The Effect of Board Games on Seventh Grade Students’ Grammar Achievement

Abstract
This study aims at examining the effect of board games on seventh grade students’ grammar achievement. This is a pre-experimental study using one group pre-test post-test. The writer did the treatments four times with different topics and levels of the game on each meeting. The result of T-test showed that there is a significant difference on students’ grammar achievement before and after they were taught using board games. The finding of t-calculation is 10,206 and t-table is 2,048 at the level significance of 0.05. Since t-calculation (10,206) is greater than t-table (2,048) so Null Hypothesis (Ho) is rejected and Alternative Hypothesis (Ha) is accepted.

Keywords: Grammar, Grammar Achievement, Game, Board Game

It is believed that Indonesian students still find difficulty in mastering grammar in English. The class atmosphere created in learning grammar is always teacher-centered and in a serious way so that the students feel bored and less concentrate during the teaching learning process. In this modern era, there have been many teaching techniques can be applied which one of them is playing a game. According to Hansen (1994), games are highly motivating and entertaining and they can give shy students more opportunity to express their opinions and feelings. There are four types of games that can be used in grammar teaching which one of them is board game. In supporting the students’ task performance, the writer designs her own board games by dividing it into four levels where the higher-level students will take, the more challenges that the students have to do. As proposed by Hadfield that the aim of this game is the squares on the board are used as stimuli to provoke a communication exchange.
There are four types of games that can be used in grammar teaching and they
are: card game, board games, simulation games, and party-type games (Gaudart, 1990). In supporting the students’ task performance, the writer designs her own board games with different types of questions for each level of the game. The questions level of difficulties are based on Bloom Taxonomy theory.

The subjects of this study are 29 students of seventh grade and its purpose is to examine whether there is any significant difference in seventh grade students’ grammar achievement before and after taught using board games. There are two instruments used in this study including grammar test about Simple Present Tense in form of multiple choices and board games from level 1 – 4 along with the counters and dice that designed by the writer.
The treatments were conducted for four times and it took 80 minutes per meeting. The writer formulated the criteria of accepting and rejecting the Ho with the level of significance of the test 5 % or 0,05. The findings of the calculation are described below:

Figure 4.2. The Calculation of Pre-test and Post-test Scores using T-test

Test Mean Gain Score Standard Deviation to Dof t-table Note
Pretest 40,8 36,03 19,057 10,206 29 – 1 = 28 2,048 Null hypothesis (Ho) is rejected
Posttest 77

Based on the calculation above, it shows that the gain score’s mean of pre-test and post-test was 36,03 and is used to calculate the t observation. By looking at the level of significance at 0.05, the writer found out that the t observation was 10,206. Since 10,206 was greater than 2,048 so Ho was rejected and Ha was accepted. Here the writer concludes that there is a significant difference on seventh grader students’ grammar achievement after they were taught using board games.

Since the analysis of t-test showed that there was a significant difference on students’ grammar achievement before and after they were taught using board games, it implies that board games can be one of teaching techniques that helps students learning grammar. Furthermore, the writer would like to give some suggestions for the English teacher and further studies that hopefully will give advantages in the future. The writer would like to suggest that the English teachers are using game in the grammar teaching as games will make teachers become creative and the students will be more enthusiastic in following the lesson. Choosing games for grammar teaching is not complicated. There are many language games, which are appropriate and can be implemented in the grammar class. Teacher even can create and design their own language games that are appropriate with the students’ level of competence and the physical environment of the classroom.

Arina Hidayati
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E-mail Address: arinahidayati6@gmail.com
Instagram: @arinaar31