| dc.description.abstract | This Classroom Action Research was intended to improve the class VII
students’ vocabulary achievement through flashcards at SMP Plus Roudlotul Islam
Kemuning Lor - Ajasa in the 2011/2012 Academic year. This research was begun
with conducting semi-structured interview with the English teacher of the class VII
students of SMP Plus Roudlotul Islam Kemuning Lor – Ajasa. It was known that the
class VII students of SMP Plus Roudlotul Islam Kemuning Lor – Ajasa had problems
in understanding the English lesson and the English text because they were lack of
vocabulary and did not know the meaning of the words. It was shown by the
percentage of the students who got good score category ( ≥70) on vocabulary which
was 54.5%.
This classroom action research was done in collaboration with the English
teacher by adapting the model of action research from Lewin, as quoted by Elliot
(1991:70) with a sequence of steps namely the planning of the action, the
implementation of the action, the class observation and evaluation, and the data
analysis and reflection. This research was carried out in two cycles, each of which
was conducted in two meetings. The primary data was about the students’ vocabulary
achievement collected by administering vocabulary test and class observation by
using observation checklist. The criteria used to evaluate the success of the actions
were: 1) The mean score of the vocabulary test in each cycle was at least 70 and 75%
of the students got at least good score category (≥70) in the vocabulary test, and 2)
75% of the students participated actively in the vocabulary teaching learning process
in every meeting.
The result of the mean score (M) of the students’ vocabulary test in Cycle 1
was 71.02 but the percentage of the students who got scores at least 70 were 68.18%.
Moreover, the result of observation in the first meeting of Cycle 1 showed that there
were 14 of 22 students (63.6%) actively participated in the vocabulary teaching
learning process. Meanwhile, in the second meeting, there were 16 of 22 students
(72.7%) actively participated in the vocabulary teaching learning process by using
flashcards. It showed that this research had not fulfilled the criteria of the success of
the action. Therefore, the actions in cycle 2 were needed to be conducted in order to
improve the students’ vocabulary achievement.
The result of the actions in Cycle 2 showed the improvement. It was indicated
by the mean score (M) of the students’ vocabulary test that was 76.82 and the
percentage of the students who got scores at least 70 was 77.27%. It was higher than
the one in cycle I. Besides, the result of observation in the first meeting of Cycle 2
showed that there were 17 students of 22 students (77.27%) who were actively
participated in the vocabulary teaching learning process. While in the second
meeting, there were 19 students (86.36%) who were categorized as active. It means
that all the target evaluation criteria had been achieved. In other words, the actions
done in this cycle had been successful.
Based on the research result, it could be concluded that the use of flashcards
could improve the students’ vocabulary achievement and their active participation in
the teaching learning process since flashcards could activate the students’
photographic memory and stimulate their visual memory. Besides, flashcards could
gain the students’ interest to pay attention on the lesson and they could stimulate the
students’ mind to quickly look for references to identify the flashed images. So that’s
why flashcards were ideal to use as educational games. Therefore, the English teacher
was suggested to use flashcards as alternative media to motivate the students in
learning English vocabulary in the classroom. Besides, the students were suggested to
be more active in the teaching learning process in the classroom in order to improve
their vocabulary achievement. The researcher also expects that the result of the
research can give valuable information to other researchers as the input or a reference
to conduct a further research either with the same or different research design, like an
experimental research on the effect of flashcards on the students’ vocabulary
achievement. | en_US |
