130 EEJ 4 (2) (2014) English Education Journal http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/eej DEVELOPING “BATTLESHIP” GAME BASED MATERIAL FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR OF PROCEDURAL TEXT WRITING The Case of The Eighth Grade of Junior High School Students Daning Desy Artyani , Dwi Anggani Linggar Bharati, Ahmad Sofwan Prodi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Program Pascasarjana, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia Info Artikel ________________ Sejarah Artikel: Diterima Oktober 2014 Disetujui Oktober 2014 Dipublikasikan November 2014 ________________ Keywords: “Battleship” game, Procedural text, Developing, Grammar, Writing ____________________ Abstract ___________________________________________________________________ The problems of this study are ; What games are available to teach grammar for writing procedural text for the eighth grade of Junior High School students?, what games are needed to teach grammar for writing procedural text?, how is the design of Battleship based on grammar for writing procedural text?, how is the Battleship Game implemented to teach grammar for writing procedural text?, and how suitable is the design of Battleship Game to teach grammar for writing procedural text?. This study used Research and Development (R&D). The researcher used the steps proposed by Borg & Gall (Borg & Gall, 1983). Those were used to develop the products and to measure the effectiveness of applying the products. The results of the observation, interview, test, questionnaire, and the experts’ validations showed that the “Battleship” Game contribute to the process of learning English. Considering the result of the pre test and the post test, it was proven that studying grammar of procedural text by using “Battleship” game will increase Junior High School students’ writing skill. © 2014 Universitas Negeri Semarang  Alamat korespondensi: Kampus Unnes Bendan Ngisor, Semarang, 50233 E-mail: pps@unnes.ac.id ISSN 2087-0108 Daning Desy Artyani, dkk. / English Education Journal 4 (2) (2014) 131 INTRODUCTION The aim of teaching English is mastering four basic skills, including listening, speaking, reading and writing. The students are expected to master those four skills in order to be able to communicate in the target language well. In the process of teaching learning, teacher should fulfill the component of language such grammatical structure, vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation. Therefore, grammar is important to learn since grammar is including in the basic skill of communicating. In fact, students usually feel struggle in studying grammar, many students find it difficult to comprehend the structure and the use of grammar in communication. The common problem of learning and teaching grammar is that there are only few interesting activities applied. In fact, teacher’s book as well as student’s book had given unsupported material for them. They did not give interactive approach to reach an interesting way of conducting grammar in essay of procedure text. Identifying such difficulties and being consciously aware of them has driven the researcher to find ways of overcoming them and provide effective grammar instruction. There are several studies conducted to investigate whether grammar can be taught successfully. As Al-Mekhlafi and Nagaratnam (2011) in their research entitled “Difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in an EFL context”, they state that the English teacher is often portrayed as an "unattractive grammar”. It shows that the way teacher teaching grammar is urgent to be improved. Hidayati (2010) through her research “Improving student’s ability in writing procedure text using REALIA”, Today, technology exists in every aspect of life. Equipments, tools, and electronic devices come and deal with human life. Most of those devices are given with the manual, which is usually written in English. Those reasons arise to support student to be able to understand the manual easily. It relates to the purpose of a procedural text which students of eighth grade of junior high school should learn. It is to describe how something is completely done through a sequence of series. According to Anderson (1997) procedural text is piece of text that gives us instructions for doing something. He also concluded our choice of words will depend on our purpose and our surroundings or context. One of the efforts to succeed the goal teaching grammar of procedural text writing successfully is having a communicative interesting activity. Hidayati (2010) performed the fact that Students have difficulties in writing procedural text because the teacher just explains the material orally without being supported by teaching aids. Teaching grammar of procedural text will be more fun in meaningful way. As it is stated by Musilova Lenka,Bc (2010) games support using new grammar rules unviolently; games teach pupils to cooperate; pupils learn not only grammar but other four skills – speaking, writing, listening and reading; games teach communication and fair-play. Based on that background, students need an attractive media to understand grammar easily, to be applied in their daily life, especially to improve their ability in writing procedural text. The purpose of the study is to develop a procedural text material to teach grammar for increasing students’ writing skill through playing the “Battleship” game. METHOD OF THE STUDY This study adapted the Research and Development (R & D) design which was developed by Borg and Gall The research and development of Borg and Gall (1983: 775) is conducted in ten steps, they were: 1) assess needs, 2) Planning, 3) developing preliminary form of products, 4) preliminary field testing, 5) main product revision, 6) main field testing, 7) operational product revision, 8) operational field testing, 9) final product revision, 10) dissemination and implementation. However, Borg and gall suggest that under-graduate Daning Desy Artyani, dkk. / English Education Journal 4 (2) (2014) 132 students “take a small-scale project that involves limited amount of original instructional design” and “limit development to just a few steps of R & C cycle”. (1) Need analysis of learning media, (2) plan the design of Battleship game and the teaching material, (3) Teacher and expert validation of the products, (4) First product revision of Battleship game, (5) Field test of Battleship game, (6) Second product revision of Battleship game and (7) Final product of Battleship game for learning grammar of procedural writing texts. The researcher needed to investigate whether the game and the teaching material were effective to teach grammar of procedural text to increase students’ writing skill. It was started by giving the pre test, then the post test right at the end of the field testing conducted. The pre test was conducted by playing Battleship game manually. Its purpose is to know whether students had sufficient background knowledge of procedural text or not. The post test was the time for students to play Battleship digitally. Curriculum of 2013 requires three assessments regarding to students’ performance for a certain competence. They are the knowledge, skill, and attitude. The knowledge assessment assessing students from the aspects of the word choice, the grammar accuracy and the language function. The skill assessment requires student to be able to write and explain procedure in a good grammar, diction, pronunciation, and fluency. The attitude assessment was conducted through observation. It assessed students’ honesty, communication, confidence, and discipline. Some of the data was obtained quantitatively, but some was in qualitative. FINDING AND DISCUSSION In this part, the researcher presented the findings of the study from the interview, observation, test and questionnaires. The study was conducted in three state Junior High Schools in Kendal Regency. They were SMP Negeri 1 Kendal, SMP Negeri 2 Kendal, and SMP Negeri 3 Patebon Kendal. Interviewing the English teachers of those three Junior high Schools in Kendal Regency became the first step of collecting the information for the early stage of need analysis. The three teachers of those schools shared that they did not apply any game for teaching procedural text. They stated that it was not a simple thing to choose a suitable game to teach procedural text. Mostly they conducted an interactive activity by demonstrating some procedures or tips instead of playing game. On the other hand they admitted that it would be better if there were a game to teach grammar of procedural text. They also believe that teacher will get some benefits of using games, they are; games are interesting and they motivate student to be interested in learning, games help teacher create contexts, through games, students could take part to express, and games provide language practice. Students realized about the difficulty of studying English, more over grammar section. They also stated that they need to know grammar and how to use it easier. They know that English is always there surrounding every things they do, for that reason they need a tool to support them to communicate in a fun way. From those interviews it was found that students actually realize the importance of English for their daily life. The researcher also found out that students like games very much, especially those which are played through the learning process in class. They consider these reasons; games are fresh air at the usual routine of the language class; they make students motivated and challenged; games require students to make and sustain the effort of learning. The researcher implemented the teaching material and the game in three Junior high schools in Kendal. They were SMP Negeri 1 Kendal, SMP Negeri 2 Kendal, and SMP Negeri 3 Patebon Kendal. It was done to find out whether the material and the game are practical and Daning Desy Artyani, dkk. / English Education Journal 4 (2) (2014) 133 effective for teaching procedural text for eighth grade. Especially how the material and the game developed could be applied as the media of teaching grammar, such as the form of imperative, and how to form the imperative expression become a procedure. The tryout had been conducted, and it took two meetings. The first assessment was the pre test, it tested the manual test of Battleship game, while the second test or the post test was the digital version of the game. As it is stated in the Curriculum of 2013, that there are three assessment for students which is called as the Authentic assessment. The first is the result of the attitude assessment. The purpose is to build a good character which can be an alternative way for students to accustom in behaving properly. The character values which were going to be developed here are honest, communicative, confident and discipline. The researcher found that student’s attitude improvement run smoothly. There were no significant obstacles on it. The result is that most of the students behaved in a good way. Students were very excited, they involved in the process of teaching and learning actively. Based on the result of questionnaire, which was responded by students after they did the try out. The questionnaire which would show how effective is the “Battleship” game implemented to teach grammar of procedural text for eighth grade of Junior High School students. The result said that most students feel excited to study English by using game. It was shown from the answer of ‘very excited’ were crossed by almost all the students. It showed the same situation for students’ motivation, that most of the students of the schools were really motivated by the game. The knowledge assessment was given to measure students’ knowledge about procedural text. The discussion of procedural text here was emphasizing the grammar used in it. In this case, the grammar is about collocation, imperative sentence, connective sequence, and the use of them in a procedural text. The pre test required student to develop their knowledge of making a good procedure; by seeing the generic structure and the language feature used in the text. The pre test was conducted by playing Battleship game manually. Its purpose is to know whether students of SMP 1 Kendal, SMP 2 Kendal and SMP 3 Patebon Kendal had sufficient background knowledge of procedure text or not. It was proven by seeing the average score they got. SMP 1 Kendal got the average point of 76,5; SMP 2 Kendal obtain 90,2 point; and it was 83,5 point for SMP 3 Patebon Kendal. The accumulation of all the average resulted 83,4. It was representative enough to justify that most students had enough previous knowledge of procedural text. The post test was the time for students to play Battleship digitally. There were two kinds of assessments conducted. The first was accuracy assessment and the second was written assessment. The accuracy assessment was taken in group, the activity was given to find out which group could collect the most score. The more the group got the score, the best it will be. The score of this assessment could not influence the score of written test. The result of the post test was very satisfying. It showed that students’ comprehension of procedural text was improving. It could be seen from the result of the post test. SMP 1 Kendal got 95,8 for the average, while SMP 2 Kendal could reach 97,8, and SMP 3 Patebon Kendal obtain the score of 97,1. The treatment given by the researcher through Battleship game both manually and digitally, actually has contributed for the development of students’ comprehension of using grammar in procedural text. Hopefully they also could apply the knowledge to their daily life. The skills which were required for the goal of learning procedural text here were writing and speaking. The researcher took a note of any progress or changing of students’ activities in the class. The researcher needed to know whether the game existents in class could give good impact on their skills. According to the note taken, it was found that at the first Daning Desy Artyani, dkk. / English Education Journal 4 (2) (2014) 134 meeting most of students were still shy and doubt to express. Specially, they did not feel confident in pronouncing some difficult words. Sometimes some words were mispronounced. After spending more time to discuss and practice, the result was much better than before. Those two skills were improving during the process of learning. The improvement developed smoothly when researcher met the students at the second time. Based on the observation, the researcher concluded that students’ skill of writing and speaking were going up, which can be implemented in their daily life. The Final Product 1. The Teaching material and The Digital “Battleship” Game After having the result of the planning, the researcher developed the materials by using a game which is the modification of the existing game by Musilova (2010) called “Battleship” game. The previous game was also applied to teach grammar which was used the grid as the earliest Battleship gave. It was matching the horizontal and the vertical grid to drill a certain grammatical pattern. In developing the products, specially the digital game, the researcher considered the result on the need analysis, which had given the fact that games are needed to support the effectiveness of learning English in class. 1. Developing Materials a) The teaching material of Procedural text The researcher decided to develop the material of procedural text taken from some sources. The development focuses on the grammar used in procedural text, they are; collocation, imperative expression, and the sequence or order. The game can be played manually and digitally. The teaching material is in a form of module. It was designed to meet the need of attractive and communicative module. It is also supported the Curriculum demand to apply the scientific approach in the process of teaching learning. At the stage of Observation, the book is completed with a video of making cheese omelet taken from Greg Kitchen on YouTube. After observing the video students will be stimulated to ask and question each other or to the teacher. The module provides Daning Desy Artyani, dkk. / English Education Journal 4 (2) (2014) 135 two other procedural texts to be explored as the comparison to the previous procedure. Students will continue associating their grammar comprehension of procedural text through the exercises given. Finally they will communicate the knowledge by playing Battleship game manually and digitally b)The Digital Battleship Game It is in a form of a fun game which can be played while students are studying. The game is called “Battleship” which encourages student to understand some collocations, imperative expressions, sequence words which are known as the language feature of procedural text. It is played digitally and manually, the goal of the game is that students are able to write a procedural text well. The digital game uses colorful and animation to attract students to be interested in studying grammar. Here is the example of collocation exercise of the game. This is the first level of the game, students should match the verbs at the horizontal grid on the left, to the objects on the top row, as well as the original game of Battleship and also the Battleship developed by Musilova (2010). It uses grid as the media to do the “Battle”. The main purpose of the game is sinking the opponents’ ship/ships. It can be done when the player could match all the grids in the time required. Daning Desy Artyani, dkk. / English Education Journal 4 (2) (2014) 136 The level 2 is not only matching between the verbs to the objects, but also arranging the imperative expression formed become a procedure. Each level of the game has the time limitation to be completed. Level 3 is the hardest one. There are pictures, the objects available on the grid. By firstly dragging the verbs provided to the pictures then to the objects, and finally player arrange them into a good order. By playing the game, students practice and apply the grammar used in procedural text contextually and meaningfully. For this purpose the book is completed with colorful grids, pictures and digital feature as the media of playing the game. The final activity is writing a simple procedure or manual. It is shown in the module as the goal of the lesson plan arranged as well as the objective of the game. Hopefully by using this module and the digital Battleship game will increase student’s writing skill to compose a procedure. CONCLUSION The Battleship game is implemented for teaching procedural text, focusing on the grammar. It is intended for the eighth grade of Junior high student. The implementation of Battleship game run well and impacted a good progress. Based on the experts and teacher validation, and also drawn from the result of interview and questionnaire. The researcher can conclude that the Teaching material and digital game developed is effective as a teacher’s tool for teaching procedural text. It is also proven from the result of the pre test and the post test conducted. There is an improvement of the students’ achievement of how to write a simple procedure. The condition was as the result of applying the Battleship game in teaching procedural text. REFERENCES Anderson, Mark and Kathy Anderson,1997. Text Types in English 1. South Yarra Malaysia: Machmillan Education Badger, R and White, G. 2000. A Process genre approach to teaching writing. ELT Journal Retrieved on 13th November 2012 Batstone, R 1994. Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press Bolinger, D 1977. Meaning and Form. London: Longman Borg, W and Gall, M. 2003. Educational Research: an introduction 7th edition. New York: Longman Characteristics of Young Adolescents. (WWW document). 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