(A qualitative study of 4 Grade of Primary students in one of the International Schools, Bandung)
A RESEARCH PAPER
Submitted to the Department of English Education of Faculty Language and Literature Education, Indonesia University of Education in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
By: Eko G. Samudro
1100774
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE EDUCATION
INDONESIA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
(A qualitative study of 4 Grade of Primary students in one of the International Schools, Bandung)
By:
Eko G. Samudro
1102021
Submitted to the Department of English Education of Faculty Language and Literature Education, Indonesia University of Education in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
© Eko G. Samudro 2015 Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia
Oktober 2015
Hak Cipta dilindungi undang-undang
ABSTRACT
The paper entitled “Online Vocabulary Games: Potential Enhancements of Students’ Vocabulary Acquisition” addresses the issue of the importance of online vocabulary games in learning vocabulary. The research was aimed at discovering the way online vocabulary games as potential enhancements of students’ vocabulary acquisition in helping students to learn and retain vocabulary. Some online vocabulary games from www.eslgamesplus.com and www.vocabulary.co.il were selected in order to conduct the research. The elements following the online vocabulary games, which are, pictorial illustration, interaction among players, competition, animation included sounds and music, immediate feedback, context, and problem solving are believed to be helpful in students’ learning processes. There were ten students of grade four observed as the subjects of the research. Furthermore, in order to collect and identify the data, the research employs qualitative method. In addition to data analysis, Wood (2001) and Yip and Kwan (2006) frameworks are used for maintaining the way online vocabulary games help students in vocabulary acquisition. The learning processes were observed by conducting field notes. After conducting the vocabulary learning through online vocabulary games in eight meetings, the students were given a “hangman” game related to the vocabularies learned through online vocabulary games. The winner of the games was the girls’ team which included the higher and middle achiever in the team. Based on the discussion of the questionnaire analysis, the findings showed that the online vocabulary games play important role in helping students’ vocabulary learning processes through the elements mentioned before. The result of interview also provides the students’ confirmation towards the helpful elements of online vocabulary games such as, the animation, sounds and music helped them to create relaxing atmosphere to learn vocabulary happily. The competition among them also helped the students to win the game by mastering vocabularies well. The questionnaires also mentioned the positive result of students’ perceptions towards online vocabulary games in the classroom session. Thus, it can be concluded that the students’ responses towards the online vocabulary games were positive. The research is beneficial for teachers to conduct various ways in teaching vocabularies.
ABSTRAK
Penelitian yang berjudul “Online Vocabulary Games: Potential Enhancements of Students’ Vocabulary Acquisition” ditujukan pada isu akan pentingnya permainan kosakata online dalam pembelajaran kosakata. Penilitian ini bertujuan dalam mengungkap cara-cara permainan kosakata online sebagai media yang berpotensi meningkatkan kemampuan kosakata siswa dalam membantu siswa mempelajari kosakata Bahasa Inggris. Beberapa permainan kosakata online dari www.eslgamesplus.com dan www.vocabulary.co.il dipilih untuk melakukan penelitian. Unsur-unsur yang ada pada permainan kosakata online, seperti, ilustrasi gambar, interaksi antar pemain, kompetisi, animasi temasuk bunyi dan suara, umpan balik langsung, konteks, dan penyelesaian masalah dipercaya dapat membantu proses pembelajaran siswa. Terdapat sepuluh siswa kelas 4 yang menjadi subyek penelitian. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif. Kerangka penelitian oleh Wood (2001) dan Yip dan Kwan (2006) digunakan dalam membantu penelitian ini. Setelah dilakukan pembelajaran kosakata dengan permaianan kosakata online, siswa diberikan permainan hangman yang berkaitan dengan kosakata yang terdapat di permainan kosakata online di akhir pertemuan. Pemenang dari permainan adalah tim siswa perempuan yang mencakup siswa berkemampuan tinggi dan menengah. Berdasarkan hasil dari kuesioner, permainan kosakata online berperan penting dalam membantu pembelajaran kosakata Bahasa Inggris siswa melalui unsur-unsur yang disebutkan sebelumnya. Hasil dari wawancara juga menunjukkan bahwa unsur-unsur tersebut, seperti animasi, membantu menciptakan situasi yang nyaman untuk belajar. Selain itu, kompetisi diantara pemain juga memacu siswa untuk mempelajarai kosakata agar bias memenangkan permainan. Hasil kuesioner juga menunjukkan presepsi positif siswa tentang penggunaan permaianan kosakata online ini. Oleh karena ini, penelitian ini dianggap bermanfaat dalam melakukan pembelajaran kosakata Bahasa Inggris dengan cara yang bervariasi.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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2.3 Review of related studies ... Error! Bookmark not defined. CHAPTER III ... Error! Bookmark not defined. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.1 Formulation of problems ... Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.2 Research Design ... Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.3 Site and participants ... Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.4 Research procedure ... Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.5 Data collection ... Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.5.1 Classroom Observation ... Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.5.2 Questionnaire ... Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.5.3 Interview ... Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.6 Data analysis ... Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.6.1 The analysis of the classroom observation Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.6.2 The analysis of the questionnaire... Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.6.3 The analysis of the interview ... Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.7 Concluding remark ... Error! Bookmark not defined. CHAPTER IV ... Error! Bookmark not defined. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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4.1.6 Context ... Error! Bookmark not defined. 4.1.7 Problem solving ... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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Table 3.2 Sample of questionnaire………. 41
Table 3.3 Categories of responses………...45
Table 4.1 Seven ways of how online vocabulary games help students to learn and retain vocabulary (in percentage)………50
Table 4.2 The percentage of students’ questionnaire result regarding perceptions towards online vocabulary games………...64
Figure 2.1 Components, relationship, and aspects of a game by Jouni Smed et.al (2003)……….9
Figure 2.2 One of the online vocabulary games from www.eslgamesplus.com..16
Figure 2.3 Online vocabulary games from www.vocabulary.co.il...17
Figure 2.4 Existing common vocabulary learning strategies (a dynamic classification) by Oxford and Crookall (1990)……….25
Figure 4.1 The result of the way online vocabulary games help students in learning……….49
Figure 4.2 The students are experiencing learning vocabulary through online vocabulary games……….52
Figure 4.3 Working together to answer the game………53
Figure 4.4 The winner of the game………..55
Figure 4.5 The animations from the game…….………..57
Figure 4.6 They are doing “hompimpa” to deal with the playing order………..61
Figure 4.7 The result of students’ perceptions towards online vocabulary games ………..63
5 II. The questionnaire results
III.The field notes
IV.The interview transcription
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Chapter one provides background of the study, research questions, purposes of the study, scope of the study, significance of the study, clarification on related terms, and organization of the research.
1.1Background of the study
In today’s era, English is considered as the most important language among international civilization. It is used to build the interpersonal purposes between the people around the world. English enables people to interact with each other in order to practice the proficiency of using English. Furthermore, the technology also begins to raise its development through various ways to fulfill the needs of future civilization. In this way, English is one of the important elements beside the internet, as the content of technology that enables us to operate a creation of technology. As a combination of English and technology, online games appear as the facility used by some teenagers to entertain them.
The online games imply that the games are interconnected from one player to another through the internet connection. Learning vocabulary can be done through various ways, one of them is using online vocabulary games. This fun way may help students subconsciously acquire some vocabularies that may be used in formal learning situation. Moreover, As Chik (2012:96) concludes, teenagers practice language learning inevitably through activities which spark their interest.
According to Zhu, D (2012), traditional method in teaching English in
China required students to pay attention to the teacher’s explanation about the
new words in the vocabulary list by giving definition and examples. Then, by
using the text, the teacher explained and translated it sentence by sentence or even
word by word. Finally, the translation tasks would be given to the students for the
information receiver and written exercises doer. Moreover, this type of
vocabulary learning prevents the students in expressing the use of the vocabulary
itself, especially in communication. In accordance with this, for many learners
studying English as a foreign language, vocabulary learning is considered as
boring, as they have to memorize unfamiliar words and spelling and is typically
asked to complete lots of exercises (Nguyen & Khuat, 2003). This boredom may
prevent learners to learn English, especially vocabulary, effectively. For that
reason, they proposed that the CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) is
considered important, especially the use of online vocabulary games. The
existence of online vocabulary games are believed in providing various learning
enhancement compared to the traditional vocabulary learning method since they
provide more engaging learning processes for the students.
Research to date on the use of virtual environments and online games in language learning has found benefits in increasing student motivation and engagement (Sykes, Oskoz, & Thorne, 2008; Thorne, Black & Sykes, 2009; Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer, 2009), enhancing vocabulary use (Bytheway, 2011; Rankin, Morrison, McNeal, Gooch, & Shute, 2009), expanding opportunities for intercultural communication (Thorne, 2008). Regarding language teaching and learning process, as Gee (2005) believes, games are understood as conceptual models working across formal and informal learning contexts.
relaxing the students, the learners’ interest will increase and boost their confidence.
Based on the explanation above, the writer concludes that online vocabulary games may affect students’ motivation in learning English, especially in acquiring English vocabulary. Regardless the negative effects of online games, which is giving addiction towards a game, this study tries to investigate the use of online vocabulary games as potential enhancements of students’ vocabulary acquisition. Most online games provide contextual situation, vocabulary, events that can be related to each other. It will be more meaningful or even a fun way to learn English; at least the students do not miss that opportunity. By engaging in students’ favorite online games or even offline games, the students may raise their excitement in learning English. Asking their past events, the vocabulary games in a classroom, communication related to online gaming will be more interesting using contextual learning to invite their eagerness to learn English. Hopefully, this study can give some contribution for language teaching and learning in a classroom.
1.2Research Questions
The study is conducted to answer the problem formulated in a question below:
1. How do online vocabulary games help students to learn and retain vocabulary?
2. What are the students’ perceptions towards online vocabulary games on vocabulary learning in the classroom?
1.3The purposes of The study
Based on the research questions provided, the purposes of this study are as follows:
1. Identifying the way online vocabulary games help students learn and retain vocabulary.
1.4Scope of the study
This research focuses on identifying ways of online vocabulary games towards the development of English ability, especially in acquiring English vocabulary, based on the theories stated by Sykes, Oskoz, & Thorne, 2008; Thorne, Black & Sykes, 2009; Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer, 2009; Bytheway, 2011; Rankin, Morrison, McNeal, Gooch, & Shute, 2009; Thorne, 2008 and the most appropriate media which is online gaming-based language learning to acquire English vocabulary meaningfully.
1.5Significance of study
The present research can be seen through several significances for theoretical, practical, and professional aspects.
1. Theoretical aspect
The research findings can be used as the enrichment towards the future research about online vocabulary games affect students’ opportunity for English vocabulary acquisition in a classroom.
2. Practical aspect
The research findings will contribute to the application of the techniques provided in a classroom. The importance will be useful for the teachers and for those who are interested in applying teaching and learning atmosphere based on the online vocabulary games effect to increase students’ English vocabulary acquisition.
3. Professional aspect
1.6Clarification on main terms
There are several terms in this study that needs to be clarified. The definitions of the terms are explained below:
1.6.1 Online games: Online games refer to any type of game that someone can play through the Internet or over a computer network. Most of the time, it refers to video games played over the Internet, where multiple players are in different locations across the world. The online games used in this research are the online vocabulary games which belong to Browser-Based games.
(Schurman, K. (2015). What is online gaming?. Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-online-gaming.htm.)
1.6.2 Online vocabulary games: These games refer to the Browser-Based games that are played entirely within a web browser rather than through a video game console or other apparatus. This means that the game can be played from many different types of computers and can often involve many different players at the same time. The online vocabulary games used in this research are from www.eslgamesplus.com and www.vocabulary.co.il .
(Barnett, T. (2015) .What is a browser-based game?. Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-browser-based-game.htm.)
1.6.4 Acquisition: Acquisition refers to the first stages of learning when a response is established. In classical conditioning, it refers to the period of time when the stimulus comes to evoke the conditioned response.
(Cherry, K. (n.d). What is acquisition?. Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/glossaryfromatoz/g/Acquisition.ht m)
1.6.5 Vocabulary: The set of words within a language which are familiar to that person. This research conveys the nouns, antonym-synonym, verbs, and also prepositions as the materials used to conduct the research.
(Tahir, U. (2013). What is vocabulary?. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/UzmaTahir1/what-is-vocabulary.)
1.7Organization of paper
This study will be organized into five chapters as follows:
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
This chapter provides the information related to background of the study, the research questions, the purposes of the study, scope of the study, significance of study, and organization of study.
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter consists of theoretical foundations of the study. This chapter discusses the definition of online games, the language acquisition, and other theories which are relevant to the study.
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
questions, aims of the study, research design, the data collection, and finally the data analysis.
CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter explains the result of the study including the analysis of data based on the data collection and the theoretical frameworks, and the interpretation of the findings from the study.
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION, SUGGESTIONS AND LIMITATIONS
OF THE STUDY
33
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Chapter three provides the methodology in conducting the research and
description of research procedure in order to find out the answer from research questions stated in Chapter I. This chapter presents four main parts of the investigation: Formulation of problems, research design, site and participants, research procedures, data collection technique, and data analysis technique.
1.1 Formulation of problems
This study is intended to identify the effects of online vocabulary games towards the English vocabulary acquisition in 4th grade elementary students at one of the International Schools in Bandung. This research is considered appropriate to the students in 4th grade regarding the phenomenon of online gaming and computer game-based learning in their ages, especially in Bandung. In addition, the study is aimed at analyzing their perceptions towards online vocabulary games in order to acquire new vocabularies. Therefore, this study is guided through the following questions:
1. How do online vocabulary games help students learn and retain vocabulary? 2. What are the students’ perceptions towards online vocabulary games on
vocabulary learning in the classroom?
1.2 Research Design
Moreover, a case study was carried out as this strategy presents the phenomenon with its context (Yin, 2003, cited in Duff, 2008). The purpose of a case study is to retain the holistic and meaningful characteristics of real-life events (Yin, 2003). Thus, the involvement of the researcher in this study is considered as a must in order to get in-depth understanding about the participants’ perspective of a phenomenon. (Gall et.al, 2003, cited in Duff, 2008).
As this study is purposed to discover the way online vocabulary games help students to learn and retain vocabulary and to reveal the students’ perceptions towards the online vocabulary games in language learning, it is necessary for the researcher participate in the study to observe the participants’ activities within the setting as well as their own perspectives on those activities provided in the classroom session. Considering the reason above, a case study is suitable to be applied in this study.
1.3 Site and participants
The research was conducted in one of the International Schools in Bandung. This institution was chosen because of several reasons. First, the researcher was following his PLP (Program Latihan Profesi) program as one of the lessons in the 8th semester. Thus, while the researcher was doing his PLP program, he decided to conduct the research there. Second, since the school is an International School, the language used was fully English and also the existence of computer lab as well as internet connection helped the researcher to conduct the research.
1.4 Research procedure
The procedures of this study were gathered by several steps that can be described as follows:
1. The researcher began to select online vocabulary games to be used in the research. The selected online vocabulary games were from www.eslgamesplus.com and www.vocabulary.co.il . The selected online vocabulary games were considered appropriate as they provided the adjustable difficulty for 4th grade students. Moreover, the websites were also included the elements mentioned by Wood (2001) and Yip and Kwan (2006). Furthermore, Wood (2001) mentioned five guidelines to help in designing effective vocabulary learning software from an educational perspective:
a. Relating the new to the known;
b. Promoting active, in-depth processing; c. Providing multiple exposures to new words; d. Teaching students to be strategic readers; d. Promoting additional reading.
With regard to the desirable technical features of a vocabulary web site, Wood (2001) suggested the following:
a. Animations;
b. Sound components;
c. Hints or clues related to word meaning; d. Multimodal presentation of information; e. Online definitions, glossaries or thesauruses.
The websites mentioned above are considered covering the aspects suggested by Wood.
3. The vocabulary test would be given to the ten students of 4th grade. It was used to find out their prior knowledge on vocabulary acquisition. In addition, the test was also used to discover the participants of higher, middle, and lower achiever students to be participated on the research. The participant were asked to do:
a. Part I. Translating vocabularies into Bahasa Indonesia.
b. Part II. Choosing the synonym or antonym from provided words.
c. Part III. Matching the correct answers into the appropriate sentences.
d. Part IV. Answering questions based on the provided pictures. e. Part V. Circling the correct words based on the empty boxes
provided.
The test was created based on the online vocabulary games what would be given to the students. The results of the test were attached in the appendices’ part.
draw, camel, giraffe, kangaroo, bear, octopus, shark, seal, shrimp, clam,
turtle)
the correct words. While joining the games, the teacher also had
the role as researcher
the games, the teacher also had the role as researcher
the games, the teacher also had the role as researcher
teacher also had the role as researcher
teacher also had the role as researcher
Bathroom game car racing to answer the questions given. While joining the games, the teacher also had
the role as researcher related to the cinema or creating
the movie. While joining the games, the teacher also had the
role as researcher to fill the gap by dragging the
correct answers to the boxes given. While joining the games,
the teacher also had the role as researcher
the teacher also had the role as researcher to fill the gap by dragging the
correct answers to the boxes given. While joining the games,
Weather, clothes, and based on the topics pointed by
the wheel. While joining the games, the teacher also had the
role as researcher related to the cinema or creating
the movie. While joining the games, the teacher also had the
role as researcher was conducted to review and to check their understanding about the previous materials. While becoming the judge, the teacher
also had the role as researcher
5. The researcher administered questionnaire and interview to the students after all of teaching sessions were done.
6. The researcher analyzed the data from observation, interview and questionnaire qualitatively.
7. The researcher concluded the findings and finished the thesis.
1.5 Data collection
questionnaire and interview to the participants. According to Denzin, NK & Lincoln YS (2000), the various sources of data from a case study were employed to get better understanding in interpreting matters.
The types of data collection are elaborated as follows.
1.5.1 Classroom Observation
In this research, observation was aimed at finding out whether the online
vocabulary games help students to learn and retain vocabulary or not. The
observation was taken place in the computer lab during the vocabulary lesson
through online vocabulary games. While students were playing the games, the
researcher observed what the students did during the lesson. It included the nature of students’ conversation during the lesson, students’ strategies in solving the game, and competing during the game between players. The aim of this observation is to reveal students’ pattern and behavior in learning vocabulary through online vocabulary games.
The instruments which were used in this observation were field notes and
the researcher also took some photos from their activities. The lesson and also
observation took 45 minutes per meeting. Moreover, the lesson and observation
were conducted 9 times. The last meeting (9th meeting) was vocabulary lesson
conducted in the classroom because it was the last day for testing the result from learning vocabulary through online vocabulary games by doing “hangman” game in the classroom.
Observation was conducted to look for the information of the accessed
behavior of the participants in the setting where it takes place (Creswell, 2000).
Moreover, Cohen et.al (2007) stated that observation has a characteristic which
1.5.2 Questionnaire
The aims of this technique were to find the way online vocabulary games
help students to learn and retain vocabulary and also to find out their perceptions
towards online vocabulary games on vocabulary learning in the classroom.
The questionnaire was distributed to the students after they have already
finished all of the vocabulary teaching session. Ten students from 4th grade class
participated in completing the questionnaire. It was conducted after the final exam
for primary students. Questionnaire is one of the research instruments to collect
data. Wilson and McLean (1994, cited in Cohen et.al, 2007) stated that,
The questionnaire is a widely used and useful instrument for collecting survey information, providing structured, often numerical, being able to be administered without the presence of the researcher, and often being comparatively straightforward to analyze.
In this research, close-ended questionnaire was chosen for gathering the
information. Close-ended questionnaire is useful to convey information that is
stated with the issue of the research (Creswell, 2009).
In line with this, likert scale as one of the close-ended questionnaire was applied to find out students’ perception towards online vocabulary games in language learning. Sugiyono (2009, pp. 93-96) noted that Likerts scale is used to measure someone or group of people attitudes, opinions, and their perceptions related to social phenomenon. To complete the questionnaire, the students were allowed to choose one of the range numbers for each statement which is suitable with their perceptions. Below is the form of questionnaire,
Table 3.2
Sample of questionnaire
No Statements Responses
Strongly agree
Agree Disagree Strongly disagree
doing worksheet paper.
2 I like learning vocabulary through computer games.
3 I like learning vocabularies by using online vocabulary games.
4 Practicing vocabulary through online vocabulary games is better than doing vocabulary worksheets
5 I had fun learning vocabulary using the online vocabulary games.
6 The activities in the online vocabulary games were interesting.
7 The pictorial illustration on the online vocabulary games helped me to imagine the real things in my daily life so it was easier to acquire vocabulary.
Adapted from, Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. (2012) . “Using Computer Games to Improve Secondary School
Students’ Vocabulary Acquisition in English”. Social Science & Humanity Journals. 20 (4): 1015 – 1018. and Yip, F., & Kwan, A. (2006). Online vocabulary games as a tool for teaching and learning English
vocabulary. Educational Media International, 43(3), 233-249.
1.5.3 Interview
The interview was conducted after the questionnaire has already done by
the ten participants. More specific participants were selected from the 4th grade
students. The three out of ten students were selected to be interviewed. The
chosen students were from high achiever, middle achiever, and low achiever
student based on the result of the test given in the first meeting. The aim of
based on different view of students’ level towards online vocabulary games in the school vocabulary learning process.
In this research, the interview used open-ended questions to focus on students’ perceptions towards online vocabulary games in language learning. The open-ended interview enables the researcher to compare the responses from the
interviewees (Paton, 1998 cited in Cohen et.al, 2007). Then, the interview is
conducted by asking the participants personally in which the researcher asks and
records the participants at a time (Creswell, 2009). This interview is used to
discover the way online vocabulary games help students to learn and retain
vocabulary and students perception towards online vocabulary games on
vocabulary learning in the classroom.
The interview was conducted in bilingual in order to ease the students
facing difficult word selection to express their perceptions easily. Interview
technique allows the participants to express their interpretation without any forces from researcher’s perspectives (Creswell, 2009). It can also explore more information from the participants which cannot be obtained from observation or
another instruments for collecting qualitative data (Creswell, 2009).
The steps for interviewing the students for this research are proposed by
Creswell (2009) including: 1. Select interviewees based on the purposeful
sampling; 2. Record the entire interview, including the questions which are asked
by the researcher; 3. Write the main idea from interviewees’ responses; 4. Stick
with the questions, but keep maintaining the flow of the interview.
The questions for interview are elaborated below,
1. Do you enjoy learning vocabulary through online vocabulary games?.
Tell me your reason!
2. How do you learn vocabularies from online vocabulary games?
3. What features in online vocabulary games which help you to learn and
retain vocabularies?
4. How did competitions with your friends help you to learn vocabulary
5. How did the illustration in the games help you to learn and retain
vocabulary?
6. How did the animation, sounds and music help you in learning
vocabulary through online vocabulary games?
7. How did immediate feedback help you to learn and retain vocabulary?
8. How did contextuality provided by the games help you to learn and
retain vocabulary?
9. Do you feel any improvement in your vocabulary mastery by learning
online vocabulary games?
10.Do you prefer other online vocabulary games to be used in further
vocabulary learning or worksheet paper? Why?
11.What should the teachers do in order to make vocabulary learning
process through online vocabulary games better?
1.6 Data analysis
The data was critically analyzed using various techniques. Most data was
elaborated descriptively since the characteristic of a qualitative study is that the
phenomenon being studied has to be described comprehensively. In addition, the
questionnaire data was elaborated statistically since it provided the calculation result from students’ answers. The data analysis technique will be specifically elaborated below.
1.6.1 The analysis of the classroom observation
The teaching and learning processes were conducted 9 times, starting from
the second week of March until the second week of May. In analyzing the
observation result, the researcher tried to find the behavior pattern towards the use
of online vocabulary games in learning vocabulary.
The researcher took photos and also field notes which were conducted
conversation during the lesson, solving the game, and competing during the game
between players, and also obstacles while learning using online vocabulary
games. The result was elaborated descriptively supported by some evidence to
strengthen the result.
Classroom observation was aimed to investigate the natural of behavior of
the participants (Hadi, 1986 cited in Sugiyono, 2009). The researcher also
participated in learning process while conducting online vocabulary games as the
media in teaching vocabulary.
1.6.2 The analysis of the questionnaire
In this research, the researcher used close-ended questionnaire in form of
Likert scale. It was given after the last meeting and all students got the same
questionnaire. There were four ranges of Likert scale to find out about the student’s perception which covers four different categories. The responses in the questionnaire were categorized into four different scores as in the following,
Table 3.3
Categories of the responses
Categories Strongly
agree
Agree Disagree Strongly
disagree
Scores 4 3 2 1
The research also used the percentile formula to analyze the questionnaire data. Then, the data were interpreted based on the frequency of students’ answer. Based on Hatch and Farhady (1982, p. 46), the percentile formula is formulated as follows:
P = Percentile
F = Frequency of students’ answer N = Respondent
1.6.3 The analysis of the interview
The data from interview session were transcribed to help researcher in
processing the data. Then, the second step was categorizing the data based on the
research questions provided. The data from the interview session will be attached
in research paper and the identity information was in a confidential. The result
was elaborated descriptively based on the result from interview sessions with the
three participants.
In line with this, here are several steps used in analyzing the data from
interview; transcribing, and/or reviewing data, and analyzing all interview data
(Boyce and Neale, 2006). As proposed by Boyce and Neale (2006), the first step
was transcription. By conducting transcription, the data was easy to be interpreted
as good result.
1.7 Concluding remark
This chapter has elaborated the formulation of problems, research design,
site and participants, research procedure, data collection techniques which
consisted of classroom observation, questionnaire, and interview. This chapter
also explained the data analysis which consisted of the analysis the classroom
observation, questionnaire and interview. The next chapter discussed the findings
72
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION, SUGGESTIONS AND LIMITATIONS OF THE
STUDY
In this chapter, several findings of the research are explained together in conclusion. The suggestions of the research are also presented briefly which is intended to the teachers, further researchers, and readers. Moreover, limitations of the study present the further information about the research.
1.1 Conclusion
The research was focused on the online vocabulary games as the potential
enhancement on students’ vocabulary acquisition. The research was intended to
investigate how online vocabulary games may help students to learn and retain vocabulary. Furthermore, the research was also aimed at finding out the students’ perceptions toward the online vocabulary games.
The result of the research supported the effectiveness of online vocabulary games to develop the students’ vocabulary acquisition. The online vocabulary games were applied during the vocabulary lesson in 4A classroom in which the students achieved better understanding towards the vocabulary mastery at the end of the session. The result provided that more than 50% responses were positive
regarding the students’ perceptions towards online vocabulary games and the way
Most of the students agreed that employing the online vocabulary games during the classroom session helps them to be relaxed while learning the vocabulary. These learning processes created an interesting learning atmosphere for the students so they learned vocabulary happily. Furthermore, the elements which helped them learning vocabulary in online vocabulary games such as pictorial illustration, interaction, competition, animation including music and sounds, immediate feedback, context and problem solving are believed to provide the connection in helping the students learning the vocabularies well. In addition, they believed that the online vocabulary games are more interesting to do than learning vocabulary through worksheet given to them.
1.2 Suggestions
The suggestions are directed to English teachers and for the importance of future researchers. There are thousands of online vocabulary games from the internet and teachers can choose their own online vocabulary games selection
based on the students’ needs. The most important parts are the features of the
online vocabulary games itself. The technical features of a vocabulary web site, Wood (2001) suggested the following: animations; sound components; hints or clues related to word meaning; multimodal presentation of information; online definitions, glossaries or thesauruses.
The elements mentioned aboved were considered helpful in learn and retain vocabulary through online vocabulary games. Moreover, the research conducted by Yip and Kwan (2006) revealed that, the high quality of online learning games obsessed several things, Interaction with other players; Comparison of scores, e.g. recording of top 10 scores; Audio-visual effects, the use of animation, sounds and music; Roles that can be selected and taken up; A clearly defined scenario; Continuous motivation, a balance between challenge and satisfaction.
towards the vocabularies that have been experienced during the games. Applying the online vocabulary games for the learning session is suggested for the teachers who want to encourage the students to be able to enjoy the learning processes happily. This interesting learning atmosphere is believed to create relaxing situation for the students in order to learn effectively. The role of the teacher during the learning process through online vocabulary games should be clear. A role as controller and advisor during the processes are important to maintain the students to be on track.
Some of the research limitations lead naturally into suggestions for further research. The first suggestion, the online vocabulary games could not be run smoothly without good internet connection and good computer performance. It is
essential since the young learners get easily uncontrollable if their games don’t run well. They don’t do well at showing patient for waiting something.
The second suggestion, the further researcher should try to conduct this technique in other levels and numbers of students and in various contexts in order
to discover its effectiveness in developing the students’ vocabulary acquisition. In
addition, since the research had been conducted for eight meetings and one
meeting to play “hangman” as the evaluation, there is an expectation for further
researches to cover longer period of time and other type of evaluation in order to get more effect from this technique and uncover richer details.
1.3 Limitations of the study
connection might discourage participants’ interests and eagerness in joining the
online vocabulary games activity.
However, this research is considered important for the teaching and learning English, especially vocabulary. First, the online vocabulary games may provide different learning atmosphere towards English which also collaborated with the online games for learning session. Second, the teacher may conduct the online vocabulary games during or for some periods of English lesson to raise the
students’ motivation and avoid boredom. The last, supported by the teachers, the
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