THE EFFECT OF USING PICTIONARY GAMES ON STUDENTS’

ENGLISH VOCABULARY

AN ARTICLE

By:
RIANDA RITA AYU
NIM. F1022141037

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

LANGUAGES AND ARTS EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
TANJUNGPURA UNIVERSITY
2018

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 THE EFFECT OF USING PICTIONARY GAMES ON STUDENTS’ENGLISH
VOCABULARY

Rianda Rita Ayu, Sofian, Eusabinus Bunau

English Language Education Study Program of Languages and Arts Department
Teacher Training and Education Faculty
Tanjungpura University Pontianak
Email: Rianda750@gmail.com

Abstract
The paper discusses the effectiveness of using Pictionary game to increase students’ English
vocabulary at the seventh grade students of SMP Kemala Bhayangkari Pontianak. The aim of this
research was to know whether teaching vocabulary by using pictionary game was effective to the
seventh grade students’ .The research method was pre- experimental research with one group
pretest-posttest design. The sample was the seventh grade students that consisted of 22 students.
The data was collected using measurement technique. The result of this research is analyzed by t-
test. The t-ratio 9.58 was higher than the t-critical that was 2.093 on table distribution with α =0.05.
Therefore, the alternative hypothesis (Ha) which stated “Teaching Vocabulary by Using Pictionary
Game to seventh grade students of Kemala Bhayangkariof JuniorHigh School Pontianak effects
the students vocabulary achievement significantly” was accepted. It showed that Pictionary Game
affect significantly on students’ English vocabulary achievement.

Keywords : Pictionary game, vocabulary

INTRODUCTION
Teaching vocabulary is important because it
is one of language elements that should be taught
to support the language skill development.
Vocabulary is related to words that are used in
spoken and written communication. McCarten
(2007) also argued that learning vocabulary is not
easy for learners, because it has a wide range, and
also the variety of vocabulary to be learned,
including words, phrases, collocations, and
strategic vocabulary, as well as grammatical
patterns, idioms, and fixed expression. There are
some kinds of vocabulary, one kind consist of
part of speech namely noun, pronoun, verb,
adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and
determiner.
In this research, the writer focuses on one of
part of speech that is noun. According to Seaton
(2007, p.8 ), “Nouns are divided into common
noun and proper noun.“ Common nouns are the
words that refer to people, animal,place or things.
Proper nouns are the words that refer to names for
particular people, place, or things . From the
explanation above, the writer only discuss about
common noun. Because it is word that mostly
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used in constructing the sentences and also it
related to thematerial that taught in the seventh
grade student in the first semester.
Vocabulary had being a particular subject of
students to learn, it included at the margin within
lessons of speaking, listening, reading and
writing.Harmon et al. (2009) stated that learning
vocabulary is a crucial instructional aim for
teachers in all content areas in middle grades
schools. The main goal of teaching English
vocabularies to the learners is to make them
communicate easily during their second language
acquistion.
Nowadays, goverment policy always makes
changes in education tool especially in
implementing curriculum 2013, and it has many
revisions made anually and the newest is
curriculum 2013’17 revision.Furthermore,
implementing new curriculum not only may lead
the teacher to gain a new concept in teaching but
also has an impact on students’ learning, for
example English subject has been deleted from
primary school and the result is the teacher needs
to adapt with these changes. It also gives an
impact on teacher performance in learning
process and forces the student to learn harder in
the process of their second language acquisation
especially in vocabulary learning. Nist and Mohr
(2003) stated that the most common problem that
appears in second language acquitition is student
have limited word.
The school where the subject of this research
are studying at implement the curriculum 2013.
Moreover, English language learning in Junior
High Shool focuses on vocabulary teaching, it
can be seen from the syllabus and compentence
being applied in curriculum 2013.Material was
Things around usand sub-material wasthing in
the house. Therefore, the writer only focused on
teaching common noun. Common noun is one of
vocabulary that include in part of speech. The
main purpose of teaching English to the learners
especially for Indonesian learners is to gain the
greater chances of language proficiency during
their second language acquisition.
Teaching English to junior high school
students is not easy compared to teaching for
adult learners. Their characteristics are often
more active and enthusiastic in learning process.
According to Cameron (2001), teaching a new
language to the children, they often seem less
embarrassed than adults at talking in a new
language, and their lack of inhibition seems to
help them get a more native accent. Another
problem that appears in learning language is that
there is not always an exact correspondence
between the words in the native language and in
the second language. Conscquently, the students
have difficulties in translating words from their
native language to their second language. For
example the word “can” may have two possible
meanings, depending on the form of the sentence
, it can be either a noun or an auxiliary.
Games are used to assist the learners during
their language learning. It makes classes
entertaining and sustain engagement. Gruss
(2016) explained that the results of using game as
tool in teaching English vocabulary showed
various views on how entertaining the games
were using in teaching young learners. By using
game as teaching technique, the teacher be able to
observe students personalities, teach them to
work as teams to build the relationships with
others, and practice various skills in fun
ways.Furthermore, this activity can provide
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students with meaningful lesson which help them
to understand words and their functions, and also
to support them in memorizing it.
Game is a technique that the writer used in
this research, to make it specific the writer only
use pictionary games. According to Townsend
(2009), pictionary is a familiar game created by
Milton Bradley and Charades, it is simple game
that povide the student with the academic words.
Pictionary game is a picture guessing game where
the player works in group to guess the picture that
is drawn by other player. In learning process,
teachers and students have complementary
responsibilities. The writer apply several
procedures in learning pictionary games as
follow: (1) Opening ; a). The teacher began the
teaching learning process by greeting and
reviewing the previous material, b). The students
responded to teacher’s greetings ; (2) Main
activities; a). The teacher started the lesson by
explaining the pictionary games, b). Then the
teacher gave the simple example of pictionary
game and its rules to the students, c). The teacher
asked one ofthe student to drawa picture, then the
teacher tries to describe about common noun, d).
The students got involved in discussing kinds of
questions words activity. They were able to
mention some examples of questions words, e).
After giving simulating about pictionary game,
the teacher askedthe student to playpictionary
game, f). The teacher divided the class into two
group, each group consist of 11 student, g).
Choose one person from each group to drawa
picture to reflect the key term that they had
chooce in a basket/box, h). The drawing student’s
team should try to guess the key term from the
drawing in 30 seconds, i) The teacher guieded the
student to answer the , j). Then the teacher asked
the student to write the correct spelling of the
word, k). Take turns between the two teams
following the rules above ; 3).Closing : a). The
team who has the most points at the end of the
class period or when all of terms are completed
win, b). the teacher ended the class by concluding
the material and asking the students’ difficulty
during today’s teaching learning process
(reflecting).The teacher has an important role as
one of the main elements in the teaching
andlearning processes. According to Lopez
(2009), the teacher’s role in learning process is
 transmitting the correct use of the knowledge
and providing an appropriate strategies,
moreover, the teacher’s role as a facilitator is to
engage student actively in learning activities.In
pictionary game teachers’ role as the facilitator
and the instructor while playing it. The teacher
need to know the rules of the game, gather
materials, and plan how to direct conversation
during the game.In team group, teacher should
assure an equal number of proficient and less
proficient learners so that can power balance the
METHOD
Table .1 The Stages of Research
No Date
1 Thursday 12nd April,2018
2 Tuesday, 17th April, 2018
3 Tuesday, 17th April, 2018
4 Friday, 20th April, 2018
5 Friday, 27th April,2018
The population was the seventh grade
students of Kemala Bhayangkari ofJunior High
School Pontianak. The seventh grade consisted of
seven classes, such as class A, B, and C. The total
of the seventh grade students were 65 students. In
this research, the writer took the VII B as sample
that consist of 22 students.The writer used
measurement technique to collect the data of
proficiency from those 22 students’pretest and
posttest.The tool of data collection was a simple
vocabulary testthat consists of 20 items with four
alternatives answers (a,b,c,ord).
The writer gave the pre-test before giving the
treatment to students to measure the students’
vocabulary achievement before the treatment.
Then, the writer gave post-test after treatment to
measure the students’ vocabulary achievement
after the treatment. The score is done as referred
to scoring rubric. Before the test item for tool was
used to collect the data, the writer need to Try-out
test to the class C which has same characteristic
with the sample of this research.The try-out is
addressed in order to make a good test for tool,
the writer analysed the test itemthat the writer
conducted in her research. The test item was pre-
test and post-test. According to Brown (2004),
there are several factors of language assessment
that needs to be considered such as practicality,
play or game is fair and every team feels
appreciated. Moreover, teachers’ roles in this
researchis selecting an appropriate teaching,
method, and also media related to treatment that
being apply in conducting this research. The
students are members of a group and learn by
interacting with others using pictionary game.
The student role as the participant in playing a
game, the student enjoying the lesson while
playing game.
Time Activities
12.45-13.55 Try Out
12.45-13.20 Pre-test
13.20-14.30 Treatment 1
14.10-15.20 Treatment 2
15.35-16.10 Post-test
reliability, validity, authenticity and washback.
Meanwhile, in this researchthe writer provided
several factor that built a good testsuch as
validity, reliability, level difficulty,
discrimination power. Validity refers to whether
or not a test measures what it proposes to
measure.The test items of pre-test and post test of
Junior high School have to meet the criteria of
what the test measure. Reliability refers to the
consistency of a test score. The writer used inter-
rater reliability. That is how consistent test scores
or other evaluation results are from one
measurement to the other.The writer classified
the difficulty index scores of the individual
summative tests are in the range 0.00 ≤ P ≤ 0.25 -
0.00 0.51 ≤ P ≤ 0.74 to consturct the test item.
The criterion of discrimination power, which is
satisfactory, good, reasonably good, or poor item.
The writer classified the discrimination power of
the items in range 0.30-0.20 which is satisfactory
item reasonably good items.The writer provided
several step in process of try out, those are: (a).
The writer made instrument to try out based on
table of specification, (b). Thenwriter tried out the
class that has been determine, (c). The writer
analysedthe try out based on item analysis, (d).
The writer calculated the data using Master TAP.
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FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Finding
58
90
80
70 50
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Pre-test Post-test
Graph 1. Students’ mean score of Pre-Test and Post-Test
The writer used t- test to answer the research
question number 1. T-test was used to analyze the
difference of pre-test and post-test in students’
fricative pronunciation. It was conducted to find
out whether or not tongue twister technique
affects students’ fricative pronunciation. The
computation of data started from calculating the
correlation of pretest and posttest, mean scores
before and after the treatment, variance before
and after the treatment and standard deviation of
pretest and posttest. Then, it came to the analysis
of t-test.
Firstly, the pretest was conducted before the
implementation of tongue twister technique. The
purpose was that to find out the students prior
ability in pronouncing 8 sound /ʃ/
First, pre-test was conducted before the use
of pictionary game in order to know students’
English Vocabulary before the treatment. The
highest score in pre-test was 85 and the lowest
score was 30. The average of the pre-test score
was 55.91. Second, post-test was conducted after
the use of pictionary game in order to find out the
improvement that made by students. The highest
score in post-test was 100 and the lowest score
was 65. The average of the pre-test score was
84.09. Then, the writer analysis the variation
score of pre-test and posttest.
Variation score of pre-test is 206.28 and
variation score of post-test is 156.28 . After that
the writer analysis standar deviation pre-test is
14.36, and standar deviation of post-test is
12.5.The writer also obtained the correlation (𝑟)
to calculate T-test. Thus, the writer found 𝑟was
0.48, then she analysis the student’s significance
score of pre test and post test. It will becomputed
by using t (test) formula. The writer obtained that
T-test was 9.5. Then, the writer determine tcritical
, where α = 0.025 , because the writer analysed
the data before anda after treatment. After that,
the writer checked the t-distribution table of
significance (t-table) –t : db = n-1,the writer
found: db= 22 – 1 = 21. Since the result of db was
21, then the t-table value is 2.. Then the writer
compared between tratio and tcritical (“t” critical
value in “t” table ), the result of statistical analysis
shows that t ratio is higher than tcritical (9.58 >2.080).
Discussion
Based on the data analysis above, the it
showed that the use of pictionary game is
significant to teaching vocabulary in seventh
grade students of Kemala Bhayangkari Pontianak
in academic year 2017/2018.It could be proven
by computation of t-ratio was 9.58(using t-test)
and t-critical was2.080 (on t-table distribution) by
comparing the data above the writer concluded
that t-ratio was bigger than t-table. So that, there
are the differences between students score before
and after the treatment being given by the writer.
The writer realized that each technique must have
strength and weakness. For pictionary game as a
teaching technique, the strength found by the
writer in teaching vocabulary, those are: a). This
technique gains students enthusiasm and their
motivation to learn vocabulary effectively, b).
Pictionary game highly assisted students to
participate in learning process, c). The students
easier to remember vocabularies word by using
pictionary game. As Harmer (2007) stated that
pictionary is one of vocabulary games
thataredesigned to engage students and motivate
them in learning vocabulary. It helps the students
to memorize the vocabularies word, while they
are playing with their group effectively.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
Conclusion
Based on the results and discussion of the
data, it could be concluded that Pictionary game
is highly effective for teaching vocabulary. It is
supported by the results of T-test formula to test
the hypothesis. In conclusion, Pictionary game
helps students engaged the students participation
actively in classroom. Their involvement was
also high and they showed great attention during
teaching and learning process. The
implementation of Pictionary game also highly
assisted students to understand about the
material. Moreover, it also increased students’
enthusiasm which made them did not feel burden
to answer teacher question. Thus the prediction of
the alternative hypothesis (Ha) in this research is
accepted, as the matter of fact that there was a
significant difference in students’ achievement
after being treated by Pictionary game.
Suggestion
Regarding to the result of the research, the
writer would like to give some suggestions as
follow: (a). It is suggested that English teacher
should be creative to choose an appropriate
teaching technique for the students. For example,
by using Pictionary game as technique in teaching
vocabulary. It can enhance learning process much
better than a textbox or teacher’s explanation
does since it helps the students get to learn work
group, (b) The teacher is also suggested to be able
to modify Pictionary game because the game
should appropriate with students needs and
interest and the teacher is suggested to guided
them in teaching learning. The writer also
recommends other researchers who have any
intention to apply this technique to different kinds
of material which are appropriate with students’
characteristic and school curriculum.
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Gruss, J. (2016). Games as a tool for teaching
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Harmon, J. M., Wood, K. D., & Kiser, K. (2009).
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Journal. 40(3), 58.
Lopez, P. (2009). Creating effective teaching and
learning enviroments: Firstresult from
TALIS. Newyork :OECD.
McCarten, J. (2007) . Teaching vocabulary
lessons from the corpus, lessons forThe
classroom. New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Nist, S.,L.,and Morh,C. (2003).Improving
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