CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter will explain about background of the study, problem statements,
objective of the study, significances of the study, and definition of key terms.

A. Background of The Study

McKay (2002, p. 12) distinguishes between “English as an international
language” in a global and a local sense. She observes that “as an international
language, English is used both in a global sense for international communication
between countries and in a local sense as a language of wider communication within
multilingual societies”. It is the most famous international language which is taught
from elementary school up to university school level.
Vocabulary is one of the essential language components in studying english
without a propotional amount of vocabulary anyone will get trouble in speaking,
reading, listening, and writing. According to Cahyono and Kusumaningrum (2011)
vocabulary is one of the language components that needs to be mastered when
students are learning English. In addition, vocabulary is very important, especially for
students in junior high school. They must master english vocabulary and its
grammatical rules to make communicate to another people. The problem in learning
and teaching english still exist at school, because english language is completely
different from the indonesian language in the system of the structure, pronunciation,
and vocabulary.
Based on the researcher’s observation at SMPN 3 Tarakan. The problems in
learning and teaching english at this school is from the teachnique that used in
learning. That problem is they got bad score when they did the test because they did
not understand some meaning in the test and have lack of vocabulary. The teacher
must be able to organize teaching learning activities they have to present materials by
using a suitable teaching technique. A good teaching technique make students
understand and master the lesson. According to Aribowo (2008) on her thesis said
based on the test result, by using game most of his students could remember well
about the material. This is a fact, that applying games as a method to teach
vocabulary to young learners are effective way. They always love some funny
activities than just too quietly accepting the theory in teaching and learning activity.
One of the ways to teaching strategies that can make students motivated to
learn english is play a game. Hadfield (1999: 4) says “Games is an activity with rules,
a goal and an element of fun”. The use of game can help students study easily and
help the brain to learn more effectively. And game also can make students compete
with other strategy in different way. Al Zaabi (2007:85) advocated that learning
vocabulary through games give students more chances to learn something from one
other. It means that using games will help students to enjoy English lesson in class.
One of game that can improve the students vocabulary in study english is scrabble
game. Scrabble game is a game where the students have to arrange the alphabet into a
word. This game can improve students vocabulary mastery because Scrabble Game is
very useful, easy and entertaining game to practice any set of vocabulary. It provided
board contains of word and there are a different score in every word, it can be played
by two players (or teams).Scrabble is a simple game that can help the teacher in
teaching vocabulary especially in memorizing, spelling and understanding the
meaning of the words. Scrabble game is a very good media to teach English in the
classroom because make it challenges student’s ability to remember the vocabulary
more enjoyable. I want to conduct a research with the title” The Use Of Scrabble
Game To Improve Students Vocabulary Mastery”.
B. Problem Statements
The researcher would like to formulate two problem statements that the
researcher wants to find out, they are:
1. How are the students perception on the implementation of scrabble for students
at SMPN 3 Tarakan ?
2. How does the use of scrabble game can improve students vocabulary mastery at
SMPN 3 Tarakan ?
C. Objective of The Study
This study has some objectives based on the problem statements of the
research. There are two objective of the study in this research, they are:
1. To find out about the students perception on the implementation of scrabble for
students at SMPN 3 Tarakan.
2. To analyze the use of scrabble game can improve the students vocabulary
mastery at SMPN 3 Tarakan.
D. Significances of The Study
Significances of the study is the purpose of the research to have benefit for the
reader in theoretically and practically.
1. Theoretically :
a. To improve basic knowledge in English language especially in vocabulary.
b. To motivate students from elementary school up to university school level to
learn English language more.
2. Practically :
a. For teacher and students
This research hopefully can help teachers and students to know what the
effect from use scrabble game in learning process.
b. For researcher and students
The researcher hopes this research can improve the comprehension students
about vocabulary is very important to know.
E. Definition of Key Terms
The researcher would like to define some terms in this study. There are two
definition of key terms. They are:
1. Vocabulary
Vocabulary is one of the essential language components in studying
english. vocabulary is very important, especially for students in junior high
school. They must master english vocabulary and its grammatical rules to make
communicate to another people.
2. Scrabble Game
 Scrabble game is a game where the students have to arrange the alphabet
into a word. This game can improve students vocabulary mastery because
Scrabble Game is very useful, easy and entertaining game to practice any set of
vocabulary.