in order to
understand the texts. Rowenhors and Reads (2012) state, “Vocabulary, or word
meaning, is one of the keys to comprehension” (p. 4).
c.
Benefits of Applying Word Games
There are some benefits in applying word games. The benefits provide a
context meaningful communication, give more relaxed atmosphere, and increase
the vocabulary. In 2005, Wright, Betteridge, and Buckby state, “Even if the game
involves discrete language items, such as a spelling game, meaningful
communication takes place as students seek to understand how to play the game
and as they communicate about the game: before, during, and after the game” (p.
1).
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
11
The other benefits in applying word games are the students can enrich
their new vocabularies, understand texts, and help in doing the assessments in this
research. “One of the methods for the enhancement of your word power is the
word games. They help you to improve your vocabulary, entertain but also you
learn with great pleasure” (“Anonymous,” 2012). Rowenhors and Reads (2012)
also state, “Playing games is an innovative way to engage students in learning
vocabulary” (p. 11). Prairieprincess (2012) also states, “Vocabulary games are an
ideal method for teaching students to improve their vocabulary skills” (p. 1.).
2.
Vocabulary
There are three topics discussed in this part. They are the definition and
learning vocabulary.
a.
Definition of Vocabulary
In 2011, Lehr, Lehr, Osborn, and Hiebert define, “Vocabulary is
knowledge of words and word meanings” (p. 1). They also add more specifically
about vocabulary, “Kind of words that students must know to read increasingly
demanding text with comprehension” (p. 1). The word vocabulary had a meaning
all of the words which exist in a particular language or subject (“Vocabulary”). It
is related to the objective of this research, which is to improve students’
knowledge of words and word meanings in XI IPA class of SMA Taman Madya
Jetis Yogyakarta academic year 2012/2013. In this research, the students learn
some vocabulary through word games and doing assessments.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
12
b. Learning Vocabulary
Nation (1990) divides learning vocabulary into two parts. They are direct
and indirect learning. In direct learning, “The learners do exercises and activities
that focus their attention on vocabulary” (p. 2). Moreover Nation (1990: 2) adds
that the exercises include word-building exercises, guessing words from the
context, learning words in lists, and vocabulary games. In indirect learning, “The
learners’ attention is focused on some other features, usually the message that is
conveyed by a speaker of writer” (p. 2). Based on the explanation above, the
researcher applies direct learning in this research. The students learn vocabulary
through playing word games and doing vocabulary assessments during this
research.
3.
Vocabulary Assessment
There are three topics discussed in this part. They are the definition and the
aim of assessment, the principles of vocabulary assessment, comprehension text,
and the relation between comprehension text and vocabulary.
a.
Definition of Assessment
The word assessment has a meaning an opinion or a judgment about
somebody or something that has been thought about very carefully
(“Assessment”). In this research, the researcher provides word games and some
assessments which have to be done by the students in order to know their
improvement during this research. Therefore, through these assessments the
researcher knows the students’ vocabulary improvement.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
13
b. The Aims of Vocabulary Assessment
Nation (1990) states that there are some reasons in applying vocabulary
assessment, such as to find learners’ total vocabulary size, to compare vocabulary
knowledge before and after the course, to keep a continuing check on progress, to
encourage learning by setting short-term goals, to see the effectiveness of
teaching, and to investigate learning (p. 8). All of them are to know whether the
students improve their vocabulary.
c.
Principles of Vocabulary Assessment
Cushenbery (1985: 48-51) explains that there are ten principles in applying
vocabulary assessment.
1) Choosing the Words in Systematic Manner
The words which are selected in the lesson should be understandable and
comprehended for the students who will read a text. Therefore, the teacher should
be careful in choosing the words in the text which is given to the students.
2) Using Pre-Test may be Helpful as A Tool for Determining the Words
The use of pre-test will facilitate the teacher in selecting the words that
will be taught in the lesson. The pre-test can be in the form of looking for
synonym and definition of certain word, or matching the definition of a word in a
sentence.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
14
3) Finding Useful Various Commercial Instruments for Competency Level
in Vocabulary
Commercial tests may be useful for teachers who have vocabulary
deficiencies.
4) Introducing New Words that would be Taught in the Lessons
The teacher may list the new words that will be learnt in the lesson.
Moreover, the new words should be reviewed and used regularly during the
lesson. Therefore, the students should recall the new words in order to simplify in
remembering the vocabulary.
5) Processing of Remembering Newly Learned Words
The process of remembering the new words should be concerned with
learning process. Therefore, the use of notebook may be useful for taking notes
the newly learned words in forming a sentence and paragraph.
6) Understanding the Pronunciation and Meaning of New Words
In this context, the importance of pronunciation of new words must be
concerned, but the teacher must not forget about affixes and roots which always
exist in a text. Moreover, these affixes may affect in understanding the definition
of words.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
15
7) Providing Lessons and Classroom Activities to Students
The teacher should prepare materials and activities that will be practiced in
the class. The teacher should give explanation to the students that many words in
the English language have different meanings depending upon the placement and
depending on how the words are used in a sentence.
8) Encouraging Students to Participate in Wide Reading
Many new words can be faced in many books or other printed media. The
new words can be learnt to encounter different types of reading material.
However, the students shall pay attention to the words which are underlined,
italicized, or in heavy black.
9) Providing Pictures, Bulletin Boards, Audio-visual Presentations, and
Micro-computer Programs for Students
The role of reading comprehension is to obtain the messages of the text
itself. The messages can be obtained from any kind of media which supports
learning activities. The teacher may provide a picture of an object, a film
depicting some kind of action, or a lesson on the microcomputer in order to grasp
intended meaning.
10) Acting as Role Models to Students
After learning about the new words, the students are expected to remember
the new words. The process of remembering the new words cannot be separated
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
16
from the role of the teacher. In this case, the teacher should give role models relate
to the new words which the students have recently learned. Therefore, the process
of remembering the new words will run well.
4.
Reading Comprehension
In this part, the researcher presents definition and the aim of reading
comprehension, the roles of reading comprehension, and the relation between
reading comprehension and vocabulary. The researcher’s aim discusses this part
because she provides assessments equip comprehension questions texts, and the
vocabulary used in the texts has discussed in the word games. Therefore, by doing
the assessments the students’ process of remembering goes well. Moreover, the
students’ vocabulary improve by answering questions in the assessments, retelling
what stories tell about, and taking the moral values of the stories.
a.
Definition of Reading Comprehension
Miller (1984: 274) defines the definition of reading comprehension as
cited by Cushenbery (1985), “Comprehension or understanding of what is read is
the most important aspect of the reading process” (p. 57).Moreover, Cushenbery
(1985) states, “Comprehension is the end product of the reading act and one of the
most important skills to be developed by all readers” (p. 71). Based on the
definition above, the researcher provides reading comprehension in the
assessments in order to improve the students’ text and vocabulary mastery.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
17
b. The Aim of Reading Comprehension
Quandt (1977: 106) explains the aim of reading comprehension as cited by
Cushenbery (1985: 57) the heart of the reading process is meaning and the aim of
reading is to develop readers who understand and react to what they read. It
means that when the readers face a text or reading comprehension, the readers are
expected to know and understand what they read.
c.
The Role of Reading Comprehension
Cushenbery (1985) states, “Teachers need to understand that reading only
takes place when a word or phrase provides some kind of communication or
message to the reader” (p. 51). Based on the explanation above, the role of reading
comprehension contains messages which can give additional information to the
readers.
d. The Relation between Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary
Nation (1990) reviews Nagy and Herman (1987), Kameenui et al. (1987),
and Beck et al. (1987), “Vocabulary learning is to have a positive effect on
reading comprehension, then this learning not only requires accuracy of word
knowledge, but also fluency of access to meanings in memory, and rich
decontextualized knowledge of words” (p. 192). It means that the positive effects
on reading comprehension, such as accuracy of word knowledge and fluency of
access to meanings in memory should be had in learning vocabulary.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
18
B. Theoretical Framework
In this part, the researcher relates the theory with this research. Wright,
Betteridge & Buckby (1984) define word games as cited by Leo and Cely (2010),
“Word games are used for spelling, meanings, using words for making sentence,
words in context, and words in grammatical used” (p. 7). In this research, the use
of word games is suitable to improve students’ vocabulary. Therefore, the
researcher provides jumbled letters and matching vocabularies as the games to be
applied in the class. Moreover, the researcher prepares the vocabulary assessments
to know the students’ vocabulary improvement in this research, as Rowenhors and
Reads (2012) state, “Vocabulary, or word meaning, is one of the keys to
comprehension” (p. 4).
The researcher uses assessments after applying word games in order to
know the students’ vocabulary improvement in this research. Moreover,
Cushenbery (1985) explains that there are ten principles in applying vocabulary
assessment. They are choosing the words in systematic manner, using pre-test
may be helpful as a tool for determining the words, finding useful various
commercial instruments for competency level in vocabulary, introducing new
words that would be taught in the lessons, processing of remembering newly
learned words, understanding the pronunciation and meaning of new words,
providing lessons and classroom activities to students, encouraging students to
participate in wide reading, providing pictures, bulletin boards, audio-visual
presentations, and micro-computer programs for students, and acting as role
models to students. Yet, the researcher only takes four principles to be applied in
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
19
the class during this researcher. They are choosing the words in systematic
manner, introducing new words that would be taught in the lessons, processing of
remembering newly learned words, providing lessons and classroom activities to
the students. Therefore, through the four principles the process of assessment will
be valid.
The researcher mostly chooses narrative texts in the assessments because
there are a lot of texts which are enriched with vocabulary. Therefore, the students
will learn and improve their vocabulary knowledge through these kinds of texts.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the researcher presents research method, research setting,
research participants/subjects, instruments and data gathering technique, data
analysis technique, and research procedure.
A. Research Method
In this research, the methodology that was used to gather and collect the
data was Classroom Action Research (CAR). CAR is a research done by a teacher
in a class in order to overcome a problem that happ