




































Putri Anggraeni, et al / Journal of English Language Teaching 6 (1) (2017) 

82 

 

 
ELT FORUM 7 (2) (2018) 

 

Journal of English Language Teaching 

 
http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt 

 
 

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SIMULATION BOARD 

GAME TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL IN 

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT TO THE TENTH GRADE 

STUDENTS OF SMA NEGERI 2 WONOSOBO 

2015/2016 

 

Nuari Larasati, Abdurrachman Faridi, Rohani  

 
English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia

 

Article Info 
________________  
Article History: 

Received in October 

2018  
Approved in November 

2018  

Published in January 

2019 

________________  
Keywords: Board game, 
conventional method, 
speaking skill.  
____________________ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract  
___________________________________________________________________ 
This experimental research aims to find out if Simulation Board Game is more 

effective than Conventional Method to improve students’ speaking skill. 

Around sixty-six students of the tenth grades of SMA Negeri 2 Wonosobo, in 

academic year 2015/2016 participating in this research were categorized into 

two groups named experimental and control group. To make it easier to 

understand, the result was presented in the form of statistical data. The post-test 

score of both groups is quite far which is 75.12 for the experimental and 60.12 

for the control group. In addition, the sig (2-tailed) of the T-test which is 0.000 

explains that there is a significant difference between the students who are 

taught by using Board Game and those who are taught by using Conventional 

method. Furthermore, the N-gain score shows that the effectiveness of speaking 

skill with Board Game is at the medium level, while the effectiveness of 

speaking skill with Conventional method is at the low level. Based on the data 

analysis result of the research, it can be concluded that use of Board Game is 

more effective than the use of Conventional method to teach speaking skill to 

the students. 

  
 © 2018 Universitas Negeri Semarang 

  


 Correspondent Address: ISSN 2252-6706 
B3 Building FBS Unnes  

Sekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229  

E-mail: uness_english@yahoo.com  



N. Larasati, A. Faridi, Rohani / Journal of English Language Teaching 7 (2) (2018) 

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INTRODUCTION 

Mastering English is very important for certain group of people in their life since English is an 

international language that is used almost in every part of the world. Learning English as language 

requires the mastery of four skills. They are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Speaking is 

one of the important skill for them to practice their capability and their understanding, how to send 

idea, and how to spell word well. There are several essential components of speaking skill. Brown 

(2004: 157) states that the speaking skill consist of six components: grammar, vocabulary, fluency, 

comprehension, pronunciation and task. In this case the students’ motivation and interest are very 

needed to make the process of their understanding more easily.  

Furthermore, speaking is a skill that needs practices. The more students practice through 

sharing their idea, they will become the better speaker. In addition Davison and Dowson (2009:107) 

say that pupils need opportunities to speak and listen in a wide variety of context and for a wide 

range of purpose, in order to increase their thinking ability, to develop their powers of 

communication and to provide examples of language in use through which to develop their explicit 

knowledge about speaking and listening. 

The failure of the teaching English can be caused by the material of English subject is very 

variety, so the teachers are obligated to choose the suitable approach, strategy, and method in order 

to achieve the teaching purposes easily, and the media will make the students to be more motivated 

to study. The teacher can use some methods in learning process to help the students’ understanding 

about the material that is explained. In applying the method, the teachers have to prepare many 

things like; teaching material, classroom management, and many other aspects because using 

inappropriate technique can make the students get difficulties in understanding the teacher’s 

explanation and it means that the teacher may be failed in teaching them. It is in the same line with 

Burns and Joyce’s statement (1997: 54): “One of the aims of most of the language programs used by 

today’s teachers is to develop spoken language skills, and most programs aim to integrate both 

spoken and written language”. 

To make the students have strong interest in teaching and learning process especially in 

learning speaking, the teacher should take the best approach, method, and strategies. Then, the 

teacher can use media in teaching English, method is used to help the students for speaking to make 

interaction between the teacher and students. Furthermore, the teacher has to prepare the interested 

aids before teaching learning process done. Harmer (1993: 3) states, “Motivation means a kind of 

drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course action”. It should be done by every English 

teacher in order that the students are interested to learn this language. English teacher must be able 

to manage the teaching by using certain method in the teaching-learning process, so that the students 

will like it without boring and despair. 

The teacher can uses game in teaching activity because game can increase the students’ 

interest in the class, based on the writer previous experience when the writer was doing PPL in SMP 

Negeri 1 Magelang, the writer found the students’ was interesting when the writer gave some games 

in the class, it made the students not become bored and they become more active in the class. Mei 

and Yu Jing (2000) believe that through playing games, students can learn English as the way the 

children learn and say their mother language without being aware they are studying; thus without 

stress, the students can learn a lot in learning target language. It means that learning through game 

decreases the stress from lesson and makes the students enjoy the learning process. For example 

board game it usually implies entertainment and relaxation. 

Games are activities that encourage the participants to compete with one or with more 

individuals. They have certain rules. Celce and Murcia (2001:34) say that game is an organized 



N. Larasati, A. Faridi, Rohani / Journal of English Language Teaching 7 (2) (2018) 

84 

 

language activity that has particular task and objective and set of rules which involve an element of 

competition between players. 

The teacher can uses board game as method in teaching and learning processes. By using 

game, learning process can be fun and the learning process is not only about textbooks and 

recitation. According to Hornby (1995: 486) game is an activity that you do to have some fun. Board 

game can be defined as something or an instrument that is used to attract students’ motivation to 

follow the teaching and learning process because board game can make the students more focus in 

learning, because they do not feel that they are forced to learn. They also enable learners to acquire 

new experiences within a foreign language which are not always possible during a typical lesson. 

Board game can be method that will give many advantages for teacher and the students either. In 

this situation speaking board game can be conducted to change the bored class to become more 

enjoyment class. 

Based on  the reason above, the writer tried to find out the effectiveness of this study entitle “ 

The Effectiveness of Simulation Board Game to Improve Speaking Skill to the Tenth Grade 

Students of SMA Negeri 2 Wonosobo 2015/2016. Beside the writer used this technique to make the 

students more active in speaking class. 

METHODS 

In achieving the objective of the study, the writer used pre-experimental research to obtain the 

required data and information. The approach that used was quantitative method which means that 

the method and the instrument involves numerical measurements and the statistical quantification 

was conducted. 

The subject of this study were the students of SMA Negeri 2 Wonosobo in the academic year 

2015/2016. Then the writer categorized the subject of the study into population, sample, and 

technique of sampling.  

The population is the whole members to which the writer gathered information in order to 

generalize of the research result. The population in this study was the tenth grade students at SMA 

Negeri 2 Wonosobo in academic year 2015/2016. 

Sample is a representative of the population on critical parameters at an acceptable level of 

proficiency. Saleh (2001: 34) explains, researcher can consider the suitable number of sample to 

represent the population”. In selecting the sample, the writer used purposive sampling. First the 

writer looked the population from all classes of tenth grade students’ score from their MID semester’ 

score, then the writer chose two tenth grade classes from SMA N 2 Wonosobo which get the equal 

score and equal ability in English. The two classes which have chosen became experimental group 

and control group. The writes has chosen X MIA 5 class as the experimental group and X IBB class 

as the control group. 

The method of collecting data that the writer used in this study were test, questionnaire, and 

observation checklist. It should be applied in conducting the research in order to get the appropriate 

result of the research. The method of collecting data in this research can be seen as follow: 

Firstly, the writer conducted pre-test. The test is given to identify the students’ speaking 

achievement before giving the treatment. In this test, the students are asked to do speaking test in 

front of the class.  

Next, for the real experiment  the students were given a treatment by using board game in 

teaching speaking to the experimental group and using conventional method to the control group. 

This treatment was conducted in order to determine whether there is significant difference in 

speaking achievement between the experimental group and control group. 



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The last, data are obtained from the post-test. It was conducted to know the improvement the 

students’ speaking achievement after the treatments done. The test items are the same with pre-test 

items. The students are asked to describe something related to the material given.  

The last but not least, questionnaire was given after doing post-test. It is to support the 

primary data in this research and to know how far the result effects on the students. The result of 

treatments is known by the students’ achievement that got by comparing the result before (pre-test) 

and after treatments (post-test) conducted. 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 

Pre-test was given before doing the experiment. The pre-test was given in X IBB class as the 

control group and X MIA class as the experimental group on 26 April 2016. In the pre-test, students 

was given a brief explanation about descriptive text without treatment, after that the students were 

asked to make a spoken descriptive text then they told it in front of the class. This was used to 

measure the students’ skills in spoken descriptive text before they were given the treatment. 

In conducting experiment, students of the experimental group were given treatment using 

board game after pre-test. The treatment was given in three times. The first treatment was given on 

the second meeting on 3 May 2016. The second treatment was conducted on 10 May 2016. Then the 

last treatment was on 17 May 2016 ten minutes before post-test. The purpose of these treatments 

was to apply the use of board game in teaching a spoken descriptive text. In the first meeting before 

pre-test the writer only gave a brief explanation without the game. The second meeting the writer 

gave the treatment using board game, the students were asked to make groups, each group consist of 

six students, after that they played board game in their group. In board game provides questions 

related to spoken descriptive text. In the third meeting the writer gave the same treatment and game 

with the different questions about spoken descriptive text. The last meeting before post-test, the 

students were given a brief summary. The aims of giving treatments using board game is to help the 

students in speaking skill. 

Post-test was given after all treatments were done. The post-test was conducted on 17 May 

2016. The writer gave the test for the experimental group and control group in order to know the 

achievement of the students. The post-test question was the same with the pretest. Post-test is used to 

measure the students’ skill after the treatments. 

The results of the descriptive statistics analysis of the pre-test’s score were seen as follows: 

Table 3.1.Pre-Test’s Scores 

The table above shows that both the control and the experimental group had the same 

maximum score but different minimum score, the differential between two means was almost 

similar. From the table 4.2, the total pre-test scores of the students in experimental group were 1984 

and the mean was 58.35; with the minimum score was 48 and maximum score was 68. While the 

total pre-test scores of the students in control group were 1,880 and the mean was 5.75: with the 

minimum score was 52 and maximum score was 68.  If we calculated the difference of both means, 

Descriptive statistic 

 N Min Max Sum Mean 

Experimental 34 48.00 68.00 1984.00 58.3529 

Control 32 52.00 68.00 1880.00 58.7500 

Valid N  32     



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86 

 

the result would be 0.4 which indicated that the difference still could be tolerated. In order to find 

out the result of the data analysis, the descriptive statistics analysis of post-test score is also 

important.  

After conducting the descriptive analysis of the post-test score, the result could be seen as 

follows: 

 

Descriptive Statistics 

 
N Min Max Sum Mean 

Experimental 34 68.00 84.00 2560.00 75.2941 

Control 32 52.00 64.00 1924.00 60.1250 

Valid N  32     

Table 3.2. Statistics of Post-test’s Score 

The result was different from the previous result, in this table all aspects show different result. 

The minimum, maximum and the mean of the data were different even the number of the data were 

same. The experimental group had higher result in every aspects than the control group. From the 

computation of the test result, the total post-test scores of the students in experimental group were 

32,560 and the mean was 75.29; with the minimum score was 68 and maximum score was 84. 

While the total post-test scores of the students in control group were 1,924 and the mean was 60.12; 

with the minimum score was 54 and the maximum score was 64. The difference means between the 

experimental and control group were 15.16 which indicates the significant difference between 

experimental and control group. Thus, based on the significant difference from both groups, it can 

be concluded that after the treatment, the enhancement for each class were quite different. 

From the diagram below, the blue rectangular were maximum score result of pre-test and 

post-test, the red rectangular were minimum score result of pre-test and post-test, and the gray 

rectangular were the mean result of pre-test and post-test. It showed that the line of experimental and 

control group’s pre test was almost same, but the line of experimental group’s post test was 

significantly higher than control group’s one. The result can be illustrated in the following diagram: 

 

Figure 3.1. Experimental and Control Groups 

The result of the questionnaire can be illustrated in the following diagram: 

68 
84 

68 64 
48 

68 
52 52 58.3 

75.2 
58.7 60.1 

0
20
40
60
80

100

Control Experimental 

Experimental and Control Group 

Maximum Minimum Mean



N. Larasati, A. Faridi, Rohani / Journal of English Language Teaching 7 (2) (2018) 

87 

 

Figure 3.2 Questionnaire Result of Experimental Group  

  From the data above, it could be concluded that basically the students like English lesson. 

They found difficulties in speaking and still felt afraid to speak in front of their friends. After they 

using Board Game in the learning process, they felt Board Game could help them in their speaking 

and they became brave to speak in front of their friends. According to them, Board Game was 

effective strategy to to improve the students’ speaking skill, because they thought that there were 

significant changes in their speaking. It can be concluded that most of the students agree that Board 

Game can help the students to improve their speaking skill. 

CONCLUSIONS 

The purposes of this study, first is to explain whether the students will be more active in the 

class if the teacher uses simulation board game in learning process. The second purpose is to find out 

whether any effectiveness of using simulation board game to improve the students’ speaking skill.  

After conducting the research the writer can conclude that students are more active in the class 

because after they got simulation board game they have courage to speak in front of the class and 

they can speak more fluency. 

The second conclusions of the research are drawn in accordance with the result of the data 

analysis in the previous chapter. Based on the data analysis, the writer concluded that there is a 

significant difference between the experimental group and the control group. The average score for 

the experimental group was 58.3 for the pre-test and 75.29 for the post test, while the average scores 

for the control group was 58.7 for the pre-test and 60.12 for the post-test. Each group had different 

achievement. The achievement of experimental group was higher than the control group. Moreover, 

almost all students in the experimental group got maximal score in their post-test. There is an 

improvement of students’ achievemen in speaking of descriptive text. It could be concluded that 

using simulation board was effective in teaching speaking of descriptive text. The students’ responses 

toward simulation board game in speaking descriptive text is shown from the questionnaire given to 

the students in the experimental group after post-test was conducted. It was found that 88.20% 

students answered “yes” (is whether or not the students realize that Board Game could help them to 

improve their speaking skill). Moreover, it was found 79.40% students answered “yes” (whether the 

students have any differences before and after using Board Game in learning process or not). 

According to them board game was effective to make the students active in speaking English 

descriptive text, because they thought that there were significant changes in their speaking. It can be 

47.10% 

76.50% 

91.20% 

88.20% 

88.20% 

79.40% 

91.20% 
85.30% 

76.50% 
52.90% 

23.50% 

8.80% 11.80% 11.80% 

20.60% 

8.80% 
14.70% 

23.50% 

100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 

0.00%

20.00%

40.00%

60.00%

80.00%

100.00%

120.00%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

QUESTIONNAIRE 

Yes No Total



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88 

 

concluded that most of the students agree that simulation board game can help the students to 

improve their speaking skill of descriptive text. 

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