ABSTRACT
The main objectives of the research are to find out (1) whether quartet card game can improve students’ grammar mastery in writing descriptive texts; and (2) how the students’ motivation is when quartet card game is implemented in the teaching and learning process.
This research was conducted to the eighth grade of MTs Negeri Purwokerto in the Academic Year of 2014/2015. The action research was conducted in two cycles with four meetings in each cycle. The research procedures were divided into four stages: planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. I was the one implementing the action and helped by the English teacher as the observer. Data collecting techniques included observations, interviews, questionnaires, and tests. The results of the observation were presented in the form of field notes and checklists of observations. Interviews were done to support initiations, the plans and the findings of the research. The tests consisted of a pre-test and post-tests. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics for quantitative data and interactive model for the qualitative ones.
The findings of the research reveal that: (1) quartet card game can improve students’ grammar mastery in writing descriptive texts which include the mastery in using to be (is, am, are), adjectives, has and have, plural and singular verbs (-s, -es, -ies) and pronoun referents and possessive adjectives. The average score of the students’ grammar mastery improved from only 2.05 in the pre-test to 4.67 in the post-test of the second cycle. Thus, the average score of writing improved from 49.87 in the pre-test to 86.74 in the post-test of the second cycle; (2)  the implementation of quartet card game induces the students to have higher motivation in joining the  teaching and learning process. The seven aspects of motivation, i.e. positive task orientation, ego involvement, need for achievement, high aspirations, goal orientation, perseverance, and tolerance of ambiguity were better performed by most of the students compared to the ones in the preliminary research.
This research suggests that it is pivotal for teachers to apply an appropriate technique possible to teach grammar in a writing class which can foster students’ motivation in engaging themselves in learning in the hope of promoting their writing performance. Quartet card game serves these qualities. With this in mind, teachers are enticed to consider the possibility of implementing this technique into practice in their writing classes.
Keywords: grammar mastery, descriptive texts, quartet card game