https://jurnal.unigal.ac.id/index.php/jall/index https://jurnal.unigal.ac.id/index.php/jall/index JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, February, Vol. 4 No. 1, 2020 Received Accepted Published November 2019 January 2020 February 2020 DIGITAL HANGMAN GAME TO IMPROVE STUDENT’S VOCABULARY MASTERY IN TEACHING NARRATIVE TEXT Zaqiyah Lailatul Farihah zaqiyahfarihah@ikipsiliwangi.ac.id IKIP Siliwangi, Cimahi, Jawa Barat, Indonesia Etika Rachmawati etikarachmawati@gmail.com Universitas Galuh Ciamis, Indonesia ABSTRACT This study aims at investigating the use of digital hangman game to improve students‟ vocabulary mastery in teaching narrative text at tenth grade at one of Islamic Senior High School in Padamulya Ciamis, Indonesia. The writers used convergent parallel mixed methods design as a method of the study because the convergent parallel mixed method is a form of mixed-method design in which the researcher converges quantitative and qualitative data in order to provide a comprehensive analysis. Experimental research was used in this study. Moreover, the data in this study were collected from several sources including achievement tests, questionnaires, and observation. The result showed that t- observe was 10.992 and t-critical at df=19 on level 0.05 with a two-tailed test was 2.093, which means that t-critical was less than t-observe and alternative hypotheses were accepted. Thus, the students generally pleased with the teaching narrative text by using the digital hangman game. Furthermore, almost the students gave their good responses to the implementation of the game. For further researchers, it gives broad opportunities in making this study more complete in the same field with a different interest such as how to teach narrative text through other strategies. Keywords: Hangman Game, Vocabulary, Narrative Text INTRODUCTION In learning English, vocabulary plays an important role. It is one element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing altogether. Considering the importance of vocabulary role in learning a foreign language, the mastery of this element should be ensured and developed. According to (Hatch and Brown, 1995, p. 1) vocabulary is the list for a particular language or a list of the set of words individual speakers of a language might use. It means vocabulary is a series of words used by individual speakers of certain languages. Since vocabulary is a list, the only system involved in alphabetical order in dictionaries. Here, vocabulary is written in alphabetical order in dictionaries based on the system or rule of the foreign language. JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, February, Vol. 4 No. 1, 2020 39 Mastering vocabulary is the most important thing in mastering English. English learning process faces many problems because students lack vocabulary. According to Hatch and Brown (1995, p. 370), vocabulary mastery is needed to express our ideas and to be able to understand other people‟s sayings. The specificity of any individual vocabulary knowledge depends on the person and his motivation, desires, and need for the words. It means that vocabulary is an individual great skill in using words of a language that is acquired based on their own interest and motivation. Harmer (1991, p. 154) and Harmer (2007, p. 229) stated that teaching vocabulary is a major part of the teachers‟ Art. It means to make students understand that vocabulary is a very basic task in language teaching, but sometimes difficult in practice. There should be such creative techniques in language teaching to help the teacher. In language teaching, the media used should be interesting and matched with the characteristics of the learners. This aspect can be done by applying to learn and playing techniques, such as the use of computer games. Learning through computer games provides several advantages. The game can be accepted joyfully, as related to the nature of the game that it is entertaining and exciting. Because the game is fun, playing at once arouses great interest for learners in a particular subject. The game can be classified as one of the media that is familiar with students and can be used for the teaching and learning process. Uberman, (1998, p. 20) stated that “Games encourage, entertain, teach, and promote fluency. If not for any of these reasons, they should be used just because they help students see the beauty in a foreign language and not just problems that at times seem overwhelming”. It means that the game is one of the media that can be used by a teacher in the learning process, by applying the game in the learning process, especially in improving students' vocabulary in a text. The students will not have difficulty in understanding or memorizing vocabulary. Media is one of the most needed things in the learning process. As for media that can be used as an alternative is game. According to Sweetser et al (2003) and Lazzaro (2004) that learners or people like to spend time with friends and enjoy interacting with other people, watch others play chat and talk about the game and see other people's expressions. It means that game is one of the media that can be used in a learning process. Greenall (1998, p. 84) in Asrori M, et al, (2013) explain the procedure of how to play digital hangman games in teaching: Form groups of four or five. Ask one person in each group to think of a word of not less than seven letters, and then make the number of letters JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, February, Vol. 4 No. 1, 2020 40 with a series of dashes. In turn, the other students say one letter each. If the letter is contained in the word, it is marked in its correct position above the dash. If the letter is not contained in the word, a line representing part of the gallows (see below) is drawn. Each time a student guesses a letter that does not occur in the word, further part is added to the gallows in the order marked below. There are ten parts to the gallows and if there are ten wrong guesses, the person who thought of the word wins a point. Some modifications to gameplay to increase difficulty level are sometimes facilitated, such as limiting guesses on high-frequency Consonants and vowels. Another alternative is to give the definition of the word. This can be used to facilitate the learning of a foreign language. In this study, there are several problems that can be identified. First, language classroom basically needs teaching media that support the English teaching and learning, second, the students‟ laziness to lack of vocabulary mastery. Third, students especially adolescents want to learn vocabulary by doing interesting activities that are almost similar to playing games. And last is a language teaching method, the teacher always uses the traditional method. Furthermore, there are some previous studies related to this study. Those are Setywan & Widyahening (2015) „Improving Students‟ Vocabulary Mastery Using Riddles Game‟. Trihandayani, & Ahmad (2016) „The Effectiveness of Using Computer Game “Fast Hand” to Improve Students‟ Vocabulary Mastery for Junior High School‟. Efendi Erfan (2013) „The Use of Games to Improve Vocabulary Mastery‟. Kartikawati, D. (2014) „Improving the Second-Semester Students‟ Vocabulary Mastery Using Hangman Game‟. Purbandari, P. (2018) ‘Male and Female Students‟ attitudes Toward English Vocabulary Mastery In Learning Speaking‟. Nurazizah, H., Friatin, LY., Sugiarto, BR. (2019) “Whatsapp Voice Note in Speaking Class”. However, the previous studies involved mainly in the implementation of the games and the digital media in learning English speaking. Thus, the present study examined specifically to investigate the use of digital hangman games in teaching narrative text. METHOD The writers used convergent parallel mixed methods design as a method of the study because the convergent parallel mixed method is a form of mixed-method design in which the researchers converge or merge quantitative and qualitative data in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of the research problem. Experimental research was javascript:void(0) JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, February, Vol. 4 No. 1, 2020 41 used in this study. Moreover, the data in this study were collected from several sources including achievement tests, questionnaires, and observation. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The students of the experimental group showed their progress from the result of the post-test. The lowest students‟ score of pre-test was 5 and the lowest students‟ score of post-test was 30. The highest score of the pre-test was 40 and the highest score of the post- test was 75. It can be concluded that there is an improvement in students‟ achievement scores in vocabulary mastery of the experimental group from the pre-test and post-test. The value of t-test was computed by using the computation of statistics which was taken from Burns (1997, p. 157) as follows: t = ̅ ̅ The denominator of the above formula ̅calculated from the following formula: ̅= √∑ ∑ ( ) Thus the full formula for t when the samples correlated: t= ̅ √∑ ∑ ( ) ̅ √ ( ) ( ) ̅ √ ( ) ( ) ̅ √ ( ) ( ) ̅ √ ) ̅ √ ̅ √ JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, February, Vol. 4 No. 1, 2020 42 ̅ t= t= 10.992 The degree of freedom (df) The next step was calculating the degree of freedom (df). The purpose of this step was to find out the degree of freedom and can be seen in this formula: df = N – 1 = 20 – 1 df = 19 Making Interpretation and Conclusion In making the interpretation and conclusion about the achievement test, there was the data about the gained score of the experimental group, t-observed, degree of freedom, and t-table. Table 1 Score of the experimental group, t-observed, degree of freedom, and t-table. 1. Gained score of the experimental group -580 2. t-observed 10.992 3. Degree of freedom 19 4. t-table 2.093 Based on table 1, the gained score of the experimental group was -580, the t observed was 10.992, the degree of freedom 19 and t-table was 2.093. Testing Hypothesis In this research, there are two kinds of hypotheses. They are null hypothesis〖(H〗_0) and Alternative hypothesis (H_1). In this part, the writers would test those hypotheses. The testing of the hypothesis would be presented below: Null Hypothesis( ) The null hypothesis( ) mean there is no significant difference between the students‟ vocabulary mastery in learning narrative text after they taught by using the digital hangman game. ( ) can be rejected if t-observed is higher than the t-table. The result of computation showed that t-observed was 10.992 and the t-table is 2.093at the level of significance 0.05 with df= 19. In this case, the t-observed was higher than the t- table. It means that( ) was rejected. JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, February, Vol. 4 No. 1, 2020 43 Alternative Hypothesis ( ) The Alternative hypothesis ( ) mean there is a significant difference between the students‟ vocabulary mastery in learning narrative text after they taught by using the digital hangman game. ( ) can be accepted if the t-observed is higher than the t-table. The result of computation showed that t-observed was 10.992 and t-table was2.093the level of significance 0.05 with df=19 in this case, t-observed is higher than t-table. It means that ( ) is accepted. It can be concluded that the use of digital hangman game in teaching narrative is effective to improve students‟ vocabulary mastery. Based on the hypothesis testing, there were null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis. The writers found that t-observed was 10.992 and the t-table was 2.093 it means that the t-observed value was higher than the t-critical value. So, the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternative hypothesis was accepted. In conclusion, there is a significant difference between the students‟ vocabulary mastery in learning narrative text after they taught by using the digital hangman game. The students’ responses toward the use of digital hangman game to improve students’ vocabulary mastery in teaching narrative text. The questionnaire was conducted to get students‟ responses toward the use of digital hangman game to improve their vocabulary mastery. Chart 1. students‟ responses toward the use of digital hangman game to improve their vocabulary mastery Based on chart 1, it could be seen that in responding to the first questionnaire item on “Do you enjoy learning English with that game? (Digital hangman game)” showed that 95% represented enjoy when they learned narrative text by using digital hangman game because the students need teaching media which can make them feel the atmosphere that makes them not bored quickly and provide motivation in the learning process. On the opposite, the result showed that 5% represented who did not enjoy the learning process of narrative text by using the digital hangman game. Basically, the JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, February, Vol. 4 No. 1, 2020 44 students did not like learning by using the game, the students need other methods in the learning process with an atmosphere that is more serious and learn individually. Furthermore, the second questionnaire item on “does hangman game interesting for learning narrative?” the result showed that 90% represented eighteen students agreed that the digital hangman game was interesting for learning narrative, Students also argued that the digital hangman game created a new situation in the process of learning narrative. Meanwhile, there were 10% represented that two students did not have the same perceptions of the learning narrative by using the digital hangman game. The third questionnaire item on “How do you remember many vocabularies after playing those games?” showed that there were 95% represented nineteen students who agreed that they can remember some words contained in the text. On the other hand, 5% represented that students disagree because they felt that the game was difficult to use in remembering vocabulary. The fourth questionnaire item on “What are the difficulties when you play the digital hangman game?” showed that 60% represented twelve students who agreed that this game was difficult to play for a beginner. On the other hand, 40% represented eighth students disagreed. Some students felt that the game was quite easy to use in narrative learning with the words presented that contain more vocabulary. The fifth questionnaire item about "do you like that game in learning narrative?" Shows that 90% represented eighteen students agreed that the digital hangman games made the students enjoy to learn vocabularies that have never been found before. And 10% represented two students disagreed because the games are too simple to be used in learning. Sweetser et al. (2003) and Lazzaro (2004) stated that learners or people like to spend time with friends, enjoy interacting with other people, watch others play chat and talk about the game to see other people‟s expressions. This definition means that Game is one of the media that can be used in the learning process. So, especially in this game, students are required to cooperate with group members to guess the word, so that they will feel challenged. The sixth questionnaire item on “Does the digital hangman game help you remember the vocabularies?” showed that 75% represented fifteen students agreed that the hangman game can help them to remember the vocabularies. On the other hand, 25% represented fifth students disagreed because some students felt that this game was difficult to use for beginners, need extra understanding to be able to play it. JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, February, Vol. 4 No. 1, 2020 45 CONCLUSION Based on the findings, the data showed that the t-test was 10.992 and t-table at df = 19 on the level 0.05 with the two-tailed test was 2.093, which means that the t-table was less than t-test and the alternative hypothesis was accepted. It proves that the digital hangman game improves students‟ vocabulary mastery. Furthermore, the students generally pleased with the teaching narrative text by using the digital hangman game. Almost the students gave their good responses to the implementation of the game. 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