THE EFFECT OF USING NUMBERED HEADS TOGETHER TECHNIQUE ON THE SEVENTH GRADES STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY ACHIEVEMENT AT SMP 2 NEGERI KALISAT IN THE 2011/2012 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

Of the four language skills and the other language components, vocabulary is the basic thing in language learning. Many people who learn language cannot understand the words or sentence if they do not know the meaning of the words. Vocabulary plays an important role in developing the student‟s skills of English speaking, reading, listening, and writing. When the students want to express their ideas or feeling they need more vocabularies to speak and write. By having a lot of words the students can communicate easily and more effectively. Numbered Heads Together can be an alternative in teaching vocabulary. NHT gives positive effects for the students; such as they learn how to cooperate with each other, every student will study harder because they do not want become a loser, learn how to lose but still have a big motivation to get a maximum score and to be the winner, and how to give appreciation to each other. This research was an experimental research. The purpose of this research is to know whether or not there is a significant effect of using NHT technique on the seventh grade students‟ vocabulary achievement at SMP Negeri 2 Kalisat in the 2011/2012 academic year. The area of this research was SMP Negeri 2 Kalisat. It was chosen purposively because the use of NHT as a technique of teaching English had never been applied in teaching learning process in this school. The respondents of this research were the seventh grade students of SMP Negeri 2 Kalisat in the 2011/2012 academic year. Homogeneity test in the form of vocabulary achievement test was applied to know the homogeneity of the population. Based on the calculation by using ANOVA formula the condition of the seventh grade classes of SMP Negeri 2 Kalisat Jember was homogeneus, therefore VII.B and VII.D were chosen as the research respondents. Therefore, lottery was done to determine the research samples and divided them into experimental group and control group. Before giving post test, try out was conducted to know the test items were suitable for the students‟ level of comprehension. In addition, it was also to know whether the test needed to be revised or not. The post test was given to both groups after each group received teaching learning process twice. The result of t-test analysis on the students‟ vocabulary achievement test scores that the statistical value of the t-test was higher than the value of t-table with significant level of 5% (6,36>2,000). Consequently, the formulated hypothesis: “There is a significant effect of using Numbered Heads Together technique on the students‟ vocabulary achievement at SMP Negeri 2 Kalisat” was accepted. Based on the results, it can be concluded that NHT Technique can be used to improve the students‟ vocabulary achievement. Therefore, the English teachers should use NHT as technique in teaching vocabulary achievement.