THE USE OF FOUR IN ROW GAME IN TEACHING VOCABULARY AT THE FIRST GRADE STUDENTS

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THE USE OF FOUR IN ROW GAME IN TEACHING VOCABULARY AT THE FIRST GRADE STUDENTS

OF SMA YP PGRI 2 MAKASSAR

Lian Ayuni¹, Rina Asrini Bakri², Andi Haeriati Alimuddin³

1STKIP YPUP Makassar, Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

This research aimed to see whether Four in Row Game can improve students’ vocabulary mastery. The research design was an experimental design with one group of pre-test and post-test. The sample of this research was the first-grade of SMA YP PGRI 2 Makassar.

The result showed that there was a significant difference between the mean score of students’ pre-test and post-test. It was proven by t-test value which was higher than t-table (11.96 > 2.093). The result indicated that H1 is accepted and H0 is rejected. Therefore, it can be concluded that using Four in Row Game can improve students’ vocabulary mastery at the first-grade students of SMA YP PGRI 2 Makassar.

Keywords: Four in Row Game, the students’ Vocabulary Mastery.

INTRODUCTION Background

In learning language, the crucial case which is considered by the learner is vocabulary. In this regard, vocabulary has the significances role in forming a language. McCarten (2007) stated that the acquisition of vocabulary is arguably the most critical component of successful language learning. Until recently, however, it has been difficult to determine the most important words and phrases needed to establish suitable vocabulary for conducting conversation more effectively.

For Indonesian students, they have to study English language besides Indonesian language as the foreign language. Thus, English is the main subject in curriculum which should be learned from secondary level up to university. Although in general, English is still considered as a difficult subject for the students because it is completely different from

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373 Indonesian language in the system of structure, pronunciation and vocabulary. It is important for anyone who concern in English to find out the effective technique to make learning vocabulary easier and more pleasant for the students. In the learning vocabulary process, students have problem in absorbing the new vocabulary and their meaning.

The most perfect way to make effective activity in teaching vocabulary is by using game. As a technique in teaching vocabulary, using game is must to get the main purpose of teaching and learning activity. so, the researcher uses one type of game that can be used to teach vocabulary.

This research tested the students’ mastery of vocabulary used games because game have shown to have the advantages in learning vocabulary. The researcher chose game because it can help and encourage many learners sustain their interest and work. With game students can have a lot of fun and get rid of their tiresome during the lesson. Although, there are many strategies used by teacher to teach vocabulary, but one thing should be emphasized is how effective the strategy and technique used.

The researcher used Four in Row game as a technique in teaching vocabulary especially adjective. Four in Row Game is kind of board that uses in grids or squares on paper in which there are vocabulary in each grid. Used Four in Row Game in teaching vocabulary may help in teaching when the teacher realized the students’ weakness in understanding the language, especially in mastering English vocabulary adjective.

Therefore, the researcher conducted a research with the title “The Use of Four in Row Game in Teaching Vocabulary at the First Grade Students of SMA YP PGRI 2 Makassar”.

Based on the background above, the researcher formulated of the following problem statement: “Does the Four in Row Game improve the students’ vocabulary mastery?” While the objective of the research was to find out Four in Row Game could improve students’ vocabulary mastery at the first-grade students of SMA YP PGRI 2 Makassar in academic year 2021/2022.

This research is expected to be beneficial for teachers the next researchers. For teachers, the researchers hope that this research can help teachers to improve students’

vocabulary mastery. For the next researcher, this research expected to make a great contribution to other researchers as a reference for further studies in teaching vocabulary mastery. The scope of this research was about the use of Four in Row Game technique in improving vocabulary mastery. the researcher focused on assessing students’

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374 vocabulary mastery to know the meaning of words contained adjective by using the Four in Row Game method.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Definition of Vocabulary

Vocabulary is all about words. A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Vocabulary is a word or list with meaning and which is known by the speakers and which is used to communicate among those speakers and used by a group or individual.

Zahrotul (2015) in his research mentioned that: Homby (2006:1645) in Advance Learners Dictionary of Current English says that vocabulary is 1) all the words that a person knows or uses, 2) all the words in a particular language, 3) the words that people use when they are talking, 4) a list of words with their meanings, especially in a book for learning a foreign language.

Alizadeh (2016) defined vocabulary as the knowledge of words and word meaning.

Or someone else define vocabulary as a list of words arranged in alphabetical order with their definitions.

The Importance of Vocabulary

Vocabulary is always related to word. In learning language, vocabulary is one step to know the words, understanding the meaning and used them in a sentence.

According to Kitao at all (1996) knowledge of vocabulary is important to language use and it is useful to be able to test from various point of view – knowledge of word meanings, knowledge of word form, and knowledge how to surmise the meaning of unknown words from the context.

Rosa M (1995) stated that vocabulary is obviously a very important element within a language as the overwhelming majority of meaning is carried lexically, and therefore something to be taken into consideration both in second and foreign language teaching.

Kinds of Vocabulary

Alqahtani (2015) in his research mentioned that; some expert divide vocabulary in two types: active and passive vocabulary Harmer (1991) distinguishes between these two types of vocabulary. The first type of vocabulary refers to the one that the students have been taught and that they meet them, but which they will probably not be able to use.

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375 Meanwhile, the second on refers to the words which students will recognize when they meet them, but which they will probably not be able to pronounce.

FOUR IN ROW GAME

Many researchers examined that learning based games are effective strategies in education proposed, and can help students to improve their performance language studies, as well as enhancing their collaboration and counting active learning.

Games are activities with rules, goals, and fun elements. Apart from that they can be used to practice in all language skills and used to practice various types communication, games train students to be more responsible for their own learning, Team up with friends and compete with other friends. Through games, students can learn things in a fun way.

When they enjoy with game activities, students will not be afraid to learn vocabulary.

The Advantages of Using Game

Rohemi (2017) of page 39, stated that there are many effective methods for learning process, one of them is game. The advantages of game summed by Chen are:

1) Learner centered.

2) Promoting communicative competence.

3) Creating a meaningful context for language use.

4) Increasing learning motivation.

5) Reducing learning anxiety.

6) Integrating various linguistic skills.

7) Constructing a cooperative learning environment.

8) Fostering participatory attitudes of the study

Kinds of Game

According to Rohemi (2017) of page 38, divided two kinds of game: competitive game and cooperative game. The first is competitive game which is a game in which the players or team race to be the first to reach the goal. In this kind of game, the players focus on how to be the winner. The second is cooperative game in which the players or teams can work together towards a common goal. This kind of game make the players think about how to reach the goal by setting out the cooperation teams.

According to Hadfield in Sarnita (2020) page 20, there are eight types of games as follows:

1) Common type of game. The player who is consciously holding the experience with it, while others are wondering what games could be.

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376 2) The search game are a different variant which includes the whole class. Everyone in the class has one piece of information player in such games must have all or a significant amount of information available to fill in a chart or pictures or to solve an issue.

3) Matching games are based on a different idea, but they also involve matching pairs of pictures cards, and can be played together.

4) Labeling games involves matching the labels with the objects in the picture.

5) Game exchange is based on the concept of "barter" players have certain objects, cards, or ideas that they want to trade for others. The object of the game is to make exchange that will satisfy both slides.

6) The role play games are given the name and some features of the fictional character.

7) Playing games and card games are common types of games where the goal is to be the first round of the game, or to win the most cards, or to get rid of the cards and squares on the board as an opportunity to initiate touch exchange.

Definition of Four in Row Game

According to Uiterwijk (2019) page 1, Four in row is a game where two players try to be the first to get a straight line of four consecutive stone of their color on some special board. the winning lines can horizontal, vertical, or diagonal.

Alawiyah (2021) page 20, in his research definition of Four in Row Verb Game is a kind of game use grids or squares of paper which there are verbs in each grid. The activity of the game for groups, it consists of five students; one student as referee and four students as examiner. The game tests the students’ knowledge of irregular verb. It is based loosely on the game gets a row of four squares- either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.

According to Rohemi (2017) page 40, in his research Definition of Four in row/connect 4 is a classic family game in which two players alternative turns dropping one of their discs at a time into an unfixed column, until one player connects four discs, vertically, horizontally, or diagonally and wins the game.

Research Method

The research method design was the pre-experimental method design, with pre- test, treatment and post-test. The treatment consists of four meetings. The design formulated:

O1

X

O2

Where: O1: Pre-test

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X : Treatment

O2: Post-test

(Gay, 2012) Variable of the Research

There were two kinds of variables in this research:

1. The independent variable

In this research, the independent variable was Four in Row Game.

2. The dependent variable

In this research, the dependent variable was vocabulary mastery of the students.

The Procedures of Collecting Data

1. Pre-test

In pre-test, the researcher gave the pre-test in order to get the data on the student prior knowledge of vocabulary before giving the treatment by using Four in a row game.

Before doing the treatment, the researcher gave pre-test to identify the students’ prior knowledge in learning vocabulary. It was given to the students at the first meeting before treatment, the researcher puts some steps.

2. Treatment

In the treatment, the researcher used Four in Row Game strategy. The researcher explained what Four in Row Game strategy is, and how to use in learning vocabulary.

3. Post-test

After doing treatment, the researcher gave pos-test for all students. Pos- test in used to know the student vocabulary mastery after being taught by using Four in Row Game. The researcher wanted to know how far the students understand and remember about the words that given when treatment process was done.

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RESEARCH FINDINGS

The researcher collects data in this section by administering a vocabulary test with a pre-test and a post-test. The same topic is covered in both the pre-test and the post-test.

The raw scores were then collected in accordance with the instrument and analyzed using a procedure to determine a student's final score. This is intended for the students' pre-test and post-test results. 2) Classification of students' pre-test and post-test scores, frequency, and percentage, 3) The sum of the students' pre-test and post-test scores, the square of the pre-test and post-test scores, the gain and the square of the gain 4) The mean pre-test and post-test score of the students, 5) The significant difference between pre-test and post-test, 6) Run the hypothesis tested.

The researcher used a pre-experimental method design using the Four in Row game to teach students to acquire vocabulary to improve their vocabulary. The data was collected using vocabulary tests such as adjectives. To find out whether the condition of the students improved after the treatment, the test was carried out twice, namely before the test and after the test.

The students’ scores of pre-test (X1), post-test (X2), gain/difference between the matching pair (D), and the square of the gain (D²).

No Sample Pre-test Post-test

Gain D (X1-X2)

D²

1 AKY 35 60 25 625

2 ANS 40 80 40 1600

3 A 55 90 35 1225

4 A 30 70 40 1600

5 AS 50 80 30 900

6 BDJ 80 95 50 2500

7 EP 25 85 60 3600

8 EOM 50 80 30 900

9 I 30 90 60 3600

10 IS 45 85 45 2025

11 KMJ 60 80 20 400

12 KM 30 90 60 3600

13 LY 45 65 20 400

141 MKN 30 85 55 3025

15 MF 55 80 30 900

16 NAD 60 95 35 1225

17 RF 40 60 20 400

18 RP 30 55 25 625

19 SN 45 90 45 2025

20 SRH 80 95 15 225

N=20 ∑X1=880 ∑X2=1612 ∑D=740 ∑D² =31400

The result of N is the total number of samples used in the research, were there 20 samples. X1 is the total number of students’ scores obtained which is then calculated as a whole is 880. The result X2 is the total number of students’ scores obtained which is then

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379 calculated as a whole is 1612. Meanwhile D result is a gain between pre-test and post-test which is calculated as a whole is 740, and D2 is the total sum of the total difference score which is calculated as a whole is 31400.

Based on the table, the researcher collected scores in the pre-test and post-test.

the researcher compared the result of the students’ pre-test and post-test results. It revealed that the total pre-test score was low (880). It is shows that vocabulary mastery of first-grade of SMA YP PGRI 2 Makassar was poor. While the pos-test of students was 1612, the students’ population was 20. It means that the post-test result was higher than the pre-test result. The total gain was 740, and the square of gain was 31400. This shows that the gain score between pre-test and post-test was high.

Conclusion

Based on the findings and discussion in the previous chapter, the researcher concluded this research that focuses on the students’ vocabulary mastery. In this research the researcher also focused in teaching vocabulary adjective.

After the researcher analyzed the data that have presented in the previous chapter, the researcher concluded that the students’ achievement can be improved. the students’

vocabulary mastery post-test was higher than the students’ vocabulary mastery pre-test score. It means that there was a significant difference of using the Four in Row Game to improve the students’ vocabulary mastery. It was supported by the data, in which the mean score of the post-test was higher than the mean score of the pre-test. the t-test result has shown that the t-test was greater than t-table result. Moreover, the mean score post-test was higher than the mean score of the pre-test.

Based on the explanation, the researcher concluded that there was no significant reason to accepted H1 and there was no significant reason to rejected H0. the researcher concluded that the use of Four in Row Game can improved the students’ vocabulary mastery to the first-grade of SMA YP PGRI 2 Makassar. The population of this research was 20 students.

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Cummings, A.G., Piper, R.E., Pitman, R.T. The Importance of Teaching Vocabulary: The Whys and Hows. Texas A&M University San Antonio. a Journal.

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THE USE OF FOUR IN ROW GAME IN TEACHING VOCABULARY AT THE FIRST GRADE STUDENTS