The Effectiveness of Teams Games Tournament in Improving Students’ Vocabulary Achievement in Fourth Grade Elementary School Widoro Yogyakarta

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

1.1 Background of Study

The number of human resource quality is something to be continually increased. One of the aspects to increase the human resource quality is education.

In the process of increasing human resources in its quality of course there are varieties of issues that are related with education (example, school) in general especially in teaching and learning progress. For example, teachers face the problems in association with students’ learning difficulties.

Children in elementary stage are those with the most effective age to develop potentials, in this period, the children’s physical, social, emotional and cognitive growth will develop optimally.

When we teach language to children we should know their characteristics. Brown stated that “children are centered on the here and now, on the functional purposes of language”(88). J.Piaget as quoted by Brown stated that “children’s cognitive developments are concrete operation” (88).

Education in school can be successful, depending on the learning process that occurs in there. The ability of teachers in using teaching methodology will influence teaching and learning process as well as students’ achievement. In teaching and learning process, a teacher should use some effective methodologies in teaching. So, in teaching and learning process, a teacher not only uses one method. For example at the school where the researcher wants to research, an English teacher still uses theoretical role in which a teacher is very dominant(teacher centered). Therefore, the learning process occurred in her class is only as a delivery of course information (transfer of knowledge).

The elementary schools as a foundation for educational development in the next levels should be able to develop students’ potentials and the attitude which will be used in the society. Basic capabilities that students should have and become the aim of teaching and learning in schools are capabilities in reading, writing and arithmetic.

In fact the low level of understanding in learning vocabulary is one form of learning difficulties that students usually faced. There are some characteristics that teacher should know from this problem. For every problem solving there are some teaching principles that would helpful in facing students’ problems. In teaching vocabulary in particular, a teacher should find out the way how to improve students’ vocabulary enrichment.

Students in elementary schools need vocabulary development. Then, it will be easier for students to learn other English skills, such as reading, listening, structure, writing and speaking. Usually the students who are lack of vocabulary will face the difficulties in reading, listening, writing and speaking.

In this research, the researcher is interested in vocabulary skill. Vocabulary is one of the important skills that students in elementary school should develop it. To develop it, the researcher uses cooperative learning type Team Games Tournament. Widoro elementary school will be an object for this research. The research will held on four meeting.

Based on observations at Widoro elementary school on St. Perumka Lempuyangan Yogyakarta particularly at class IV, the researcher discovered the problems in which an English teacher paid less attention to students’ ability and characteristics, so it is possible for the students to get low achievement. J.Piaget in Brown’s book Teaching by Princples stated that “children’s development are still in concrete operation”(88). Seeing the possible negative impact, the is encouraged researchers to improve and develop the students’ vocabulary using cooperative learning teaching model type TGT (Teams Games Tournament), which pays attention to students’ cognitive development.

The reason the researcher uses Team Games Tournament is it is proved that TGT is a useful and effective method to increase achievement. It is mentioned in David L. DeVrie that “TGT is created with objective of increasing academic achievement for all student, particularly children who have difficulties under traditional reward and task system”(15). TGT not only helps the students to increase academic achievement but also give the positive outcomes on social. David L. DeVries stated that “TGT is capable of producing positive outcomes on society, attitude, and academic performance dimension” (15).

At Widoro elementary school particular class fourth the researcher found the most of vocabulary scores of twenty five students are under average. For this reason, the researcher wants to take research with the object of study "Improving Vocabulary Achievement Using Cooperative Learning Type TGT (Teams Games Tournament) in Fourth Grade Widoro Elementary School Yogyakarta"

1.2 Problem Statements

For this research, the researcher formulates a problem as follows:

How does Cooperative Learning Type TGT improve students' vocabulary learning at fourth grade of Widoro elementary school?

1.3 Scope of Study

The research is focused on the fourth grade students at Widoro elementary school. The object of the research is English vocabulary learning achievement of the students. The researcher tries to find out whether the Team Games Tournament can improve the students’ vocabulary scores.

1.4 Hypothesis

In studying the topic, there are two hypotheses. The two hypotheses are as follows:

1. Alternative Hypothesis (Ha): the use of Cooperative Learning Type Teams Games Tournaments can improve students’ vocabulary scores achievement.

2. The Null Hypothesis (Ho): the use of Cooperative Learning Type Teams Games Tournaments cannot improve students’ vocabulary scores achievement.

1.5 Objective of Study

The purpose of this study is:

To determine how far cooperative learning type Team Games Tournament can enhance students' vocabulary at fourth grade of Widoro elementary school.

1.6 Significance of Study

The result of this study is expected to provide these following benefits:

1. For elementary school, this research will be able to give input in making conducive situation in learning in classroom

2. For teachers, this research will be able to introduce new concept about increasing and developing teaching and learning process in classroom. Moreover, it can develop the professionalism of teachers.

3. For the researchers, this research will be able to expand the knowledge and skills for conducting classroom action research.

1.7 Theoretical Approach

For the analysis the researcher chose several theories:

1.7.1 Theory of TGT from Dvis L. DeVries.

Definition TGT in his journal is Team Games Tournament is a classroom management technique which uses cooperative students’ teams, instructional games, and interteam tournament in a particular combination DeVries reported his research on Team Games Tournament (TGT) effect on reading skill in the elementary grade, the result indicate that TGT had a dramatic impact on the vocabulary level of these third grade students in the brief period of three weeks. TGT is capable of producing positive outcomes on social, attitude, and academic performance dimension (15).

1.7.2 Anita Lie’s theory on learning group.

Anita Lie stated that heterogeneous groups give an opportunity to teach each other (peer tutoring), support, increased interaction and relationship between race, ethnicity, and gender, and make easier in classroom management with there is a person with high academic abilities, so teachers will have one assistant for every three people(42).

1.8 Method of Research

1.8.1 The Subject of The Research

The researcher chooses Widoro elementary school as the research place. In this research the researcher focus only on English vocabulary using Team Game Tournament for fourth grade students, and took one class. It consists of 25 students.

1.8.2. Procedure

1.8.2.1. Pre Test

The questions for pre test were compiled from the test or exercise in the fourth of grade elementary book and Start with English 1 for fourth grade elementary. The questions consisted of 25 questions. The questions consisted of multiple choices, matching English to Indonesian and grouping. The test materials were color, fruits and vegetables. The researcher gave them twenty minutes to answer the questions.

1.8.2.2. Treatment Period

The materials in the treatment period were related on the vocabulary given in the pre test. The topics discussed in treatment period were color, fruits, and vegetables. The treatments were held in three meeting; first meeting was for presenting vocabularies about color and the second meeting was used to present vocabularies fruits, and the last meeting was used to present vocabularies vegetables. The vocabularies about color were blue, brown, yellow, grey, green, black, red, pink, purple, white, orange. The vocabularies about fruits were mango, star fruit, papaya, guava, watermelon, coconut, peanut, durian, grape, muskmelon, strawberry, banana, orange, apple, pineapple, rambutan, mangoes teen, tomato, corn, salacca. The vocabularies about vegetables were a cabbage, cucumbers, bean sprouts, chilies, a pumpkin, onions, garlic, carrots, spinach, long beans, eggplants, potatoes. The time spend for one meeting was 70 minutes divided into motivating strategies, presentation, skill practice or games, summing up and assessment.

The researcher teaches the material using TGT method. In this treatment, researcher gave the presentation, making group, games of a series of instructional (or learning), the game typically consist of series of matching, multiple-choice , true false or objective-type item with a clear correct answer to every item. Kinds of games used were color bingo (the aim naming), fruit dominoes, vegetables dominoes (the aim is talking about fruits, vegetables, and their color), fruit snap and vegetable snap (the aim is naming kinds of fruit and vegetable). Games were played at tables of three students, each of whom represents a different team. The next is tournament, it consists of weekly game-playing sessions, typically lasting 30 to 50 minutes, in which each student competes with two other students of comparable achievement level representing other student team, at the end of each tournament a top scorer, middle scorer and low scorer is declared for each three person tournament table, the individual students scores are converted to team scores, the team scores are ranked, the winning team are declared.

1.8.2.3. Post Test

After giving the treatment, the researcher gave them post test to see the result of the treatment using Team Games Tournament method. The question also consisted of 25 questions in which all questions all about color, fruits, and vegetables. The questions consisted of multiple choices, matching the word with the pictures and fill in the blank with the words in the box. The questions of the post test were also complied from some sources as fourth of grade elementary book and Start with English 1 for fourth grade elementary.

1.8.3. Method of Data Analysis

The result of the pre test and post test are compared to answer the problem statement. In analyzing the data, the researcher uses the step:

To identify the significant of the test, the researcher uses t-test:

t : final results Md : mean of the differences in the pre test post test I and II xd : deviation of each subject N : subjects

1.9. Thesis Organization

This thesis is presented in five chapters. Chapter 1 provide the introduction which consists of background of study, problem statement, scope of study, objective of study, significance of study, theoretical review, method of research and thesis organization. Chapter 2 presents theoretical reviews on the subject in which the researcher presents some theories about Cooperative Learning type Team Games Tournament. Chapter 3 presents research methodology and particular the researcher explains the method of the research which includes subjects of research, method of data collection and method of analysis. Chapter 5 presents the result of research and the discussion of the research. Chapter 6 presents conclusion and suggestions.