THE EFFECT OF USING GUESSING AND SPECULATING GAMES WITH PICTURES ON VOCABULARY ACHIEVEMENT OF GRADE 8 STUDENTS AT SMP NEGERI 1 ROWOKANGKUNG LUMAJANG

Abstract

Vocabulary is one of language components in English for Junior High School that must be mastered first by the students because vocabulary is the basic thing in learning language. The students generally have difficulty in learning English, especially in vocabulary. Their problems are usually caused by their ability in memorizing the English words they have learnt because the English words are quite different from their mother tongue. Therefore, the English teacher is expected to be able to cover the students’ problems in vocabulary. One of the strategies that can be used and applied by the English teacher is playing Guessing and Speculating Games with Single Picture in teaching vocabulary. Guessing and Speculation games are games in which the students guess and observe some kind of information from the pictures that the teacher has given. The information includes words, phrases, and the location of an object. Single pictures are pictures of single object such as pictures of person, object, and action. In this technique, the teacher divided the class into some groups. The students should guess from the clues. Starting from the first clue, it is the most difficult to guess. The second clue is easier than the first one. And if the second one cannot be guessed, the teacher gives the third clue and so on. This research was conducted to know whether or not there was a significant effect of using Guessing and Speculating Games with single pictures on vocabulary achievement of grade 8 students at SMP Negeri 1 Rowokangkung Lumajang. The respondents of this research were grade 8 students of SMP Negeri 1 Rowokangkung Lumajang that were determined by using cluster random sampling by lottery. The total number of the respondents was 48 students. The experimental group consisted of 26 students who were taught vocabulary by using Guessing and Speculating Games with single pictures. The control group consisted of 22 students who were taught vocabulary by using Question and Answer technique with single picture. The primary data of this research were gained from the students’ vocabulary achievement in the form of post test scores. The supporting data were gained from the interview with the English teacher, documentation and observation guide. The primary data were collected from the post test to make comparison between the two groups after treatment, and analyzed by using Independent sample T-Test on SPSS (Statistical Package of Social Science). Based on the calculation, the value of sig column was 0.046 and this value was lower than 0.05. It means that there was statistically a difference between the experimental and control groups. Consequently, the null hypothesis (H0) formulated: “there is no significant effect of using Guessing and Speculating games with pictures on the vocabulary achievement of grade 8 Students at SMP Negeri 1 Rowokangkung, Lumajang ” was rejected. On the other hand, the formulated alternative hypothesis: “there is significant effect of using Guessing and Speculating games with pictures on the vocabulary achievement of grade 8 Students at SMP Negeri 1 Rowokangkung, Lumajang” was accepted Indeed, it could be stated that Guessing and Speculating games with pictures significantly affected grade 8 students’ vocabulary achievement at SMP Negeri 1 Rowokangkung, Lumajang. Based on the result of this research, the teacher is recommended to use and apply Guessing and Speculating games with single pictures as the teaching technique especially in teaching vocabulary to make students interested in learning English. Further, the students are suggested to use Guessing and Speculating games with pictures in vocabulary to increase their vocabulary. Moreover, the future researchers are suggested to conduct further research dealing with a similar topic by using a different language skill and component, research area or research design such as classroom action research to improve the students’ vocabulary achievement through Guessing and Speculating games with pictures.to improve the students’ vocabulary achievement.