IMPROVING THE SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS’ TENSE ACHIEVEMENT BY USING TEAMS GAMES TOURNAMENT (TGT) TECHNIQUE AT SMPN 1 MANGARAN IN THE 2012-2013 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

SUMMARY

Improving the Seventh Grade Students’ Tense Achievement by Using Teams Games Tournament (TGT) Technique at SMPN 1 Mangaran in the 2012/2013 Academic Year; Irma Dwi Yanti, 080210491021; 2008; 54 pages; English Education Program of Language and Arts Department of the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education of Jember University. This research was a classroom action research that was conducted collaboratively by the researcher with the English teacher. It used Teams Games Tournament (TGT) technique to improve the seventh grade students‟ tense achievement of SMPN 1 Mangaran. This research was begun by conducting an interview with the English teacher of the seventh grade students of SMPN 1 Mangaran. It revealed that the seventh grade students of SMPN 1 Mangaran still experienced difficulties in learning tenses. They could not differentiate between simple present tense and present continuous tense in writing sentences. The teacher stated that only 37.5% of the students could reach the standard score of Standar Kompetensi Minimum (SKM) of 70. It means that the students‟ tense achievement was still low. Besides, the students were also lack of participation in the classroom during the teaching and learning process. It could be seen from the students‟ interaction while they responded the teacher‟ explanation and questions. The teacher stated that only a few students paid attention to the teacher‟s explanation and answered the questions. To overcome the above problems, the researcher applied Teams Games Tournament (TGT) technique in teaching tenses. This technique was chosen because it was an effective technique for improving the students‟ tense achievement and active participation since it involved all the students actively in the teaching learning process through discussion and competition among groups. As stated by Devries (1980:5) that TGT is a teaching technique that can make important and widespread changes in students‟ attitudes and achievement. He also stated that the purpose of xiii

TGT is to create an effective classroom environment in which all the students are actively involved in the teaching learning process and consistently receive encouragements for successful performance (Devries, 1980:3). The research design was Classroom Action Research (CAR) with cycle model. Each cycle consisted of four stages of activity namely, the planning of the action, implementation of the action, classroom observation and evaluation, and data analysis and reflection of the action. This research was conducted at SMPN 1 Mangaran. The seventh grade students of SMPN 1 Mangaran were the research subjects of this research. The data in this research were gathered by administering tense achievement test and by having observation in the class in each cycle. In cycle 1, the results of the tense test showed that there was only 54.2% of the total students could achieve the target score, that was at least 70. In other words, the percentage of the students‟ tense achievement that got scores at least 70 below 70%. Then, based on the classroom observation it was revealed that the average percentage of students‟ active participation in the first cycle was 62.5%. It means that the result of the observation had not achieved the target criteria of observation, that was at least 70% of the students did at least three from four indicators being observed. There were some factors that influenced the result of the students‟ tense achievement and their active participation in Cycle 1. First, it was the first time for the students to learn tense by using TGT technique so they had problems in following the procedures. Second, some students did not feel comfortable to work with their group since the members of their group were determined by the researcher. Third, the students still got difficulty in differentiating between simple present tense and present continuous tense. Therefore, the actions were continued to the second cycle by revising some necessary aspects. In Cycle 2, the researcher explained more about the procedures of TGT and repeated the instructions of TGT technique in each stage to the students. Besides, the researcher gave more explanation about the characteristic of each tense and gave more examples.