| dc.description.abstract | Based on the 2007 English Curriculum for Elementary School, students at
elementary school are introduced to how to write words and simple sentences
correctly when they learn writing. They should be able to write them into meaningful
contexts. It is not an easy job for the English teacher to make students able in writing
words and simple sentences. Word spelling plays an important role in writing.
However, most of students still make many mistakes in writing English words caused
by low spelling ability. One of the main reasons for this is that so many English
words are not spelled as they are spoken. This difference between pronunciation and
spelling causes a lot of confusion.
There are several techniques in teaching writing, such as by dictation and
guided writing. Another technique in teaching writing is by playing games. Word
spelling games might be appropriate games that can be used in teaching writing. So
far, word spelling games have not been used by the teacher in teaching English
especially word writing to the second grade students at SDN Mangli IV Jember
because there is no intention from the English teacher to use that technique.
This research was meant to investigate whether there was a significant effect
of word spelling games on the second grade students’ word writing ability at SDN
Mangli IV Jember in the 2007/2008 academic year. The design was one group pretest
and post-test design. The research population was the second grade students of
SDN Mangli IV Jember in the 2007/2008 academic year.
The research was conducted in three steps. The first was pre-test. This test
was intended to know the students’ score in writing test. After that, three treatments
(Hangman, Secret Code, and Jumbled Letters) were given to the students. ‘Hangman’
game is a kind of game which requires learners to guess the words based on dashes
and clue given by the teacher. The next game is ‘Secret Code.’ This game requires a
group of learners to decode numbers into a word, e.g “8-1-14-4” will be decoded into
“h-a-n-d”. The last game is ‘Jumbled Letters’. It is a kind of game in which learners
are obliged to arrange the jumbled letters into a meaningful word, e.g. “d-a-h-n” will
be arranged to h-a-n-d. Then, conducting the post-test. After that, the results of pretest
and
post-test
were
analyzed
by
using
t-test
formula.
The
data
collection
methods
used
in this research were main data and supporting data. The pre-test and post-test
were administered to collect the main data. While an interview and documentation
were used to collect the supporting data.
Based on the results, the statistical value of the t-test was 4.357, while the
critical value of the t-test with significant level 5% and the degree of freedom 27 was
2.052. It means that the statistical value was higher than t-critical value (4.357 >
2.052). Consequently, the Null Hypothesis (H0) formulated: “There is no significant
effect of word spelling games on the second grade students’ word writing ability in
the 2007/2008 academic year” was rejected. On the other hand, the formulated
alternative hypothesis: “There is a significant effect of word spelling games on the
second grade students’ word writing ability at SDN Mangli IV Jember in the
2007/2008 academic year” was accepted. It means that there is a significant effect of
word spelling games on the second grade students’ word writing ability at SDN
Mangli IV Jember in the 2007/2008 academic year. Based on the result, it is
suggested that the English teacher should consider using word spelling games as an
alternative technique in teaching word writing. | en_US |
