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ABSTRACT The aim of learning English is that students are able to communicate in English. To reach the goal, they should be able to construct sentences because sentences are used in communication. However, many students still feel difficult to construct good sentences. Therefore, teacher should provide an interesting way that facilitates the students in constructing sentences. This study is intended to find out the effect of word association dominoes game on students’ ability to construct sentences. It was conducted to the first grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah Bogor. There are four classes consisting 120 students. Purposive sampling technique is used to take two classes consisting 60 students as the sample. The method used in this research is true experimental method with pretest posttest control group design and the data is calculated by using t-test formula. The result of the data analysis shows that the score of the test is 3.08 and the value of t0.05 with d.f 58 is 1.67. It means that t-calculated is higher than the t-table. Thus, the alternative hypothesis is accepted. This indicates that word association dominoes game can be used as an alternative way to help the students improve their ability in constructing sentences.
Citation preview
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background
As an international language, English becomes a compulsory subject in
formal schools in Indonesia. It should be learnt by the students from
kindergarten to university level. The aim of learning English is that the
students are able to communicate in English both in productive skills
(speaking and writing) and receptive skills (listening and reading). To reach
the goal, the students should master the four language components; those are
vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, and grammar.
Many students consider English a difficult subject to learn. Based on
the writer’s experience in Teaching Practice Program, most students still feel
difficult, even, to make a sentence, whereas sentence is very important
because it is used to communicate with the others. Aik and Hui (1999:248)
say, “a sentence is a group of words that make sense because the words are
constructed and arranged according to the grammatical rules for expressing
statements, questions, or commands.” From the statement, it can be seen that
sentence is used to express statements, asking questions, or giving commands
which we usually do in communication.
In order to be able to communicate in English, the students have to be
able to construct sentence. Constructing sentence means putting together word
or phrases in their proper place and order. By placing the words or phrases in
1
the correct order will make a good sentence and avoid misunderstanding of its
meaning.
Seeing that condition, teacher should find an interesting way in
teaching English which can motivate the students so they will not consider
English a difficult subject to learn anymore. One of the ways is through
games. Hadfield (1990: v) says, “games can play an important part in the
language learning process generally. Games are usually fun. Students who
have fun are usually motivated.”
It is clear that game can motivate students to learn because it is usually
fun. If the students feel fun, they will be relax and enjoy the learning process.
In this research, Word Association Dominoes game is chosen to be used in
teaching the students to construct sentences. According to its name, Word
Association Dominoes game belongs to word and card game. In this game, the
students should link two or more words to be a sentence. They have to find
links or associations between pair of words and then make them into a
sentence. It is believed that it can make the students enjoy the lesson so they
can increase their ability in constructing sentence. Therefore, the writer
intends to investigate whether Word Association Dominoes game can affect
students’ ability to construct sentences.
B. Statement of the Problem
The statement of the problem is: “Does Word Association Dominoes
game affect the students’ ability to construct sentences?”
2
C. The Aim of the Research
The aim of this research is to find out whether Word Association
Dominoes game affects the students’ ability to construct sentences.
D. Hypothesis
The writer states the alternative hypothesis (Ha) that: there is a positive
effect of Word Association Dominoes game on students’ ability to construct
sentences.
E. Research Methodology
In conducting the research, the writer uses true experimental method. He
chooses pretest posttest control group design to investigate the cause and effect
between the experimental group and the control group with the formula:
G1= group 1 (experimental group)
G2= group 2 (control group)
X = treatment
T1 = pretest
T2 = posttest
Firstly, pre-test is given to experimental group and control group to
know their ability in constructing sentence. Then, the experimental group is
taught how to construct sentence using Word Association Dominoes game.
For the control group, students are taught through explanation only. It is given
three times. Finally, post-test is given to both experimental group and control
group.
3
F. Population and Sample
The population of the research is the first grade students of SMP
Muhammadiyah Bogor. There are four classes and each class consists of 30
students, so the total number of the population is 120 students. Purposive
sampling technique is used to take 60 students as the sample. Class VII C and
VII D which have the lowest score are chosen as the sample. Class VII C is
the control group while class VII D is the experimental group.
4
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FOUNDATION
A. Sentence
1. The definition of sentence
One of the aims of learning English for students is that they are
able to communicate using English in their daily life. Meanwhile, people
use sentence to communicate with the others in written form. Hence,
sentence is very important to be learnt by the students.
Tan (1997: 7) said that a sentence is a group of words, which
makes complete sense. It means that sentence is a group of words which
has meaning. It is because the words in sentence are constructed and
arranged according to the grammatical rules. As Aik and Hui (1999: 248)
say, “a sentence is a group of words that make sense because the words
are constructed and arranged according to the grammatical rules for
expressing statements, questions, or commands.” The statement also
implies that sentence is used to express statement, asking question, or
giving command.
Based on the statement above, it is clear that to make sentence that
has complete sense, it should be arranged according to the grammatical
rules. A grammatical sentence usually consists of a subject and predicate.
Subject is what the sentence generally about. It is usually noun or pronoun
or their equivalent. While predicate usually is verb, which is used to
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present the subject in an action or state of being, to complete the statement
about the subject.
2. Types of sentences
A common weakness in writing is the lack of varied sentences.
Otherwise, variety of sentences is needed in writing, especially in writing
for academic and professional purposes, in order that the messages which
want to be conveyed can be understood by the reader. It also can maintain
the interest of the reader.
There are four types of sentences used in formal English writing:
a. Simple sentence
The most basic type of sentence is simple sentence, which
contains only one clause. According to Voss and Keene (2000: 41), a
clause is a group of words having a subject and a predicate. So, a
simple sentence contains one subject and one predicate. For example:
The ice melts.
The subject of the sentence is ‘The ice’ and the predicate is ‘melts’.
The subject and the predicate may have modifiers. Modifier is
word that modifies the subject or the predicate. For example:
The ice melts quickly.
The word ‘quickly’ is a modifier for the predicate ‘melts’.
Although there is an addition by the word ‘quickly’ as
modifier, the sentence is still a simple sentence. As it is stated by Voss
and Keene (2000: 41), “as long as we have only one subject, predicate
6
verb, and complete thought, additional non clause modifiers do not
change the sentence’s classification; it is still a simple sentence.”
Simple sentence is not always short but it also can be a quite
long sentence. For example:
The popular Grunge musician, Kurt D. Cobain, committed
suicide at his home in Seattle 15 years ago.
The sentence is still a simple sentence because it only has one subject
and one predicate.
There are four forms of simple sentences. As Greenbaum and
Quirk (1990: 231) said that simple sentence may be divided into four
major syntactic types, which use correlation largely with different
discourse function. Those are:
1) Declarative sentences
A declarative sentence is a statement or a declaration. It ends with
a period.
e.g.: The students study in the classroom.
2) Interrogative sentences
Interrogative sentence is question or interrogation. It ends with
question mark.
e.g.: Do you have money?
3) Imperative sentences
Imperative sentence is command or request. It usually ends with
period while it could in exclamation mark. Since this kind is
directed at a person or a thing, the subject of sentence is not used.
7
e.g.: Sit down, please.
4) Exclamatory sentences
Exclamatory sentence is exclamation. It is always in exclamation
mark which conveys strong emotion.
e.g.: How beautiful she is!
b. Compound sentence
Compound sentence is a sentence that consists of two or more
independent clauses connected by coordinating conjunctions or a
connecting semicolon. Independent clause is a clause that can stand
alone as a complete sentence. The coordinating conjunctions are the
words: for, and, nor, but, or, yet and so.
e.g.: I went earlier yesterday but I still missed the train.
The sentence is compound sentence because it consists of two
independent clauses: ‘I went earlier yesterday.’ and ‘I still missed the
train.’ connected by ‘but’ as coordinating conjunction.
c. Complex sentence
Complex sentence is made up of an independent clause and one
or more dependent clause. Dependent clause is similar to an
independent clause, or complete sentence, but it lacks one of the
elements that would make it a complete sentence. It cannot stand alone
as a sentence since it begins with subordinating conjunctions, but it can
be added to an independent clause to form a complex sentence.
e.g.: Although his house is far from the school, Bryan doesn’t ever
come late.
8
The independent clause is ‘Bryan doesn’t ever come late.’, while the
dependent clause is ‘Although his house is far from the school’.
In writing a complex sentence, if the dependent clause comes
first, a comma should be used to separate it with independent clause.
Conversely, if the independent clause come first, comma is not
required.
d. Compound complex sentence
According to Aik and Hui (1999: 251), “in a compound-
complex sentence, there are two or more independent clauses and at
least one dependent clause.” It means that a compound complex
sentence consists of at least two independent clauses, one dependent
clause, and the appropriate conjunction.
Meanwhile, Le Tourneau (2001: 251) stated that compound
complex sentence consists of a complex sentence coordinated with an
independent clause. For example:
If I were a millionaire, I will go around the world and I
will ask my friends to accompany me.
The sentence consists of two independent clauses, those are: ‘I
will go around the world’ and ‘I will ask my friends to accompany me’,
and a dependent clause, that is: ‘If I were a millionaire’.
3. Students’ ability to construct sentences
It is very important for the students to have ability to construct
sentence because, as it is stated earlier, one of the aims of learning English
for students is that they are able to communicate using English in their
9
daily life. Ability itself is usually called as a natural skill or talent that
someone has. As Farlex (2000:1) says, “ability is a natural or acquired
skill or talent.” He also added that ability is a quality of being able to
perform; a quality that permits or facilitates achievement or
accomplishment. It means that the ability deals with capability and
competence.
Next, to construct, based on Thesaurus dictionary, can be defined
as to create by forming, combining, making and producing something. To
construct also means to put together the constituent of something in their
proper place and order. In other words, constructing is a concept to create
something in the correct order.
In conclusion, students’ ability to construct sentence is students’
skills or talents of creating sentence in the correct order. In the correct
order means it should follow the grammatical rules.
B. Game
1. The definition of game
Learning in the classroom is activity that students mostly do at
school. However, most students consider it as a boring activity. To
overcome this problem, good and enjoyable atmosphere in the classroom
should be created in order to encourage the students to learn more. One
useful strategy to encourage language acquisition is using language
games.
Game is a form of play concerning rules, competition, and an
element of fun. It is stated by Hadfield (1990: v), “game is an activity with
10
rules, a goal and element of fun.” It means that in a game there must be
rules, goal and fun. Rules are things that will guide the players to play the
game. It must be obeyed by the players. Goal is the thing that the players
try to reach. Meanwhile, fun means that game should provide an
entertainment.
In line with Hadfield, Kelley (1998: 50) said that a game is a
recreational activity involving one or more players which defined by a
goal that the players try to reach and some set of rules that determine what
the players can do. He also defined the concept of “game” as a form of
recreation constituted by set of rules that specify an object to be attained
and permissible means of attaining it. It means that game is used to attain
an object where it is specified by the rules.
Based on those statements, it is clear that game involves three
factors, those are rules, goal and recreation or fun. In conclusion, game is
an activity that has some rules, a goal to reach, and it is done for fun.
2. The advantages of game
Game is an alternative technique that can be used in language
teaching and learning process in order to make the class become
enjoyable. By applying game in the teaching learning process, students
will feel fun, relax and enjoy the lesson so they will be motivated to learn.
Hadfield (1990: v) says, “games can play an important part in the
language learning process generally. Games of any kind are usually fun.
Students who are having fun are usually motivated.” In other words, using
11
games during the lesson can motivate students to learn and they will not
be bored so it will be easier for them to understand what they are learning.
Games, even, can make students take a part in the lesson,
especially shy students. As Hansen (1994: 118) states, “games are highly
motivating and entertaining and they can give an opportunity for the
students who are shy to express their opinions and feelings.” This is
because, in a game, there is a pleasant and relaxed atmosphere so the
students, especially shy students, will feel relaxed and they will not be
ashamed of expressing their opinions and feelings.
Besides, relaxed atmosphere will make the students faster and
better to understand the material. As Uberman (1998: 218) states, “in the
easy, relaxed atmosphere which is created by using games, students
remember things faster and better.” It means that the students will be more
focus in learning because they do not feel that they are forced to learn.
Moreover, game does not only motivate the students to learn but
also can help them to improve the four language skills and the four
language components. As Brewster et al (2003: 172) say, “they are not
only motivating and fun but can also provide excellent practice for
improving pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and the four language
skills.”
Similarly, Ersoz (2000: 1) states, “they can be used to give practice
in all language skills and be used to practice many types of
communication.” The statements imply that games are very useful and can
12
be used to develop students' language learning and provide the students an
opportunity to practice communication.
Based on the statements above, it is clear that game has many
advantages. Using games in teaching learning process can motivate the
students to learn, lower their stress since it usually makes them relaxed
fun, and give them opportunity for real communication.
In addition, Brewster, et al (2003: 174) stated some advantages of
teaching English by using games. Those are:
a. they add variety to the range of learning situation
b. they change the pace of a lesson and help to keep pupils’ motivation
c. they lighten more formal teaching and can help to renew pupils’
energy
d. they provide hidden practice of specific language patterns, vocabulary
and pronunciation
e. they can help to improve attention span, concentration, memory,
listening skill and reading skill
f. pupils are encourage to participate; shy learners can be motivated to
speak
g. they increase pupil’s communication, which provides fluency practice
and reduce the domination of the class by the teacher
h. they help create a fun atmosphere and reduce the distance between
teacher and pupils
i. they can help reveal areas of weakness and the need for further
language
13
j. they can help to motivate and improve writing skill by providing a real
audience context and purpose
3. Using games in language learning
Knowing the advantages of game, teacher can use game for
teaching in language learning. It may be challenging for teacher to try to
apply games in class in order to develop students' English proficiency of
the target language.
In teaching learning process, game can be used in some ways.
Hadfield (1990: v) suggests, “games should be regarded an integral part of
the language syllabus, not an amusing activity for Friday afternoon or for
the end of the term.” It means that games should be included in the lesson
plan, not only as a diversion or as a break to spend the time. However,
because of the limitations of the syllabus, games often cannot be used as
much as they should be. Therefore, it is important to choose an
appropriate time and integrate them into the regular syllabus and
curriculum.
According to Lewis and Bedson (1999: 6), “you can use language
games to introduce new material, to practice recently learnt language
items, to introduce or practice certain themes, or to relax or energize a
class.” Based on the statement, game can be used in pre-activity to
introduce new material. Teacher can use game to lead the students to the
material that is going to be taught. Next, it also can be used as a tool for
the students to practice what they have just learnt. Using game in this way,
teacher can check the students’ understanding about the material that has
14
been given. Finally, it is used as ice-breaker activity to make the class
more alive. When the students start to feel bored, teacher can use game to
relax or energize the class.
4. Word association dominoes game
Word association dominoes game is included into word games and
card games since it uses words and dominoes in the practice. The goal of
the game is to find links or association between pairs of words and then
make it into a sentence. As Jones (1993: 6) says, “the aim is to find links
or associations between pairs of words.”
The game is played in groups of four to six players. A group will
have a set of cards containing words and each player will have six cards.
The rest of the cards are placed facing down on a table and two cards on
top are turned over. Then, the player should find links or associations
between one of the words on the table and the words on their hand.
Furthermore, Jones (1993: 6) explained the steps of playing word
association dominoes game as follows:
a. The players of a group sit facing each other around a desk or table.
b. Each group gets one set of dominoes consisting 52 words.
c. The dominoes are shuffled and each player is dealt six cards, which
are hidden from the others. The remainder of the cards are placed face
down on the table. It is called ‘the pack’.
d. The top two cards from the pack are turned over and laid out on the
table. E.g.:
birds birthday
15
e. Decide who starts. Play will then continue in a clockwise direction.
Player 1 looks at his/her cards and tries to find one or two words that
can be linked to or associated with either the words on the table. If
he/she finds a link, he/she places the new word or words next to the
one on the table, at the same time explaining orally the link. Suppose
the player has the word money, he/she places it next to birthday and
says, “I was given a lot of money on my birthday.”
f. The rests of the group now decide whether to accept or reject the
association. If accepted, the word money is placed on top of birthday
so that there are always only two cards showing. Play passes to the
next player who now has to find associations for either birds or money.
If the association is rejected, the player removes the card from the
table and he/she has to take a new card from the pack until he/she can
find a word which can be linked with either birds or money.
g. The first player who gets rid of all his/her cards is the winner of the
game.
16
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Time and Site
The research was conducted from 30th November to 4th December 2009.
It is conducted to the first grade students of SMP Muhammadiyah Bogor.
There are four classes and each class consists of 30 students, so the total
number of the population is 120 students. Purposive sampling technique is
used to take two classes which have the lowest score. Then, 60 students are
taken as the sample. They are class VII C as control group and VII D as
experimental group.
B. Research Procedure
In this research, true experimental method is used to investigate the
possible cause and effect of word association dominoes game on students’
ability in constructing sentences. The sentences are limited into simple
sentence in simple present tense form.
There are several steps in processing the research. First, the students of
the experimental group and control group are given test to measure their
ability in constructing sentences. The test consists of 20 words divided into 10
nouns and 10 verbs. The students should make sentences using the words
given. A correct answer scores 5 points, thus the total score is 100.
Next, the students of the experimental group are given treatment for
three times. They are taught how to make sentences using word association
dominoes game. For the control group, students are taught through explanation
17
only without using word association dominoes game. Finally, the experimental
and control groups are given post test. The test is similar to the pretest but
different in the words given.
After the pretest and posttest data are obtained, it is analyzed using t-
test to find out the effect of word association dominoes game on students’
ability to construct sentences. The formula of the t-test is as follow:
where:
t : t-test
SDx: Standard deviation of the experimental group
SDy: Standard deviation of the control group
MX : Mean score of the experimental group
My : Mean score of the control group
nx : Number of respondent of the experimental group
ny : Number of respondent of the control group
18
CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
A. Research Findings
In collecting the data of the research, the writer gave the pre-test before
the students got the treatments and the post-test after the treatments. The
following table is the results of pre-test and post-test for the experimental
group.
1. The students’ pre-test and post-test results
Table 4.1
The Results of Pre-test and Post-test of Experimental Group
NPre-test Post-test Deviation
SDx2
X1 X2 Dx1 45 67 22 4842 45 60 15 2253 48 60 12 1444 58 78 20 4005 63 80 17 2896 45 55 10 1007 63 79 16 2568 51 62 11 1219 43 55 12 14410 40 73 33 108911 56 75 19 36112 52 71 19 36113 53 70 17 28914 36 55 19 36115 55 79 24 57616 62 77 15 22517 51 64 13 16918 52 63 11 12119 54 75 21 44120 53 70 17 28921 26 52 26 67622 46 72 26 67623 48 62 14 196
19
24 29 50 21 44125 57 74 17 28926 34 66 32 102427 38 58 20 40028 35 53 18 32429 33 60 27 72930 56 83 27 729
Total Score
1427 1998 571 11929
Table 4.1 shows that the total score of the post-test is higher than
the total score of the pre-test in the experimental group. The total score of
the post-test is 1998 and the pretest is 1427.
The following table is the results of the pre-test and post-test of
control group.
Table 4.2
The Results of Pre-test and Post-test of Control Group
NPre-test Post-test Deviation
SDy2
Y1 Y2 Dy1 73 80 7 492 49 60 11 1213 28 40 12 1444 50 55 5 255 36 45 9 816 39 52 13 1697 38 60 22 4848 46 65 19 3619 38 50 12 14410 25 46 21 44111 33 54 21 44112 31 50 19 36113 44 62 18 32414 48 69 21 44115 38 60 22 48416 43 68 25 62517 50 70 20 40018 41 57 16 25619 43 53 10 10020 28 42 14 196
20
21 33 45 12 14422 45 56 11 12123 40 59 19 36124 40 50 10 40025 61 70 9 8126 54 67 13 16927 48 55 7 4928 51 50 -1 129 65 78 13 16930 55 69 14 196
Total Score
Table 4.2 shows that the total score of pre-test in control group is
1303 and the score of post-test is 1737. It means that the results of post-
test in control group are higher than the results of pre-test.
2. Mean
After obtaining results of the pre-test and post-test of the
experimental group and control group, the writer calculated the mean to
find out the balance point or average of the experimental group (X) and
control group (Y) as follows:
The mean of the experimental group ( ) is 19.03 and the mean of
the control group ( ) 14.46.
21
3. Standard Deviation
Having got the mean of the experimental and control group, the
writer calculated the standard deviations of the experimental and control
groups as follows:
The standard deviation of the experimental group (SDx) is 1060.97
and the standard deviation of the control group (SDy) is 1059.47.
4. t-test value
After the writer obtained the mean and the standard deviation of
experimental group and control group, the writer put it in the t-test formula
as follows:
22
The result of t-test value is 3.08.
5. The value degree of freedom
=
= 30 + 30 − 2
= 60 − 2
= 58
The degree of freedom value is 58. It is to show the number of
students who became sample in the research.
B. Discussion
From the calculation, the writer found that the t-test value is 3.08. He
used the level of significance from t-table as a standard of comparison.
According to Arikunto (2006: 310), “the significant score of this t-table can be
checked in the distribution table at level of significance score of 0.05(5%) and
0.01(1%), which are usually used of education research.” With d.f 58 the
23
writer found that in t0.05 the value is 1.67 and in the value is 2.39. Since
the writer found that is higher than t-table (3.08>2.39>1.67), the
alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted and null hypothesis (Ho) is rejected. It
means that there is an effect of word association dominoes game on students’
ability in constructing sentence.
24
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
After conducting the research on the effect of using word association
dominoes game on students’ ability to construct sentences, the writer
concludes that word association dominoes game has a good effect on
students’ ability to construct sentences. This conclusion is supported by the
result of the t-test value which is higher than t-table. The result of the t-test is
3.08 and the t-table value with d.f 58 in t0.01 is 2.39 and in t0.05 is 1.67. It means
that the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted. Therefore, word association
dominoes game affects students’ ability to construct sentences.
B. Suggestion
Having done the research, the writer would like to give suggestions for
the students and the teacher. Firstly, the students should enrich their
vocabularies so they will have variations in making sentences. Secondly, the
teacher should give very clear explanation about the rules and steps of doing
the game in order that the students really understand how to play the game.
Next, since word association dominoes game has a good effect on students’
ability to construct sentences, the teacher can apply word association
dominoes game in teaching learning process.
25
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Ersoz, Aydan. 2000. Six Games for the EFL/ESL Classroom. The internet TESL journal. [on line]. Available at http://www.teachingenglishgames.com [28th
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