TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO YOUNG LEARNERS USING CROSSWORD
PUZZLE AT THE FOURTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SD NEGERI 2 SUKARAME BANDUNG
BARAT
SANDINI SAGALA (09220309)
email : Sandini Sagala@yahoo.com
English Education Study Program Language and Arts Department of STKIP Siliwangi Bandung
ABSTRACT
The objective of this research entitled “Teaching English Vocabulary to Young Learners using
Crossword Puzzle at SDN 2 Sukarame Bandung Barat ”was to find out whether or not teaching
English vocabulary using crossword puzzle was effective to improve the student’s vocabulary
mastery. This research applied one group pretest-posttest design and quantitative method. The
population of this research was two classes consisted of 82 students of the fourth grade of SDN 2
Sukarame Bandung Barat in Academic year 2012-2013 and the sample was one class which consisted
of 40 students selected using cluster random sampling technique. The instrument of this research was
vocabulary test. The data of this research were collected by giving pretest and posttest to the student
sample. The collected data were analyzed using t-test formula. The results of the data analysis showed
that: mean score of pretest was 57.25; mean score of posttest was 80.6, and t observed 10.56. The t table
with df= n-1 (40-1 = 39) and significance level at 0.05 was 1.70. Based on the data analysis above, the
alternative hypothesis of this research was accepted because t observed was higher than t table
(10.56>1.7). It also means that teaching vocabulary using Crossword Puzzle was effective to improve
the students Vocabulary Mastery.
Key Words: Teaching English Vocabulary, Young Learners, Crossword Puzzle
vocabulary skills says that crossword puzzle
involve several useful skills including
vocabulary, reasoning, spelling and word attack
skills. To solve any crossword puzzles, a person
must be able to identify and understand the term
which are being used. This often involves
acquiring new vocabulary or terminology. It can
also involve making differentiations between
similar word or phrases. Correctly deciphering a
crossword puzzle also requires exact spelling,
which for students may mean practicing
dictionary skills.
The research question of this research is “will
teaching vocabulary be more effective by using
crossword puzzle?”
The aim of this research is to find out the
effectiveness of using crossword puzzle in
teaching English vocabulary.
A. Background
Vocabulary is one of language competence,
which enhances the skill in language. Cameron
(2001:72) proposed that vocabulary is central to
the learning of a foreign language at primary
level. From the explanation above, we can
conclude that learning vocabulary is important
as the basic need to encounter a new language.
According to Wilkins (in Thornbury (2002:13)
“without grammar very little can be conveyed;
without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”.
Teacher teaches student how to use vocabulary
to convey their ideas, feeling or knowledge, it
also means that teaching speaking, writing,
reading and listening cannot be separated from
teaching vocabulary. Some of studies said that
teaching English vocabulary especially for
young learners at the school is boring because
sometime teacher give same media or method
but they do not let the student to practice nor
imply it on their daily activity.
One of the appropriate techniques is using
crossword
puzzle.As
Jones
(http://vocabulary.co.id)posted
in
building
B. LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition of Vocabulary
Vocabulary is one of the language system
components that is important to be learned. It
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played an important role in the four language
skills. By mastering vocabulary, students will be
able to produce many sentences either in spoken
or written texts. Without knowing vocabulary,
students not are able to speak, write, read and
listening comprehensively. Knowing words was
something to do with recognizing its meaning
(Cameron 2001:75). It means that learning
vocabulary, students have to know and
understand the meaning: therefore they would
use it in meaningful context.
First, teacher should make student think, pause,
and wonder while learning vocabulary. Children
were curious about learning new words they can
easily acquire the new word without knowing
the meaning of that word. In line with this Pinter
(2006) said that gave a statement on how the
children enjoy vocabulary learning, she
mentions that children can understand the
concept of the word well before the concept of
grammar.
Second, teacher may introduce the real
vocabulary. Since young learners are not ready
to learn abstract word beyond their imagination.
According Cameron (2001:71) when teaching
vocabulary to younger children, they need very
concrete vocabulary that connects with object
they can see and handle.
Third, teacher may be better to introduce the
words and then revisit them in following day or
week. Cameron (2001:74) stated learning words
is cyclical process of meeting word in initial
learning. Following by meeting those words
again and again, each time extending knowledge
of what the words mean and how they are use in
the foreign language.
Fourth, in teaching vocabulary to young learners
teacher should encourage the learners to know
not only about it’s word but also other words
relate to that word. Cameron (2001) has also
argued that knowing about a word may involves
knowing about how it sound, how it spelt, the
grammatical charge that can be made to it.
Last, one thing that should be remembered,
young learners are not ready to analyze the
component part of language system such as
vocabulary and grammar. Therefore, it is better
for teacher to teach them in combination. Pinter
(2006) said that vocabulary and grammar are
stored together in the mental lexicon in typical
combination rather than isolation.
Importance of Teaching Vocabulary
Learning vocabulary is important since
vocabulary is vital and an important thing in
communication. Brown (1994) says“… Words
are basic building block of language in fact;
survival level of communication can take place
during quite intelligibly when people simply
string word together- without any grammatical
rules applying at all. So if we’re interested in
being communicative words are the first orders
of business.”
Technique in Teaching Vocabulary
They are many ways to increase vocabulary
mastery. Teacher should be able to create an
excellent technique in teaching vocabulary for
making students remember new words in easily.
Anthony in Brown (2006) stated that a technique
is any of a wide variety of exercise, activity or
tasks used in the language classroom for
realizing lesson objectives.
Media in Teaching Vocabulary
Media is very helpful in teaching learning
process. Teaching media as complements are
used by the teacher to communicate with
students. According to Heinich (2002:10) Media
is channel of communication, example include
video, television, diagram, printed, material,
computer and instruction. Teacher needs to learn
about new media especially in teaching
vocabulary.
Definition of Crossword Puzzle
According Jung (2006) considers that the usage
of games can be a powerful language learning
tool. One of these ways is through Crossword
Puzzle. A journal article entitled “English Word
Puzzle for Studying Vocabulary (taken from
http://www.1-language com. article/English/word-puzzles-for-studying-vocabulary).
Pinpoint there are some popular English
language word games that can be useful for
Principles in Teaching Vocabulary to Young
Learners.
According Brown (2001) there some basic
principles that teacher should remember in
teaching vocabulary to young learners.
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student to practice the vocabulary that they have
already studied and also learn new words. A
crossword puzzle is a grid of black a numbered
while squares in which letters can be written.
Included with the grid is a series of hints about a
word that is supposed to fit into the numbered
whiles boxes of the puzzle.
by Jones (2008), a home educator and writer on
educational games. He states that crossword
solving involves several useful skills including
vocabulary; reasoning, spelling, and word attract
skills. To solve any crossword puzzle, students
must be able to identify and understand the term
being used. Correctly deciphering crossword
also requires exact spelling, which for students
may mean practicing their dictionary skill.
Second, due to the characteristic that vocabulary
games commonly have, crossword puzzle is also
reported to be able to increase students’
vocabulary mastery because it motivates student
to participate and engage actively with the
learning
material,
especially
learning
vocabulary.
Third, encouraging memorizing strategies is
important in learning vocabulary. Just like in
solving the crossword, students need to
memorize the words that they previously learn
then link it to new information (clues) to finally
find the possible answer for crossword puzzle.
Fourth, crossword puzzle is also a good tool to
review vocabulary. Reviewing, revising and
recycle vocabulary that have been learnt are
important strategies to help students, especially
children. The use of crossword puzzle to review
vocabulary has been recognized.
It has come into conclusion that crossword
puzzle maybe used as an alternative technique in
teaching learning vocabulary, especially as a
review tool.
Procedures at Using Crossword Puzzle in
Teaching Vocabulary
This research is prepared to see the effect of the
treatment. The treatment is using crossword
puzzle. An example of the treatment can be seen
in the following teaching procedures.
Crossword Puzzle Tips and Hints
According to journal article entitled “English
word Puzzle for Studying Vocabulary” retrieved
from http://www.1-language article/Englishword-puzzle
–word-puzzles-for
StudyingVocabulary. There are some tips and hints
before doing crossword puzzle.
a. After learning some topic in the texts, students
remind the words that related to the topic
b. There are some numbered with boxes of
puzzles and also series of hints or clues about a
word given
c. The white boxes are divided into across and
down
d. First, read the numbered hints or clue and then
guess what word to hint refer to
e. The challenge is that the word has to be
certain number of letters.
f. For instance, when the topic is part of body
let’s say the hint in across 2st is wajah. There
are only four white squares for the word, so the
answer is “face”. Because face is part of body
and fit in the amount of spaces.
g. The words in crossword puzzle connect each
other such in word find. After students answer
some of the words, then the students will have
some letters of others word that already have
been filled into white boxes.
h. After the students answer all the hints or
clues, the crossword puzzle is complete.
i. Teacher and students discuss the crossword
puzzle.
Advantages of Using Crossword Puzzle in
Teaching Vocabulary
There are number of teaching technique in order
to maximize the absorption and increase the
understanding of what the teacher taught. One of
them is using crossword puzzle game. As
explained before, crossword puzzle has an
important role in teaching learning process,
especially in teaching vocabulary.
First, the advantages of using crossword puzzle
in teaching English vocabulary is clearly stated
Pre -Activity
 Greeting
 Checking students’ attendance
Whilst – activity
 Teacher asked students about crossword
puzzle.
 Teacher gave an example to students
about part of body used crossword puzzle.
Teacher made questions about part of body
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Table 1.The Result of Students’ Scores
such as what is hidung in English; there are
only four white squares for the word.
No
 Students answer the question, the
answer is nose
N O S E
Post- activity
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
n
=4
0
 Teacher allows students to ask questions
related to the topic
 The teacher reviewed to the materials
and vocabulary which students’ have
learnt.
C. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this research, the writer used the quantitative
research Method. Based on the aim and the
problem in this research, the writer decided to
use pre-experimental design in one group pretest
– posttest design to know students’ skills in
vocabulary. The instrument which was used to
collect the data in this research was test, those
are pretest and posttest. This design is described
as follows:
Group Pretest Treatment
Posttest
A
O
X
O
Time
The population of this research is the fourth
grade students of SDN 2 Sukarame Bandung
Barat, there were two classes of the fourth grade
students which consist of 82 students was taken
as populations and the writer only took one class
as the sample, those was class IV B which
consist of 40 students.
D. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
Findings
In these research findings, the writer discusses
the result of her research in the field. Those
findings include: the result of pretest and
posttest which were given to the fourth grade
students of SDN 2 Sukarame Bandung Barat
class IV B which consist of 40 students. After
collecting the data from the achievement test of
the students, the writer obtained the data of
students score as follow.
4
Pr
ete
st
50
65
75
45
30
40
50
40
60
40
50
70
60
60
75
70
70
60
50
40
70
30
75
30
75
60
75
85
30
80
75
50
60
40
85
60
70
70
30
40
22
90
Post
test
Difference
X
60
80
90
75
85
70
85
50
90
50
85
85
70
75
90
80
100
70
75
75
90
100
90
85
100
75
85
100
40
100
100
80
85
60
100
80
90
90
85
50
322
5
10
15
15
30
50
30
35
10
30
10
35
15
10
15
15
10
30
10
25
35
20
70
15
50
25
15
10
15
10
20
25
30
25
20
15
20
20
20
50
10
∑ 𝒙 =920
Differenc
e squared
X2
100
225
225
900
2500
900
1225
100
900
100
1225
225
100
225
225
100
900
100
625
1225
400
4900
225
2500
625
225
100
225
100
400
625
900
625
400
225
400
400
400
2500
100
∑ 𝒙𝟐 =28
400
After the writer knew the result of test which
was given to the students, and obtained the result
of differences between pretest and posttest, the
writer would calculate the score below:
7240
=√
39
1. Mean
Mean is calculated by summing all the scores of
the comparison between pretest and posttest, and
then dividing the sum by the number of scores.
To calculate the Mean, the writer used the
formula as follow
x̅ =
= √185.6
= 13,6
3. t-observed
Based on the result of data analyzed, the writer
used the following t-test formula:
x̅√n
t=
s
∑x
𝑛
∑𝑥 = 920
x̅ = 23
𝑛 = 40
n = 40
x̅ =
=
∑x
𝑛
s = 13.6
t=
920
40
= 23
2. Standard Deviation
To calculate the standard deviation of the scores
result above, the writer used the formula as
follow:
=
= 144.9
13.6
(∑ 𝑥)2
=10.65
∑ x 2 = 28400
= 920
n
= 40
23√40
13.6
= 23 x 6.3
13.6
∑ x2 −
𝑛
s =√
n−1
∑𝑥
x̅√n
s
4. Degree of Freedom
To calculate degree of freedom, the writer used
degree of freedom formula:
df= n-1
(∑ 920)2
28400 − 40
s =√
40 − 1
28400 −
=√
39
n = 40
df = n-1 (40 -1)= 39
846400
40
Discussion
After the writer calculated the data, the data
analysis showed that:
1. Mean of pretest scores is 57,25
2. Mean of posttest scores is 80, 6
3. Mean of comparison between pretest
and posttest is 23
4. The standard deviation is 13,6
5. The t observed is 10,65
28400 − 21160
=√
39
5
6. The degree of Freedom is 39
7. The t table from degree of freedom 39 is
1.70 (Appendix F: Table of Significant t
Value, Crowl, 1996:388).
Based on the data analysis above, the writer
concluded that t observed was higher than t tablethat
was 10.65> 1.70 at the significance level 0,05. It
means that the alternative hypothesis was
accepted. There were significant differences of
scores which were gotten by students between
pretest and posttest. It means that the treatment
given t the students is significant to improve the
student’s vocabulary mastery, so crossword
puzzle is effective to improve the student’s
vocabulary mastery in learning English.
F. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brown, H (1994). Teaching by Principles: An
Interactive Approach to Language
Pedagogy (second ed.). New Jersey:
Prentice
Hall
Regents.
Brown, H. (2001). Teaching by Principles An
Interactive to Language Pedagogy. San
Francisco:
Longman
Brown, H. (2006). Principles of Language
Learning
and
Teaching.
NY:
Englewood
Cliffs
Prentice
Hall
Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching Language to
Young
Learners:
The
Edinburg
Building.
Cambridge:
Cambridge
University
Press
E. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
Conclusion
Based on the analysis, the result of pretest is
better than pretest. This is shown by the students
score test after the treatment where they got
more improvement. The result of this research
showed that the average score of pretest was
57.25, the average score of posttest was 80.6,
and t observed was 10.65. We can see that t
observed > t table (10.56>1.70). It means that
the hypothesis is accepted. It can be concluded
that crossword puzzle is effective to improve the
student’s vocabulary mastery in learning
English.
Crowl, Thomas K. (1996). Fundamentals of
Educational Research. United State of
America:
Times
Mirror
Higher
Educational
Group,
Inc
2003.
Heinich, Robert. (2002). Instructional Media and
Learning Technologies for Learning,
(seven ed.). Macimilan Publishing
Company
Jones, Kerry. (2008). Teaching with Crossword
Puzzles
[Online].
Available
at
http://vocabulary.co.il/blog/learning [
March
02,
2013
Suggestions
The result of the research shows that teaching
vocabulary through crossword puzzle can
improve student’s vocabulary. Referring to
conclusion above, for the next studies there are
some suggestions about the implementation of
crossword puzzle in teaching vocabulary.
Jung, I. Chen. (2006). Using Games to Promote
Communicative Skills in Language. The
Internet Test Journal. vol.XI.No.2
[march
02,2013]
1. the teachers have to have given clear
instructions before the students practice
2. The teachers have to more time to solve the
crossword puzzle.
3. The teacher must be able to choose the most
appropriate crossword puzzle that is suitable
for the students considering its levels of
difficulty and student’s ability.
Thornbury, Scoot. (2002). How to Teach
Vocabulary. Singapore: Longman
Pinter, A. (2006). Teaching Young Language
Learners. Oxford: Oxford University
Pres.
http://www.1-language
article/English-wordpuzzle –word-puzzles-for Studying- Vocabulary
[March, 02, 2013]
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