IMPROVING STUDENTS VOCABULARY BY USING RIDDLE GAME

(A Classroom Action Research on the Seventh Grade of Tsanawiyah Khulafaur Rasyidin

Pontianak in Academic Year 2016/2017)

A Research Design

Proposed by:

Khairunnisa
F1021131047

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY

TANJUNGPURA UNIVERSITY

2016

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 IMPROVING STUDENTS VOCABULARY BY USING RIDDLE GAME

(A Classroom Action Research on the Seventh Grade of Tsanawiyah Khulafaur

Rasyidin Pontianak in Academic Year 2016/2017)

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. RESEARCH BACKGROUND
Vocabulary is one of important aspects in learning a foreign language. It is the basic
competences for in students in order to get the other competences like listening,
speaking, reading and writing. Vocabulary can not be separated from other elements
of English in teaching learning process especially in junior high school because
vocabulary influences the ability of student in studying English language. Students
can communicate and express their ideas, emotions, and feelings well by an adequate
number of words that they have stored in mind.

At school, especially at Tsanawiyah Khulafaur Rasyidin Pontianak, vocabulary is

taught by integrating with skill such as speaking, reading, writing, and listening. At
the seventh grade, the teaching of vocabulary focus on writing simple sentence with
the words that they learn. Where before coming into that level students need to know
the meaning of the words, how to spell and pronounce the words.

On one teaching learning process at the seventh grade students the teacher found
some problems on the students mastery of vocabulary. Many students do not know
the meaning of English words within the text. Another problem is when the students
answer the question, the students write in the wrong spelling. Hence, the score
achieved by the students is still below the minimum score standard. Teacher uses
dictionary to teach vocabulary. It is assumed that is technique perhaps not suitable to
help the students to learn vocabulary well.

It is important to use suitable techniques to improve students vocabulary. And also,

the teacher has to do some efforts in order to improve the students vocabulary. Based
on those problems, the writer would like to help the teacher to solev the students

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 difficulties in learning vocabulary by providing a new technique to be implemented in
the class. An appropriate technique delivered by the writer is by using riddle game
which has not been used by the teacher.

Riddle game can help the students in learning vocabulary, especially in the meaning
and spelling of the word. Davis (2010) stated riddle is instructional technique
arouses students interest in learning in experimenting with the different word uses,
meanings, and structures. By using this game, the students may remember the
meaning of the words, and the students know how to spell the words.

The researcher intends to conduct Classroom Action Research to the seventh grade
students of Tsanawiyah Khulafaur Rasyidin Pontianak by using riddle game. It is
expected that riddle game can motivate students to learn English vocabulary,
memorize meaning and spelling of English words with fun activity. However, the
more fun activities they do, the more knowledge they get in the classroom.

B. RESEARH PROBLEM
Will the students improve their vocabulary by using riddle game?

C. RESEARCH PURPOSE
To improve students vocabulary by using riddle game

D. ACTION HYPOTHESIS
The action hypothesis of this research is riddle game can improve the students
vocabulary in meaning and spelling of words of seventh grade students of Tsanawiyah
Khulafaur Rasyidin Pontianak in academic year 2016/2017.

E. SCOPE OF RESEARCH
1. Subject of Research
The subject of this research is the students at Seventh Grade of Tsanawiyah
Khulafaur Rasyidin Pontianak in academic year 2016/2017.

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 2. Terminology
To avoid misunderstanding and clarify the terms on this topic of this research, the
writer presents the following terminologies:
a. Vocabulary in this research is numbers of words. The reseacher focuses on
noun and adjective. It is integrated in reading skill, especially in descriptive
text.
b. Riddle is a game which is played by answering the question or statement. It is
related to the material that the students have learned. It requires students to
work together to find the answer from the statement.
c. The students of seventh grade are the learners who are studying in Tsanawiyah
Khulafaur Rasyidin Pontianak.

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 CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

F. FRAME OF THEORY
1. Teaching Vocabulary
Teaching vocabulary in the school is intergrated with other skill, such as
reading, writing, listening, and etc. According to Ur (1999:23) there are some
aspects of vocabulary that should be taught or mastered by students in learning
foreign language, such as; form (pronounciation and spelling), grammar,
aspects of meaning and word formation.

2. Aspects in Vocabulary
a. Meaning of words
The first way of presenting new vocabulary based on Haycraft (1993)
is in context. If a words occurs in a text or passage, the meaning can be
often deducated when the other words in the sentence are already
known. Meaning of word is primarily what it refers to in the real
words.
b. Spelling
Spelling is defined as the act of forming words correctly from
individual letters, the ability to form words correctly, and the way that
word is spelt. According to Ur (19996:23) the learner has to know
what word sound like (its pronounciation) and what it looks like (its
spelling).

3. Teaching Vocabulary by Using Games

Wierus (1994) cited in Uberman (1998:20) stated that relaxed atmosphere
which is created by using games, students remember things faster and better.
According to Moursund (2006:21) for many students, games are intrinsically
motivating. Game is an activity which is entertaining and engaging.
As Uberman (1998:20) said in her teaching experience, students are very
enthusiastic practicing language by using games.

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 4. Teaching Vocabulary by Using Riddle Game
According to Nachtial (2010), riddles are excellent ESL/EFL tools because
they require students to practice a variety of language skills in order to find
solution. Riddle does not only ask students to think logically and creatively,
its also fun challenge for students, who will be motivated to solve the clues in
riddle.

In this research, the writer will use the riddle with clues. The writer will
arrange the clues that will be answered by the students. The clues are arranged
to be riddle consist of the meaning of the word that will be learnt as leaning
materials.

G. FRAME OF CONCEPT
In the process of teaching learning vocabulary through riddle game, the teacher will
prepare everything that will be used in teaching vocabulary. Even though riddle has
some weakness, one of them is riddle hs double meaning that would probably make
the students a little bit confused to answer or solve the riddle. However learning
vocabulary through riddle game is more fun for students and also the students mind
will be stimulated, and their critical thinking will be sharpened.

Riddle is a cooperative game. The players or team work together towards a common
goal. In riddle game, it is better for teacher to arrange the students in group. All
learners in gorup work together to solve the problems.

By using the riddle game in vocabulary learning, the students will get interested to the
activity. The students will also enjoy their activity in the classroom. The students may
remember the words that they have learned which are involved in constructing the
meaning of words given by riddle.

The teacher applies this technique while the teacher teaches the students about
descriptive text. Using this game will help the students to undestand the meaning of
the words based on the text and help the students how to spell the words. The students

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 will answer the riddle in group. In order to make this game successfully, the teacher
will prepare everything like students rules, teachers rule, and the procedure of game.

Teacher gives the students a descriptive text, explain to the students about the purpose
of the text, generic structure and language feature of the text. Then the teacher and the
students read the text. After that the teacher ask the stduents to find difficult words.
Teacher will help the students to find the meaning of difficult words. To make the
students more memorize the meaning of the words an d can spell the word correctly,
the teacher will apply riddle game in the classroom.

The step of teaching vocabulary by using riddle game are as follow:

1. The teacher divides students into group. Each of group consist 4 students.
2. The teacher explain about riddle game clearly; including the rule of game,
reward and the time.
3. The teacher shows the clues of riddle with picture by using LCD projector.
4. The fastest group who rise their hand, will get the opportunity to answer the
question. The stduents are only allow to guess the riddle when the thrid clue
has been given by the teacher. If the students acn not answer the riddle, the
teacher will give the fourth clue. If the students can not guess the riddle in 10
seconds, the teacher will move to the next clue. The answer should be written
on the whiteboard.
5. If the riddle has been answered, the teacher and the students will discuss the
riddle together in brief.
6. The teacher collects the point, 1 answer is 10 point. The group who gets many
points means that they are the winner.

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 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH OF METHODOLOGY

1. FORM OF RESEARCH
There are many methods that can be used by researcher in doing research, but
the researcher shoul be selective in choosing appropriate method with
research. According to the problems, the appropriate method to be used in this
research is Action Research. The writer tries to use the method to engage and
improve one of the skills that used by the students, in this case is vocabulary.

Action research is systematic inquiry whic is the way for teacher to discover
what works best in their own classroom situation. According to Kemmis and
Mc Taggar cited in Arends (2004:507) stated that action reserach starts with
classroom situation that teachers find unsatisfied and in need of improvement.
It seems like they go to say that action research can be seen as a method for
applying in the classroom to solve the problem that faced by the students in
learning English. So, the teacher searches what the real problems to analyze
and decides what action should be taken to solve the problem and tries to
make a good improvement on that.

Lewin described Classroom Action Research into 4 steps: planning, acting,

observing, and reflecting. Below is the model of Classroom Action Research
cycle by Lewin which had been modified by Kemmis:

a. Planning
Planning is related to the activity whic is going to be held by in the
classroom. The writer design lesson plan, prepare teaching material,
media in teaching learning process, instrument in collecting data and
also teach English teacher how to conduct the technique in the class.
The preparations planned by writer can be seen as follow:
1) Lesson plan
2) Observation checklist

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 3) Field note sheet
4) Test

b. Acting
Acting is the action after planning has been managed. It is when the
technique, material and tasks are being held or applied. In this
research, the teacher will teach the students and the writer will act as
collaborator to observe what will happened during the class. Teacher
will the students by using riddle game to solve the students problem
and to improve students vocabulary.

Meanwhile to know the progress of the students, the teacher and writer
will prepare the students assessment. Moreover, the writer will sit in
the class to take note in form of observation checklist and field note.

c. Observing
In this stage, the collaborator observe the activity by giving checklist to
the obseravtion and field note to get anything that occur in the teaching
learning process, incuding the obstacles that foudn as well as the
probable solution to overcome. The observation is not only aimed to
the students but also to the teacher, how the teacher gives the
instructions and teaches the students; whether the procedures are
relevant to the lesson plan or not. The writer would like to see the
activity from teacher and students in the class by using observation
checklist and field note.

d. Reflecting
In this stage, the writer and the teacher reflect of what happen in the
planning to observation stage. This stage determined the success of the
technique being used; whether it worked well or there were still
weakness toward the process.

After getting the result of the test, the teacher and the collaborators
reflect the students comprehension in form of score. The result of the

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 observation checklist is to translate into sentences. It is used as tool to
gather the information. Then, the teacher and the collborators combine
all the information they have collected from the tolls. Then, they
determine whether there is another cycle to improve the result and the
process or not.

2. RESEARCH SUBJECT
The subject of this research is the first year student of VII B of SMP Negeri 8
Pontianak in the academic year of 2016/2017. In this class, there are 28 students,
consist all female students.

3. TECHNIQUE AND TOOL OF DATA COLLECTING

1) Technique of Data Collecting
Choosing and using an appropriate technique to collect the data of
research is very important. In this research, the researcher thinks that
the appropriate technique for data collection is observation and
measurement technique. In this research, the research will teach the
students and the researcher will pay attention to the stduents
performance carefully in order to nitice thing that connection with the
research focus. The observation will be done by using observation
checklist sheet and field note as a guidance to notice students
improvement by using riddle game. Meanwhile, measurement
technique will be done by conducting test to know the students
progress or students vocabulary achievement in every cycle.

2) Tool of Data Collecting

The instrument or tool data collecting that will be used by the
researcher:

a) Observation Checklist Sheet

Observation is a technique to collect the data by observing the
activity of the research process. The researcher will use

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 observation checklist as a tool of data collecting. Burns (2010)
explains that observation checklist is used to restrict in order
to looking at some aspects when teaching and learning process
and do not devise too many quetions nor have many
categories. So, the writer will conduct simple checklist and
focus on the specific topic in order to make the better
observation result.

The purpose of recording the observation are to have the clear

description of the existing condition and what happening in the
classroom during teaching learning process and as sources or
reflection for the next action. The writer determine some
indicators based on the technique use in the classroom.

b) Field Note
Field notes are not made by the collaborator when the teacher
applies this technique to the students. The teacher will pour in
anything that occurs in the class, when the class finished.
Beside that, the teacher also be helped by the collaborator. In
this part, the teacher asks the collaborator to help him or her to
write down anything that occured when the teacher applies this
technique, including the obstacle that the teacher finds in
teaching learning process.

As Newbury (2001) stated tht field note can be understood as

an objective record of observation made in a particular setting.
So, the researcher will use field note as a proof of situation,
behavior, students action during the teacher is impelemnting
the technique which is provided by the researcher.

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 c) Test
The test will be used to record the students score in achieving
vocabulary. In this research, the writer will use test which
consist of 20 questions.

4. DATA ANALYSIS
The data or the research findings will be discussed based on the result of
students test, observation checklist tables, and field notes.
a. To get students score from their test, the writer will use formula as follow:

Score = Correct Answer x 100

Number of Questions

b. To get students mean score, the writer will measure it by using the
following formula:

The formula : P =

Note : P = the average score of the students

= the total of students score
= the total of students in the classroom

The result will be categorized as follow:

Range Score Classification
90-100 Excellent
80-89 Good
70-79 Average
50-69 Poor
0-49 Very Poor
(Heaton,1988)

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 The data will be analyzed by reflecting the factor information taken from the
students test, observation checklist tables, and field notes. The reflecting is
one of getting feedback of the teaching learning process. From this activity,
the researcher expects to find out the benefit of the strength and the weakness
of the process. After knowing the weakness, the researcher then can decide
what action would be treated in the classroom to improve the teaching learning
process.

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 APPENDIX I

OBSERVATION CHECKLIST TABLE

DAY :
DATE:
CYCLE:

Please put checklist () on 1,2,3, or 4 to the consideration below based on the

activity in the classroom!

No. Consideration Score

1 2 3 4
1. Students pay attention toward teachers
explanation about riddle game and the
material on it.
2. Students participate on writing the
vocabulary related to the riddle game on the
whiteboard
3. Students follow teachers intruction in
playing the riddle game.
4. Students curious about the material related
to the riddle game by asking question to the
teacher.
5. Students enthusiastic in responding teachers
question about the vocabulary related to the
riddle game
6. Students can answer the meaning of the
vocabulary related to the riddle game
7. Students participate in group work related to
the vocabulary in the riddle game.
8. Students enthusiastic in doing individual
task related to the vocabulary in the riddle

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 APPENDIX II

FIELD NOTES

DAY:
DATE:
CYCLE:

ASPECTS DESCRIPTION
Preparation

Acting

Observing

Reflecting

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 PUBLIC PLACE RIDDLE
CAN YOU FIND OUT WHAT IT IS

1. THIS IS WHERE YOU CAN BUY AND VARIOUS HOUSEHOLD

BREAD AND CAKES. SUPPLIES. WHAT IS IT?
WHAT IS IT?
8. THIS IS THE PLACE FOR

2. THIS IS THE PLACE WHERE EXHIBITION OF ARTISTIC

YOU DEPOSIT, WITHDRAW WORK. WHAT IS IT?

MONEY OR CASH A CHECK.

9. THIS IS THE WHERE YOU CAN
WHAT IS IT?
BORROW AND READ BOOKS.
WHAT IS IT?
3. THIS IS THE PLACE WHERE
YOU CAN BUY BOOKS AND
10. THIS IS THE PLACE WHERE
MAGAZINES. WHAT IS IT?
CRIMINALS ARE SENT BY A
JUDGE. WHAT IS IT?
4. THIS IS THE PLACE WHERE
YOU CAN BUY A CUP OF
COFFEE. WHAT IS IT?

5. THIS IS THE PLACE WHERE

YOU CAN SEE MOVIES. WHAT
IS IT?

6. THIS IS THE PLACE FOR ILL

PEOPLE WHEN THEY NEED
AN OPERATION OR TAKING
CARE OF HEALTH. WHAT IS
IT?

7. THIS IS THE PLACE WHERE

YOU CAN BUY FOODSTUFFS

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APPENDIX III (TEACHING LEARNING PROCEDURE)

LESSON PLAN

Satuan Pendidikan : Tsanawiyah/SMP

Mata Pelajaran : Bahasa Inggris

Kelas/Semester : X/2

Pertemuan Ke :1

Alokasi Waktu : 2 x 45 menit

Skill : Speaking

i. Opening
The teacher open the class by saying greeting and asking students condition.
Besides, the teacher also ask students readiness to learn.

ii. Core Activity

In this meeting the teacher introduces some public place as the material in
teaching English. After that, the teacher divides students into group. Each of
group consist 4 students. The teacher explain about riddle game clearly; including
the rule of game, reward and the time. The teacher shows the clues of riddle with
picture by using LCD projector.The fastest group who rise their hand, will get the
opportunity to answer the question. The students are only allow to guess the riddle
when the thrid clue has been given by the teacher. If the students can not answer
the riddle, the teacher will give the fourth clue. If the students can not guess the
riddle in 10 seconds, the teacher will move to the next clue. The answer should be
written on the whiteboard. If the riddle has been answered, the teacher and the
students will discuss the riddle together in brief. The teacher collects the point, 1

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 answer is 10 point. The group who gets many points means that they are the
winner.

iii. Closing
Before closing the class, firstly the teacher asked students regarding their
difficulties during the teaching and learning process. If it might there some
questions concerning with materials, the teacher will a bit explain and give the
answer. Some advices are also given to students to motivate them to remember the
vocabularies they have learned. While to close the class, the teacher closes it by
saying greeting salam.

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 TEMPORARY REFERENCES

Alemi, Minoo. 2010. Educational Games as a Vehicle to Teaching Vocabulary.

Arends, Richard I. 2004. Learning To Teach, 6th Edition. New Yorl:MC Graw
Hiil.
Edited by Elfrieda H.Hiebert, Michael L. Kamil. 2005.Teaching and Learning
Vocabulary. United States of America
Burn, Anne. 2010. Doing Action Researcg in English Language Teaching. New
York
Cameron, Lynne. 2003. Teaching Languages to Young Learners. Cambridge
University Press.
Haycraft,J. 1993. An Introduction to English Language Teaching. Longman
Group Ltd.
Keith D, Kessler Brett, Leben William R. 2007. English Vocabulary Elements
Second Edition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Janet Allen. 2006. Words,Words, Words. Teaching Vocabuary in Grade 4-12.
Mardan, M.J. 2009. What is a Riddles?. English-Learners. Biggest Source for
Non-native English Learners. Available at www.English-Learners.com.
Xhaferi, Brikena. 2008. Vocabulary Learning Strategies Used by Students at Seeu
in Terms of Gender and Teachers attitude Toward Teaching Vocabulary.

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