The effect of teaching vocabulary through guessing games and word list on 7th grade students' vocabulary achievement.

Abstract

English is a global language. This language is very popular since almost all countries in the world use it. There are many other reasons why people need to learn English. Such as, to travel, to communicate through internet or social media, and to get better job, to continue study abroad, to enjoy international music and movie, and even for social status. There are some skills that people need to be learned in mastering English. They are listening, reading, writing, and speaking. However, vocabulary plays an important role in learning English. Many teachers and students pay less attention on vocabulary. Even the teachers only give the students vocabulary with its meaning then ask them to memorize the vocabulary given. The students may get bored and be uninterested in learning vocabulary.
 Considering toward this condition, the writer offers guessing games as a solution in teaching vocabulary. Since games are fun and enjoyable, she conducts a research about the effect of teaching vocabulary using guessing games. This is to know whet her there is a significant difference of the students who taught vocabulary using guessing games and word list.
 The writer used 7th grade students as the sample of her study. There were three classes that were used. Before the writer conducted the experiment, she tested the level of competence of those three classes to make sure that the three classes had the same
 level of competence. The three classes were pilot group, control group and experiment group. The pilot group was used to try out the vocabulary test before it would be gi ven for the control and experiment group. The experiment and control group were given pretest then treatments, the control group received word list, while the experiment group received guessing games as the treatments. At last, they were given the posttest . The
 gain score form pretest to posttest would compare using t-test.
 The result of the statistical data analysis showed the mean score of the experiment group which was taught using guessing games was 2,83 and for the control group which was taught using word list was 1,06. So the mean score for experiment group was higher than control group. The t-observe showed 2,61 > 1.99 which was the t-table. The p-value also showed 0,01. It meant that p-value < 0,05 (alpha). The writer concluded that the Null Hypothesis (Ho) was rejected and the Alternative Hypothesis was accepted. In other words, there is a significant difference between the vocabulary
 achievement of 7th grade students taught vocabulary using guessing games and students taught using word list. Guessing games helped students better in achieving vocabulary
 than word list.