“AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE USE FLIP WORDS GAME TO INCREASE VOCABULARY MASTERY OF 9th GRADE STUDENTS IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL”

INTRODUCTION

Background of this study

Communication is an important aspect in human life with the communication human can stay connected to another people in their society including in the world. To make the communication be connected we need the component of communication. The most commonly component of communication is language. Language is communication tool in the form of sound system or the voice system.

There are many kinds of subject in teaching and learning English. One of the subjects is speaking skill. Speaking skill is cannot separate with vocabulary mastery. Vocabulary is the total number of words which make up the language (hornby), so vocabulary is the most important parts of speaking and the first thing applied in language as communication. If language structure makes up the skeleton of language,  then  it  is  vocabulary  that  provides  the  vital  organs  and flesh (Hammer, 1991, p. 153). Studying language can start by learning vocabulary first. Without mastery vocabulary, students cannot communicate effectively and express student ideas in both oral and written form, and it will be hard to understand.

To increase students mastery in vocabulary need strategies, Learning strategies are possible help the learner to study vocabulary. Commonly, students get new vocabulary by two learning strategies; conventional and visual strategies. Conventional is the simplest strategy that is used by teacher in vocabulary teaching. For example; the teacher introduces the new word and give the meaning of words. Learning  process  is  not  always  in  the  class,  learning  can  be  done everywhere.  Students  also  do  not  always  face  with  the  teacher  to  teaches vocabulary. Students can learn at anywhere, any time. Students playing English game it can be possibly way to increase their vocabulary mastery.

A game is an organized activity that usually has the following properties: a particular task or objective, a set of rules, competition between players, and communication between players by spoken or written language (Richards, Platt, and Platt, 1992, p. 153). Game is also defined as an “activity with rules, a goal, and an element of fun” (Hadfield, 1990, p.v). There are so many classification of games Lee (2000,  p.  65) Classifies games into some kinds such as structure games, vocabulary games, spelling games, and pronunciation game. Each kind of game focuses on a language component or a skill, so when choosing games, one of the factors that teachers have to consider is the purpose of the lesson. For helping the student to remember vocabulary, therefore vocabulary games were chosen in this research.

In this thesis the writer likes to do a research concerning the vocabularies by using flip word games. Flip word game is suitable to be used in teaching vocabulary in junior high school. If the teacher uses it, the class will be more interesting. Students are able to concentrate then their teacher explains the material. That because teachers use media in teaching learning process, but this strategy is hard to apply in small class because teacher need a computer or laptop to play this game, so this strategy is more suitable to be use in language laboratory.

Based  on  the  explanation  above,  the  writer  is  interested  in  doing  a research entitled “AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE USE FLIP WORDS GAME TO INCREASE VOCABULARY MASTERY OF 9^th GRADE STUDENTS IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL”

RESEARCH QUESTION

Based on the background above, the writer attempts to investigate the object of this research with following research question.

1)      Are there any improvements of the use flip words game in teaching vocabulary to increase the student’s vocabulary mastery?

2)      How far does flip words game influence the students’ vocabulary?

AIM OF THE STUDY

1)      To find out the improvement of the use flip words game in teaching vocabulary to increase the students’ vocabulary mastery

2)      To find out how far flip words game influences the student’s vocabulary

Bibliography

Foldables. (2011, Januari 6). Vocabulary strategy. Retrieved November 5, 2014, from Learning Task: http://learningtasks.weebly.com/foldables.html

Koizumi. (2013, september). Vocabulary Knowledge and Speaking Proficiency among Second Language Learners from Novice to Intermediate Levels. Retrieved november 4, 2014, from Journal of learning english and teaching: http://ojs.academypublisher.com/index.php/jltr/article/view/jltr0405900913

Tuan, L. T. (2012). Vocabulary Recollection through Games . Theory and Practice in Language Studies , 257-264.

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