THE USE OF CROSSWORD PUZZLES TO IMPROVE THE EIGHTH YEAR STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY ACHIEVEMENT AT SMPN 2 TEGALSARI BANYUWANGI IN THE 2010/2011 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

Based on the preliminary study that was held on 4 xiv th October 2010, most of class VIII students of SMPN 2 Tegalsari, especially class VIII C faced some difficulties in mastering vocabulary. This was proven by their vocabulary score. It showed that only 18 students (52.94 %) of 34 students of class VIII C got ≥70 and the mean score was 66.17. They also had low motivation in learning English and only few of the students were enthusiastic in the teaching learning process. The classroom action research with cycle model was applied in this research because this research was intended to improve class VIII C students’ vocabulary achievement and improve class VIII C students’ active participation in the teaching learning of vocabulary. This research was done collaboratively with the English teacher of class VIII of SMPN 2 Tegalsari. It was conducted in class VIII C of SMPN 2 Tegalsari that consisted of 34 students. The observation and the vocabulary test were the methods that were used in collecting the data. The data was analyzed quantitatively. The action was implemented in two cycles in order to achieve the goal of this classroom action research. The first cycle was done in three meetings. The results of the classroom observation showed that 67.64% in meeting I and 70.58% in meeting II of the students were actively involved in the teaching learning process. It showed that there was an improvement of the students’ participation from meeting I to meeting II, but it did not achieve the objective of the research that was 75%. Besides, the result of the vocabulary test in Cycle 1 also did not achieve the target of the research that was 75% of the students got 70 or more in the vocabulary test. The percentage of the students who got score ≥ 70 was only 67.64% of the students. There were some factors that influenced the results of the observation and the vocabulary test in Cycle 1. They were: (1) Most of the students did not know how to complete the crossword puzzles correctly and effectively, (2) The teacher and the researcher often used English in explaining the materials and giving the instruction to the students, (3) The students still had difficulties in classifying nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, (4) There were some students who did not bring the dictionary, (5) Some students did not pay attention to the lesson because not all students were appointed to answer the teacher’ oral question. For those reasons, Cycle 2 was necessary to be conducted to solve the problems found in Cycle 1 by revising some problems found in Cycle 1. The process and product evaluation in Cycle 2 showed an improvement. The observation of the students’ participation revealed that 79.41% in meeting I and 82.35% in meeting II of the students actively involved in the teaching learning process. So, the results of the observation both in meeting 1 and meeting 2 had achieved the goal of this research. In the product evaluation, the percentage of the students who got score ≥ 70 in the vocabulary test was 82.35% of the students. Based on those results, it could be concluded that the action in Cycle 2 was success because that results of process and product evaluation achieved the objective of the research. Finally, it could be summarized that the use of crossword puzzles could improve the students’ vocabulary achievement and the students’ active participation in teaching learning process of vocabulary at SMPN 2 Tegalsari Banyuwangi in the 2010/2011 academic year