Vocabulary Practice Games

The Writer : Shalva Shaptoshvili

ENGLISH TEACHING FORUM

What the paper topic is about?

The paper is talking about the use of memory game to improve students vocabulary.

What the reasons the writer put forward?

English is the international language that needs to be controlled in order to communicate and compete in this globalization era. Basic thing that need to be studied in English language is vocabulary. Therefore, the writer

made games to improve English skills and one of them is

Memory Game. The aim of this game is to create enjoyable situation during students learn vocabulary.

What the significance of the paper the writer had in her mind?
Game as a learning media can be used as an alternative way to increase students' motivation. It contains some aspects as follow:

joy, relief, intense pleasure, and free of tension or grief as their

freeing the soul. Game is too close to humans expression and spontaneously it creates individuals to ready facing competitive situation, receive a victory and defeat, and it also as actualization of their self. Therefore, game is maturing process. Through play, a person learns a lot about good life for it learns self-reliance, courage, socialization, leadership and realized the meaning of existence itself.

Game gives happiness to the players and it delivers positive power to them. It makes them really

enjoy their life, and it can be kept their health because

happiness directly relate to humans health. Some of the benefits of playing and learning are as follows: Put away strained situation that can be impede learning process. Eliminate stress in the learning environment. Take individuals to participate in learning process completely.

What theory the paper was used?

Law of Readiness Readiness implies a degree of concentration and eagerness. Individuals learn well when they are physically, mentally, and emotionally ready to learn, and they can not learn well if they have no reason for learning. If students have a strong purpose, a clear objective, and a definite reason for learning something, they make more progress. In other words, when students are ready to learn, they meet the instructor at least halfway, simplifying the instructors job. Players in this game prepared to play the game and know the rules of the game uses so that they feel happy and ready to play in these games.

Law of Exercise
The principle of exercise states that those things most often repeated are best remembered. It is the basis of exercise and practice. It has been proven that students learn well and retain information longer when they have meaningful practice and repetition. The key here is that the practice must be meaningful. It is clear that practice leads to improvement only when it is followed by positive feedback. This game if often done to form a habit of making it easier for the player he was to memorize English vocabulary.

Law of effect
The principle of effect is based on the emotional reaction of the students. It has a direct relationship to motivation. The principle of effect is that learning is strengthened when accompanied by a pleasant or satisfying feeling and that learning is weakened when associated with an unpleasant feeling. The student will strive to continue doing what provides a pleasant effect to continue learning. Positive reinforcement is more apt to lead to success and motivate the learner, so the instructor should recognize and commend improvement. Whatever the learning situation, it should contain elements that affect the students positively and give them a feeling of satisfaction. Therefore, instructors should be cautious about using punishment in the classroom. The games give punishment to the player if the player is not able to follow the game.

What the paper method was used?

The method that the paper used: Qualitative descriptive Qualitative : is a method of inquiry employed in many different academic discipline, traditionally in the social sciences, but also in market research and further contexts.

Qualitative researchers aim to gather an indepth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior. The

qualitative method investigated the why and how of decision making, not just what, where, when.

What variables paper was employed?

Independent variable (x) = Memory game Dependent variable (y) = the increasing of English vocabulary number

What technique of data gathering the paper used?

Participative observation method Researchers looked at what people do, listen to what they had spoken and participated in the activity under observation.

What technique of data analysis the paper used?

STEP ACTIVITY
STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3

Teacher ask students to make group

In every group, students choose one of them to begin saying a sentence

Next, students in the turn adds another word/phrase to the sentence, repeating what has gone before in the same order

MEMORY GAME
Student 1 : I went shopping
Student 2 : I went shopping and bought a jacket Student 3 : I went shopping and bought a jacket and a cap

Anyone who cannot add the list or makes a mistakes in ordering the words must drop out of the game/ get punishment. The last player who able to remain well is the winner. This game may be exploited while working with words related to any topic.

What the paper found?

What we found through this paper are :

Using vocabulary practice game (Memory game) is one of effective way to improve English vocabulary for students.

Vocabulary Practice game (Memory game) can be used as an effort to increase student motivation in

learning and fun

What the paper suggested?

Based on the effectiveness of memory game, we can suggest you some point bellow:
1.

Make fun situation for students to learn English.

2.

Use memory game to improve students

vocabulary, because when students are playing the game, their vocabulary is increase spontaneously.

Critical analysis!

Memory game is one of creative ways to create joyous learning in English material. It can be used in Indonesias education well, if teachers really apply that to their students.

Memory game helps students to recognize new vocabularies and make them memorize vocabularies easily

without any straightened situation that can make them

stressful.