THE EFFECT OF WORD SPELLING GAMES ON THE SECOND GRADE STUDENTS’ WORD WRITING ABILITY AT SDN MANGLI IV JEMBER IN THE 2007/2008 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

Based on the 2007 English Curriculum for Elementary School, students at elementary school are introduced to how to write words and simple sentences correctly when they learn writing. They should be able to write them into meaningful contexts. It is not an easy job for the English teacher to make students able in writing words and simple sentences. Word spelling plays an important role in writing. However, most of students still make many mistakes in writing English words caused by low spelling ability. One of the main reasons for this is that so many English words are not spelled as they are spoken. This difference between pronunciation and spelling causes a lot of confusion. There are several techniques in teaching writing, such as by dictation and guided writing. Another technique in teaching writing is by playing games. Word spelling games might be appropriate games that can be used in teaching writing. So far, word spelling games have not been used by the teacher in teaching English especially word writing to the second grade students at SDN Mangli IV Jember because there is no intention from the English teacher to use that technique. This research was meant to investigate whether there was a significant effect of word spelling games on the second grade students’ word writing ability at SDN Mangli IV Jember in the 2007/2008 academic year. The design was one group pretest

and post-test design. The research population was the second grade students of SDN Mangli IV Jember in the 2007/2008 academic year. The research was conducted in three steps. The first was pre-test. This test was intended to know the students’ score in writing test. After that, three treatments (Hangman, Secret Code, and Jumbled Letters) were given to the students. ‘Hangman’ game is a kind of game which requires learners to guess the words based on dashes and clue given by the teacher. The next game is ‘Secret Code.’ This game requires a group of learners to decode numbers into a word, e.g “8-1-14-4” will be decoded into “h-a-n-d”. The last game is ‘Jumbled Letters’. It is a kind of game in which learners are obliged to arrange the jumbled letters into a meaningful word, e.g. “d-a-h-n” will be arranged to h-a-n-d. Then, conducting the post-test. After that, the results of pretest and post-test were analyzed by using t-test formula. The data collection methods

used

in this research were main data and supporting data. The pre-test and post-test were administered to collect the main data. While an interview and documentation were used to collect the supporting data. Based on the results, the statistical value of the t-test was 4.357, while the critical value of the t-test with significant level 5% and the degree of freedom 27 was 2.052. It means that the statistical value was higher than t-critical value (4.357 > 2.052). Consequently, the Null Hypothesis (H0) formulated: “There is no significant effect of word spelling games on the second grade students’ word writing ability in the 2007/2008 academic year” was rejected. On the other hand, the formulated alternative hypothesis: “There is a significant effect of word spelling games on the second grade students’ word writing ability at SDN Mangli IV Jember in the 2007/2008 academic year” was accepted. It means that there is a significant effect of word spelling games on the second grade students’ word writing ability at SDN Mangli IV Jember in the 2007/2008 academic year. Based on the result, it is suggested that the English teacher should consider using word spelling games as an alternative technique in teaching word writing.