The Effect of Using Pelmanism Game on the Fourth Grade Students’ Vocabulary Achievement at Sdn Sumbersari 03 Jember in the 2009/2010 Academic Year

Abstract

Vocabulary is the basic thing in learning language. Lacking vocabulary will make the students difficult to master the language. However, learning new vocabulary is not easy for the Indonesian elementary school students that are regarded as young learners. They generally experience difficulties in memorizing the English words they have learnt because they are quite different from their mother tongue. Pelmanism game is a kind of memory game in which a pack of cards is spread out face down and players try to turn up pairs with the same symbols, symbol and word, or word and word. This game helps the students to remember the new vocabularies that have been leamt. By using pelmanism game, the students can learn vocabulary in fun way. This research was conducted to investigate whether or not there was a significant effect of using pelmanism game in teaching vocabulary on fourth grade students’ vocabulary achievement at SDN Sumbersari 03 Jember in the 2009 /2010 academic year. The respondents of this research were the fourth grade students of SDN Sumbersari 03 Jember in the 2009/2010 academic year that was determined by cluster random sampling by lottery. The total number of the respondent was 82 students, divided into experimental group and control group. The experimental group consisted of 41 students was taught vocabulary by using pelmanism game, and the control group consisted of 41 students was taught vocabulary without using pelmanism game. The primary data of this research were collected from the students’ score of vocabulary test, while the supporting data of this research were gained through interview and documentation. The primary data were collected and then analyzed by using t-test formula. The result indicated that the value of t-statistic was 3.776, while t-table was 2.000 with 5% significant level and degree of freedom 80. Thus, t-statistic was higher than that of t-table (3.776>2.000). It means that the null hypothesis (Ho): ‘‘There is no significant effect of using pelmanism game on the fourth grade students’ vocabulary achievement at SDN Sumbersari 03 Jember in the 2009/2010 academic year” is rejected. On the contrary, the alternative Hypothesis (Ha) that is formulated: ‘There is a significant effect of using pelmanism game on the fourth grade students’ vocabulary achievement at SDN Sumbersari 03 Jember in the 2009/2010 academic year” is accepted. Furthermore, the DRE showed that the degree of relative effectiveness of pelmanism game was 17.86%. It means that the students’ scores who were taught pelmanism game were 17.86% higher than the scores of the students who were not taught by pelmanism game. Thus, it proved that there was a significant effect of using pelmanism game on the fourth grade students’ vocabulary achievement at SDN Sumbersari 03 Jember in the 2009/2010 academic year. Based on the result of this research, it is recommended to the English teacher to use pelmanism game as an alternative teaching technique.