THE USE OF BOGGLE GAME TO IMPROVE STUDENTS VOCABULARY IN
WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT
AN ARTICLE
By:
AMANDA FAUZIAH
NIM F12111012
ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
LANGUAGES AND ARTS EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
TANJUNGPURA UNIVERSITY
PONTIANAK
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THE USE OF BOGGLE GAME TO IMPROVE STUDENTS VOCABULARY IN WRITNG
DESCRIPTIVE TEXT
Amanda Fauziah, RahayuApriliaswati, EndangSusilawati
English Education Study Program, and Languages and Arts Education Department, Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Tanjungpura University in Pontianak
Email: amandafauziah250@gmail.com
Abstract
Vocabulary problem is the common problem faced by many students in writing. The restricted
vocabulary will affect the students’ English skill. The purpose of this research is to investigate the use of boggle game can improve the students’ vocabulary mastery in descriptive text to the VII C grade
students’ of SMP Negeri 1 MempawahHilir in academic year 2015/2016. The method in this research
is classroom action research. The research was conducted in three cycles. The subject of this research consisted of 28 students who belonged to VII C grade of SMP Negeri 1 MempawahHilir in academic year 2015/2016. In collecting the data, the writer used observation checklist and field notes. By conducting the classroom action research, it is found that the use of boggle game improved students’ vocabulary in spelling aspect by linking the letters. Boggle game also improved meaning aspect by translate and re-write. The improvement showed in every cycle. On the first cycle there were 32,2% of students who had passed KKM score. On the second cycle improved to 67,8%. On the third cycle
improved to 92,9%. In conclusion, the student’ vocabulary in descriptive text had improved by using
boggle game. In other words, boggle game can help the students in spelling and meaning aspect which help them in writing descriptive text.
Keywords : Boggle game, Improve, Vocabulary, Descriptive Text
English learning process faces many problems because of students’ lack of vocabulary. Vocabulary is important to develop the language skills in order to master the language. Vocabulary problem happened in English learning process in Junior High School because the students are in the beginner level. Based on the writer’s observation, the students in SMP Negeri 1 MempawahHilir, class VII C has difficulties and problem in their learning process. The problems that the writer found in the classroom was that studentshad difficulties in using the word to develop their idea in writing, memorized the word meaning and writing the word correctly and also the students were passively participated in the activity which showed by lack of interaction between teacher and students during teaching and learning process. They did not even give their opinions or ask questions towards the topic discussed. The writer used game to teach vocabulary and integrated it with writing skill as the solution to solve the students’ problem which is having difficulties in memorizing the word meaning and using the word to make a good writing,
unawareness of misspelling word and also increasing the mood of the students in teaching learning process.
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enthusiasm for vocabulary acquisition, and provides learners with the strategies. The teacher can play major role in motivating students to take vocabulary seriously remembering the importance of vocabulary itself.Communicative language teaching is a language approach which emphasizes interaction and problem solving as the goal of teaching learning process. As stated by Richard and Rogers (2001), the communicative language teaching starts from a theory of communication. This approach is able to be used in activities such as role play, pair work and group work where the learners need to communicate each other with target language. Because of that communicative function, this approach helps the learners learn language not only to develop the language skills but also implement the language in real life.
In order to take the benefit of this approach, beforehand the teachers need to know what kind of competence that can be achieved through this approach. Richard and Rogers (2001) state that there are four competences that can be achieved with CLT; grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence. Therefore, the teacher needs to consider what kind of activity which can be supported by this approach in order to maximize the competences of Communicative Language Teaching approach and also the teacher Teacher needs to consider what kind of activity that is appropriate to teach teenager. As stated by Brown (2000) that teaching teens is challenging because teens are an age of transition between childhood and adulthood where bodies and minds are changing. Game for teaching, especially in group work should be considered as one of the techniques to implement at the classroom especially for Junior High School to avoid boring time due to conventional teaching.Game also included into Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) By using group work, the communicative goal of Communicative language teaching can be achieved. The group members could share the information among them. As stated by Richard and Rogers (2001), the roles of the learners are as the negotiator between
their own self, the learning process and the object of learning within the group and group work activity which combined with game is one kind of the activities which is recommended in CLT in consideration the behavior of students of junior high schools which prefer play to seriously studying.
In junior high school, students are taught several text type. Different types of text absolutely have different characteristics. The differences also include what specific vocabulary that they commonly use. Among the kinds of text, descriptive text also has different characteristics compared to other text types.One of the text type is descriptive text. A descriptive text is a simple text type which describe a particular person, place or thing.Knapp and Watkins (2005) state that a descriptive should give the reader (identification) and a series paragraphs about the subject (description).
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usually interact with others. Game for teaching should be considered as one of the techniques to implement at the classroom especially for Junior High School to avoid boring time due to conventional teaching.Nowadays, game is not merely about playing to have fun. Game can be a technique to teach. Teacher usually brings games to the classroom as the technique to avoid the monotonous and also make the students enjoy the activity in the classroom especially in English language learning. As stated by Gordon Lewis (1999) that games add variation to a lesson and increase motivation by providing plausible incentive to use the target language. Through games, teacher can easily grab students’ attention and give a good impression for the students that learning language is not as difficult as they thought. Game can be a good stimulus for students especially for children from four until twelve years old. Game can give positive impact to students’ attitude toward language learning. The outcome of students learning is also much better than the students who have negative attitude toward language.
The use of game can help, especially the teacher introduce material, and certain themes and to energize a class. The teacher can easily convey the material for the students and students will easily learn the material through the game because game is included in experiential learning because students are involved directly in the activity. Through experiencing the activity, students are able to learn something from it. As Brown (2000) states that the essence of experiential learning is giving students concrete experience because they are directly in touch with the topic studied. The game itself should be conducted in line with goals of teaching itself. All language games should be fun, but always add the language component to achieve.
Game for teaching should be considered as one of the techniques to implement at the classroom especially for Junior High School to avoid boring time due to conventional teaching. The range of age in this level is between twelve and fifteen years old which are categorized as teenager. Teacher needs to consider what kind of activity that is appropriate to teach teenager. As stated by Brown (2000) that teaching teens is challenging because teens are an age of transition between childhood and adulthood where bodies and minds are changing. Game can be an alternative solution to teach high school students
remembering the behavior of the students who prefer play to seriously studying but already have enough cognitive abilities to solve the problem with logical thinking. Through game, the teacher can easily grab students’attention to follow the lesson as well as achieving the learning objectives. Students also will not feel burdened by monotonous activity.
Game can bring the good atmosphere in the classroom. Good atmosphere in learning will give positive impact at the learning outcomes. As Lewis and Bedson (1999) state that game can help teacher control the rhythm of the lesson and get a group of unmotivated children up and moving around, participating in the class and being more receptive to the rest of the lesson. Before bringing game to the classroom, there are many things that teacher should consider in designing game. The safety during the game is a must. Teacher needs to think whether the game can cause injury or not. Teacher needs to control the safety level when the game is being played and after implemented. After considering the security, teacher needs to consider the language focus. Teacher expectation toward students should be clear enough. The length of time is also important to consider in order to make students stay interested in the game, so the chaos caused by it can be avoided.
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Boggle Game in Vocabulary Teaching
In vocabulary learning, one of the games which can be applied by teacher is Boggle game or well-known by word search game. Boggle game is a game which includes into Sorting, ordering or arranging games. Boggle game is commonly known as word search game. According to Lamford (1999) word search game was introduced by Norman E.Gibat on 1968, and remade by Allan Turoffin on 1972 with additional rules. This game consists of the letters of words placed in a grid, which usually has a rectangular or square shape. The objective of this puzzle is to find and mark all the words hidden inside the box, the letters could be marked in any directions. Boggle game or word search game is a game where the players link at least 3 letters with line to make a word. These activity help students improve their vocabulary especially to improve their awareness in word spelling and also help them to memorize the word they already linked.
METHOD
The method of this research was Classroom Action Research. In teaching learning process, teacher may find problems. The problems may vary. To solve the problem at the classroom. The classroom action research is needed to help the teacher analyze the problem and solve it. According Cresswell (2012)classroom action research is a systematic procedures done by teachers (or other individuals in an educational setting) to gather information about, and subsequently improve, the ways their particular educational setting operates, their teaching, and their student learning. Through classroom action research, the writer is able to solve the ongoing problem in the classroom. At the end, it also will improve students’ achievement in the classroom. problem faced by the teacher at the classroom whether the problem is from the operational at the school, the environtment of the teaching learning process, or the students itself. Besidesof helping the teachers to solve the problem, Classroom Action Research also helps teachers do the reflection on their teaching. According
to Creswell (2012) action research provides an opportunity for educators to reflect on their own practices. Within the scope of a school, action research offers a means for staff development, for teachers’ development as professionals, and for addressing schoolwide problems. The writer use Classroom Action Research to solve the ongoing problem like students’ with lack of motivation and the proficiency of students’ English skills.
In one cycle of Classroom Action Research there are planning, acting, observation and the reflection. According to Kemmis and Mc Taggart (1985), cited by the thesis conducted by Budi Setiawan (2010), There are four steps in this model of action research in the following: (1) Planning: Identifying problems and planning the action. (2) Acting: Implementing the lesson. (3) Observation: observing or monitoring the action. (4) Reflection: Reflecting the result of the observation to revise the plan for the next cycle
The subject of this research was tVII C grade students of SMP N 1Mempawah Hilir that consist of 28 students in academic year 2015/2016.
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𝑇 = 𝑚𝑛x 100%Note:
T = the percentage of students who had passed the standard minimum score
m = the total of students who had passed the standard minimum score
n = the total of all students
(Harris, 2005)
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Research Findings
After the research was done, the writer and the teacher analyzed the improvement of students after boggle game implemented based on the students’ score, observation checklist and field note it is found that boggle game can improve students achievement in writing descriptive text especially on spelling aspect and meaning aspect.
In spelling aspect, boggle game help students to improve their spelling by link the letters activity.
During the game, students need to link letter by letter with line. When they are wrong to link the letter, it cannot be scored. In order to win the game, they need to be aware about the letter they were supposed to link to create a word. Even though boggle game has the same procedure with word search game, the additional rule of boggle game where the players could link the letters in any direction make the students were more aware with the letters which form the word spelling they would like to link while on word search game, the players only able to link the words in vertical,
diagonal or horizontal ways. The students’ achievement then categorized based on their writing test in which the students need to reach 20-25 points for spelling aspect on their scoring rubric.
Another improvement which could be achieved through boggle game was improvement in meaning aspect. Through boggle game, they easily remember the word used for describing people especially noun and adjective. This game was made students repeat the words they have found and convey to their teammates in order to be the winner of the game. The words on the game help them to give the idea about how to describe people in their writing.
In Boggle game, students were asked to translate and re-write the words after they linked the letters. When the detective already found the word, they needed to tell the interpreter to translate the word then the interpreter asked the note taker to write the word with its translation. Because of that procedure, this technique helped students remember the words by mentioning them repeatedly and this technique fulfilled the expectation of this game that the students remembered the words and using it in their writing task. As the result, translating and re-writing activity in boggle game improved students’ vocabulary in memorizing the meaning of the word which is useful in their writing. This finding was concluded by students’ vocabulary aspect in writing task scoring rubric. The scoring rubric consists of some points. The range points for spelling were 10-25 which categorized based on how many nouns and adjectives used by students. The students were expected to reach 20-25 points. The table below showed the percentage of students improvement in spelling aspect and meaning aspect.
Table 1
The Percentage of Students’ Improvement
Aspect Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3
Spelling Aspect 25% 46% 86%
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Diagram 1
The Diagram of Students’ Improvement
Discussion
From the research finding above, the writer finds some important points to be discussed:
This research is a Classroom action research in which the goal of this research is to help students of seventh grade students of SMP Negeri 1 MempawahHilir, particularly of class VII C in solve their problems of vocabulary which was integrated with writing. The problems were difficulty in writing words correctly, unawareness of word spelling, difficulty in expressing the idea in writing, and passive participation. Therefore, the writer tried to solve the problems which were found by using Boggle game technique. The writer analyzed the data based on the result which was gathered from observation checklist, field notes and students’ writing score.
Boggle game as one of language teaching games, has been proved to improve students’ vocabulary in spelling aspect and meaning aspect. This game is good to enhance students’ awareness in word spelling which helped them produce a good writing. As stated by Reed (2012) the awareness of misspelling leads to better outcomes in writing words especially by peers or group work. By using boggle game, it has been proved that students’ were more aware with word spelling because during the game they need to be more careful to link the letters because it can go to any directions. This activity is also helpful in
their writing to avoid misinterpretation caused by misspelled word.
Boggle game is a game which is done in group. The teammates need to work together to come out as the winning group. They should find the words by linking the letters with line. By working in group, they are able to help each other to review the letters they were linked whether it can be scored or not. Reed (2012) said that the group work have successfully helped each other learn, practice and review spelling. Through this activity, it can be concluded that group work in boggle game help the teammates correct each other spelling before submitting the words which can help them to be more aware with the word spelling.
Boggle game also has been proved to enhance students in meaning aspect. Translate and re-write activity in boggle game help the students to activates their long-term memory and also give them idea about how to write descriptive text. As stated by Green (2011), word game is good for brain because it activated parts of the brain that deals with language and word finding which force brain to exercise, work and be active and help brain stay sharp and avoid memory loss. Harmer (2010) also said that word game in teaching can lead to dynamic teaching. As the result, students have a good chance of remembering more of word than before. Through this activity, the students remembered each word
25% 25%
46% 43%
86%
100%
0 20 40 60 80 100
Spelling Aspect Meaning Apect
Cycle 1
Cycle 2
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students memorize the word effectively. As stated by Brown (2000) said that the essence of experiential learning is giving students concrete experience because they directly are in touch with the topic studied. By using boggle game, the students unconsciously acquired the certain vocabulary. This game was focused on noun and adjective which is helpful to give them idea about what to write in describing people. As the result, the students can write short simple descriptive text at ease without looking up to their dictionary. Junior High School students are the students in teenager age. The behavior of the students in this age is like to play rather than study. As stated by Brown (2000) that teaching teens is challenging because teens are an age of transition between childhood and adulthood where bodies and minds are changing. Game in language learning can be considered in order to grab students’ attention to participate in the classroom. Boggle game is also suitable to be implemented in junior high school level. This technique is easy to apply and also effective to involve the students in teaching learning process. The students were more enthusiastic to follow the teaching learning process. This language game not only helped the students in cognitive aspect but also give impact on their social life. Boggle game was able to stimulate them to be more competitive in positive ways and also help the students learn from each other.In this research, the writer found that the result already fulfilled the expectation where there was improvement from cycle to cycle. This result might be varying for the other researcher, because of students’ number, ability, topic provided and the other factors can influence it. Through boggle game, the writer could find some strengths to the students as follows: (1) Boggle game helps students memorize words because they mention it for many times. (2) Boggle game help students be aware of misspelled word because they write the word carefully during the game to avoid mistakes. (3) By using boggle
game, students can build and maintain the relationship among their classmates, because they work in groups. (4) By using boggle game, the students are able to express their idea in writing, because the vocabulary they have is sufficient to write short paragraph. interesting. It can attract students’ attention, avoid them from getting bored, make them excited in learning. Boggle game help students be aware of misspelled word and also help the students memorize the word. Based on the result of data analysis, teaching vocabulary by using boggle game to VII C grade of SMP Negeri 1 MempawahHilir in academic year 2015/2016 improved students ability in mastering vocabulary which was showed from their writing task about describing people.
Boggle game has been proved to improve students in vocabulary. Linking the letters activity helped them be more aware with misspelled word. Translating and re-writing activity was also effective to improve students’ vocabulary in meaning aspects. The improvement during the teaching learning process was in line with the students’ achievement. The students’ ability in mastering vocabulary improved from the first cycle to the last cycle. On the first cycle there were only 32,2% of VII C students who reach KKM score, increased in second cycle to 67,8% and improved to 92,9% at the third cycle. Almost all of the students had improvement from cycle to cycle. In conclusion, by applying boggle game as the technique in teaching learning process, the students’ ability in vocabulary mastery in descriptive text can be improved.
Suggestion
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made students participate actively in the classroom but also improved students’ ability in mastering the word and help students to write good sentences to make a simple paragraph easily. (2) In applying boggle game, the teacher should give rewards to students in order to attract students to participate more actively in teaching learning process and also help them increase their competitiveness among groups it can be in form of additional score etc. (3) Teacher needs to give demonstration of how to play the game to students to avoid them from getting confused. (4) The seating plan among group member needs to be considered to avoid misheard or disturbance by the other groups.REFERENCES
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Harris, David P. 2005. Testing English As a second language. New York : McGraw – Hill Book Company
Harmer, Jeremy. 2007. How to Teach English.
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Lamford, Paul. 1999. 100 Boggle Puzzle : Improve Your Game. London : Andre Deutsch Ltd
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