Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, Vol. 5 No.1, May 2017

12

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF OBSTACLE RACE GAME TOWARD
STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN LEARNING GRAMMAR

Baiq Deni kurniati
MA Darul Husaini Sanggeng, Lombok Tengah, NTB

dening36@hotmail.com

Abstract
This research was aimed to find out the effectiveness of Obstacle Race Game toward
students’ motivation in learning grammar and to find out the correlation between students’
motivation and grammar at MA Darul Husaini Sanggeng. The kind of this research is
experimental research (quantitative approach). This research design was applied pretest-
posttest design. The population of this research was all of the second grade students of MA
Darul Husaini Sanggeng. The sample of this research was consist of two classes namely XI-
A as experimental class consist of 17 students and XI-B as control class consist of 17
students. The sample technique used in this research was saturated sampling technique. The
technique which was used to analysis the data was t-test and r-test formula. From the
research data found that the t-test score is higher than t-table (2,635>2, 021). Based on the
result of this research, it can be conclude that the Obstacle Race Game has positive effect
towards students’ motivation in learning grammar. From the research data found that r-test
is higher than r-table (0,990>0,482). It can be conclude that there is correlation between
students’ motivation and grammar.

Key Words: Obstacle Race Game, Students’ Motivation, Grammar

Abstrak
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh Game terhadap motivasi belajar siswa
dalam belajar Grammar dan untuk mengetahui hubungan antara motivasi siswa dan
grammar siswa di MA Darul Husaini Sanggeng. Jenis penelitian ini adalah penelitian
eksperimental (pendekatan kuantitatif). Desain penelitian ini menggunakan desain pretest-
posttest. Populasi penelitian ini terdiri dari seluruh siswa kelas dua di MA Darul Husaini
Sanggeng. Sampel penelitian ini terdiri dari dua kelas yaitu XI-A sebagai kelas eksperimen
yang terdiri dari 17 siswa dan kelas XI-B sebagai kontrol yang terdiri dari 17 siswa. Teknik
pengambilan sampel yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah teknik sampling jenuh.
Teknik yang digunakan untuk analisis data adalah uji t dan uji r. Dari data penelitian
diketahui bahwa nilai t-test lebih tinggi dari t table (2,635> 2, 021). Berdasarkan hasil
penelitian ini, dapat disimpulkan bahwa Obstacle Race Game berpengaruh positif terhadap
motivasi belajar siswa dalam belajar Grammar. Dari data penelitian didapatkan bahwa r-test
lebih tinggi dari r-table (0,990> 0,482). Dapat disimpulkan bahwa ada korelasi antara
motivasi dan grammar.

Kata Kunci: Triangle Game, Motivasi Siswa, Grammar

INTRODUCTION
Grammar refers to how we combine,

organize and change parts of words, words
and groups of words to make meaning
(Spratt, Pulverness and Williams, 2005: 5)
so, learners should also pay attentions to
the grammar in writing the sentence in
order to carry the meaning and
understandable to read so grammar is very
important because the language grammar

will give guidance how to compose words
and sentence fit to the right rule.

Grammar should be taught
appropriately because the basic element of
language without the proper knowledge of
grammar, the learners will find many
problems to build up sentence to express
their ideas for communication activities.By
using communication activities in learning
grammar, the student manipulate grammar
in communication with proper



Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, Vol. 5 No.1, May 2017

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understanding by using the grammar, the
student will feel confident in
communication English grammar is boring
for some students.

Based on the result of observation
that was conducted by the researcher at
MA Darul Husaini Sanggeng, the
researcher found some problems among
students in learning grammar. The problem
was about difficulty make sentence
structure in simple present continuous.
Beside, the students think that learning
present continuous is very difficult so the
student feel bored when the students study
grammar. The teacher should have method
how the students have motivation when the
student play a game, so it can make the
student more give very attention in
learning grammar, obstacle race game
discusses about present continuous or
event that is happening and this can
motivate the students approprate with
every day activities of students because
obstacle race game palyed directly in the
classroom can make students’ confindence.
When students get a good score in the
obstacle race game that can make student
proud so the students more active to learn,
especially in using present continuous
organizing the word into sentence, the
method was used by the teacher before in
learning grammar is triangle game. The
method was used by the teacher
beforehand  in learning grammar is triangle
games.

To solve the problem in order to
make the students interest and easier to
using simple present continous in
organizing the words into sentence, the
researcher intends to apply a game namely
Obstacle Race Game. Obstacle Race Game
is one of the method that make the students
more active when their study, this game is
use the materials of classroom such as
chairs, table, stopwatch, scoreboard and
other classroom object, the students able to
describe an action before performing it.
This game is expected to help the student
in learning present continuous. The
researchers expects by using the Obatacle

Race Game will be better than the method
that was used by the teacher beforehand,
the games namely triangle game.

Based on the problems above the
researcher is interested in investigating the
study entitle “the effectiveness of obstacle
race game toward students motivation in
learning grammar at MA Darul Husaini
Sanggeng in academic year 2016/2017”.

Riview of Related Literature
According to Greenbaum and Nelson

(2002: 1) grammar is the set of rules that
allow us to combine words in our language
into larger units. In other hands (Spratt,
Pulverness and Williams, 2005:5)
grammar is the describe how to combine,
organize and change words and pats of
words to make meaning. According to
Brown (2000: 362) grammar is the system
of rules governing the convention
arrangement and relationship of words in a
sentence. It is the rules for the sentences.
Thus, it was conclude that grammar is a
rule how to arrange the words to make well
sentences, grammar rule also describe
grammatical structures, because the
structures of grammar was very important
to how sentences were formed and the
meaning of sentences.

According to Eastwood (2002: 2)
there are four units of grammatical in
English are these: word, phrase, clause and
sentence.Word is a combine of some letter
that have meaning. Word are separated
from one another by space. The main word
classes are these: verb, noun, adjective,
adverb, preposition, determiner, pronoun
and conjunction. Phrase is any group of
words which grammatically like a single
word and which does not have subject and
predicate. There are these kinds of phrase:
verb phrase, noun phrase, adjective phrase,
adverb phrase and prepositional phrase.
Clause is a group of words that have
subject and predicate. We use phrase to
build a clause. Sentence is a group of
words at least contain of subject, predicate
and object or complement. The researcher
concludes as follow there are four
component in grammar: Punctuation is the



Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, Vol. 5 No.1, May 2017

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system of sign of symbols given to the
readers to show how the sentence is
constructed and how the sentences sould
be read. According to Eastwood (1999:
372) There are some kind of functuation
such as Full stop (.), Question mark (?),
Exclamation mark (!), Semi-colon (;),
Colon (:), Dash (-), Comma (,), Quotation
marks ("). Hyphen (-), Apostrophe (') and
Capital letters. Spelling is knowing how to
write words correctly (Kress, 2000: 1).
Spelling is important for exactly the same
reason that grammar and punctuation are
important: poor spelling make poor
communication. According to Radford
(2009: 39) sentence structure is how words
are combined together to form phrases and
sentences. phrases and sentences are built
up by a series of merger operations, each
of which combines a pair of constituents
together to form a larger constituent.
According to Eastwood (1999: 3) the parts
of a sentence are the subject, verb, object,
complement and adverbial. A statement
begins with the subject and the verb. It is
important to make the complete sentence.

Harmer (2001: 51) states that
motivation is some kind of internal drive
which phuses someone to do thing in order
to achieve something. It means that the
strength motivation will depend on how
much value the individual places on the
outcomes which the students wish to
achieve. In other hands (Brown, 2000: 72)
motivation is the extent to which you make
choices about (a) goals to pursue and (b)
the effort you will devote to that pursuit.
Motivation is probably the most frequently
used cath-all term for explaining the
success or failure of virtually any complex
task. It is easy to assume that success in
any task is due simply to the fact that
someone is “motivated”. It is easy in
second language learning to claim that a
learner will be successfully with the proper
motivation. From the definition above, the
researcher concludes that motivation is
inner drive of someone which can make
their more enthusiasm to do something in
order their can achieve what their want.

According to Killer (1987) ARCS is
an approach problem solving to
motivational design aspect and supplement
the learning process. The model is consist
of four main areas: Attention, Relevance,
Confidance, and Satisfaction. The attention
is refers to the interest displayed by
learners in taking in the concepts/ideas
being taught. This component is split into
three categories: perceptual arousal, using
surprise or uncertain situations; inquiry
arousal, offering challenging questions
and/or problems to answer/solve; and
variability, using a variety of resources and
methods of teaching.

The teachers have to be established
by using language and examples that the
learners are familiar with. It is will have
the students find relevance while learning
can be daunting task for some subjects.
Linking what is being taught to the
material is familiar and relevant to the
students. Motivation amounts to
persuasion for knowledge based on the
subject that provides the basic for learning
future concept.

The confidence aspect is focuses on
establishing positive expectations for
achieving success among learners. The
confidence level of learners is often
correlated with motivation and the amount
of effort put forth in reaching a
performance objective. For this reason, it’s
important that learning design provides
students with a method for estimating their
probability of success. This can be
achieved in the form of a syllabus and
grading policy, rubrics, or a time estimate
to complete tasks. Additionally, confidence
is built when positive reinforcement for
personal achievements is given through
timely, relevant feedback. Satisfaction can
be from a sense of achievement, praise
from a higher-up, or mere entertainment.
Feedback and reinforcement are important
elements and when learners appreciate the
results, they will be motivated to learn.
Satisfaction is based upon motivation,
which can be intrinsic or extrinsic.



Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, Vol. 5 No.1, May 2017

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According to Lewis and Bedson
(1999: 88) Obstacle race is one of a
method that form of movement game that
make the students more active. Obstacle
race is a game use present continous that
using the materials in the classroom to
describe an action progress the team of
students before performing. Rogers and
West (2008: 42) stated taht devide the
class into two teams and conduct the
obstacle course. There are some
procedures to use obstacle race game in
teaching learning grammar. During the
actions, each child has to describe what he
or she is doing, for example, I’m crawling
under the table, or I’m shopping around the
chairs. Alternatively, the other children
describe what is happening, for example,
he’s running up and down, or she’s singing
a song.

RESEARCH METHOD

Research Design
According to Khotari (2004: 31)

research design is the conceptual structure
whithin which research is conducted; it
constitutes the blueprint for the collection,
measurement and analysis of data. The
approach used in this research is
quantitative approach because used
statistical analysis. In this research, the
researcher used experimental method.
Experimental is characterized by much
greater control over the research
environment and this case some variables
are manipulated to observe the effect on
other variables (Khotari, 2004: 5).

This research categorized as quasi
experimental with pretest and posttest
design which used two groups:
experimental group was treated by using
Triangle Game and control group was
treated by using Jumbled Sentence Game.

Population and Sample
According To Sugiyono (2014: 80)

population is a generalization area which
consists of subject or object that has
certain quality and characteristic
determined by the researcher to be learned
and then concluded. The population of this

study was entire second grade (A and B) of
MA Darul Huasaini Sanggeng. Each class
were consists of 17 students. So the totals
were 34 students.

According to Sugiyono (2014: 81)
sample is part of number and characteristic
of the population. In the sample, a
subgroup of the target population that the
researcher study for the purpose of make
the generalizations about the target
population.To determined the sample of
this research, the researcher used the
saturated sampling technique because all
of the population as a sample (sugiyono,
2014: 85).

Instrument
Since this study attempts to

investigate any significant effects of using
games obstacle race the student grammar
mastery skill at the first grade student of
MA Darul Husaini Sanggeng in academic
year 2016/2017. The instrument in this
study is multiple choice tests, true or false,
fill in the blank and matching words. Each
item consists of 20 items of multiple
choices, 10 items true or false, 10 items fill
in the blank and 10 items matching words.
So the total questions are 50 items. The
researcher will give 1 point for each item
with the correct answer and 0 point for
items with the wrong answer. So, the total
score is 50. Questionnaire is a technique of
data collection that conducted by given
some question or statement to the students.
It is important to know the students
motivation. In this research, the researcher
will give statements, it consist of 20
statements.

FINDING AND DISCUSSION
In this chapter, the researcher

showed the data which has find out by
using descriptive and inferential analysis
of the effectiveness of obstacle Game
toward students’ motivation in learning
grammar at second grade students of MA
Darul Huasaini Sanggeng. After doing the
descriptive analysis, the researcher
continued to the inferential analysis to find
out the t-value, in which this t-value was



Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, Vol. 5 No.1, May 2017

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used to inferred the result of the research.
The aimed of t-test is to find out the
comparison between the result of t-test and
the t-table. Based on the result of t-test, the
researcher found that the t-value was 2,635
and the t-table of significant level of 0,05
with degree freedom 40 was 2,021. The
result of t-test was (2,635>2,021). It means
that the result of t-test was higher than the
t-table. So, the researcher was concluded
that the triangle game has effect toward
students’ motivation in learning grammar
at second grade students of MA Darul
Husaini Sanggeng.

After doing the inferential analysis,
the researcher continued to find out the
correlation between students’ motivation
and grammar, the researcher was use
Pearson’s product moment formula to
compute all of the data, the researcher
prepare the computation of two variable ,
there were studens’ motiavion as variable
X and grammar as variable Y.

After the researcher found that the
Ha was accepted and H0 was rejected, the
researcher tried to find out the correlation
between students’ motivation and
grammar. Based on the result of the
correlation analysis where coefficient of
the two variables is 0,990. The r-table of
17 subjects as the sample is 0,482 for
confidence level of 5%. This figure that
result of r-test is 0,990 was higher than r-
table is 0,482 (0,990 >0,482). Therefore, it
was conclude that there is positive
correlation between students’ motivation
and grammar learning achievement at
second grade students of MA Darul
Husaini Sanggeng.

Based on those result, the obstacle
race game game has positive effect
towards students’ motivation in learning
grammar. The students’ motivation can be
increased and make the students feel
exciting to learn in group. Exciting
learning process is learning system that
makes the students interested (Dave Meier,
2011). Generally, when the researcher use
Triangle Game, the students able to
cooperative learning. Cooperative learning

exists when students work together to
accomplish shared learning goals (Johnson
& Johnson, 1999).

The researcher found that the result
of this research have relevance with the
research was done by Indri Mutiarsih
(2013). The result of this study indicate
that the implementation model of Broken
Triangle/Square/Heart collaborated with
the distribution of handouts, discussion
class, and a quiz with prizes can enhance
the students active. There are several
advantages, including can increase
students’ activity in the teaching of history,
students take pleasure in learning while
preparing pieces of material, the students
become more confident in speaking in
front of their friends, and the students
realize that studying history is simple,
because only by putting together the
materials will be easy to understand the
materials.

Beside, the research was done by
Hajar Khonmohammad (2013). The results
showed that the participants motivated to
learn grammar. Implications of the study
for teaching grammar are that learners’
motivation in learning grammar could be
enhanced through enjoyment and fun.

The statement of the problems about
is there any correlation between students’
motivation and grammar has been
answered also. The researcher found that
there is correlation between students’
motivation and grammar in teaching
learning process. The students who have
high motivation in learning were more
active and spirit in learning process,
besides the students more seriously in
class. According to Prayitno (1989:3)
Students who have high motivation in
learning will perform more and faster
activities than students who have low
motivation in learning. Achievements will
be better if the students have high
motivation. Therefore, the researcher
concluded that the important of motivation
in learning process be able to changes how
the way to be good learning process.



Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, Vol. 5 No.1, May 2017

17

CONCLUSION
Based on the statistical analysis of t-

test formula, it has found that the t-value is
2,635 and the t-table of significant level of
0,05 is 2,021 (2,764>2,021). It is clear that
t-test is higher than t-table. So, the
researcher concludes that Triangle Game
has positive effect towards students’
motivation in learning grammar at second
grade of MA Darul Husaini Sanggeng.
Based on the Pearson’s Product Moment
formula, the researcher has found that
there is positive correlation between
students’ motivation and their grammar at
second grade of MA Darul Husaini
Sanggeng.

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