ABSTRACT
This final project is entitled WORD PUZZLES AS MEDIA FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY (The Case of the 5th Graders of SD Muhammadiyah Jepara). The objective of this study is to describe whether teaching vocabulary using word puzzles is effective to improve the students’ achievement.
The subjects of this study were 16 of the 5th graders of SD Muhammadiyah Jepara. In constructing this study, the writer collected data from the class action research that was carried out through a pre-test, continued with two cycles research, and ended with a post-test. Each cycle consisted of a teaching learning process and a formative test. Besides, to collect the data, a questionnaire and field notes were used. The Questionnaire was meant to answer the problem of the study and the field notes were used to observe the situation of the class during each cycle of this study. All of the teaching learning process and formative tests were presented with the help of word puzzles. There were two kinds of word puzzles, Puzzle Cards, and Categories. The first cycle was using word puzzles individually and the second was using both of them in pairs.
The data analysis of this study was descriptive qualitative and a bit of quantitative measurement to find the mean. Based on the data analysis from each activity, it could be seen that there was a significant deference of the students’ achievement in the pre-test and the post-test. The students’ achievement in the post-test (91, 72 %) was higher than that of the pre-test (60, 94 %). Furthermore, the students’ mastery of English vocabulary in the first cycle improved when they worked individually. And in the second cycle, they improved more when they worked in pairs. The average of the students’ achievement in the second cycle after the treatment (97, 5 %) was better than the average of the students’ achievement in the first cycle (95, 94 %).
Based on this study, the students’ mastery of English vocabulary improved because of the students’ interest of the word puzzles given and the relevance between the vocabularies used in this study that were also used in their daily activities. It was found that the use of word puzzles in teaching English vocabulary is very beneficial for the students in order to facilitate them in learning English vocabulary.
Based on this finding, it is suggested that word puzzles in teaching English vocabulary are recommended to the English teacher. To get a wider generalization, researches of similar kind should be done with greater population.
