45 JOURNAL OF ENGLISH EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY Vol. 04 No. 01, March 2023, pp. 45 - 56 Available online at: http://jeet.fkdp.or.id/index.php/jeet/issue/current ISSN: 2721-3811 (media online) The Effect of Word Chain Game on Vocabulary Mastery (A Study at Mts Hidayatush Shibyan Cendoro Palang Tuban) Salamun Universitas Kiai Abdullah Faqih Gresik salamjamal45@gmail.com ABSTRACT Vocabulary is one of the important aspects in teaching language included English. Vocabulary is one of the important language components that need to be taught to support learners in mastering language skill. We can use a lot of media to attract the student’s interest in learning process. One of the media is games. The use of games is very helpful for teachers to bridge the student’s motivation and learning interest. The objective of the research is to know the effectiveness of Word chain game in teaching vocabulary mastery. The research design is experimental research. The researcher apply pre-experimental one group pre-test-post-test design. The subject of the research was students’ VIII A of Mts Hidayatush Shibyan Cendoro Palang Tuban. Tehnique of data collection is test, pre-test, treatment, and pos-test. Meanwhile, tehnique of data analysis the researcher used t-test. The result of the research showed the sum score of the students in pre-test before treatment was 1935. Then, the students sum score of post-test after treatment was 2470. The researcher analyzes the result of t-test analysis to answer the research problem. The researcher gets the value of t-test analysis which 7, 77. The value of t-test analysis is consulted in t-table. From t-table shows the value of 5% is 2, 06, it mean that value 2, 06 ˂ 7, 77. So, this research showed a significant effective of Word Chain Game on Vocabulary Mastery. The result of this research, conclude that students who are taught by word chain game got higher score on their vocabulary. Key Word: Word Chain Game, Vocabulary Mastery http://jeet.fkdp.or.id/index.php/jeet/issue/current http://u.lipi.go.id/1580741566 mailto:salamjamal45@gmail.com 46 I. INTRODUCTION One of the important things in learning English is "vocabulary" because it has a major role in all language skills. Vocabulary is one of the basic components in language, no language can exist without words(Linse & Nunan, 2005). So, students will understand the reading text, they can write some notes, they can speak the language if they can master vocabulary. Students need a vocabulary to easily master in English. Students can't use English better if their vocabulary is low. Teaching vocabulary is one of many ways to develop English competence of person who are learning English (Kholis & Aziz, 2020). The difficulity in learning English is not only because the ineffective method that teacher applies but also the aspect of the vocabulary itself. Other difficulty in learning and using English vocabulary include understanding the meaning, the speeling, pronounciation, etc. in vocabulary usage. We can use a lot of media to attract the student’s interest in learning process (Khoiroh, 2022). One of the media is games. The use of games is very helpful for teachers to bridge the student’s motivation and learning interest. There are many kinds of interesting games to teach vocabulary. One of the games is Word Chain Game. Word Chain Game is a game in which players come up with word that begin with the letter or letters that the previous word ended with. This game is a challenging and interesting activity which stimulates the student’s motivation in learning vocabulary. The researcher assumed that using Word Chain Game seems to be a good alternative and effective way of teaching English in Mts Hidayatush shibyan Cendoro Palang Tuban, because this media can make students active in teaching and learning process, it also allows students to be creative without being shy. In addition, this technique to improve the students’ ability in mastering vocabulary on their knowledge. Based on explanation above, the researcher will intend to carry out research to solve that problem. It also implied that Word Chain Game can motivates the students in learning English. Therefore, the researcher has decides to conduct a research entitled “The Effect of Word Chain Game on vocabulary mastery.” II. LITERATURE REVIEW THE DEFINITION OF VOCABULARY In Oxford learner’s pocket dictionary states that vocabulary is all the words that a person knows or uses (Bull, 2008). 47 Vocabulary is all the words in a language. Vocabulary also lists of words with their meaning. Moreover, in Cambridge dictionary states that vocabulary is all the words that exist in a particular language or subject (Dictionary, 2008). According to Kridalaksana, vocabulary is a component of language that contains information about the meaning and using a word in language (Kridalaksana, 2013). Learning language includes learning the vocabulary or words. Learning is formed by words. Humans can communicate with others through verbal language, either to apply or to receive the information the animal cannot do. The learners have to know one by one the meaning of the vocabulary. If they know all the meaning of vocabulary, it will make them easy to make sentence and to practice their language. Vocabulary is important thing in language learning, for vocabulary is needed in all aspects of language. The explanation above is supported by Cameron’s statement that “vocabulary is fundamental to using the foreign language as discourse” (Pinter, 2017). Vocabulary takes an important role in teaching English to build the language proficiency. The student will have a good language proficiency in four language skills if the students know a lot of vocabularies. All that vocabulary will be used by students when they communicate with other people. So, the students in language teaching should use their vocabulary when they speak with other students. In other words, they should improve their speaking skill before the other skills. This skill will be improved by knowing a lot of vocabularies. Vocabulary takes an important role in teaching English to build language proficiency. The student will have good language proficiency in four language skills if the students know a lot of vocabulary. All that vocabulary will be used by students when they communicate with other people. So, the students in language teaching should use their vocabulary when they speak with other students. In other words, they should improve their speaking skill before the other skills. This skill will be improved by knowing a lot of vocabulary. THE IMPORTANCE OF VOCABULARY Vocabulary is basic aspect in learning English that must be mastered by learners (nur Aziz & Rohmah, 2022). Mastering vocabulary, it will help them to communicate orally or in written as well. According to rivers, vocabulary is essential for successful second language use because, without an extensive vocabulary, learners will unable to use the structures and function we may have 48 learned for comprehensible communication From the definition we can conclude that vocabulary is important elements in using English, that must be mastered by learners. Students can express their ideas well, when they have a good skill to mastery vocabulary. KINDS OF VOCABULARY There are at least five kinds of vocabulary (Hatch & Brown, 1995:181-243). They are follows: a. Word Classes It is known well as parts of speech such as noun, verb, adverb, adjective, pronun, preposition and conjuction. b. Word Families It clarifies about affix and the shift of word. Example: Play – plays – played = Inflected Play – replay – playful =Derivatives c. Word Formation Worf-formation can denote either a state or process, and it can be viewed either diachronically or synchronically. Example : 1. Compounding = second-hand, word processor, typereseacher. 2. Blending = information+ entertainment = infotainment. 3. Clipping = electronic mail = mail. 4. Influenza = flu d. Collocation It can be called as two wors usually found together. Example : this week, once more, once again, as well. e. Homonysms It has same form but different in meaning. Example : well = sumur, left = kiri, well = baik, left = berangkat ASPECT OF VOCABULARY There are three aspects to teach vocabulary. These are: a) Meaning The teacher should try to get the meaning to the class without using translation. This is not preferable on the ground that translation may or may not provide the meaning of the word accurately and precisely. It is advocated as it enables the class to go without grasping the meaning of a word thst they learned to pronounce rather that to depend upon the translation. b) Spelling The students should know how to spell the word and how this differs from similary pronounced word. c) Pronouncing Pronouncing the word enables the students to remember it longer and identify 49 it more readily when they hear see it. Those are the main the main aspects that should be implemented in teaching vocabulary. The word chain game focus on speeling and pronouncing. TEACHING VOCABULARY Teaching vocabulary is an important role in English teaching to improve the effectiveness anf effieciency, teachers should not only understand the students’ difficulties of word study, but also use some useful strategies and methods (nur Aziz & Rohmah, 2022). Only in this way they can help to improve the students’ language competence and their anility to use English freely in communication. Teaching vocabulary is one of the way to develop English competence of person who are learning English because vocabulary is pne of the success keys in learning English/ teaching vocabulary development involves more than teaching the definition of technical or unfamiliar words in texts. Many encounters with a word in a meaningful contexts are needed for students to acquire it. It also requires understanding how the words are learned in non-instructional context through conversation and reading. Researchers claim we don’t learn much from looking up words in a dictionary and memorizing definitions (Nagy, 1989). When teaching vocabulary special attention must be given not only to single words but also to playword (e.g. by the way); collections, or word partnerships (i.e. we’ll soon) and idioms. As an English teacher, we should know the appropriate techniques of teaching vocabulary for students. According to the study of hatch and brownin the journal of Qi Pan and Rujiang Xu, learners’ strategies for learning vocabulary fall into five essential steps: 1. Having source for encountering new words. 2. Getting the forms of the words. 3. Learning the meaning of the words. 4. Making a strong memory of the words. 5. Using the words (Pan & Xu, 2011). While teaching vocabulary, teachers should take into account the three important aspects of vocabulary learning; words form, word meaning, and word use. In other words, teaching vocabulary should cover both the central features of lexical items and their relations with other words. On the basic of above-mentioned theory, Qi Pan and Rujiang Xu said that they used the following methods in their lexical 50 teaching, which have proved to be very powerful and effective. a) Teaching vocabulary in Context Context means the word that come just before and after a word, phrase or statement and help to understand its meaning. As Lu Shu Xiang said that only by being an a context will a word be alive. Similarly, stevick pointed out, vocabulary is eiser to learn in context than in isolated word lists in that such meaningful context permit this more context and deeper cognitive processing, which enhances strogr in memory. Thus words should not be thaught out of context. Moreover, context teaching caters to students need for effective reading and communication by maing correct use of words learnt. More importantly, context teaching helps cultivate students good reading habit of reading between the lines, thus improving their reading comprehension. Teaching vocabulary in the context is more helpful to learners to master word that carries different meanings in different context (nur Aziz & Hoesny, 2022). Take the word means for example: Only a man of means could afford to buy such a big house .(money,income or wealth). b) Teaching vocabulary with semantic Field Theory What that belong to the same semantic class are in the same semantic field. According to the theory of semantic field, the meaning of a word is decided by its relationships with other words in the same semantic field. There are various kinds of such sense relationships, for example: Hyponymy, part/whole relationships, synonymy and antonymy. By association of word in the same semantic field, we can train our students to constantly deepen their recollection of words learnt and rainforce learning and retention of newly learnt words. c) The use of dictionaries Usually we are sure that student want to know the meaning of many more words than teachers can teach them, the dictionary provides one of the best resources for students who increase the number of words they understand. But it’s better to use the monolingual dictionary. In it there are many more words than students will ever see in class. There is grammatical information about the words. There is information about pronounciation, spelling, word formation, and metaphorical and idiomatic use---a whole profile of a practical word. It requires teachers ti introduce to their methods of choosing and using a proper dictionary (Pan & Xu, 2011). d) Using games 51 One of the interesting way to teaching vocabulary is using game because the students feel something different with their English lesson. Some of them usually more understand with the material and remember the new words given. It is because almost all of the students feel bored with formalism in their lessons. So most of teachers using games in their teaching learning process to make the students understand with the materials. In this research the researcher will use games for her research. The name is word chain. This game is very interesting to makes students more interest with them materials. Beside that, this game also can makes the students remember the new vocabularies or words given. DEFINITION OF WORD CHAIN GAME Word chain game is a kinds of game purposing to improve the player’s ability in mastering vocabulary of words (Gardner, 2007). According to Firmansyah and Adi mentions that Word chain game is a well- known game that has been applied in language teaching class for a long time (Firmansyah, 2015). Based on those opinions, it can be said that word chain game is one of the games can be used by the teacher in language teaching process. In japan, Word Chain Game well- known as Shiritori game. The Japanese give the definition to Shiritori game as a Japanese Word Chain Game. Hyakka argues that Shiritori game is a word game played bymaking a chain of words 20 and each of players must say a word which is starting with the last syllable of the word that has already given by the previous player (Hyakka, 2014). Word chain game specially used in vocabulary teaching learning process. Adachitoka said that “someone says a word, and the next person has to saya word that starts with the last letter of the previous word” (Apriani et al., 2021). Moreover, Robico define word chain game as a game to create a new word by taking the last letter of the previous word. So, each of players must say word by word when they play this game. In other words, they will try to recollect all of their vocabularies that they have known before. It means, the writer can say that the rule of this game suitable to improve the mastery of English vocabulary. a. The steps of Word Chain Game In addition, Cullen the way to teach vocabulary by using Word Chain Game are : 52 1. In the spoken version, one player starts the game by saying any word, for example “cat”. 2. The next player has to say a word that’s starts with the last letter of the previous our player‘s word. With cat, the last letter is t, so the next player might say “table”. 3. The next player does the same, this time looking for a word that’s starts with –e for example “elephant”. 4. The game continues does like this. It can stop when exhaustion sets in. 5. The written version is the same, except that the words are written on a sheet of paper that is passed from player to player (Alan, 50 C.E.). Variation: Whole-Class Word Chains 1. Everyone in the class has a sheet of paper of the same size and writes a word on it at the same time. 2. When everyone is ready, each child passes his or her paper to the closets child. Each player writes a word starting with the last letter of the word on the sheet of paper he or she received. Then, when everyone’s ready, they pass the papers on again. 3. This goes on until the players get their own sheet of paper back. From explanation above, the writer can concludes that these word chains can make very interesting classroom displays. And if students successed in word of chain game, their vocabulary will increased and they can learn English language well. III. METHOD In this research the researcher used quantitative approach with pre- experimental research. Quantitative is a type of educational research in which the researcher used the statistical technique to understand and explain phenomena (Latief, 2012). As cited in Donald Arys book “Introduction to Research in Education “Pre- experimental has two design One-Group Pretest-Posttest Design, and Static Group Comparison. The research use one Group Pretest- Posttest Design because according to the researcher, this is the most simple design, only comparing between pretest and posttest and easy to do for the research POPULATION AND SAMPLING The population in this research was students of 2nd grade of Mts Hidayatush Shibyan. That were 93 students and The sample of this research, the researcher choosed students of VIII A, totally 27 students (9 female and 18 male) 53 THE TECHNIQUE OF DATA COLLECTION Data Collection Technique is the way used by researcher to collect the data. As wrote by Creswell in his book Educational Research Planning, Conducting and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research that Collecting data means identifying and selecting individuals for a study, obtaining their permission to study them, and gathering information by asking people questions or observing their behaviors (Creswell, 2002). Based on the research method, the study was done into three steps. First step, the researcher wants to know the students’ vocabulary mastery by administering a pre-test. In the pre-test, students are ordered to do the test by multiple choices with 20 questions. Second step, the reasearher gave treatment to the students. And the last step is the researcher wants to know the students’ vocabulary mastery after giving the treatment by word chain game DATA ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE In this research, the researcher prepared a test. As the technique for collecting the data. In this section, the research discussed about the technique to analyze the data. the technique of analyzing the data is test. After the results of pre-test and post-test were gotten by the researcher, the value of the pre- test and post-test are analyzed. The researcher used t-test to get the result of this research. And formula is (Suharsimi, 2006): ᵗ = 𝑀𝑑 √∑𝑋 2 𝑑 𝑁 (𝑁−1) Md : mean of difference pre test – post test value xd : deviation of each subject (d-Md) Σ : number of deviation quadrate N : number of sample d.b : N-1 (number of sample – 1) Md = ∑d n Md : mean of difference pre test – post test value. Σd : number of d (number of difference between pre test – post-test value) IV. RESULT final result of this research, the researcher used t-test as instrument in this research to analyze and get the value. Based on the computation of the test, the result of this research has a variant between before and after treatment. So, the t-test formula : MD = ∑ d N The data of research: ∑x2d = 15.175 N = 27 MD = ∑ d N = 535 27 = 19,814 54 ∑x2d = ∑d2 – (∑d)2 𝑁 = 15.175 − 535² 27 = 15.175 − 286.225 27 = 15.175 – 10.600 = 4.575 So, the computation t-test: t = 𝑀𝐷 √ ∑X 2 d 𝑁 (𝑁−1) = 19,814 √ 4.575 27 (27−1) = 19,814 √ 4.575 27(26) = 19,814 √ 4.575 702 = 19,814 √6,51 = 19,814 2,55 = 7, 77 With 𝛼 = 5% and df = (n-1) = 27-1 = 26, obtained ttable = 2,06. So tcount was higher than ttable (7,77>2,06). From the result, it can be concluded that there is a difference result between before doing treatment by word chain game and after do it. The students’ score of pre-test was 1935 whereas the students’ score of post-test was 2470. V. DISCUSSION The objective of this study is to know the effectiveness in teaching vocabulary after being taught by word chain game on vocabulary mastery. In order to gain the objectives of the study, the researcher conducts an experimental study with the design pre-experimental research one group pre-test post-test design. Based on the research method, the study was done into two steps. First step, the researcher wants to know the students’ vocabulary mastery by administering a pre-test. In the pre-test, students are ordered to do the test by multiple choices with 20 questions. The result of pre-test is all of the students score is under passin score 70. It can be concluded that the students’ vocabulary mastery of Mts Hidayatush Shibyan is low with the mean of pretest was 1935. The second step was giving a treatment to the students. The treatment here was teaching English vocabulary by word chain game. The researcher taught information related to the nature of people, animals, places, and job objects according to the context of their use. During getting the treatment, the students are enthusiastic to study vocabulary. All of the students were interested to memorize vocabulary by word chain game. The researcher did the treatment twice. The first treatment, researcher used material by the title the nature of people and animals. And at the second treatment, 55 researcher used material by the title places and job. As it was previously stated that the T- test was used to check the significant different in scores achieved by one group. The data analysis shows that t-count bigger than t-table (7, 77 > 2, 06). It means that the alternative hypothesis (Ha) was accepted and null hypothesis (Ho) was rejected. It shows that there was significant different score of the students’ between before and after being taught by word chain game. Based on the hypothesis testing, the alternative hypothesis (Ha) was accepted and the null hypothesis (Ho) was rejected. From the explanation above, the implementation of word chain game in teaching and learning process gives a positive effect on the students’ vocabulary mastery, because they can study vocabulary easily and enjoy without any burden. It can be done because by fun learning, knowledge sharing and information can be understood and maintained well. This result is similar to Izza Zahrotul, Umi Sulusiatun Nikmah, and Wiwit Ariyani research. The result of their research suggest that Word Chain game is effective as media tool in teaching and learning vocabulary, and that media give significant effect to student’s vocabulary mastery VI. CONCLUSION Teaching vocabulary by word chain game is effective. Because, there is any significance difference in the achievement of the students’ score before and after taught by using word chain game. The result of statically computation using t-test shown that the result of pre-test and post-test was 7, 77. 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