THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING WORD SEARCH PUZZLE GAME TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MASTERY AT THE SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP NEGERI 3 KUTOWINANGUN IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2013/2014

Abstract

English is an international language. As an international language, English has an important role for communication in making relationship with others from different countries, including Indonesia. English is also as a subject learnt in Indonesia which has four basic skills. They are reading, speaking, writing and listening. In order to master the skill, students should learn vocabulary as much as possible. Game is one of the ways to improve students’ vocabulary in learning English. One example of the game that can be used in learning vocabulary is word search puzzle game. Through word search puzzle game, student can learn English easily and have fun. In this research, the researcher wants to find out the effectiveness of using word search puzzle game to improve students’ vocabulary mastery at the seventh grade students of SMP Negeri 3 Kutowinangun in the academic year 2013/2014. The aim of this research is to know whether Word Search Puzzle Game is effective or not to improve students’ vocabulary mastery at the seventh grade students of SMP Negeri 3 Kutowinangun in the academic year 2013/2014. The research population in this study is the seventh grade students of SMP Negeri 3 Kutowinangun. There were 192 students and the researcher takes students VII B consisting of 32 students as the sample. In collecting the data, the researcher uses test. The researcher uses pre-test and post-test. Furthermore, the researcher uses t-test in analyzing the data. The mean score of the pre-test 68.25 and the mean score of post-test 80. And the t-test result is 10.49. The result of this study shows that the use of word search puzzle game is effective to improve students’ vocabulary mastery. It can be seen from the result of the t-test is higher than the t-table (10.49>2.040). It means that using word search puzzle game to improve students’ vocabulary mastery at the seventh grade students of SMP Negeri 3 Kutowinangun in the academic year 2013/2014 was effective.