IMPROVING THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY ACHIEVEMENT BY USING POEMS AT SMPN 1 TULANGAN SIDOARJO

Abstract

This classroom action research was intended to improve the Eighth Grade Students’ Vocabulary Achievement by Using Poems at SMPN 1 Tulangan Sidoarjo. This research was started by interviewing the English teacher of the eighth grade students in the school. The interview was intended to get the problems faced by the students in the teaching and learning process of vocabulary. Based on the interview, the students of VIII-J had more problems than the other classes in the teaching and learning process of vocabulary. The problems were the students had limited vocabulary and the class had the lowest score in vocabulary achievement. Then, based on the observation in class VIII-J, the students were not active in the teaching learning process. In this case, poems was chosen to help the students improve their participation and vocabulary achievement. This research was done in two cycles and each cycle covered four stages of activities namely; (1) the planning of the action, (2) the implementation of the action, (3) observation and evaluation of the action, and (4) reflection of the action. The evaluations conducted of this research were product and process evaluations. The product evaluation was conducted at the end of each cycle by administering a vocabulary achievement test. The process evaluation was conducted by observation in each meeting to evaluate the students’ participation during the teaching and learning process of vocabulary. In this classroom action research, the researcher and the English teacher implemented the actions collaboratively. The research targets were 75% of the students got score at least 70 and 75% of the students actively participated in the teaching and learning process of vocabulary by using poems.From the results of classroom observation in cycle 1, it was known that the percentage of the students who actively participated was 62.05%. Then, in cycle 2 there were 78.75% of the students who actively participated in the teaching learning process of vocabulary by using poems. The result showed that the improvement of the students’ participation from cycle 1 to cycle 2 was 16.7%. The result of the students’ participation in the second cycle had achieved the research target requirement. Then, the results of the students’ vocabulary achievement test in cycle 1 showed that there were 72.7% (24 students) of 33 students got score 70 or higher in vocabulary achievement. Meanwhile, in cycle 2, there were 78.7% (26 students) of 33 students got score 70 or higher in vocabulary achievement. It means that the results of the students’ vocabulary achievement had achieved the research target requirement and showed that the improvement of the students’ vocabulary achievement from cycle 1 to cycle 2 was 6%. Therefore, the result of second cycle was successful. Based on the results above, it could be concluded that the use of poems was able to improve the eighth grade students’ participation and vocabulary achievement at SMPN 1 Tulangan Sidoarjo. Therefore, it is suggested to the eighth grade English teacher especially at SMPN 1 Tulangan Sidoarjo to use poems as material in teaching and learning vocabulary to improve students’ participation and the students’ vocabulary achievement. It is also suggested to the students at SMPN 1 Tulangan Sidoarjo to involve themselves actively in teaching and learning process of vocabulary. They are also suggested to improve their vocabulary achievement by reading or listening to poems. It would be a good habit for the students to increase their vocabulary achievement. Moreover, the future researchers who have similar problems in doing research of vocabulary are suggested to use this result as a reference and source to conduct another research dealing with improving the students’ vocabulary achievement by using poems.