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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter presents and discusses the nature of vocabulary, teaching
vocabulary in classroom, how to teach vocabulary enjoyable, strategies in
teaching vocabulary, kinds of vocabulary, language testing on vocabulary,
methods of the teaching vocabulary, techniques for teaching vocabulary, the use
of games in learning vocabulary, the use of games in learning vocabulary, kinds
of games to practice vocabulary and teaching vocabulary using domino cards.
A. The Nature of Vocabulary
We can understand English sentences if we know the meaning and
understands the words. Sometimes we can get the meaning of word directly from
the context but sometimes we need other words to help finding the meaning of the
word, and sometimes a word doesn’t have any meaning without other word.
According to Cyntia and Johnson (2004), words are the tools we use to think, to
express ideas and feelings, and to learn about the world. Because words are very
foundation of learning, improving students’ vocabulary knowledge has become an
educational priority. Students’ word knowledge is strongly linked with academic
accomplishment, because a rich vocabulary is essential to successful reading
comprehension. Students must know any vocabulary to develop their English
language.
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Vocabulary is one of the important factors in English language. Besides,
vocabulary is an important factor for practicing language as a means of
communication. Vocabulary is a list of words their meaning especially in a book
for learning a foreign language (Hornby, 2000:1447), which means any unit of
language uses it in writing. Words are the basic element in contracting a language.
Related to English teaching and learning process, language skills such as
listening, speaking, reading and writing need a series of words that are called
vocabulary. In other words, vocabulary is an important role in English language
teaching.
According to Pieter (1991: 6) in vocabulary development skill, state that:
”Vocabulary is one of the components of language that no language exists
without words. Words are sign or symbols for ideas. They are means by which
people exchange their thoughts. The more words we learn, the more ideas we
should have so we can communicate the ideas more effectively”. It means that all
words can be identified into vocabulary, so the more words will more ideas we
should have and we can communicate use language foreign easily.
Based on the statement above, vocabulary is taught with other elements of
language. It is taught through sentence to get the contextual meaning, in other that
students guess the meaning of words or new item in context. During the teaching
we can consult the dictionary to help students find the meaning of new words. It
can also increase the vocabulary mastery.
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B. Teaching Vocabulary in classroom
There are some ideas related to teaching vocabulary in classroom, they are :
1. Focusing on vocabulary
In teaching vocabulary, the first thing to do is focusing on the vocabulary
itself. According to Jeanne (2007) giving vocabulary a high profile in the syllabus
will make students see its importance and understand that learning a language is
not just about learning grammar. One of the first vocabulary strategies for
classroom is how to ask for the meaning of words. As teacher, the easiest way to
stimulate students to think about the meaning of a word is by giving questions
such as “What’s the meaning of ‘bola’ in English?” and then followed by “How
do you say it?.” Then, teacher can repeat multiple times about the meaning of a
word either from their mother tongue to English or from English to their mother
tongue. The next step after teaching the basic level, teacher can use paraphrasing
strategy. In explaining the meaning of particular word, paraphrasing can be done
by saying, “It’s a kind of….,” or It’s like a…” in the beginning of explanation.
This strategy is useful to make students activate their curiosity so that students
will actively look for the meaning of particular word by themselves.
2. Offering variety
Teachers can use different ways to present vocabulary including pictures,
sounds, and different text types in which students can identify: stories,
conversations, web pages, questionnaires, news reports, etc. In each of these
contexts, topics should be relevant to students’ interests.
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Offering variety also means catering to different learning styles. Some
students may use different learning styles for different types of language or in
different learning situations. So this means offering activities that sometimes
appeal to learners who are more “studial” and “analytic” (those who need to
analyze the language and to be accurate in their use of it) as well as learners who
are “experiential” and “global” (those who are less concerned with accuracy as
with learning whole chunks of language) and catering to students who prefer to
learn either by seeing, hearing, or doing something.
By offering variety in teaching vocabulary, all students will be easier in
learning vocabulary. If teacher only teach vocabulary in an ordinary way like
memorizing without using any kind of teaching media, students will be longer in
understanding the meaning of words and have difficulties in using the words itself
in daily life context. Teacher should be more creative in presenting the vocabulary
to students, especially for elementary students which basically needs an
interesting media to catch their interest in learning a new concept.
3. Repetition
Learning vocabulary is largely about remembering, and students generally
need to see, say, and write newly learned words many times before they can be
said to have learned them. Most researchers agree that repetition is an important
aid to learning and that having to actively recall or “retrieve” a word is a more
effective way of learning than simple exposure or just seeing a word over and
over (Sokmen, Jeanne 2007). Researchers also agree that repeating words aloud
helps students remember words better than repeating them silently The
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implications for the vocabulary classroom are self-evident: Review vocabulary as
often as possible in activities that have students actively recall words and produce
them rather than merely see or hear them.
Considering that learning vocabulary is mostly about remembering the
words and using it in communication. Thus, repetition strategy is extremely useful
to strengthen student’s vocabulary mastery. It is clinical since students may be
easily forgetting the words which have been presented. By repeating the
vocabulary, students’ memories will be stronger so that they can remember and
use the appropriate words in communication
4. Providing opportunities to organize vocabulary
Textbooks often present new vocabulary in thematic sets as an aid to
memory, but there are other types of organization and these can be described
under three broad headings: real-world groups, language-based groups, and
personalized groups, examples of which are given below:
a. Real-world groups occur in the real world, such as the countries within each
continent, parts of the body, the foods in each food type (carbohydrate, protein,
fats, etc.), activities that take place for a celebration (e.g., at a wedding),
expressions people typically use in everyday situations (e.g., when someone
passes an examination, has bad luck, etc.). Students can draw on their general
knowledge to group English vocabulary according to concepts with which they
are already familiar.
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b. Language-based groups draw on linguistic criteria as ways of grouping, for
example, the different parts of speech of a word family; words that have the same
prefix or suffix, or the same sound; verbs and dependent prepositions; collocations
of different kinds (verb + noun; adjective + noun, etc.).
c. Personalized groups use students’ own preferences and experiences as the basis
for the groups. It might include grouping vocabulary according to likes and
dislikes, personal habits or personal history, for example, foods that you like and
don’t like, or eat often, sometimes, rarely, or that you ate for breakfast, lunch, and
dinner yesterday. Making vocabulary personal helps to make it more memorable.
5. Pesenting vocabulary properly
Another important point is not to overload students – there are limits to
how much vocabulary anyone can absorb for productive use in one lesson and this
will be affected by how “difficult” the words are and how much students are
required to know about them on the notion of difficulty. If vocabulary sets ever
seem too daunting for students, allow them to choose which items they want to
prioritize.
If teachers give too much portion in presenting vocabulary, it is not good
for students. Presenting adequate vocabulary based on students capabilities’ in
each meeting is wiser rather than presenting a lot of vocabularies in only one
occasion.
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C. How to Teach Vocabulary Enjoyable
To make teacher enjoy in teaching vocabulary, there are some strategies
which can be used by teacher as follows :
1. Reading to the students every day
No matter how old we are, listening to stories is one of life’s great
pleasures. Since a child’s listening vocabulary is about two years ahead of his or
her reading vocabulary (Beimiller in Newton & Padak, 2006). Daily read aloud
can introduce students to words and concepts that they may not yet be ready to
read independently. Multiple exposures to new words in text or conversation
expand children’s understanding. To expand students’ conceptual and content
knowledge, read aloud should include a wide range of genres. As students
experience new worlds through the high-quality language of children’s and young
adult literature, their vocabulary expands in a natural and pleasurable way.
2. Providing time for students to read independently, and talking about what
they have read
We know that in order to expand their vocabularies, students need to read
extensively (Blachowicz & Fisher in Newton & Padak, 2006). The more we read,
the more we meet the same words in both familiar and new contexts. Encourage
students to choose texts of high interest to them, even those that are too easy or
too difficult. Even a simple text can generate conversation that will expand
students’ conceptual knowledge and increase their overall word awareness.
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Talking about what they have read is essential to vocabulary development.
Describing a story’s character or events, for example, gives students an
opportunity to use new vocabulary in an oral context. Explaining information they
have read about a topic to others deepens new conceptual knowledge.
3. Creating a classroom setting that builds word awareness
Accordding to Padak (2006) we have to make sure that our classroom
provides children with easy access to information about words and regular
opportunities to display or use what they are discovering. We have to help
students learn how to explore dictionaries as well as other print and electronic
resources for word learning.
We can post a “root-of-the-week” on chart paper, and invite students to
search for words that share the root. The prefix re-, for example, is found in many
words that children use every day. If a dictionary is handy, we will find students
searching for re words to add to the chart and, in the process, talking with peers
about how the words reflect the prefix meaning (“back” or “again”).
It will take our students an entire lifetime to explore the vast array of
words we use. We don’t have to concentrate all our efforts on teaching a limited
number of words. We only keep the focus of our vocabulary instruction on
creating opportunities for students to explore words in many contexts. Also. we
have to remember that interest in words is more “caught” than “taught,” so we
should talk about the power of words in our own life.
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D. Strategies in Teaching Vocabulary
Generally strategies in teaching vocabulary can be devided into two :
1. Explicit Vocabulary Instruction
In this kinds of intructions, teacher can use somes steps as follows :
a. Pre-teaching Vocabulary Words
One of the most effective methods of helping children learn new
vocabulary words is to teach unfamiliar words used in a text prior to the reading
experience. Adults (either alone or with the child(ren)) should preview reading
materials to determine which words are unfamiliar. Then these words should be
defined and discussed. It is important for the adult to not only tell the child(ren)
what the word means, but also to discuss its meaning. This allows the child(ren) to
develop an understanding of the word’s connotations as well as its denotation.
Also, discussion provides the adult with feedback about how well the child(ren)
understands the word. After pre-teaching vocabulary words, the child(ren) should
read the text.
b. Repeated Exposure to Words
It may seem common sense that the more times we are exposed to a word,
the stronger our understanding becomes. However, repeated exposure to new
vocabulary words is often ignored. Adults often forget a person (especially a
child) needs to hear and use a word several times before it truly becomes a part of
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her vocabulary. Providing multiple opportunities to use a new word in its written
and spoken form helps children solidify their understanding of it.
c. Keyword Method
Like pre-teaching, the keyword method occurs before a child reads a
particular text. In this method, unfamiliar words are introduced prior to reading.
However, rather than encouraging the child to remember a definition for a new
word, the adult teaches him a “word clue” to help him understand it. This “word
clue” or keyword might be a part of the definition, an illustrative example or an
image that the reader connects to the word to make it easier to remember the
meaning when reading it in context. The idea behind the keyword method is to
create an easy cognitive link to the word’s meaning that the reader can access
efficiently during a reading experience.
d. Word Maps
The word map is an excellent method for scaffolding a child’s vocabulary
learning. Like the other explicit instructional methods, the adult (either alone or
with the child(ren)) should preview reading materials to determine which words
are unfamiliar. For each of these new vocabulary words the child (with the
support of the adult) creates a graphic organizer for the word. At the top or center
of the organizer is the vocabulary word. Branching off of the word are three
categories: classification (what class or group does the word belong to), qualities
(what is the word like) and examples. Using prior knowledge the child fills in
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each of these three categories. Word maps help readers develop complete
understandings of words. This strategy is best used with children in grades 3-12.
e. Root Analysis
While root analysis is taught explicitly, the ultimate goal is for readers to
use this strategy independently. Many of the words in the English language are
derived from Latin or Greek roots. They either contain a “core” root (the primary
component of the word) or use prefixes or suffixes that hold meaning. Adults
should focus on teaching children the most commonly occurring roots, prefixes
and suffixes. As each is taught examples of its use in common word should be
shared and examined. The reader should see how the root helps her understand the
word’s definition. Children should then be given practice analyzing words to
determine their roots and definitions. When a reader is able to break down
unfamiliar words into their prefixes, suffixes and roots they can begin to
determine their meanings.
f. Restructuring Reading Materials
This strategy is particularly effective for helping struggling readers
improve their vocabularies. Sometimes grade level materials are inaccessible to
readers because there are too many unfamiliar words in them. Adults can
restructure the materials in several different ways to help readers comprehend
them more easily. A portion of the difficult words can be replaced with “easier”
synonyms to help the reader understand the overall text. Vocabulary footnotes
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(definitions provided at the bottom of the page) can be added for particularly
challenging words so that the reader can easily “look up” the word while still
reading the text. An accompanying vocabulary guide can be provided for the text.
Words that are included in the guide should be highlighted or printed in bold text
to direct the reader to check the vocabulary guide if the word or its meaning is
unfamiliar.
2. Implicit Vocabulary Instruction
In this kinds of intructions, teacher can use somes steps as follows :
a. Incidental Learning
Incidental vocabulary learning occurs all of the time when we read. Based
on the way a word is used in a text we are able to determine its meaning. While
you may not know what a specific word means, many times you can determine its
meaning based on what the rest of the sentence focuses on. Adults should model
this sort of incidental vocabulary learning for children to help them develop their
own skills.
b. Context Skills
Context skills are the strategies that a reader uses for incidental vocabulary
learning. Texts are full of “clues” about the meanings of words. Other words in a
sentence or paragraph, captions, illustrations and titles provide readers with
information about the text that they can use to determine the meanings of
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unfamiliar words. These features are often referred to as “context clues” because
they are contained within the context of the piece of writing rather than outside it.
Young readers should be taught to find and use context clues for learning new
vocabulary words. Adult modeling and practice are key for helping children
develop this important reading skill.
E. Kinds of Vocabulary
English vocabulary is divided in two kinds; there are active vocabulary
and passive vocabulary.
1. Active vocabulary
According to Hornby (2000:1447),”vocabulary is the words that you use”.
It means active vocabulary is the words that we use for speaking and writing
every day. The students develop their active vocabulary if they try to express their
idea. The teacher can support the students by presenting the dialogues
demonstrated by two or more students or by teacher and the students in active
class. Furthermore, the teacher can ask her or his students to write a short story
about their daily activity or about their family. By this way, the students can
express their vocabulary in real situation.
2. Passive vocabulary
According to Hornby (2000:1447), “Passive vocabulary is the word that
you understand but you don’t use”. It means passive vocabulary is the words that
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we recognize and understand when listening or reading materials. The students
usually find the meaning of the words is listening or reading material. They will
know the meaning of the words when they read the words in the text and they will
know the meaning of the unknown words of the text. The teachers can help their
students to find the meaning of new words by explaining the meaning using
thought by activity, the students can increase their vocabulary by themselves.
In this study the researcher choose the active vocabulary. It means that the
researcher have purpose to make students understand the words that they use for
speaking and writing to express their idea in active class.
F. Language Testing on Vocabulary
A vocabulary test is conducted to determine the degree to which the
examiner wishes to concentrate on testing the students’ active or passive
vocabulary. Heaton (1988: 9) state that vocabulary test measures the students’
knowledge of the meaning of the certain words as well as the pattern and
collocation in which they occur. Heaton (1988: 55-63) also divided vocabulary
test into multiple choice, sets (associated words), and matching completion items.
The first decision that must be made whether to test students’ active or
passive vocabulary that is, the words they will need merely comprehend
especially in their reading. Generally, speaking vocabulary test on intermediate
level will concentrate on the words need in speaking vocabulary or in
comprehending the oral language while test on advance level will deal mostly
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with the lexicon of written English, the words need by students if they are to
understand news paper, periodical literature and text books (Harris, 1974:48).
G. Methods of the Teaching Vocabulary
Method is level which theory is put practiced and which choices are made
about the particular skills. Provide more explanation about their method. The
vocabulary mastery should be developed and planed in the teaching program.
Some techniques of presenting he words can be applied effectively. If the students
enjoyed attention in teaching and learning process can run well.
According to Richards and Rodgers (1986:15) in approach and methods in
learning language teaching, it is states as follow,” Methods is an overall plan for
the orderly presentation of language material, no part of which contradicts and all
of which is based upon the selected approach”. It means the method is approach to
guide students in order to know based of teaching learning to language material,
so the students can use language with vocabulary and pronunciation very well.
In this study the writer use modified domino cards, he hopes his students
can get new advantages in term of remembering and believes that most of the
students will be able to remember sentences using modified domino cards.
H. Techniques for Teaching Vocabulary
Technique is implementation of tactics and strategies done by the teacher
and students in classroom which is suitable with the method that is used.
According to Richards and Rodgers (1986:15) “A techniques is implementation
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which actually takes places in a classroom. It is a particular trick, strategy or
contrivance used to accomplish an immediate objective. Techniques must be
consistent with a method a therefore in harmony with an approach as well.
According the statement above, the English teacher should be creative and
imaginative so that they have many ideas to make students enjoy and interested in
their lesson.
Games are essentially recreational “time out” activities that purpose is
enjoyment. Once you call a language learning activity a “game” you convey the
message that is it is just fun, not to be taken too seriously. Very occasionally we
do play real games in the classroom.
I. The Use of Games in Learning Vocabulary
Teaching English cannot be separated from the language components.
There are : pronunciation, vocabulary and structure which influences the mastery
of four language skill such as listening, speaking, reading and writing, but in the
studies the writer focuses in vocabulary.
Remember that students need lots of practice with new vocabulary in order
to remember and use the new words. Students can enjoy practicing new
vocabulary through a large variety of word games. Games make students more
active in teaching and learning process.
According to Longman (1998:1177) state that, “Game is a form of play or
sport, or one example or type of this”. It means a game is an activity that is
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interesting and enjoying. So the students are not bored and lazy, but they are
active and happy in the study.
Games in the language teaching vocabulary will participate the students
actively, because it can give them inspiration and motivation to talk. Using games
will help the learners work together in the small group and team implementing
these techniques will help to create friendly working atmosphere
Teaching English as a foreign language to elementary student must be
careful. The teacher cannot force the students to master this language in a short
time. It needs extra patience to guide the students in learning language, especially
young learners. Because, they easily feel bore with the lesson at school. Teacher
should know what characteristics of their students, situation of class and what
makes the students interested in target material for learning. Thus, the English
teacher should be creative and imaginative, so they have many ideas to make the
students enjoy and interest in their lesson and not bored.
Games make the lesson more enjoyable and attract the students to study in
the class, so games can become strategies to deliver the material. According to
Carrier (1980:6), game and activities are invaluable to the teacher of a foreign
language because they provide an opportunity for student to use their language
skills in a less formal situation.
According to Lee Su Kim (1995), there are many advantages of using
games in the classroom:
1. Games are welcome break from the usual routine of the language class
2. They are motivating and challenging
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3. Learning a language requires a great deal of effort. Games help students to make
and sustain the effort of learning
4. Games provide language practice in the various skills speaking, writing, listening
and reading
5. They encourage students to interact and communicate
6. They create a meaningful context for language use.
So, the researcher concludes that game is an activity with rules, which is
done in relaxing situation in order to get the pleasure. So it will motivate the
students to learn English and to make the students creative, enjoy and interest in
their lesson.
J. Kinds of Games to Practice Vocabulary
Remember that students need lots of practice with new vocabulary in order
to remember and use the new words. Students can enjoy practicing new
vocabulary through a large variety of word games. Games make students more
active in teaching and learning process. According to Baker and Westrup
(2000:38), some games to practicing vocabulary, these are: domino, bingo,
spellings activities on the blackboard, crossword, alphabet list, memorizing list
etc.
1. Domino
Students can play different matching games with domino cards, for
example they can match words and pictures, or match the word in their first
language to the word in English, or match words to their definitions.
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2. Bingo
The class can make sets of bingo cards cutting up used packaging. Make
sets of cards, one for each student. Each card has between six and twelve words
written on it, chosen randomly from a selection of new words which students need
to practice. It is useful to include words learned several weeks before, as well as
recently learned words.
3. Spelling activities on the blackboard
Putting the jumbled up letter of know words into the correct order. Make
short words out of longer words. Guess the words from the correct number of
blank spaces and letter by letter.
4. Crosswords
Students make and solve crosswords, where half the class, or different
groups, think of and write half the clues (the ‘up’ or ‘down’ clues). The different
groups then swap with another group and fill in their half of the crosswords.
5. Alphabet lists
Pick a letter and fill in a word for each given category, for example:
colors, animal, flowers, vegetables, etc. This can be done as an individual or
group competition. The winner is, for example, the first to fill in twenty words, or
the groups or student who fills in the most words in five minutes.
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6. Memorizing list
Go round group or class, in random order. The first student thinks of an
item from a list, for example, a shopping list or a list of favorite’s games. The next
student repeats the word and adds their word. The other students, in turn, repeat
the full list and each adds an item of his or her own. The list gets longer and more
difficult to remember.
K. Teaching Vocabulary using Domino Cards
To improve the students on vocabulary in this research, the writers choose
the technique of teaching English vocabulary by using domino cards in
elementary school students.
According to Baker and Westrup (2000:38), student can enjoy practicing
new vocabulary through a large variety of games. One of games that can be used
in teaching vocabulary is domino cards. Domino cards are one of alternative
media used by the teacher to introduce vocabulary to the students at elementary
school. It is very interesting because the students will be attracted to the materials.
Besides, the students will be easy to understanding the meaning of the new words.
Students can play different matching games with modified domino cards,
for example, they can match words and picture, or match the words in their first
language to the words in English, or match words to their definition.
At lower level, you can use single words and at higher levels you can use
phrasal verbs or idioms. (For example, with the phrasal verbs to get out of can be
matched with the equivalent single words verb to escape).
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The whole class can help to make the modified domino cards as a learning
activity in itself. The large class is divided into groups, and each group makes set
of cards. First, the teacher and the student in the class choose a set of words,
which the teacher writes on the blackboard. Each student is given two or three
pieces of cards, such as cut up cardboard packaging. Each student when writer a
word from a set of words chosen by the teacher at the class, and draw simple
drawing (for noun such as dog, tree or moon) on each piece of cards. The
complete set a cards can be matched up and played like the matching of sets of
sports on dominoes. (Bakers and Westrup : 2000)
Applying modified domino cards as one of alternative games is effective
to help students learning vocabulary. It stimulates the students mind to guess the
students words, memorize and makes students use their skill to solve some of the
difficult words to get intended meaning and also the right answers.
L. Previous Study
Research about Domino Card as a Medium to Teach Vocabulary (An
Experimental Research at The Fifth Grade Students of SDN 1 Purwodadi
Grobogan in the Academic Year of 2010/2011) was conducted by Amalia (2011).
She stated that using Domino card as teaching media in teaching vocabulary was
effective. It could be seen from the result of test score. It showed that the
experimental class which was given treatment by using domino card as a medium
to tech vocabulary got higher mean score that was 83, 8571 compared to the
control class who were not given the same treatment. The control class got 79,
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0667. The difference between this research and researcher’s research is the design
of the research. This research used experimental research design, while the
researcher’s research uses classroom action research. The similarity of this
research with the researcher’s research is the medium used, that is modified
domino card.
Another previous study related to using card and game strategy is a study
entitled The Effectiveness of Picture-Board game As A Vocabulary Teaching
Technique To Improve Students Vocabulary Achievement (An Experimental
Study at the Grade 5 of MI Negeri Kalibalik Banyuputih Batang in the Academic
Year of 2009/2010), by Hani’atul Mamlu’ah (2010). She pointed out that using
Picture- Board game technique can improve the students’ vocabulary
achievement. This can be seen from the result of test score. It shows that the
experimental class which is given treatment by using picture-board game as a
technique in teaching vocabulary gets higher mean score that is 82,9 compared to
the control class who are not given the same treatment. This class gets 77,1. The
similarities of this research with the researcher’s research is the teaching
technique (game). But the difference is the research design and kind of game. In
term of research design, this research used experimental research design, while the
researcher’s research uses classroom action research design. In addition, in term
of kind of game, this research used picture-board game, while the researcher’s
research uses modified domino card.