TRICKY GUESS CARD GAME: A METHOD TO ENHANCE YEAR 3

PUPILS INTEREST TO UTILISE VOCABULARY IN ONE OF THE

SCHOOL AT BUKIT MERTAJAM.

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, I will explain about the background of the issues that happen in most
particular primary schools. In the first part of this chapter, I will describe briefly
about the context of this research followed by the reflection of the past teaching
experience.
1.1 The Context Of The Research
In learning a foreign language, vocabulary plays an important role. It is a core
element that integrates the four skills which are speaking, listening, reading and
writing all together. In order to communicate well in a foreign language, students
should acquire an adequate number of words and should know how to use them
accurately. Vocabulary is the total number of words in a language. (Hornby, 1995, as
cited in Ali Sorayaie Azar, 2012) According to a definition provided by
Schnakenberg (2013), vocabulary is a list or collection of words or of words and
phrases usually alphabetically arranged and explained. He reviews the vocabulary
knowledge is the key to unlock the meaning of text.
For the pupils to utilize and apply English in their daily life, the pupils need
to have interest and motivation in order for them to learn English by heart. According
to ztrk (2012), one of the key factors of the success of the students in learning
second language is the value that individual gives on the task or the activity.
Therefore, from the statement, it shows that when the pupils have interest and
passion towards certain activities that are conducted in the lesson, they can learn the
language better. Therefore, as the central of the class, the role of teacher is very
1

crucial to stimulate and cultivate interest inside pupils to learn and utilise English
especially when they are still young.
In recent years, research has been carried out in developing teaching
strategies to teach vocabulary. Therefore, card game is one of the methods that have
been chosen by teachers from all over the world in enhancing pupils performance in
mastery vocabulary. There are many studies being carried out to prove card games
can

stimulate

pupils

interest

especially

in

learning

English.

Generally,

Tunchalearnpanih (2012), in his studies reviewed that games are proposed to solve
the problems. Games bring in relaxation and fun for students, and they will learn and
retain new words easily. Games create the motivation for learners of English because
of the competition between students. Besides, Wright, Betteridge & Bucky (2005)
asserted that games add interest to what students might not find very interesting.
Sustaining interest can mean sustaining effort (as cited in Jacobs, 2010).
During my previous practicum, the schools that I went to are situated in
suburb areas where all of the pupils come from middle-class family background.
Their parents work as gardeners, government employees, factory workers, and also
running small business. Generally, the English proficiency level of the pupils in these
schools is low-intermediate level. Therefore, their progression in learning and
mastering the language is quite slow and weak. Through my observation in the
classroom, I found that the pupils had problems to understand the lesson. Due to lack
of vocabulary, they struggled to understand what the teacher taught in the class.
Pupils also did not participate well. They chose to be quite and passive rather than to
give their responses to the teacher. As I observed the pupils performance in the class,
I found that the main reasons that they did not have good understanding in learning
English is because of the lack of interest to learn and utilize the words. Therefore, the
2

problem that I would like to highlight from this research is how to increase pupils
interest in utilising vocabulary through card games.
For last semester, I was assigned to conduct my practicum session at one of
the school around Bukit Mertajam area in Penang. This school is situated around
Bukit Mertajam suburb which can be classified as a rural school. The enrolment of
pupils who came to this school is about 300 pupils who come from different family
background. Most of the pupils come from average family social background where
their father works as a farmer, factory workers, rubber tapper, and contract workers.
Generally, based on the past result of the UPSR examination, I found that the pupils
performance especially in English was very low compared to the other subjects.
Therefore, I can conclude that most of the pupils in this school have problems in
learning and acquiring English language.

1.2 Reflection of Past Teaching Experiences

During the past practicum sessions which I underwent in semester 5, 6, and 7,
I noticed that there were a lot of problems that were faced by the pupils as second
language learners during English lesson. However, for the purpose of this action
research, I focused on the problems that the pupils faced in acquiring vocabulary. As
second language (L2) learners, one of the critical problems faced by the pupils was
their lack of vocabulary. It was clearly depicted when the pupils were asked to read
and explain what they understood about the text, they could not give the explanation.
I found that the main factor was because they did not know the meaning of the
words. Another incident was when I brought the pupils to read books in the library, I
asked some of the pupils why they choose to read Malay books rather than English
books and their answer was that they did not understand the words in the story. Here,
I could sense that due to lack of vocabulary, the pupils felt discourage to read English
reading materials because they did not know the content of the text or story.
Apparently, the pupils also had problems to understand the lesson. They
struggled to understand what the teacher said in the class. As a result, pupils lost
interest to learn English and they were passive during the lesson. They chose to be
quiet and passive rather than to respond to the teacher because they were not
confident to speak in English. Moreover, the pupils tend to speak in Malay rather
than using English to communicate even though it was an English lesson. I found
that this incident did not only happen in my practicum school but it also happened in
most of the schools around the country especially the schools that are situated in
rural areas. According to Normazidah, Koo & Hazita (2012), the recent research
which investigating the problems and the practice of English language teaching and
4

learning in Malaysia, they review that most of the school children in particular, those
who reside in the rural areas experience contacts with English language only during
their English classes. As the pupils are not applying what they have learnt during the
lesson, the effect that can lead to this situation is that the pupils will easily forget
everything that they have gained in the class. From the past teaching experiences, I
can sense that the pupils did not have confident to speak and use the vocabulary that
they required during the lesson to respond to teachers questions or giving
explanations. As pupils had less motivation to use English in the lessons, they could
not utilise the vocabulary that they had learnt in the right context. Pica, LincolnPorter, Paninos, & Linnell (1996) asserted that it is a common belief that
participation in verbal interaction offers language learners the opportunity to follow
up on new words and structures to which they have been ex-posed during language
lessons and to practice them in context (as cited in Tong, 2010)
Utilising vocabulary is the most crucial aspect that needs to be mastered by
second language learners in order to learn effectively in the class. According to the
past teaching experiences during the past practicum session, I could see that interest
of the pupils in that school towards English subject were not very high. Every
weekday, we would have English activities during the assembly for all the pupils for
example text reading activities and spelling. These kinds of activities were conducted
in order to improve pupils achievement in learning English. Despite all of the
activities that had been conducted in order to increase pupils performance in
English, I believe that teachers needed to nurture the interest of pupils to learn and
utilise the vocabulary. If the pupils did not have intrinsic motivation to learn, it
would be difficult for them to master the language.

Therefore, in order to find out how to motivate pupils to l utilise vocabulary, I

embarked on using Tricky Guess card game to increase pupils interest in utilising
vocabulary to pupils. Through this research, I was able to find out whether using the
card game is an effective method to increase pupils interest in utilising the
vocabulary and also improve pupils participation in ESL classroom.

CHAPTER 2
ISSUE OF CONCERN
The focus of this chapter is to enlighten about the issue that is being highlighted in
this research. The discussion of the main problem that leads to this research has been
stated through this chapter as it relates to the past experience of researcher and
pupils.
2.1

Problem Statement

In this research, one of the problems faced by the pupils is they do not have
wide range of vocabulary. Based on my observations, pupils easily forget the list of
vocabulary that had been taught in the English lessons and they did not apply what
they have learnt outside the classroom. In 2013, I conducted a simple vocabulary test
for Year 2 pupils. The main objective of the test was to identify whether the pupils
were able to remember the name of clothes that I taught in the previous lessons. I
also wanted to identify the effectiveness of the activities that I conducted in their
English lessons. However, I found that almost half the pupils in the class could not
answer the questions correctly about the types of clothes that they just had learned
the day before correctly.

According to Harmer (2007), after learning new

information, pupils will lost it as soon the end of the learning lesson. Therefore, I
believe that when they did not applying the knowledge that they had learnt in the
class, they would forget the facts easily.

The interest of the pupils to utilise the vocabulary also is one of the main
aspect that affect the performance of the pupils in mastering English. As pupils learn
English as their second language, they need to have positive attitude and mind-set so
that they able acquire the language effectively.
Most of the pupils in school consider English Language is a challenging
subject to learn and master. I also noted that most of the pupils in my practicum
school viewed English as a killer subject and they believed that English was difficult
to catch up. I asked a few Year 6 pupils about their favourite subject and what subject
that they did disliked. Most of the pupils chose Malay Language as their favourite
subject and English as the least favourite subject. I believed that due to those
negative thoughts, they lack of interest to learn English and found that English lesson
was boring. This could be due to some teachers used drilling method to teach
vocabulary to pupils and I believed pupils would easily get bored and less motivated
to learn if teaching method was not diversified.
Besides, from my point of view, pupils easily lost their interest and do not
like English lesson because of the methods that are used by certain teachers to teach
English are not fun and interesting. Some of the senior teachers still chose traditional
methods to teach in class. I witnessed it during my previous practicum sessions;
Chalk and Talk method were still being applied by some teachers in the schools
during their lessons even though there were thousands of interactive card games that
had been introduced to increase the effectiveness of teaching and learning activities
in the classroom. Professor Michael Fullan from University of Toronto claims that
traditional chalk-and-talk methods of teaching no longer work in a world in which
students expectations have been raised by 21st-century technology. (Stewart, 2014)
If teachers still hold the belief that chalk and talk method is still the best method to
8

teach English, I believe that pupils will not be able to express themselves confidently
and develop critical thinking in the lessons.
Moreover, activities that are conducted in the classroom also play an
important role in enhancing vocabulary in the classroom. Some teachers tend to give
more drilling and ask pupils to copy everything on the blackboard rather than plan
interesting and enjoyable activities that would give meaningful experiences to the
pupils. Patrick, Ryan & Kaplan (2007) asserted that success in school depends on the
extent to which students engage adaptively in classroom learning tasks. (as cited in
Rajaletchumi Thaliah & Rosna Awang Hashim, 2008) From this statement, I am
certain that by conducting interactive activities like card games can help pupils to
enhance their vocabulary in English lessons.

2.2.

Focus of investigation

Based on my observation from the past teaching, the main issue that I would
focused for this action research how to develop the interest of the pupils to utilise the
vocabulary from the English lessons. I discovered that pupils were not participating
well during the lessons. Every time I entered the class, they would ask whether there
were any game that would be conducted during the lesson. From the statement of the
pupils, I realised that the pupils demanded activities that were interesting in order for
them to enjoy the lessons and take part actively during the activities. Thus, I am
certain that in order to develop pupils interest to utilise the vocabulary, teacher need
to prepare and conduct attractive activities during the lesson. Meece (1991) claimed
that teachers who motivate students to learn often develop intrinsic motivation in
students to learn for the sake of knowledge (as cited in Yang, 2008). Hence, it shows
that interesting and joyful activities is the key aspect that would increase pupils
interest and promote intrinsic motivation in utilising vocabulary in ELS classroom.
Reflection from the past practicum experiences, I also believed that the pupils
in primary schools had difficulties in mastering English language learning because
they did not attain a wide range of vocabulary and an inability to master the
structures of the language. These problems raised due to the teaching methods that
are being used by the teachers in the English lessons were not interesting and fun. As
pupils found out the activities that was conducted by the teacher were plain dull, and
uninteresting, they would be bored and not be interested to participate in the lessons.
In the statement of problems, I have mention about the Chalk and Talk
method which is still being applied in the vocabulary lessons even though
researchers had already stated that the method is unreliable to be practiced in todays
10

lessons. Based on my observations, the main reason for the teachers to use this
method is because they did not have time to plan interesting vocabulary activities or
preparing teaching kits in their lessons. Based on discussions that I conducted with a
few teachers from the previous schools, they did not have enough time to focus on
their lesson because they were burdened with a lot of clerical works such as key in
pupils data, preparing numerous types of files and paper works as well as attending
courses and meeting. Therefore, I believe that with all these heavy teaching loads, the
teachers could not really concentrated in planning interactive and effective lessons
for the their pupils. Thus, it affected pupils interest to learn utilise the vocabulary as
the lesson were conducted in unattractive ways.
In the recent research of English teaching and learning process, the activities
that are conducted by the teachers in the class are the determinants of pupils success
in acquiring and utilising the vocabulary. According to Felder (2012), by applying
active learning methods in the class can help pupils to engage with the lessons and
encourage pupils to learn English meaningfully. Therefore, it is very important for
the pupils to participate in the activities that can help them exploit the vocabulary
that they have learnt in the lessons. There are a lot of attractive and remarkable
activities that teacher can apply in vocabulary lessons. Card game is one of the
popular methods that teachers can use to teach vocabulary. Nowadays, there are a lot
of teachers around the world use this method to teach vocabulary because card game
is an activity that can help to stimulate pupils critical thinking, bring meaningful to
the lesson, encouraged pupils to utilise the vocabulary and also develop co-operative
learning among the pupils. Thornbury (2002) reviewed that there is probably
vocabulary learning method which more worthwhile than the use of card games.

11

Based on that statement, I am certain that the use of card game can help Year 3 pupils
in utilising the vocabulary that they have learnt during English lessons.
Therefore, in order to overcome this problem, I had conducted an action
research to help Year 3 pupils to acquire the vocabulary that they had learnt in
English lessons and able to use them outside the classroom. The action method that I
carried out in this research was Tricky Guess card game where this method was one
of the guessing card game that I invented based on my pupils cognitive level and
also my research objective. This game is one of the method that can stimulate fun
learning and active participation among the pupils in the classroom where they need
to work together to identify the vocabulary that have been used in a suitable context
and situation. By conducting the game in my lesson helped me to assess the ability of
the pupils in utilising the vocabulary that they have acquired during the lessons.
Besides that, the game also needed the pupils to think critically as they had to
identify and analyse the contents of the cards. Then, the pupils needed to choose
which cards were written with the correct sentences in the suitable context.
In the practicality aspects, I found that the use of Tricky Guess game is totally
suitable for the Year 3 pupils because this game can be conducted either in large
classes or the classes with small number of pupils. This game is also available to be
conducted in any stages of the lesson. However, for this research, I had conducted
this game during practice stage. Furthermore, I did not have problems to conduct the
game as the participants had already have the prior knowledge about a few types of
card games that they had played in the previous English lessons as well.

12

2.3

Review of literature related to research focus

In order to investigate the importance of the teacher in developing the interest

of the pupils to utilise vocabulary during English lesson, there were a lot of research
that had been carried out by the researchers in education field. Yang (2008) claimed
that commonly, learners have no idea why English language is important to them and
their interest in English relies on their teacher. Based on Malaysia context, pupils
started to learn English since there were in pre-school. As they started to learn
English in such young age, they did not know and understand why they needed to
learn and competence in English. As they entered primary and secondary level, most
of the pupils felt that English was not important as their society did not use English
as the main interaction language. According to Norazman Abdul Majid, Faruk
Muhammad, Fatimah Puteh & Ghazali Bunari (2009), learning English as a second
language especially for pupils who stay in a rural area where the language is hardly
being spoken and its needs for everyday use is hardly available, put the learners in a
much disadvantaged situation. As the result, the pupils did not have any interest and
demotivated to learn English.

13

14

CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES & RESEARCH QUESTIONS

3.1 Research Objectives

Specifically, this research is undertaken to achieve the following objective:
1. To investigate whether Tricky Guess card game can enhance pupils interest in
utilising vocabulary in ESL classroom.
2. To identify how Tricky Guess card game enhance pupils interest in utilising
vocabulary in ESL classroom.

3.2 Research Questions

1. Does Tricky Guess card game able to enhance pupils interest in utilising
vocabulary?
2. How Tricky Guess card game enhance pupils interest in utilising vocabulary in
ESL classroom

15

CHAPTER 4
RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS
4.0 TARGET GROUP
In this research, I had chosen one of the Year 3 classes in the school as my
target group. This class consisted of 30 pupils, 15 are female and 15 are male.
According to their proficiency level, the pupils were divided into three groups which
are advance group, intermediate group, and low level group. The first group was the
advance group. There were nine pupils in this group. They were very good in terms
of mastery the lesson, easy to understand teachers instructions and also active
participation in the classroom. They had excellent performance during the lessons as
they managed to act as the facilitators to the weak pupils especially in solving
problems that had been given by the teacher. They were also able to complete their
exercises worksheets and workbook in time. The pupils had appropriate behaviour in
the classroom and they were more focus and listened to my instruction well.
The second group was intermediate group. There were about ten pupils in this
group. Their performances were average. Some of them were good and abled to
participate well in the classroom but when it came to answer the questions in
exercise sheets, they were still a little bit slow and needed guidance from the teacher.
Some of them were very shy and not pro-active in the class. When I asked them to
read or answer my questions, their voices were very slow and they kept looking at
their friends asking for the answer. From my opinion, their self- confidence was low
and needed more guidance from the teacher.
The last group was low proficiency group. Most of the pupils in this group
were illiterate and have difficulties in reading and recognising words. This group
16

consisted of eleven pupils and they needed extra attention from the teachers. Their
behaviours in the classroom were not really good and sometime causing chaos during
the lessons. Besides, I found that the pupils were easily to lose focus, did not pay
attention, always doing other things like drawing, colouring, and chatting with their
friends rather than listening to my explanation and attention.
Therefore, I had chosen all the pupils from that class to participate in my
research where I had followed their progress in stimulating their interest to utilising
vocabulary through card games as the intervention to enhance their performance in
the classroom. Based on my observation, I would conclude that most of the pupils,
around 20 of them were weak in acquire the vocabulary. In additional, some of the
pupils from advance group were still struggling in utilising the vocabulary
Due to the pupils environment, their English proficiency level was very low.
All 30 pupils in that class did not have English background at home. Furthermore,
most of the pupils came from low income group as stated in the background section.
Therefore, their English learning environment is nil in order for them to apply all the
vocabulary that they have learnt in the class. They only get to learn English
Language when they were in school and during English hours only.
After I conducted the action plan, I could see that some pupils were
improving in the aspect of utilising the vocabulary as the interest of the pupils
increased. When this research was conducted, I ensured that these pupils gain interest
to acquired vocabulary and improved their performance in learning English.

17

CHAPTER 5
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, I will describe about the action plan that I took in conducting the
action research. In the first part, I will explain about the steps and procedures that I
carried out and how I conducted the action method. Then, I will explain about the
data collection methods that I carried ways in gathering the data for the research. At
the end, I will describe about the ethical concern that I took in conducting this action
research.

5.1 Implementation of Action

5.1.1 Action Plan

In conducting action research, there are many theories that being proposed in
order to show the right procedures in carrying out the inquiries. Therefore, in order to
carry out the research, I found that the Spiral Model of action research that being
developed by Kemmis and McTaggart (2000) was suitable to be applied in my action
research (as cited in Denzin & Lincoln, 2007). According to Koshy (2005), he also
agree that for researches who want to conduct the action research to follow the steps
that being proposed in Kemmis and McTaggarts Spiral Model because it offers the
opportunity to visit a phenomenon at higher level each time, and so to progress
towards greater overall understanding.

18

Based
on5.1:
the Kemmis
model, Kemmis
and McTaggart
proposed
four
basic steps
Figure
and McTaggarts
Spriral had
Model
of action
research
starting with planning, act, observe and lastly reflect. I realise that these steps are
very practical to be applied in my action plan. Therefore, I started my research by
identifying the issues and problems that I faced during the lesson. Then, I planned the
action that needed to be taken in order to overcome the issues. Next, I conducted the
action that I had planned in order to solve the issues and collected the data. After
that, I analysed the data and reflected whether the action method that I carried out
able to overcome the problems.
5.1.2

Action Method
Hence, in order to carry out this action research, the method that I focused on

is about card game. I came out with a card game as my action method and conducted
in my reading lesson. The game was called Tricky Guess Card Game. This game
was based on Kims game but I had improvised it according to my research focus and
objectives. Besides, the English proficiency level of the pupils also was taken into
account when I adapted the game.
Oxford vocabulary (2010) defined the word Tricky as a set of task, problem
or situation that required care and skills due to its difficulty or awkwardness while
the word Guess brought up the meaning of estimation or suppose about something
without sufficient information to be sure of being correct. Hence, inspired by its
meaning, I named this game by combining the two words which was Tricky Guess
19

to explain about how the game was about. Besides, the words Tricky Guess
presented the characteristics of the game and what the pupils should do when playing
the game.
This game was conducted into six groups. Each group consisted of five pupils
with mix abilities, advance, intermediate, and low level. Every group would have at
least one advance learner in order to help other group members who had low
achievement when playing the game. Before the game was started, I emphasised the
role of every member in the group. In order for them to win game, they needed to cooperate and helped each other so that the game could be conducted smoothly.
Furthermore, by conducting task in mixed abilities groups able to encourage cooperation and participation between the pupils. According to Evans (2013), the
purpose of setting up mixed abilities group to increase interaction across students
with different abilities.
As the main goal of this study, the game persuaded pupils interest to utilise
vocabulary in the right context. The first step in this game, every group was given a
set of cards which consists of eight to ten cards per group. Group leader rearranged
the cards on the table without showing the content of the cards to their group
members. Then, the pupils took turns to own the card. They needed to read and
identify the sentence on the cards whether its context was correct or wrong. If the
card was correct, the pupils needed to keep the card but if they took the wrong one,
they needed to put the card back to its original position and the next pupil would
choose another card. The first group who were able to collect all the correct cards
would be the winner.

20

Distributed a set of cards to every group.

Group leader rearranged the cards on the table

The pupils numbered themselves and took turn to take the card
Pupils indentified the correct cards. When they chose correct cards, they needed to
keep the card and when they chose the wrong card, put it back on the table.
The first group that collected all the correct cards would be the winner.

Figure 5.2: Steps how to play Tricky Guess Card

Game
During the lesson, I had implemented my action plan in practice stage. I
chose to conduct the game in practice stage because usually, in the lesson, teachers
conducted games had planned the lesson according to the steps above:

Set Induction:
Teacher did spelling quiz with the pupils.
Presentation:
Conducting Matching Game to identify whether pupils were able to match the
pictures cards with the correct words
Practice:
Implement action plan; 'Tricky Guess' Card Game in order to incresase pupils
interest to utilise the vovabulary.
Production:
Distributing exercises based on the vocabulary that they have learn.

Closure:
Discussion on the activity and moral values.
Figure 5.3: Briefly explanation on the steps in implementation
the action plan
21

5.1.3 Schedule
In order to implement the action plan, I conducted two lessons for each topic.
The first lesson which was lesson A was the lesson that I carried out using
traditional method without applying any effective approaches. The second lesson
which was Lesson B, I conducted my action method and collected the data. The
period of each lesson was one hour and time needed to conduct the action plan was
about 15 minutes and below. Figure 5.2 shows the allocation of topics to be taught in
each of the lessons.

Topic 1: Unit 4 People around us

Topic 2: Unit 5 Having Fun

Lesson A: Conducted the lesson

using traditional method

Lesson A: Implement the Tricky

Guess Card Game

Lesson B: Implement the Tricky

Guess Card Game

Lesson B: Implement the Tricky

Guess Card Game

Figure 5.4: Allocation of the topic for the lessons

22

Table 5.1 shows the list of words that being used in this research.
Table 5.1: List of words that was highlighted in the game
Topic

Words

Unit 4People Around Us

a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)

Football player
Tailor
Zookeeper
Farmer
Engineer
Fire fighter

Unit 5Having Fun

a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)

Kite
Spinning top
Tennis
Hopscotch
Hide and seek
Netball

All the words that being listed in Table 5.1 was taken based on two topics in
Year Three English syllabus which are Unit 4; People Around Us and Unit 5; Having
Fun. In every topic, six main concrete words would be highlighted based on the
topics. The list of words also was given to me by the English teacher of that class.
She assigned me to use the six words in my lesson and at the end of every topic, all
pupils needed to understand the meaning at least four out of the six words and use
them correctly.
5.1.4

Lesson
In this research, implementation of action plan was very important in order to

increase the effectiveness of the game in increasing pupils interest in learning and
utilising the vocabulary in the lesson. There were two lessons was conducted as
being mentioned in Action Plan section, which were lesson A and B. Table 5.2 and
23

Table 5.3 show the lesson plans that were conducted before and during the
implementation of the game.
Table 5.2: Lesson plan for Lesson A
Stage
Set Induction
Presentation

Practice

Production

Closure

Procedure
1. Teacher recalled pupils prior knowledge about the previous
Lesson.
1. Teacher pasted pictures on the whiteboard and asked pupils
to name the words that described the pictures.
Eg:
a) football player
b) farmer
2. Teacher wrote the words under the pictures.
3. Teacher wrote example of sentences for each word.
1. Teacher read the words and sentences. Then, pupils followed
after teacher.
2. Teacher asked pupils to read the words as a class, in groups
and as individual.
1. Teacher asked the pupils to write the words in their exercise
book.
2. Then, teacher asked the pupils to construct the sentences
from the words given.
1. Teacher asked the pupils to spell and read the words that
they just learn out loud.

Table 5.3: Lesson plan for Lesson B

Stage
Set Induction

Procedure
1. Teacher did spelling quiz with the pupils.

Presentation

1. Teacher conducted Matching Card game. Teacher asked the

pupils to sit in their groups and distributed two sets of cards;
cards with pictures and cards with words.
2. Teacher explained the steps of the game to the pupils and
facilitated pupils achievement and participation during the
activity.
3. Teacher discussed the answer with the pupils and determined
which group had won the game.
1. Teacher conducted Tricky Guess Card Game. In the same
groups, the pupils were given another one set of cards which

Practice

24

Production

Closure

contain sentence in every card.

2. Teacher explained the steps of the game to the pupils and
facilitated pupils achievement and participation during the
activity.
3. Teacher discussed the answer with the pupils and determined
which group had won the game.
1. Teacher distributed exercise sheet to every pupils.
2. Teacher guided pupils in answering the questions.
3. Teacher discussed the exercises with pupils.
1. Teacher asked the pupils what they have learnt in the lesson.
.

The lesson A was conducted one time only which was in Unit 4; People
Around Us and Lesson B was conducted in two topics; Unit 4; People Around Us
and also Unit 5; Having Fun. I conducted Lesson A once in order to get some
feedback from the pupils about the lesson during pre-interview session. Then, I
compared it with the responses from post-interview session which was conducted
after Lesson B.

5.2 Data Collection Method

For this research, I applied three data sources:
5.2.1

Interview

I chose interview as one of my sources of data in order to identify the thought

and opinions of the pupils in the class. I found that this method was suitable to get
the data on the interest of the pupils because from the answer given by the pupils, I
could see whether the interest of the pupils to utilise vocabulary was increase after
they played Tricky Guess Card game in the lesson. I chose three pupils to be the

25

respondents of the interview, two of them are female and one of them is male which
every pupil represented their achievement level; high achiever, intermediate, and low
performance pupils. Due to time constraint, I conducted group interviews so that I
would be able to manage the time and able to get the data and the information
needed.
I conducted two interviews with the respondents before I implemented my
action method (pre-interview) and after I implemented the method (post-interview).
For both interview, I used the same respondents so that the data would be more rigid
and I could compare their responses before after the interview. Each interview was
conducted around 8 to 15 minutes. Approximate time given to each respondent was
about three to five minutes to respond towards the questions. Therefore, the time
period for each interview was quite long due to the discussions done in group. Thus,
in order to get equal responses from each respondent, more time was needed.
The style of interview that I chose when conducting this method was semistructure interview. Before I conducted the interview, I had prepared a set of
questions as a guide when conducting the interview. Then, as the discussion was on
going, I added more questions that related to their interest to learn and utilise the
vocabulary so that I would be able to get in depth information about the topic that we
discussed on.

5.2.2

Observation

In order to apply observation method, I had conducted my action method

when teaching reading and vocabulary lessons to my pupils. As I conducted the
26

lesson, I had prepared an observation checklist to get the data. The questions that
being stated in the observations checklist were specific for the aspect that I wanted to
focus on during the lesson. Therefore, based on my research objectives, the aspects
that I wanted to highlight in this research was the effectiveness of the my action
method which is the Tricky Guess card game in enhancing pupils interest to utilise
the vocabulary. The questions that I prepared in the observation sheet helped me to
identify whether the game was implemented effectively or vice versa. Besides, I
consulted my supervisor about the criteria that were needed in the checklist so that
the data that I collected could answer my research questions. As I conducted my
action method in two lessons, I recorded the lessons that I conduct when I applied the
intervention and after the lesson and took some photos when the pupils played the
game. In order to avoid bias, I asked my supervisor teacher and my friend to assess
and fill up the observation sheets according to the aspect that I wanted to focus on.

5.2.3

Survey

In order the get the feedback from the pupils about the action method that I
had implemented during the lesson, I distributed some survey questions to identify
whether the game was effective in increasing their interest to learn vocabulary in
English lesson. Before I implemented the action method in my lesson, I conducted an
initial survey in order to investigate about their experiences in learning English in
previous lessons, the activity that they used to do when learning vocabulary, and also
what activities that they preferred when learning vocabulary. I conducted the survey
in the form of open- ended discussion as I threw up some questions regarding on the

27

topics to all pupils in the class. I took around 10 to 15 minutes to conduct the
discussion with the pupils.
Then, after I conducted the action method in my lessons, I distributed a set of
survey questions for the pupils. There were eight questions that needed to be
answered by the pupils according to what they felt and their own opinion about the
Tricky Guess Card Game. These questions helped me in identifying pupils views
about the action method.

5.3 Ethical Consideration

Koshy (2005) stated that ethical concern is one of important aspects that
every researcher need to follow and carried out when conducting action research
because of the small- scale nature of projects located within the working situations of
the researches. Hence, there were a few ethical concerns that I had taken as I
conducted this research.
5.3.1

Permission

Before conducting any research in school, permission from the school

administrators and the research participants is very important. Concerning to this, I
had asked permission from the school headmaster to conduct my action research with
the Year 3 pupils in that school. I also asked permission from their class teacher and
my supervisor teacher who taught English in that class and explained to them about
the activities that I would do with the pupils in order to complete my action research.
As I implemented the action plan, I always obtained the permission from my
28

research participants every time I conducted any activity that related to the research.
I informed the pupils about the researched that I would conduct and asked whether
they were able to give their co-operation towards the research. I would not force any
pupils who were uninterested to involve with my research and fortunately, all pupils
were willing to give their co-operation to me.

5.3.2

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is one of the most important aspects that every researchers

need to be taken into account on in order to protect the identities of the participants
in the research. Therefore, in this research, I used pseudo name for every participants
that took part in this research. As I conducted the interviews with three respondents, I
chose to use Respondent 1, 2, and 3 as the pseudo name for the pupils who I had
picked for the interview. For this research, the name and the place of the school also I
kept it hidden due to protect the privacy of the school.

5.3.2

Explanation

It is important for the researchers to explain the aim and the objectives of
their research to anyone who participated in the research. Therefore, before I
conducted the research in the school, I made some explanation to the school
administrators as well as other teachers regarding the research that I wanted to
conduct with the Year Three pupils so that they were aware about the research that I
was conducting in the school. Besides, I also explained briefly about the activities
29

and the plan that I would conduct with them so that they were able to give cooperation and understand the intention of every activity that I did with them that
associated with the research.

30

CHAPTER 6
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

In this research, qualitative and quantitative data collection methods had been
applied in collecting the data. In this chapter, I will explain about the analysis and the
interpretation of every data that I have gathered from three different sources which
are interview, survey, and observation. The first part of this chapter is about the data
analysis of every method that I have used in collecting the data. Then, proceed with
the elucidation and the explanation of the data.

6.1 ANALYSIS OF QUALITATIVE DATA

In this study, I used two types of qualitative data collection methods which
were interviews and observations.
6.1.1

Interview

Interviews were carried out in order to identify the views, opinions, and
thought of the pupils regarding the effectiveness of Tricky Guess Card game in
stimulating their interest in learning the vocabulary which had been implemented
during reading lesson. Besides, the aim on these interviews were to help me to
answer my research question in greater depth as interview is one of the methods that
can provide effective qualitative data to the researchers. These interviews were
conducted with three respondents which were Respondent 1 (R1), 2 (R2), and
31

Respondent 3 (R3). They were chosen based on their performance level in the class.
Respondent 1 represented the pupils from advance group, Respondent 2 is one of the
intermediate pupils in the class, and Respondent 3 is a slow leaner and has low
proficiency in English.
The interviews were conducted in group due to the time constrain. Besides,
the maturity level of the respondents was low and it would be difficult for me to gain
the efficient responses from the respondents if I conducted individual interview with
them. Approximately, both of the interviews; pre and post interviews were conducted
about 8 to 15 minutes and one respondent was given around five minutes to respond
to the questions given. Both interviews were conducted in Malay Language due to
the English fluency level of the respondents was very low. Thus, in order for them to
respond to the questions well, I decided to conduct the interviews using their mother
tongue so that they would be able to elaborate more about their opinion and thought.
a) Analysis and Interpretation
The interviews were conducted in two sessions; pre and post interview. Preinterview was conducted before Tricky Guess Card game was implemented in the
lesson right after I conducted Lesson A for Topic Two; Having Fun. Then, in the
following lesson, after the action method was implemented in the classroom, the
post- interview was conducted with the same respondents. Thus, interview analysis
presented based on the theme that related to interview questions given to the
respondents.
i) Pre-interview analysis
In pre- interview sessions, there were around six questions that would be
asked to the respondents related to the interest and the motivation of the respondents.
32

Questions 1, 3, 4, and 5 were being asked based on the pupils interest during the
lesson. The questions were asked in order to identify whether the pupils enjoyed and
were interested to utilise vocabulary using the traditional methods that I applied
when conducting Lesson A. Question 1 and 3 highlighted the interest of the
respondents in to learn English during the lesson. Based on the responses given by
the respondents based on questions 1 and 3, I predicted that generally, most of the
respondents liked to learn English and enjoyed the lesson despite using traditional
approach in conducting the lesson. The following are based on responses given the
by respondents :
Question 1: Kamu semua suka tak belajar bahasa Inggeris?Kalau suka beritahu
teacher kenapa.
(Do you like to learn English? Why?)
R1: suka! Sebab seronok.
(I like to learn English because it is fun.)
R2: Suka juga sebab ade game.
(Yes. Because it has enjoyable games.)
R3: Saya pun suka jugak. Tak tahu.
(Yes, I like it)
Question 3: Tadi awak semua suka tak teacher ajar?
(Do you like my lesson just now?)
R1: Suka!
33

(Yes, I like it.)

R2: Sama suka jugak
(I also like it.)
However, Respondent 3 who is in low proficiency group felt that English was
a difficult subject. Some of the respondents found that the lesson was quit boring and
they were not really interested to learn and participate especially when Lesson A was
conducted.
Question 3: Tadi awak semua suka tak teacher ajar?
(Do you like my lesson just now?)
R 3: Boring sikit la teacher
(A little bit boring.)
It was supported with the responses given by respondents towards questions 4 and 5:
Question 4: Kenapa awak bosan masa teacher ajar tadi? Sorang sorang bagitahu
teacher kenapa.
( Do you fell bored with the lesson just now? Why did you feel so?)
R3: Tadi asyik teacher je yang cakap
Teacher talks a lot!
R2: Saya ada la rasa boring sikit masa teacher ajar tapi bile da last-last tu saya dah
tak boring da.
(Sometime. When teacher talk about the pictures I feel quite bored but not all the
time.)
34

Question 5:Awak suka tak teacher cakap banyak dalam kelas?

(Do you not like teacher to talk a lot in class?)
R1: Tak suka!
(No. I dont like it.)

Questions 2 were asked based on the motivation aspects of the respondents in

utilising vocabulary using traditional approaches. The respondents expressed that
sometimes they had difficulty in memorising the vocabulary that they had learnt.
Question 2: Awak ada rasa susah tak nak ingat ke nak belajar perkataan English?
(Do you have any difficulty to learn or memorise the words in English?)
R1: Takdalah susah tapi kalau teacher ajar perkataan banyak sangat susah sikit la
nak ingat.
(Not really but sometimes when the words are too many, it will be a little bit
difficult.)
R2: Tak.
( Not difficult)
R3: kadang-kadang susah
(I feel difficult sometimes.)
However, I found that they would learn better if the activities were conducted in fun
ways regarding on the responses given by respondents towards the question 6.
Question 6: Kalau teacher ajar game kan awak suka tak?awak ada rasa boring ta?
35

(Will you like or enjoy English lesson if I conduct language games during
the class? Will you feel bored if we play games?)
R1:Suka!. Tak rasa boring
(Yes. I wont feel bored. )
R2: Suka! Sebab ada game.
(Yes. Because it has games.)
R3:Saya pun suka jugak sebab saya suka main game.
(No, I wont feel bored. I like game)
Table 6.1 which shows the summary of the pre-interview analysis..

Table 6.1: Summary of pre-interview analysis

Themes
Interest

Interview texts
R1: I like to learn English because it is fun.
R1: Yes, I like it.
R3: A little bit boring.
R2: Sometime. When teacher talk about the pictures I feel
quite bored but not all the time.
R3: Teacher talks a lot!
R 1: No. I dont like it.
R3: Its interesting and fun.

Motivation

R2: Yes. Because it has game.

R3: Not really because English is difficult.
R3: I feel difficult sometimes.
R1: Not really but sometimes when the words are too
many, it will be a bit difficult.
R2: I wont feel bored.
R1: It will be interesting and fun.
R2: There will be an enjoyment
R3: No, I wont feel bored. I like game

36

Pre- interview gave me a rigid data on pupils needs in the lessons. I found
that all the respondents demanded to learn English in fun and joyful way so that they
would be able to engage with the lesson better especially for low performance pupils.
This statement is supported based on the response from Respondents 3. She stated
that the lesson which I conducted using traditional approach was boring and
uninteresting due to I talked a lot during the lesson without giving much chances for
the pupils to express their thought. The following is an answer that she gave for this
question.
Question: Kenapa awak bosan masa teacher ajar tadi? Sorang sorang bagitahu
teacher kenapa.
(Do you fell bored with the lesson just now? Why did you feel so?)
R 3: Tadi asyik teacher je yang cakap
(Teacher talks a lot!)
However, Respondent 1 and 2 who were advance and intermediate learners gave
opposite reaction from Respondent 3. The pupils liked the lesson even though the
lesson was conducted without any fun element. Both of them stated that they enjoyed
my lesson very much based on the following question:
Question: Tadi awak semua suka tak teacher ajar?
Do you like my lesson just now?
R 1: Suka!
(Yes, I like it.)
37

R 2: Saya pun suka.

(I also like it.)
Thus, from the answer given by Respondent 1 and 2, I found that the pupils
enjoyed the lesson because they liked and were interested to learn English. Thus,
they had intrinsic motivation and passion in learning and utilising the language in
any approaches was applied by the English teacher during the lesson. This statement
could be proved from their answers based on following questions:
Question: Apa subjek kegemaran awak?
(What is your favourite subject?)
R 1: English.
(English)
Question: Okay, kenapa awak suka belajar English?
(Okay, Do you like to learn English? Why?)
R1:Sebab seronok.
(I like to learn English because it is fun.)
R 2: Suka. Sebab ada game.
(Yes. Because it has games.)
Based on the responses from Respondent 3, what I can interpret is that the
respondent found that the lesson was boring because she needed some extrinsic

38

motivation to push her interest to learn English. Referring to Respondent 3 answers,

she stated that she was struggling to learn English as she found that English was a
difficult subject.
Question: Kenapa awak suka belajar English?
(Do you like to learn English? Why?)
R 3: Tak suka sebab susah.
(Not really because English is difficult.)
Based on the responses, it could be assumed that respondent 3 needed fun and
interesting lesson in order to generate her interest to utilise the vocabulary and
participate well in the English lesson.
The result of the pre-interview may be explained that by the facts that the
approaches and the activities that were conducted by the teachers influence pupils
interest to utilise the vocabulary and participation of the pupils during the lesson.
ii) Post- Interview Analysis
In post-interview session, there were 16 questions that being asked in order to
get the respondents opinion about Tricky Guess Card Game which I had
implemented during Lesson B. The interview analysis presented based theme that
related to interview questions that were given to the respondents. As the interview
went on using semi-structure techniques, the questions given were not really
followed the topics accordingly. Thus, based on the transcription of the post
interview, questions 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 15, and 16 were related to the interest of the pupils
to learn vocabulary when they played Tricky Guess Card Game during the lesson.

39

Those questions also showed that whether the respondents were interested to play the
game and what they expressed their thought about the game itself. Therefore, from
the responses of the respondent, I found that they liked and enjoyed playing the
game.
Question 3: Kalau game yang nombor tu macam mana plak?Awak suka tak main?
(How about the second game? Tricky Guess Card Game? Did you enjoy the game?)
R 1:Suka!
Yes!
R2: Mula-mula seronok pastu diorang asik nak gaduh je saya malas da nak main
teacher.
(I enjoy the game but when our group fights then I dont feel good.)
R3: Seronok tapi saya suka game yang satu lagi.
(I enjoy the game but I prefer matching game.)
Question 6: Kenapa awak suka main game Tricky Guess tu?
Why do you like to play Tricky Guess Card Game?
R1: sebab mencabar minda
(Because it challenges my mind.)
R2: seronok
(I like it because it was fun.)

40

R3: Suka tapi game tu susah nak main

(I like it but the game is difficult to play.)
From their responses also, it could be assumed that most of the respondents
prefer to utilise the vocabulary in the fun way. Thus, regarding on what respondents
had stated in the interview, I found that all the respondents liked to play game during
English lesson and I realised that the respondents participated more actively when
they played the game.
In the aspects of motivation, I could deduce that most of the respondents were
more motivated to play the game when their group was able to co-operate well
without getting any conflict among them. Based on their responses, I could see that
their intrinsic motivation affected when their group encounter with some arguments
when they play the game.
Question: Kalau game yang nombor tu macam mana plak?Awak suka tak main?
(How about the second game? Tricky Guess Card Game? Did you enjoy
the game?)
R2: Mula-mula seronok pastu diorang asik nak gaduh je saya malas da nak main
teacher.
(I enjoy the game but when our group fights then I dont feel good.)
Question:Bila group awak menang atau kalah, apa awak rasa?
What do you feel when your group win or lose?
R3: Saya rasa sedih sebab kitaorang tak menang.Sebab salah pilih kad.

41

(I feel sad when we do not get the first place because we have chosen wrong
cards.)
Based on the answers given by the respondents, the aspect of collaboration in
playing the game was important in stimulating their interest to utilise vocabulary. I
found that respondent would enjoy the game when their group members were able to
co-operate well and played the game together without getting any arguments or
problems.
Question: Awak rasa bila awak main permainan Tricky Guess ni awak da rasa tak
semakin minat nak bejar perkataan English?
( Does this game increase your interest to learn English words?)
R3: Ada sebab seronok main dengan group saya.
(Yes because I can play with my group members.)
Question: Awak tolong tak ahli group awak masa main tadi? Tolong bacakan ayat
ke?tolong dieorng pilih kad yang betul ke? Ada ta?
Did you help your group to choose the correct cards?
R1: Ada! Masa saya, saya pilih kad yang betul pastu saya tolong Nabil pulak.
(Yes! I choose the correct card and I help Nabil to choose the correct card.)
Question: Awak suka main game ni dengan kawan-kawan ke sorng-sorang?Kenapa?
(Do you like to play the game with your friends? Or do prefer to play it
individually?Why?)
R1: main dengan kawan. Sebab bila saya tak tahu ada kawan tolong.
(Play with friends. When I do not know the answer, my friends will help me.)
42

R3: Dengan kawan. Lagi seronok.

(Play with friends. More fun.)
The reason for this is not clear but it might be something to do with the
characteristic and attitude of the pupils themselves when they were playing the game.
Different personalities among the pupils might contribute towards the conflict that
happened in certain groups. I found that some of the pupils did have domain qualities
inside them. They tend to lead the group and also had strong personalities which
sometimes brought unfavourable situation in the group.
Table 6.2 below shows the summary of result for post-interview session. The
data provided some positive feedback on the effectiveness of Tricky Guess Card
Game in enhancing pupils interest in utilising the vocabulary

Table 6.2: Summary of post-interview analysis

Themes
Interest

Interview texts
R1: Yes, I had fun during the lesson.
R2: I enjoyed the lesson.
R2: I enjoy the game but when our group fights then I
dont feel good.
R3: I enjoy the game but I prefer matching game.
R2: Because it challenges my mind.
R1: I like it because it was fun.
R2: Because it was fun!
R3: I like it but the game is difficult to play.
R1: Yes. I like game so I will remember the words in
long period.
R2: Yes because it was fun.
R3: More fun.
R1: Because its fun.
R2: Because I like to play game.
43

R3: Because its fun.

Motivation

Positive
R1: Our group got second place. I am happy because we
win.
Negative

Collaboration

R2: I enjoy the game but when our group fights then I
dont feel good.
R2: My group got last place. I feel sad because they did
not know which cards are wrong
R2: I dont like when they were fighting.
R3: I feel sad when we did not get first place because we
choose wrong cards.
Positive
R1: Our group did not fight.
R3: Yes because I can play with my group members.
R3: Yes. My group members help me to read the
sentence and choose the correct cards.
R1: Play with friends
R3: When I did not know the answer, my friends will
help me.
R2: I dont like when they were fighting.
Negative
R3: Our group fight a bit when Juni choose the wrong
card.
R2: Play individually.
44

Overall result from pre and post interviews impart some dissimilarity
especially on the pupils views about both of the lessons; Lesson A and B. Therefore,
it seems impossible that the results from pre and post interviews were affected from
the action method that was implemented in this study.

6.1.2

Observation
Observation was conducted as I implemented the Tricky Guess Card Game

during reading lesson. The focus of the observation was to identify the effectiveness
of the action method in various aspects and also to analyse the implementation of the
action method whether it was suitable to be practice in the lesson in stimulating the
interest of Year Three pupils in learning and utilising the vocabulary.
Therefore, there were two observations that were conducted for this research.
As the observations were conducted, an observation checklist was provided to the
every observer in order to rate the effectiveness of the Tricky Guess Card Game in
in different aspect and perspective; content, learners, teachers and curriculum
aspects. Hence, based on the checklist, there were a few aspects that were assessed
by the observer in order to analyse the suitability of the action method as the
activities that can attract pupils attention and interest to learn vocabulary in reading
lesson.
In order to avoid any biasness, two different observers were employed to
analyse and fulfil the checklist on what they could see and interpreted about the
effectiveness of the game. Before the lesson was conducted, two observers were
given a short brief regarding their roles and how they needed to fulfil the checklist
based on the questions listed.
45

a) Analysis and finding

From the data collected from the two observations, both observers agreed that
the game was followed according to the content of the lesson and helped to achieve
the objective of the lesson. Throughout the whole observation data, I found that there
were some behaviour changes after the action method was implemented which could
be categorised into three aspects which are the content, learners, and also teachers.
Based on the aspect of content, the observers stated that the game was
effective to be implemented during practice stage due to the enjoyment of the pupils
when they played the game and the game did not require much time to play. From the
aspect of the learner, I could interpret that the game suited with the pupils level and
most of the pupils actively participated with the game. Both observers approved that
the role of the teacher in implemented the action method in the lesson was important
as they stated that teacher was able to facilitate pupils performance while playing the
game.
The last aspect that was highlighted in the observation was the curriculum
aspect. From the aspect of curriculum, I was able to interpret that both observers
come to the agreement that Tricky Guess Card Game was able to fulfil the
curriculum requirement as well as curriculum syllabus. Table 6.3 shows summary of
the analysis of the behaviour that change at the end of the action.

Table 6.3: The behaviour that change at the end of the action
Criteria
Pupils
1. Pupils enjoy the lesson.
2. Pupils able to identify the correct vocabulary in the right context.
3. Pupils actively participate in the lesson.
4. Pupils able to work together as a group.
46

Content:
1. Lesson becomes more interesting.
2. Teacher able to apply varieties teaching methods during the lesson
Teacher:
1. Teacher able to develop effective teaching and learning environment during the lesson.

6.2

ANALYSIS OF QUANTITATIVE DATA

In this research, I used survey as one types of quantitative data collection method.
6.2.1 Survey

Survey was conducted in order to get the feedback of the pupils about the
action plan that was implemented during the reading lessons. Every pupil in the class
took part in the survey. There were two types of survey that I had conducted with the
pupils. The first survey was the initial survey in order to get some ideas about pupils
problems and interest in learning English. This survey was also very important where
it helped me in planning the actions that needed to be taken and also to identify
whether the problem of the pupils suited with my research concern. I conducted the
initial survey in the form of open-ended discussion where I threw some questions
that related to pupils interest and difficulties in learning English. From the answers
that were given by the pupils, I was able to identify that the pupils preferred to learn
English in fun and enjoyable environment. The pupils liked to play games and they
47

wanted the teacher to conduct language games as many as possible especially during
English lesson.
The second survey which I conducted with the pupils was after I
implemented the action method. I distributed one survey form for every pupil in
order to acquire every pupils opinions regarding the game. In the survey form, there
were eight items that the pupils had to respond to. To answer the survey items, the
pupils needed to tick on Yes or No column based on their though about the game.
As the survey went on, I assisted the pupils to answer every item in the survey form.
I provided Malay translation for every item so that the pupils were able to understand
the items well.
a) Analysis and finding
Based on the survey questions, I had analysed the result of the data and
presented it in the form of table and graph.
Table 6.4: Survey result
Items

Yes

Percentage

No

Percentage

Do you like English?

30

100

Do you like to play games during

English lesson?

28

93.3

6.7

Do you like to play Tricky Guess

Card Game?
Do you think Tricky Guess Card
Game is interesting to play?

25

83.3

16.7

23

76.7

23.3

Is your interest to learn vocabulary

increase after you play Tricky
Guess Card Game?

29

96.7

3.3

48

6
7

Is your vocabulary increase after

you play Tricky Guess Card Game?
Are you having fun playing Tricky
Guess Card with your friends?

24

80.0

20.0

20

66.7

10

33.3

Do you want to play Tricky Guess

Card Game in the future?

20

66.7

10

33.3

Based on Table 6.4, the result of the survey show that all the pupils in the
class liked to learn English and most of them preferred to play game during English
lesson. It point that up to 83.3 % of the pupils liked to play Tricky Guess Card Game
and felt that the game was interesting to play. Due to the interest of the pupils in
utilising vocabulary through Tricky Guess Card Game which was highlighted in
item number 5, it showed that 96.7 % of pupils agreed that the game stimulated their
interest in learning vocabulary and only one pupil (3.3%) who did not agree with the
statement. About 20 pupils who represented 66.7 % of them found that the game was
interesting and wanted to play it in the future.
Therefore, based on the analysis of the result of the survey, I could interpret
that most of the pupils in the class preferred to play the game as one of the activities
in utilising vocabulary. With the high number of pupils who found that Tricky
Guess Card Game able to fulfil their requirement for utilising the vocabulary, it
determine the effectiveness of the game in enhancing pupils interest. Therefore, the
figure 6.1 and 6.2 below show the total results and the percentage of the survey.

49

35
30
25
20
Result

15

Yes

10

No

5
0

Items

50

Figure 6.1: Analysis of total result of survey

Ite m 8
Ite m 7
Ite m 6
Ite m 5

Items Ite m 4

Yes (%)
No (%)

Ite m 3
Ite m 2
Ite m 1

20

40

60

80

100

120

Percentage

Figure 6.2: Analysis of percentage of the survey

Graphs in figure 6.1 and 6.2 explained the responses that given by all pupils
in the classroom towards the interest and the operational of the action method in the
51

lesson. However, it is apparent from these tables, 7 out of 30 pupils found that
Tricky Guess Card Game unable to attract their interest in utilising the vocabulary
that they had learnt before. The reason of this result was not clear but it might be
something to do with the proficiency level of the pupils itself where I found that
some of the slow learners struggled when playing the game. It might be difficult for
them to understand the meaning of the sentence in the cards due to lack of
vocabulary. Thus, it could be one of the factors that affected their interest towards the
game.
Based on the overall result of the survey, it shows that Tricky Guess Card
Game provided positive reinforcement in enhancing pupils interest to utilise
vocabulary. It encouraged positive attitude and development of pupils where pupils
became more actively participated and learnt to collaborate during the lessons.

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CHAPTER 7
FINDINGS

In this chapter, I will explain about the finding of this research in order to answer the
research questions.

7.1

Findings
In order to answer the first research question which is Does Tricky Guess

card game able to enhance pupils interest in learning vocabulary? there were several
data that could provide some elucidation to answer this question. The data given
from pre and post interviews showed positive feedback towards the effectiveness of
Tricky Guess Card Game. From aspect of stimulating pupils interest, I found that
all respondents agreed that Tricky Guess Card Game enhanced their interest in
utilising vocabulary. It helped pupils in bursting their motivation to learn and
embarked their interest in utilising the vocabulary. Following questions show that
interest of pupils to learn the vocabulary upsurge during the reading lesson.
Question: Does this game increase your interest to learn English words?
Answer:

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Respondent 1: Yes. I like game so I will remember the words in long period.
Respondent 2: Yes because it was fun.
Respondent 3: Yes because I can play with my group members.
The observation data supported the statement from the respondents in the
interview where Tricky Guess Card game helped to enhance their interest in
utilising vocabulary. Both observers agreed that the game was able to create fun and
joyful learning environment in the lesson. It could be seen from the change of pupils
behaviour at the end of action method. I could see that the pupils actively
participated in the activity and able to work together as a group. Besides, the survey
also prove that the game able to boost their participation and interest in utilising the
vocabulary during the lesson. Based on the result of the survey, 29 pupils (96.7 %)
agreed that the Tricky Guess Card Game able to enhance their interest and 24 pupils
(80.0 %) admitted that their vocabulary level increased when they played the game.
Thus, from the explanation above, it proved that Tricky Guess Card Game able to
enhance Year 3 pupils interest in utilising the vocabulary.
The second research question discussed about how Tricky Guess card game
enhanced pupils interest in learning vocabulary in ESL classroom. Therefore, the
results of this study indicated two main aspects that affected the increasing of pupils
interest the in utilising the vocabulary. The first aspect that marked their interest was
collaboration. From the analysis of the data, collaboration and co-operation among
the group members played importance role to embark interest inside pupils. The
responses given from the pupils showed that any argument that happened when the
action method was implemented totally influenced their motivation and excitement
to participate in the activity. One of the respondents expressed their belief that
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conflict that happened between his group members demotivated him from enjoying
the game .

Question: How about the second game? Tricky Guess Card Game? Did you enjoy
the game?
Respondent 3: I enjoy the game but when our group fight then I dont feel good.
Questions: Do you like to play the game with your friends? Or do prefer to play it
individually? Why?
Respondent 2:

Play individuallyI dont like when they were fighting.

By referring to the survey data, there were 10 pupils (33.3%) who did not
enjoy playing the game with their friends. It could be due to miscommunication or
different personalities among the group members that lead to the misunderstanding
between them. Therefore, collaboration and co-operation among the group members
were very important so that they could play the game without feeling stress or
uncomfortable.
Fun and joyful element in the game was the second aspect which I found very
significant to enhance pupils interest in utilising vocabulary in ESL classroom.
Based on the overall data from three different sources, it stated that Tricky Guess
Card game required fun and joyful learning that made the pupils excited to
participate in the activity. The feedback from the post-interview session showed that
the action method generated respondents motivation to take part in the lessons due
to fun and joyful element inside the game,
Question: How about the second game, Tricky Guess Card Game? Did you
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enjoy the game? Why?

Answer:
Respondent 1: Yes! Because it challenges my mind.
Respondent 2: I enjoy the game because it was fun
Question: Does this game increase your interest to learn English words?
Respondent 2: Yes because it was fun.
Based on the statements from the respondents, I believe that implementation of the
game in the lesson in order to enhance pupils vocabulary utilisation gave positive
result towards pupils participations and attitudes in the class.
Hence, the result of this study indicated Tricky Guess Card game
able to enhance Year 3 pupils interest in utilising vocabulary in ESL classroom.
From explanation and the triangulation data that was presented above provide strong
evidence that support the effectiveness of the action method in generating pupils
interest in utilising vocabulary and encouraged them in engaging to the lessons.

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CHAPTER 8
SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
In this chapter, I will describe about the limitation of this study with some
explanation about the evaluation on the action taken. The suggestion of the further
research will be elucidate at the end of the chapter.

8.1

Limitation of Studies

It has to be acknowledging that this study had several limitations. One of the
limitations was the time constraint. Due to lack of time in school, I was unable to
conduct many lessons to implement the game. Therefore, I did not have much time to
collect more data that could give me more rigid evidences towards the effectiveness
of the Tricky Guess Card Game in enhancing pupils interest in utilising the
vocabulary.
Based on the overall result from this research, I found that Tricky Guess card
Game was a suitable vocabulary game that helped in enhancing my pupils interest in
utilising vocabulary during English lessons. However, this result would not be the
same with other pupils in different schools who had different learning style and
background.
The other limitation of this research was in the aspect of pupils proficiency
level. I could not claim that pupils proficiency level in utilising the vocabulary

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would increase because this study was focusing on enhancing pupils interest and
motivated them to actively engage in the activity.
8.2

Evaluation on the action taken

Based on the actions taken in this research, I found that the implementation of
the action method was well conducted and received positive responses from many
parties, not only from the Year Three pupils but teachers and school administrators
also gave good feedback about this research. During this research was conducted, the
pupils gave fully co-operation as they participated well during the lessons. Even
though some of the pupils were having hard time to deal with their group members,
they still enjoying the game. I could see that pupils more encouraged participating in
the lessons. Besides from time to time, it helped pupils to change their mind-set
about English subject. Nevertheless, I realised that my classroom management was
quite poor. I could not really control the pupils behaviour well. I admit that not all
pupils gave their fully attention during the lesson. This might be happened due to
lack of experience and not really prepared for the lesson.

8.3 Suggestion based on the evaluation of action taken

Further research should be done in order to improve the quality of the action
method and the research procedures. Hence, for this research, there are several
improvements can be done. First, the steps of the Tricky Guess Card Game can be
improvise so that it can give more challenges to the pupils and able to stimulate
higher order thinking skill (HOTS) among the pupils. I realise that the game was not

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really encouraged pupils to think critically about the vocabulary that they had learnt.
I believe if the pupils able to use and apply their thinking skills in solving the game,
they will enjoy and feel more excited to play the game.
In this research, I found that it is important to improve pupils collaboration
among the group members in order to increase the effectiveness of the action
method. Thus, in the next cycle, I will provide more encouragement and
reinforcement among the pupils to improve their communication and social skill with
their colleagues. I believe it is my role to assist the pupils movement in the class so
that they can play the game without facing any problem and the action method can be
done smoothly. Thus, before the game start, it is important for me to raise concern
among the pupils to work together as group and encourage them to have good
communication among the group members in order to avoid any internal conflict in
the group itself. As the action method being implemented, I will always highlight the
value of togetherness and co-operation among the pupils. I believe that by providing
support to the pupils, it will increase their competitiveness in positive way.

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CHAPTER 9
CONCLUSION

9.1 Conclusion

This study aimed at enhancing Year 3 pupils interest in utilising vocabulary

using Tricky Guess card game in ESL classroom in order to increase pupils English
language learning. Generally speaking, the basic objectives of this research study
were achieved. According to the research finding in the chapter 7, I conclude that using
Tricky Guess Card Game able to enhance Year 3 pupils in utilising vocabulary in ESL
classroom. Based on the data that was collected using the three main data sources, which
interview, observation, and survey, it provided evidences and explanation in answering all
research questions.
After the implementation of the game, majority of pupils in the class were able to
participate well especially during vocabulary lesson. They became more active and showed
interest to learn and took part in the lesson. Therefore, to certain extant, Tricky Guess Card
Game might helped in enhancing Year 3 pupils interest in utilising vocabulary in ESL
classroom.

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