200
THE USE OF ALPHA BALL GAME TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’
VOCABULARY MASTERY AT THE SECOND GRADE OF SMP NEGERI 3 BORONG
Adrianus Andi Moe1, Andi Haeriati Alimuddin2
STKIP YPUP Makassar, e-mail: andhyaam0@gmail.com
STKIP YPUP Makassar, e-mail: andihaeriatialimuddin@stkip.ypup.ac.id
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to find out whether the use of the Alpha ball game could improve the students' vocabulary at the VIII A grade of SMP Negeri 3 Borong. This study uses the pre-experimental method. The population of this research was the second-grade students of SMP Negeri 3Borong in the 2020/2021 academic year and the sample was class VIII A that consist of 20 students and used the total sampling technique. The result shows that there was a significant difference in students’ mean score in the pre-test and post-test, where the mean score in post-test was higher than pre-test (77,25 > 50,00) and the t-test value is greater than the t- table value (17,023 > 2093) based on the result of the data analysis, it can be concluded that the use of Alpha ball game is effective to improve students vocabulary mastery.
Keywords: Alpha ball game, students’ vocabulary mastery
INTRODUCTION
English has an important role in the educational world, especially in Indonesia. It could be seen that in some level of education English has been learned. In Indonesia, for instance, this language was taught from elementary school until the university level. It says that in Indonesia English is learned for every level of education Pratiwi (2016).
The English language has four skills, which include listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Moreover, English also has three components there are Grammar, Vocabulary, and Pronunciation. In teaching English, the first basic and very important thing to do is teaching vocabulary. Vocabulary is a basic component that is very important to be learned when we want to learn a foreign language. Vocabulary is important because it helps us to communicate. One of the components of English that will be taught to students is vocabulary.
Because this has the main role in all language skills.
The students learn some vocabulary from elementary school. The first thing to do in teaching vocabulary introduce to students new English terms and to inform students of the vocabulary they have learned already. One of the main problems faced by students of SMP Negeri 3 Borong in mastery and learning English is a lack of vocabulary. To master all skills in English including speaking, listening, reading, and writing, they are afraid of learning English. Vocabulary is the basis for mastering all English skills. Vocabulary is a union of letters into words formed by a group of user communities. Meanwhile, according to Penny (1991) in Hajis (2014), vocabulary can define as words taught in a foreign language. In short, a vocabulary is a unit of letters which is a word taught in a foreign language. Vocabulary has tools that are used to understand and master English. Vocabulary is the main component to improve all English skills. Indeed Mastering vocabulary is a difficult thing; it is not as easy as helping you require a vocabulary mastery process. Many factors affect students who find it difficult to master vocabulary.
201 First, the difficulty of students to understand and remember vocabulary. Many students get into trouble when they talk because of limitations in their voca
Second, the lack of media used only always depends on the method of speech without the media involved. Students are not interested and find it difficult to do understand vocabulary.
Third, learning English is rigid or serious which makes students depressed or fear of developing their abilities in vocabulary.
Fourth, the lack of control memorizes student vocabulary. They are easy to forget vocabulary has been taught or learned.
One solution offered by researchers to improve students' vocabulary mastery in using games. Games can increase vocabulary for students because games can encourage a variety of behaviors and creative thinking. Many games can be used in teaching vocabulary such as sweater game, rolling game, and back to board game including Alpha Ball game. In this case, researchers use the Alpha Ball game to improve students' vocabulary mastery because this media has several advantages, one of which is to help students learn vocabulary because when playing this game students can spell, understand, and use words.
Alpha Ball game is a technique that is suitable for use in teaching. First, students feel happy, enjoy, and interested. As a result, teachers easily lead students in the learning process.
Second, students become more active in carrying out activities. So they do not feel bored in studying. Finally, they can increase their confidence in teaching English so students can enjoy learning in class. According to Case (2014 Ball Games are a great way to practice all kinds of languages with young students, especially children who struggle with more traditional classroom activities. This game provides an alternative way to refresh and add vocabulary in a more fun way. Based on the explanation above, the researcher formulated the problem as follows: Does the Alpha Ball game improve students’ vocabulary mastery at the second grade of SMP Negeri 3 Borong?
Based on the problem statement above, the objective of this research was to find out whether the Alpha Ball game improve students’ vocabulary mastery at the second grade of SMP Negeri 3 Borong.
The researcher expected that the result of this research gave contribution to the teacher and the next researchers. For the teacher, the finding can give information as one of the references about an alternative to the teaching and learning process, especially on teaching vocabulary and to produce the knowledge for their teaching. The use of the alpha ball Game can give them a contribution to successful teaching English and also it can improve the students’ interest and students’ motivation. For the next researcher, the result of this research can be used as one of the references to conduct their thesis. So, the next researcher can make their studies more complete and can use another skill and design.
The scope of the research was to improve students’ vocabulary mastery by using the Alpha Ball game at the second grade of SMP Negeri 3 Borong. Vocabulary mastery can be defined as the number of vocabularies (words) in a language that contains information about their meanings, spelling, and pronunciation in the context of communication. The researcher focused on improving students’ vocabulary mastery (verb, noun, and adjective).
METHOD
In this research, the researcher used a pre-experimental design with one group pre- test, treatment, and post-test. Pre-experimentation is the simplest form of research design. In pre-experiments either one group or several groups are observed after several interventions or treatments are considered to cause changes. It aims to know whether the Alpha Ball game improve students’ vocabulary mastery.
The design of this research presented as follows:
202 01 X 02
Where: 01= Pre-test X= Treatment
02= Post-test
Gay (2012)
The research instrument was used by the researcher in collecting data by which the work was easier as the data were complete and systematic. In this research, the instrument was vocabulary test. This test consisted of 20 items for the pre-test and 20 items for the post- test. This is a multiple-choice test with 4 options, A, B, C, and D. The purpose of the test was to measure the use of the Alpha Ball game to improve students’ vocabulary mastery.
Procedure for Collecting Data Pretest
Before giving treatment, the researcher gave a pre-test to the students. Pre-test aimed to know the students’ vocabulary mastery,
Treatment
The treatment was given after the pre-test for four meetings. The general procedures during treatment:
a) The researcher started the class and introduces the material to the students.
b) The researcher described the process of the Alpha ball game to the students.
c) The researcher made the class into a big circle.
d) The researcher threw the ball to the student.
e) The student who catches the first ball would say the word with the letter A and then uses that term to make a short sentence while throwing the ball to other students.
f) The students who cannot make the short sentence can spell out the words they say The materials were given to the students during treatment are:
1) The first meeting
The researcher gave the material about the verb using Alpha ball game 2) The second meeting
The researcher gave the material about Noun using Alpha ball game 3) The Third meeting
The researcher gave the material about the adjective using Alpha ball game 4) The fourth meeting or the last meeting the researcher gave the material about the
verb, nouns, and adjective by using an alpha ball game.
Post-test
The post-test gave to the students after the treatment. The post-test aimed to find out the value of the treatment whether the result of the post-test is better than the result of the pre-test
Technique of Data Analysis
1. To assess the pre-test and post-test result of students answer:
1. The students correct answer = 10 2. The students wrong answer = 0
203 Score = 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑛𝑠𝑤𝑒𝑟
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑠 X 100
Gay (2012) 2. The students’ score was classified into seven levels as follow:
a. Score 96 – 100, Classified as excellent b. Score 86 – 95, Classified as very good c. Score 76 - 85, Classified as good d. Score 66 – 75, Classified as fairly good e. Score 56 - 65, Classified as fair
f. Score 36 - 55, Classified as poor g. Score 0 - 35, Classified as very poor
3. Calculated the frequency of percentage scores from students’ scores:
P = 𝐹
𝑁 × 100%
Where:
P : Percentage F : Frequency
N : Total number of students
Gay (2012) 4. Calculated the score of the students by using the following formula:
X =∑ x
𝑁
Where:
X : Mean Score
∑X : The sum of all score
N : The total number of subject
Gay (2012) 5. Calculated the result of the test
To assess the varying significance between the pre-test score and post-test, the Test value is determined using the following formula
t = 𝐷
√𝛴𝐷 2−𝑁 ( 𝑁−1 )( 𝛴𝐷 )2𝑁
Where:
t : Test of significance D : Score change
∑D : The man of different score N : Total number of sample
Gay (2012)
Comparison Rate Percentage of Pre-Test and Post-Test
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mean score of pre-test and post-test
NO test activities Mean score Total score
1 Pre-test 50,00 1000
2 Post-test 77,25 1545
The data in the table above shows that the mean score of the students’
pretest was 50,00 was classified as fair, while the main score of the students’
posttest was 77,25 was classified as good. It means that the mean score of the students’ posttest was higher than the mean score of the students’ pretest.
The table above showed the mean score of the pretest and posttest was improving. The data above would in the chart, as follows:
Mean score of pre-test and post-test
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Excelent Very Good
Good Fairly Good
Fair Poor Very Poor
Post-test Pre-test
205 The value of T-test and T-table
variable T-test value T-table value
pre-test post-test 17,023 2,093
Based on table 4.8 above, the t-test was 17,023 and the t-table was 2093. It can be concluded that the t-table smaller than the t-test value of students’
vocabulary mastery. It can be concluded that there was a significant difference between the result of the student's pretest and posttest after using the Alpha Ball games in teaching vocabulary to improve students' vocabulary mastery.
DISCUSSION
Based on the results of research conducted by researchers at SMPN 3 Borong, researchers saw that the vocabulary of all students was very lacking. It has been tested through a pre-test given by researchers and they don't even know the vocabulary that is often used daily. After conducting the pre-test, the researcher gave treatment to the students and at the first meeting in the treatment, the researcher provided material about nouns using the alpha ball game. At this meeting students tend to be silent when the researcher asks questions related to the material about nouns. At the second meeting at treatment, researchers saw the progress of students in mastering vocabulary. It was seen from when the researcher gave questions to students and almost all of them could answer the questions of the researcher. At the next meeting, all students were very active in the classroom and they were have fun in learning English, especially in learning to master vocabulary.
Based on the question in the problem statement in chapter 1 "does alpha ball game improve students' vocabulary mastery at the second grade of smpn 3 borong?" this question can be answered by reffering to the analysis findings of the test fresult. The result of the test analysis showed that the mean score of the students’ pre-test was 50,00 while the students post-test score was 77,25. It shows the different between the result. However, to prove wether the mean different between the two test is significant, another test called the t-test was conducted. After calculating t-test, the t-test was identified is 17,023, the identified t-table is
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
pre-test post-test
Mean score
Column2
206 2,093. Because t-test is higher than t-table, it is can be indicates that the null hypothesis (H0) stating ”does not improve of students vocabulary mastery after using Alpha ball game” is rejected. Meanwhile, the alternative hypothesis (H1) stating that “ there is improve of students’vocabulary mastery after using Alpha ball game” is accepted. Therefore, this research proves that the Alpha ball game can improve students’ vocabulary mastery.
CONCLUSION
After the researcher analyzed the data that have been presented in the previous chapter, the researcher concluded that:
The researchers use alpha ball games in the learning process, especially in learning vocabulary, students are not only asked to remember new words but are also expected to master understanding words, meanings and how to use in sentences based on context. Many students at SMP Negeri 3 Borong have bad vocabulary and lack the vocabulary they need over time. Therefore, the researcher realizes that vocabulary is the main basis of learning English. Vocabulary is one of the most important competencies needed for teaching and learning a foreign language. In other words, vocabulary plays a very important role in the growth of the four language competencies (listening, speaking, reading, and writing).
Vocabulary is also important for expressing ideas or asking for important things. If someone does not have a vocabulary, they will find it difficult to express their ideas verbally or in writing. In addition, if students have a lower vocabulary,
they cannot access information or knowledge.
After conduct this research, the Alpha ball game was able to improve the quality of English teaching, especially in vocabulary mastery. This game can help the students more easily to understand the words, the meaning and how to use the words in sentence. The students also become active in learning process.
The use of the Alpha ball game can improve students’ vocabulary mastery at the second- grade students’ of SMP N 3 Borong. Before being tough Alpha ball game, the students’
achievement was classified as poor level (50,00). It means that students' vocabulary without using The Alpha ball game still low. Meanwhile, students learning achievement after being given the Alpha ball game is (77,25).
Based on the findings and discussion, the researcher concluded that the use of the Alpha ball game effectively in improving students’ vocabulary mastery at the second grade of SMP Negeri 3 Borong .
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