Improving elementary school students’ vocabulary mastery through language games ( a classroom action research in the fifth grade of SDN III Jaten Wonogiri in 2007/2008 academic year )

Oleh :
Ernawati - K2202025 -

ABSTRACT This study is aimed to know whether games could improve the quality of teaching – learning process of the fifth grade of SDN III Jaten and could improve the students’ vocabulary mastery in English subject. Related to the elementary students’ characteristics as the young learners, games are considered as the most appropriate media that can be used to increase their motivation and interest to study English, especially vocabulary. The study is a classroom action research conducted at SDN III Jaten Wonogiri. The writer used the fifth grade students as the subject of the research. In conducting this classroom action research, the writer divided the action into two cycles and carried out four steps, namely action plan, action implementation, observation and reflection. The data were taken from the result of observation done by the teacher while the actions were being carried out, and from the result of test after the cycles had been implemented. Having collected the data, the writer then analyzed the data. In this study, first the writer found that the students became active during the lesson; it means that the quality of teaching – learning process improved. And second, from the result of the test after the cycles had been implemented, the teacher found that the students’ achievement improved. The target of this study is 70 % of the student can reach 65 for the test ( 65 is the minimum passing score ). In the first cycle only 50 % of the students could reach the target, whereas in the second cycle 80 % of the students could reach the target. It means that the target was already reached. Based on the result above, it can be concluded that the use of games improves the elementary students’ achievement in learning English especially in vocabulary mastery. The improvement is quite significant which is reflected from the progress of students’ scores from the first cycle to the second cycle. Based on the research finding above, at the end of this research the writer proposes some suggestions for English teacher in the primary classroom especially at elementary school. First, before conducting the teaching – learning process the teacher should recognize the students’ characteristics to choose the suitable way or technique in conducting English. Second, it is necessary to create interesting and enjoyable atmosphere during the class activity in order to make the students easier in getting new English vocabularies.