I.

INTRODUCTION

This experimental research focuses on the effect of Crossword Puzzle on

vocabulary achievement. The use of Crossword Puzzle is intended to make
students more interested in following the teaching learning vocabulary activities.
Crossword Puzzle is believed to have the advantages in teaching learning
vocabulary activities on the Tenth Year Students’ Vocabulary Achievement at
SMAN 2 Genteng, which actually can be used for any level of students because it
is a challenging activity.
This chapter discusses background of the research, problem of the
research, operational definition of the key term used in this research, objective of
the research, and significance of the research.

1.1 Background of the Research

Nowadays, English is the international language that is used worldwide. In
this era of globalization, secondary students in Indonesia should master English
because if they know English, they might have a better chance to get a better
opportunity in global competition.
Furthermore, English is taught as a foreign language in Indonesia from the
elementary school until the university level. However, it is still believed that
English as the target language (TL) is difficult to master. The TL is very difficult
for the Indonesian students because the students’ first languages are different from
the TL. Besides, there are many differences that make the students experience
difficulties in learning English. The important factor that makes it difficult is the
language that they use in daily activities. Almost all Indonesian students use the
Indonesian language rather than English in their daily activities so they have
difficulties in developing their TL. It is stated in the 2006 English Curriculum that
there are four language skills that should be mastered by the students’: listening,
speaking, reading, and writing, and the language components: grammar,
vocabulary, and pronunciation (BSNP, 2006:2). In learning English, it is very
important for the students to understand the meaning of vocabulary or words,

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because with understanding the meaning of vocabulary or words, it will enable
them to communicate in English as the target language (TL), which results in
supporting all aspects of the language skills. Vocabulary is important for learning
English because vocabulary is basic for the students to study all aspects of
English, and it is impossible for the students to understand what the speaker and
the writer mean without understanding the vocabulary used in speaking or writing.
Vocabulary is important in the TL learning English as a foreign language
because learning English can be useless if the students do not understand the
meaning of the vocabulary so make them difficult to learn. Without vocabulary
nothing can be conveyed (Thornbury, 2002:13). Therefore the students have to
enlarge or enrich their knowledge of vocabulary.
Generally English vocabulary is considered difficult by the students. It is
very difficult for the students to enlarge or enrich their vocabulary because the
students sometimes forget with the vocabulary material that have been taught by
the teacher and they seldom memorize them well. Occasionally, the students feel
afraid in following the teaching learning process of English because they often do
not know the meaning of the utterances that are being used in the teaching
learning process of English. To avoid that situation and to motivate the students,
the teacher should make the classroom more interesting and the teacher needs
some challenging teaching techniques.
Before conducting the research, a preliminary study was done by
interviewing the English teacher of SMA 2 Genteng on August 23 th, 2010. Based
on the interview, it was revealed that vocabulary was taught integratively with the
other language skills, such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking, but mostly
the English teacher teaches vocabulary integratively with reading skill. Further,
she said that she teaches vocabulary by asking the students to find the difficult
words in the text then finding the meaning of these difficult words from
dictionary. Besides, according to the English teacher, most of the tenth year
students still have difficulties in mastering vocabulary. They still face problem in
memorizing word, writing the correct word, and finding the meaning of word.
Students particularly make mistakes that are obviously related to confusions of the
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form of one word with the form of other words (Hatch and Brown 1995: 378).
Considering the condition above, the researcher suggest to the teacher to apply
various technique in the teaching learning vocabulary activities to make the
students active in teaching learning process.
One of the techniques that can be applied by the teacher in teaching
learning process is game. Formal educational environments are very different to
the informal contexts in which games are usually played, and bring with them
many constraints that make introducing games as learning tools more of a
challenge than might be thought (Richard Sandford and Ben Williamson,
2005:11). However, it is noted that games can create many activities which
involve students in the process of learning. In the teaching learning process of
vocabulary using games make students more relax and is recreational as well.
Although it is a recreational activities that the main purpose of it is for enjoyment,
in the language learning process the purpose of game is to reinforce what has
already been taught. The course of a game, students are involved in an enjoyable
and challenging activity with a clear goal. Sometimes, students unconscious that
they have been practicing a language when they are playing a game. Games help
and encourage many students to sustain their interest and work (Wright et al,
1996:1). One kind of the games that can be used in teaching vocabulary is
Crossword Puzzle. With Crossword Puzzle students are trained to think and
looking for the relationship with their knowledge to fill in the Crossword Puzzle
(Karim and Hasbullah, 1986:2.36).
Related to the use of games in language learning, the previous research
conducted by Rahmawati (2004) proved that there was a significant effect of
using Crossword Puzzle on the eight year students’ vocabulary achievement at
SLTPN 6 Jember with the degree of relative effectiveness was 6.163. Therefore it
was proved that Crossword Puzzle was more effective technique that can be used
in teaching learning activity especially in teaching vocabulary than as compared
to the teaching vocabulary using Crossword Puzzle technique another previous
research conducted by Mariyati (2001) which proved that the use of Crossword
Puzzle could improve the reading comprehension achievement of the first year
students at SLTP 2 Balung in the academic year 1999/2000 while the standard
score of the school is 65 and it is proved by the increasing point from the first
cycle implementation to the second cycle implementation. In the first
implementation the mean score is 65, 21 and in the second implementation the
mean score of the reading comprehension of the students is 69, 39. In brief, there
is an increase of 4, 15 point from the first implementation to the second
implementation. There is evidence that the use of games is useful in teaching
vocabulary because it raise the student’s vocabulary achievement.
According to the descriptions above, a thesis entitled “The Effect of Using
Crossword Puzzle on the Tenth Year Students’ Vocabulary Achievement at SMAN
2 Genteng” will be conducted.

1.2 Problems of the Research

Based on the background and rationale of the research, the problem of the
research can be formulated as follows:
To what extent does Crossword Puzzle effective on the tenth year
students’ vocabulary achievement at SMAN 2 Genteng?
1.3 Objectives of the Research
The objective of this research is to know whether using Crossword Puzzle
is effective on the tenth year students’ vocabulary achievement at SMAN 2
Genteng
1.4 Operational Definition of the Key Terms
In this research there are two variables namely; independent variable and
dependent variable. The independent variable is “the use of Crossword Puzzle in
teaching vocabulary” and the dependent variable is” the students’ vocabulary
achievement”. The term of “Crossword Puzzle” and the “vocabulary
achievement” are defined in the following part.
1.4.1 Crossword Puzzle
Crossword Puzzle is a puzzle in which a pattern of chequered squares has
to be filled in form numbered clues with words which are written usually
horizontally and vertically, occasionally diagonally, also attributively and
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combination of those.

1.4.2 Vocabulary Achievement.

Vocabulary is a list or set of words for particular language or a list or set
of words that individual speakers of a language might use. Vocabulary that will be
taught and tested to the students’ is large vocabulary, covering nouns, adverbs,
verbs, and adjectives. In this research, vocabulary achievement means the
students’ score of the vocabulary test after they learn vocabulary through
Crossword Puzzle. Vocabulary in this research is an English vocabulary.

1.5 Significance of the Research

It is expected that the finding of this research will give important
contribution to the following people:
1.5.1 The English Teacher
The English teacher can use the finding of this research to enrich her
media of teaching English especially in teaching vocabulary that can enhance the
students’ interest in learning vocabulary so it can enlarge their vocabulary
especially by using Crossword Puzzle.
1.5.2 The Future Researchers
The finding of this research is expected to be useful as information for
other researchers who will conduct in depth research with similar problem but
applying different research design or research subject.