THE USE OF SCRABBLE GAME TO INCREASE STUDENTS’

VOCABULARY AT THE FIRST YEAR OF MTS ALFURQON

Kennita Septriana
[email protected]

English Education Study Program Language and Arts Department of

STKIP Siliwangi Bandung

ABSTRACT
The title of this research is “The Use of Scrabble Game to Increase Students’ English Vocabulary at the
First Year of MTs Alfurqon”. Students often feel bored when the teacher is starting to give the material
in class. Game environments enable players to construct understanding actively. Therefore, the teacher
should shift their teaching technique by using game. This study is expected to give the students and
teacher interest in increasing vocabulary by the use of scrabble game. The research method used in this
study is quantitative research, or more specifically the experimental design with the one group pretest
and posttest which consists of one class (21 students) as the sample and test as the instrument. Data
analysis shows that the observed value of (3,47) is bigger than (2,086 & 2,85). The use of
scrabble game has a significant impact on students’ vocabulary. The teacher should consider the use of
scrabble game as the alternative technique for teaching. Key words: English, vocabulary, scrabble and
game.

Key words: English, vocabulary, scrabble and game.

A.BACKGROUND This research is conducted to find out the
A language is a system of conventional vocal information about condition of the English subject,
signs by means of which human being communicate. especially in The Use of Scrabble Game to Increase
English has become the most widespread language in Students’ English Vocabulary at Class 1 MTS Al-
the world, used by more peoples for more purposes Furqon in Academic Year 2014.
than any other language on earth (Algeo, 2010:1).
Schmitt (2000) states, “Vocabulary is often dealt with B.THEORETICAL FOUNDATION
only incidentally in the preparation of language 1. Definition of Vocabulary
teachers” (Schmitt,2000:xi). In learning a foreign There are definitions of vocabulary given by
language, vocabulary plays an important role. It is one experts; it is impossible, however, to discuss all of
element that links the four skills of speaking, them in this chapter. Therefore, the writer only
listening, reading and writing all together. In order to chooses several of them that in the writer’s opinion
communicate well in a foreign language, students are very important to talk about. Vocabulary can be
should acquire an adequate number of words and defined as the words of a language, including single
should know how to use them accurately (Nguyen & items and phrases or chunks of several words which
Khuat,2002:2). convey a particular meaning, the way individual
Students often feel bored when the teacher is words do (Tesol Organization, “n.d.: 2).
starting to give the material in class. Therefore, the Howard Jackson and Etienne Ze Amvela
teacher should shift their teaching technique by using stated that vocabulary is the total word stock of the
game. Johnson has argued his view, “Even if you language (Jackson & Amvela, 2004: 1). As John
muster the energy and enthusiasm and you also do Algeo (1776-1997) English Vocabulary in size: the
student-based teaching approaches, student sometimes words used by almost every English speaker, the
sit slouched on chair and yawned in front of you” words used by an average person, the words
(Johnson,2008:198). understood by an average person, all the words use by
Game environments enable players to any English speaker, all possible words, whether
construct understanding actively, and at individual actually attested or not, the words most often used by
paces, and that well-designed games enable players to many persons, and so on (Romaine, 2007: 61).
advance on different paths at different rates in From the definitions of vocabulary above, it
response to each player’s interests and abilities, while seems that vocabulary is all words of a language used
also fostering collaboration and just-in-time learning by persons to give information to other person.
(Klopfer,Osterweil&Salen,2009:1) According to 2. Kinds of Vocabulary
Kirkland & Williamson teachers often assume that There are in fact many different kinds of
most students are quite motivated by games vocabulary items or “words.” This is especially true
(Freiras,2010:86). Games can be media that will give when nonnative learners eye their get language as
many advantages for teacher and students either. You linguistic outsiders. One simple way to look at
can use language games to introduce new material, to vocabulary for second language learners:
practice recently learnt language items, to introduce or a. Single words
practice certain themes, or to relax or energize a class This is the group that most people think of first. By
(Lewis,1999:6). far, this group includes the bulk of the vocabulary of
The writer will introduce a game when she is any language. This group includes not only more
in the field of the research. The writer will use items but also more frequently used items.
scrabble game to increase students’ English b. Set phrases
vocabulary. In brief, Butts created the game Lexiko in These phrases consist of more than one word and do
1933, selling it from his home. In 1938, he re- not usually change.
designed the game as Criss-Cross Words, continuing c. Variable phrases
to sell it by mail out of his living room. In 1947 James While most of the components in variable phrases will
Brunot, a businessman living near Danbury, stay the same, there is some variation. The variation
Connecticut, agreed to begin manufacturing the game, often involves personal pronouns or some sort of
which he renamed SCRABBLE (Smith, 2009:7). possessive.
Scrabble is a board game designed as a living room d. Phrasal verbs
game and it makes the players feel relax to think of Your awareness of phrasal verbs is critical to your
the words that they will play on the board. The student ability as a native speaker to provide comprehensible
will feel fun when scrabble game is used in their input for students. A phrasal verb consists of two or
classroom. three words. The first word is always a verb. The
second word in a phrasal verb is a preposition or most important-if not the most important components
particle/adverb. If there is a third word, it is usually a in learning a foreign language, and foreign language
preposition. curricula must reflect this (Folse, 2004: p.1).
e. Idioms A number of principles, however, should be
All languages feature idiomatic expressions, and each considered when developing a vocabulary component
idiomatic expression, or idiom, is a vocabulary item. to a language course, some of which Schmitt (2008)
The test of whether a “chunk” is an idiom or not is outline here: how many words and which words to
whether the sum of the meanings of the individual teach, the importance of learning the spelling
words is equal to or similar to the meaning of the andpronunciation of a word, taking advantage of the
whole phrase (Kinds of Vocabulary, n.d.: 2). first language, engagement with vocabulary, phrasal
Based on information from Judy K. Montgomery’s vocabulary, combining explicit teaching with
book, there are four types of vocabulary: incidental learning, incidental learning from exposure,
a. Listening vocabulary a number of principles for the explicit teaching of
The words we hear and understand. Starting in the vocabulary have been suggested such as the
womb, fetuses can detect sounds as early as 16 weeks. following:
Furthermore, babies are listening during all their a. Build a large sight vocabulary.
waking hours and we continue to learn new words this b. Integrate new words with old.
way all of our lives. c. Provide numerous encounters with a word.
b. Speaking vocabulary d. Promote a deep level of processing.
The words we use when we speak. Our speaking e. Make new words “real” by connecting them to the
vocabulary is relatively limited: Most adults use a student’s world in some way.
mere 5,000 to 10,000 words for all their conversations f. Encourage independent learning strategies.
and instructions. g. Diagnose which of the most frequent words
c. Reading vocabulary learners need to study.
The words we understand when we read text. We can h. Provide opportunities for elaborating word
read and understand many words that we do not use in knowledge.
our speaking vocabulary. i. Provide opportunities for developing fluency with
d. Writing vocabulary known vocabulary.
The words we can retrieve when we write to express j. Examine different types of dictionaries, and teach
ourselves. We generally find it easier to explain students how to use them.
ourselves orally, using facial expression and Barcroft's Five Principles of Effective Second
intonation to help get our ideas across, then to find Language Vocabulary Instruction: present new words
just the right words to communicate the same ideas in frequently and repeatedly in input, use meaning-
writing. Our writing vocabulary is strongly influenced bearing comprehensible input when presenting new
by the words we can spell (The Bridge of Vocabulary, words, limit forced output during the initial stages of
2007: p.1). learning new words, limit forced semantic elaboration
Types of words knowledge by Schmitt (1997): during the initial stages of learning new words,
a. The meaning(s) of the word progress from less demanding to more demanding
b. The written form of the word vocabulary-related activities (The Five Principles of
c. The spoken form of the word effective Second language Acquisition, n.d.: p.2).
d. The grammatical behavior of the word 4. Scrabble Game
e. The collocations of the word Scrabble is a game that proceeds from the
f. The register of the word center of the board outwards, whereas chess is played
g. The associations of the word from opposite sides toward the center. Just as each
h. The frequency of the word (Schmitt, 1997: 5) game of chess is uniquely determined by the choice of
3. Principles of Teaching Vocabulary moves by each player, each game of Scrabble exhibits
In order to progress in a foreign language, different board patterns that are determined by the
learners need to be able to understand what they are players’ individual moves at each round of play. And
hearing and reading. That is, the input must be just as the number of moves to select from is limited
comprehensible in order for it to be useful and by the spaces already taken on the chessboard, each
meaningful to the learner and help with acquisition play in Scrabble is determined by seven tiles on a rack
(Krashen, 1982), but if learners do not understand a and the current word patterns that exist on the board.
sizable portion of the vocabulary in the language that (Halpern & Wai, 2007: 80).
they are reading or hearing, then this language is not
comprehensible and therefore cannot be useful for
acquisition. Many argue that vocabulary is one of the
 1. Calculating the students mean score of the test. It is
calculated by using this formula (Sudijono,
2009:80):
C. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1. Research Design =
The method of this research is quantitative
research design. To collect the data, the writer use Based on the table above, the writer
experiment in one group pretest and posttest design. concluded the lowest score of pre test is 10 and the
2. Research Method highest score of pre test is 97.
Singh (2007) states, “Method is a style of The average of students’ scores of pre test is:
conducting a research work which is determined by = 1291
the nature of the problem” (Kaswan,et.al.,2013:13). In
this research the writer used an experimental method.
Mean =
D. RESULTS and DISCUSSION
To find out whether teaching vocabulary =
using scrabble game activities successful or not and
whether the scores increased or not to the students of = 61,48
MTs Alfurqon Cisarua, the writer described the result From the calculation above, the mean of
of pre test and post test. The writer wanted to know students’ vocabulary score in pre test before
the result of teaching vocabulary by using scrabble in implementing the scrabble game is 61,48.
teaching learning process. The writer used quantitative 2. Calculating the percentage of students’ scores who
technique to analyze the data. passed the KKM (70) by using this formula
The writer gave the tests to the students (Sudijono, 2009:128):
before the teaching learning process was conducted
P= x 100%
(pre test) and in the end of the teaching learning
process (post test). The students’ scores of pre test and
post test can be seen in the table below: P= x 100
Table. 1
The scores of Vocabulary Pre Test P = 47,62%
Based on the calculation above, it shows that
the students’ score percentage in the pre test is
No Students Score (X) 47,62%, because there are only 10 students who pass
1 A 52 the KKM and 11 students who still got the score
2 B 90* below the KKM. It can be concluded that the students’
3 C 97* score in pre test still low and need the improvement to
4 D 83* achieve the KKM.
5 E 82* Table. 2
6 F 80* The Score of Vocabulary Post Test
7 G 80*
8 H 78*
No Students Score (Y)
9 I 77*
1 A 100*
10 J 75*
2 B 93*
11 K 60
3 C 88*
12 L 56
4 D 83*
13 M 50
5 E 90*
14 N 38
6 F 73*
15 O 38
7 G 77*
16 P 33
8 H 82*
17 Q 25
9 I 92*
18 R 10
10 J 58*
19 S 60
11 K 80*
20 T 77*
12 L 80*
21 U 50
13 M 72*
*The student who passed the KKM (70)
14 N 93*
15 O 53
 16 P 90* No Students X Y Improvement
17 Q 58 1 A 52 100 48
18 R 95* 2 B 90 93 3
19 S 95* 3 C 97 88 -9
20 T 70* 4 D 83 83 0
21 U 82* 5 E 82 90 8
*The student who passed the KKM (70) 6 F 80 73 -7
7 G 80 77 -3
1. Calculating the students mean score of the test. It is 8 H 78 82 4
calculated by using this formula (Sudijono, 9 I 77 92 15
2009:80): 10 J 75 58 -17
11 K 60 80 20
= 12 L 56 80 24
13 M 50 72 22
Based on the table above, the writer concluded the 14 N 38 93 55
lowest score of post test is 53 and the highest score of 15 O 38 53 15
post test is 100. 16 P 33 90 57
The average of students’ scores of post test is: 17 Q 25 58 33
= 1704 18 R 10 95 85
19 S 60 95 35
Mean = 20 T 77 70 -7
21 U 50 82 32

= The table above shows that the average score

of pre test is 61,48 and post test is 81,14. The
= 81,14
improvement result of the implementation is 19,66. It
From the computation above, the students’
means that the scrabble game activity is useful to be
mean score of post test is 81,14. It means that there
conducted in teaching vocabulary to first grade
are some students’ improvements in conducting the
students of MTs Alfurqon Cisarua.
learning process by using the scrabble game from the
3. Calculation to obtain the "t" in order to test the
pre test mean score. It could be compared between the
significant difference between pre test and post test
pre test mean score (61,48) and the post test mean
(Sudijono, 2009:310).
score (81,14). So it can be concluded that there is
Table. 4
improvement of students’ score until 19,66 (81,14 – Calculation to Obtain the "T" in Order to Test the
61,48). Truth / Falsity Null Hypothesis About the Absence of
2. Calculating the percentage of students’ scores who Significant Increase in Vocabulary in MTs Alfurqon
passed the KKM (70) by using this formula Students, Between Before and After the
(Sudijono, 2009:128): Implementation of the Use of Scrabble

P= x 100%
Score of Vocabulary D= D² =
Students
P= x 100 Pre Test (X) Post Test (Y) (X-Y) (X-Y)²
A 52 100 -48 2304
P = 90,5% B 90 93 -3 9
Based on the calculation above, it shows that C 97 88 +9 81
the students’ score percentage in the post test is D 83 83 0 0
90,5%, because there are only 19 students who pass E 82 90 -8 64
the KKM and 2 students who still got the score below F 80 73 +7 49
the KKM. It can be concluded that there is high G 80 77 +3 9
improvement in students’ scores of post test. H 78 82 -4 16
To know the improvement of students’ I 77 92 -15 225
vocabulary pre test and post test, the writer presented J 75 58 +17 289
the data of the comparison between students’ scores in K 60 80 -20 400
pre test and post test in the table below: L 56 80 -24 576
Table. 3 M 50 72 -22 484
The Comparison Scores of Pre Test and Post Test N 38 93 -55 3025
O 38 53 -15 225 E. CONCLUSION and SUGGESTIONS
P 33 90 -57 3249 a. Conclusion
Q 25 58 -33 1089
R 10 95 -85 7225 Based on the result of pretest and posttest
S 60 95 -35 1225 conducted in the first year students of MTs Alfurqon
T 77 70 +7 49 Cisarua, the writer concluded that students’ activity
U 50 82 -32 1024 for the learning process by using scrabble game is
-413 21617 convincingly succeeded. Students are very excited to
21 = N - - learn more about English vocabulary with the use of
scrabble game.
The result of students’ learning improved in
Then we can find the amount of Deviation Standard posttest that conducted after the treatment. The
Difference Score between variable X and variable Y average of pretest is 61,48 and the average in the
(Sudijono, 2009:311): posttest is 81,14. The improvement result of the
implementation is 19,66. The use of scrabble in
improving vocabulary has shown real effectiveness
= = and reliable as the good way to teach the field of study
of English language at the junior school level. The
= = result ; 2,086 < 3,47 > 2,85, because is bigger
than the null hypothesis is rejected, it indicates that
= = 25,35 the use of scrabble in improving students’ English
vocabulary is significant. The percentage of students
By obtaining the at 25,35, we can further who achieved the KKM in pretest is 47,62% and in
calculate the Standard Error from the Mean difference posttest is 90,5%, it indicates that the use of scrabble
scores between variable X and variable Y: to improve students’ English vocabulary is effective.
b. Suggestions
= = = In this study, the writer would like to give some
suggestions:
1. From the result of this research, the students’
= = 5,67 achievement in learning English vocabulary with
the use of scrabble game was more increased than
The next step is to look for the value and using the without the use scrabble game. Therefore, English
formula (Sudijono, 2009:312): teacher should consider this technique as the
alternative technique in teaching English
= vocabulary.
2. For the students must often practice their English
The writer has counted that is -19,67; whereas the vocabulary by playing games that can improve
skills in the English language and one of them is
= 5,67; so: by playing scrabble game.

= = -3,47
F. BIBLIOGRAPHY
The difference is at the amount of 3,47 and the next Algeo, John. (2010). The Origins and Development of the
English Language (6th ed). United States of
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taking into account its df or db: df or db = N-1 = 21-1
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