The Effect of Using Definition Maze Game on the Eighth Year Students’ Vocabulary Achievement at SMPN 3 Balung Jember in the 2011/2012 AcademicYear;

Abstract

SUMMARY

The Effect of Using Definition Maze Game on the Eighth Year Students’ Vocabulary Achievement at SMPN 3 Balung Jember in the 2011/2012 Academic Year; Nida Sofi Haiti, 070210401093; 2012:40; English Education Program of Language and Arts Education department, the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Jember University. Vocabulary is one of the English language components that is very important to be mastered in order to be successful in mastering the language skills. Milton (1995:3) states that reducing the volume of vocabulary acquired by learners may actually harm the development of other aspects of language; for example structural knowledge. This means that reducing the amount of words to learn can disturb the students’ word comprehension. Lack of vocabularies can influence other skills and components. Lack of vocabularies is an obstacle for the learners in learning English language. Nowadays, the teacher only applies one method in teaching vocabulary and the teacher does not make any interesting ways in presenting some new words to the students. The teacher just teaches some new words from reading text. As a result, students get bored learning vocabulary only from reading text and they have problem in mastering vocabulary. To overcome this problem, the teacher should apply an interest ing and effective method in teaching vocabulary in order to increase students’ motivation and interest in learning some new words. One of the interesting techniques in teaching vocabulary is using games. This research was conducted to investigate the effect of using Definition Maze Game on the eighth year students’ vocabulary achievement at SMPN 3 Balung Jember in the 2011/2012 academic year. The population of this research was the eighth year students of SMPN 3 Balung Jember in the 2011/2012 academic year. The research respondents were determined by cluster sampling through a lottery. The total number of the respondents was 69 students, consisting of 34 students of grade VIII F vii

as the experimental group taught by using Definition Maze Game, while the control group consisted of 35 students of grade VIII B taught by lecturing and giving exercise technique. 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 3.009, while t-table was 2.000 with 5% significant level and degree of freedom 67. Thus, t -statistic was higher than that of t-table (3.009>2.000). It means that the null hypothesis (Ho): “There is no significant effect of using Definition Maze Game on the eighth year students’ vocabulary achievement at SMPN 3 Balung Jember in the 2011/2012 academic year” was rejected. On the contrary, the alternat ive Hypothesis (Ha) that is formulated: “There is a significant effect of using Definition Maze Game on the eighth year students’ vocabulary achievement at SMPN 3 Balung Jember in the 2011/2012 academic year” was accepted The research results proved that there was a significant effect of using Definition Maze Game on the eighth year students’ vocabulary achievement at SMPN 3 Balung Jember in the 2011/2012 academic year. Therefore, it is recommended for the English teacher to apply Definition Maze Game as an alternative technique in teaching vocabulary.