THE EFFECT OF GUESSING GAME ON STUDENTS’
VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE
(A Quasi-experimental Study at the Seventh Grade of a state Islamic
Junior High School of Tangerang Selatan)
Raudlatul Hasanah1, Ismalianing Eviyuliwati2, Maya Deviyanti3
Faculty of Educational Science, Syarif Hidayatullah state Islamic University, Jakarta
Email: raudlatul.hasanah15@mhs.uinjkt.ac.id1, ismalianing.eviyuliwati@uinjkt.ac.id2,
maya.defianty@uinjkt.ac.id3

Abstract
The purpose of the study was to know and describe the effect of guessing game technique on students’
vocabulary knowledge at the seventh grade of a state Islamic Junior High School (MTsN). This study
applied a quantitative method and a quasi-experimental design. The samples of the study were
chosen using purposive sampling technique with the total number of 63 students. There were two
classes consist of the Experimental class and controlled class. The experimental class was taught by
using guessing game technique while the controlled class was taught by listening to the teacher’s
explanation on the textbook’s material and doing assignments. The data were collected through pretests and post-tests and analyzed using t-test. The result of the pre-test showed that the mean score
of the experimental class was 57.9 and the controlled class was 68.54. However, after given guessing
game treatment, the experimental class mean score increased up to 78.4 while the controlled class
mean score was 70.93. It means that Ha was accepted. In addition, the effect size was 1.0 (moderate
effect). Therefore, it can be concluded that there was a significant effect of using guessing game
technique on students’ vocabulary knowledge at the Seventh Grade of a state Islamic Junior High
School (MTsN).
Keywords: Vocabulary, Knowledge student of Islamic School, Guessing game

RESEARCH BACKGROUND
The role of language is very important since it is an immoral thing that human will
continuously using it in their daily life. It is an element that can link to other skills (speaking,
listening, reading and writing. Having more vocabulary knowledge can assist people success
the process of communication, Vocabulary as a core component of language proficiency and
provides much of the basis for how well learners speak, listen, read and write (Richards &
Renandya, 2002) should be comprehend. Because by having vocabulary, people will be able
to express their ideas and understand what other people are saying. The urgency of
vocabulary in learning any languages is not only needed in first language (L1) but also in
the second language (L2).
Research found out that there were problems encountered by the students in enriching
their Vocabulary knowledge: (1) Students spend their time in studying the language form
rather than vocabulary. Whereas David Wilkins stated that without grammar very little can
be conveyed, but without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed (Thornbury, 2002). (2) Since
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THE EFFECT OF GUESSING GAME ON STUDENTS’
VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE
(A Quasi-experimental Study at the Seventh Grade of a state Islamic
Junior High School of Tangerang Selatan)
Raudlatul Hasanah, Ismalianing Eviyuliwati, Maya Deviyanti
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54443/sibatik.v2i1.12

vocabulary has unmanageable components, it interferes the students to remember the
Vocabulary easily. (3) Students are not confident because they are worry about the mistake
of their grammatical form.
By knowing the students’ problem in enriching their Vocabulary knowledge, the role
of game becomes one of suitable and appropriate teaching methods to be implemented since
game is a fun activity and has informal setting that encourages students to be unafraid to talk
and at the same time practice their fluency, i.e. a valuable communication skill. The strategy
itself is aimed to reach the goal. According to the previous studies, a practice and effective
strategy that can be used to teach vocabulary knowledge is by conducting guessing game.
Guessing game is a game in which the participants compete individually or in teams to
identify something that indicate obscurely (Niarti et al., 2015). It is a game in which class is
divided into four groups; one chairperson is given a picture of the object, and then tells a
group a clue about the object is household tool, clothes, vehicles, or any other stuff. Guessing
game can also be implemented by using picture. Each group chose a picture that given by
the teacher and the students make simple sentences as sentences describing the instructions
for the form or the word. Then each group advancing alternately to provide clues to the other
groups to guess the images contained in the group in front. (Yuliani, 2017, ) shared the steps
of teaching vocabulary by using guessing game such as: First, the writer gave 20 things in
the classroom as the materials to the students. Then, the writer gave some clues related to
things in the classroom, for example, a thing that is usually used for writing. Next, the
students had to guess what thing is. After the student guessed it correctly, the writer asked
the student to write the words at the board. If there was a student who wrote the words
incorrectly at the board, so the writer informed the student about the correct words. After
that, the writer gave the picture of thing that had been guessed correctly by the student. At
last, the student showed the picture to their friends in front of the class.
METHOD
In the Methodology of the research. The researcher decided into 5 parts of Information.
Method and Design research
The Purpose of this research is to solve the problem faced by the students to improve
their Vocabulary knowledge. This research method used in this research was quantitative
method through quasi-experimental research design. A quantitative method is a mean for
testing objectives theories by examining the relationship among variables (Fraenkel &
Wallen, 2009). In Quantitative data analysis, the data using a mathematical procedure which
is known as statistical procedure which provides information to address the research question
or hypotheses (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2009: 15). a quasi-experimental is used to establish
possible cause and effect between dependent and independent variables (Creswell, 2012:
295). In this study, the researcher collaborated with the seventh grade of a state Islamic junior

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high school student at Tangerang Selatan. In conducting the research, the researcher used
Guessing game technique in order to improve students’ vocabulary knowledge. To know
whether or not the vocabulary was increased, the researcher conducted pre—test and post—
test and saw its score after getting treatment.
Place and time of the Research
The population of this research were 7.1 – 7.3 and 7.5 students at A state Islamic Junior
High School of Tangerang selatan, Banten. The total numbers of the students were 124
students. The researcher took this population because the students were expected to have
more vocabulary and the material was also matched with the researched topic, which focused
on descriptive text. This study was conducted started on December 2020.
Research Instrument
In order to know how well the students had mastered the vocabulary knowledge, the
researcher conducted a test as the Instrument. An Instrument is a tool for measuring,
observing or documenting a quantitative data (Creswell, 2012: ) The researcher used
multiple choice to test students’ vocabulary as the main instrument. The test was given twice,
pre-test and post-test. Both of pre and posttest consist of 20 items which were taken from
the English book of 7th grade students of Junior high school. The test items were made based
on the course objectives in the curriculum.
The pre – test was given to both of the controlled and experimental class before
guessing game was applied to the experimental class. Pre – test was conducted in order to
find out how well students have the vocabulary knowledge. And after that the post – test was
also given to both of the classes in order to find out the significant difference between the
controlled class which did not use any technique and the experimental class who was taught
by using Guessing game technique.
Technique of Data Collection
Before the test was given in the class, the instrument was given first to other classes to
know the validity and reliability. To find out the Instrument’s validity and reliability, the
researcher used software ANATES. Also, in order to measure the validity and reliability of
the test, the researcher used Kolmogorov Smirnov by Using SPSS Version 24.
Before the test was used as Pre—test and Post—test, the test items were tried out to
other students in the school who were not taken as samples of the research. They were tried
out to the students of Class 7.5. to get their validity and reliability. After being measured of
its validity and reliability, the test items were used as the Pre—test and distributed to Classes
7.1, 7.2 and 7.3. After given the test, Class 7.1 was assigned to be the experimental class due
to the lowest score they got among the three classes. While Class 7.3 was chosen as the
controlled class because its mean score was little bit higher than Class 7.1. the experimental

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53

THE EFFECT OF GUESSING GAME ON STUDENTS’
VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE
(A Quasi-experimental Study at the Seventh Grade of a state Islamic
Junior High School of Tangerang Selatan)
Raudlatul Hasanah, Ismalianing Eviyuliwati, Maya Deviyanti
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54443/sibatik.v2i1.12

class (7.1) received a treatment where the researcher taught the students by using guessing
game, while the controlled class (7.3) was taught by using the materials from students’
textbook. After the treatments had already been done, the post test was given to both classes.
The post—test was conducted in order to find out whether there was any development or
not after the students were taught by using guessing game.
Technique of Data Analysis
In analyzing the data, t-test was used to find out the differences between students’
pre—test and post—test scores in both experimental and controlled classes. Before
analyzing the data using t-test, the normality and homogeneity tests were done.
a. Test of Normality
The next step before doing the research was to test the normality of the data. It had
a purpose to indicate either the sample come from a normal distribution or not. The
analysis of normality used in this study was Kolmogorov Smirnov by Using SPSS
Version 24. In order to have the normal data, the score of the normality test should be
above 0.05. In other words, the data distributions were not normal when the normality
test indicated less than 0.05. The steps to compute the data of normality test were as
follows:
1) Open SPSS Version 24 Software
2) Input the data
3) Click Analyse>>Descriptive Statistics>>Explore on the top menu.
4) In the Explore dialogue box, fill in the dependent list with the variable to be tested for
normality (pre-test score, post-test score) by either drag and dropping or using the
button.
5) Then, fill in the factor list with the sample groups (controlled, experimental) to see if
it's normally distributed in each group or class by either drag and dropping or using
the button.
6) Click plots, then checklist >>normality plot with test, histograms and power
estimation. Click Continue and OK to see the normality test result.
b. Homogeneity test
This test was a statistical test procedure which aimed to see the similarity from both
of the samples; the experimental and controlled classes. To get the homogeneous data,
the score of the test should be above 0.05. Here are the steps to calculate the data of
Homogeneity test using SPSS:
1) Open SPSS Program
2) Input the data
3) Click Analyze
4) Select compare means

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5) Select One-Way ANOVA
6) Click option
7) Select homogeneity of variance test
8) Click continue
9) Click OK
c. T – Test
The T-Test is the main data analysis process where its purpose is to test any
significant difference between the two classes can be identified. It is determined which
of the hypotheses offered, the null hypothesis or alternative hypothesis is accepted or
rejected. The t-test used in this research is independent-samples T-test with two-tailed test
of significance. If the result shows p-value or sig (2-tailed) is higher than sig α=0.05 (5%),
then the null hypothesis is accepted. On the contrary, if the p-value is lower than sig
α=0.05 (5%), then the alternative hypothesis is accepted.
1) Open the SPSS file of the input research data.
2) Click Analyze>>Compare Means>>Independent-Samples T-Test on the top menu.
3) In independent-Samples T-Test dialogue box, fill in the test variables with the
variable to be tested for normality (pre-test score, post-test score).
4) Then, fill in the grouping variable with the sample groups (controlled, experimental).
5) Highlight the relevant groups by clicking define groups; then enter “1” in Group 1 box
and enter “2” in group 2 box and click continue button. Note: (insert numbers
according to the tables given in data).
6) If the confidence interval percentage required to be changed for the research, click
options button.
7) Click OK to see the independent-samples t-test result.
After calculating all the statistical data, the researcher calculated and analyzed the
effect size. The Effect Size was used to see the level of the effect of the guessing game
technique on students’ vocabulary. The researcher used Cohen’ d calculation.
𝑀𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑝 1 − 𝑀𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑝 2
;𝑠
𝑠
𝑆𝑡𝑑. 𝐷𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 1 + 𝑆𝑡𝑑. 𝐷𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 2
=
To determine the level of significance,
here’s the2 criteria of the Effect size:
d=

0 – 0.2
0.21 – 0.5
0.51 – 1.00
> 1. 00

= Weak effect
= Modest Effect
= Moderate effect
= Strong effect.

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55

THE EFFECT OF GUESSING GAME ON STUDENTS’
VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE
(A Quasi-experimental Study at the Seventh Grade of a state Islamic
Junior High School of Tangerang Selatan)
Raudlatul Hasanah, Ismalianing Eviyuliwati, Maya Deviyanti
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54443/sibatik.v2i1.12

RESULT
This study was conducted as a group work or Individual, the use of guessing game in
fact was not difficult to be Implemented. There were several steps to implement it. The first
step, a teacher should decide the group and each group contained of 4 people, 3 of them
were asked to guess the thing correctly while 1 person became the spoke woman, who was
only required to answer yes/no or give the clue. On finding the answer, the group should
ask to the chairperson, for instance, “is it in noun? Is it in the bathroom?” while the
chairperson was only allowed to say yes or no to the group. Then the group got the point
whenever they could answer it correctly. In conducting this game, a student was not only
expected to have more vocabulary, but they were also expected to know the difference
between a noun, verb, adjective and Adverb.
Table 1
Statistic of The Result of the Experimental class
Statistic
Pre—test
Post—test
Mean
57.9
78.4
Minimum
45
68
Maximum
70
92
Median
56
79
The data above showed with an average score of 57.9. the cumulative pre—test score
was 1854 with the lowest score 45. While the highest pre—test score was 70. After the
students was taught by using Guessing game, the score of the experimental students
increased. It was proven from the data which showed the highest score after getting treatment
was 92 and its lowest score was 68.
Table 2
Statistic of The Result of the Controlled Class
Statistic
Pre—test
Post—test
Mean
68.54
70.93
Minimum
52
53
Maximum
80
85
Median
67
72
Above data (table 2) indicated the mean score of controlled class. The cumulative score
of the pre—test in controlled class was 2125 with the lowest score 52. And the highest score
of the pre—test was 80. Controlled class was taught by using their English textbooks. As the
result, the lowest score of the post—test was 53 while the highest score was 85.

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After getting the data of normality and homogeneity, the researcher used independent
t-test for hypothetical test. The result of independent t-test can be seen in table 3.
Table 3

Table 3 described that the Independent sample test of post—test in p value or sig (2
tailed) was 0.000, which means that the result proved the null hypothesis was rejected and
the alternative hypothesis was accepted because the p value (0.000) was lower than sig α =
0.05 (5%). In other words, there was a significant effect of using guessing game on students’
vocabulary.
DISCUSSION
As has been mentioned above, this study used Guessing game method to develop
students’ vocabulary knowledge. The Guessing Game was implemented not only for fun
activity but also allow them to engage in teamwork. The students were divided into two
classes, experimental and controlled class. The study was done by collecting the data through
test as the research instrument. The test consisted of a pre—test and a post—test on
vocabulary given to the experimental class and the controlled class. The experimental class,
who, at first, obtained the lower mean score in the pre—test could finally out performed the
controlled class in the post—test. That was possible due to the treatment given to the
experimental class, i.e. taught by using guessing game before taking the vocabulary post—
test. Just then, the result showed that the mean scores of students before being taught by
using guessing game technique were 15.38. Besides, the mean scores of students after being
taught by using guessing game technique were 21.52. The T-score was 22.57, whereas the
T-table with significance level 5% is 2.020. Therefore, T-score is bigger than T-table. This
means that there is significant different score of students before and after being taught by
using Guessing Game technique. Guessing game had a positive effect on the students’
progress of vocabulary knowledge. as seen by the post result Supriyatna (2014) indicated in

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THE EFFECT OF GUESSING GAME ON STUDENTS’
VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE
(A Quasi-experimental Study at the Seventh Grade of a state Islamic
Junior High School of Tangerang Selatan)
Raudlatul Hasanah, Ismalianing Eviyuliwati, Maya Deviyanti
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54443/sibatik.v2i1.12

her report that after conducting guessing game as the teaching method, the students in the
experimental class score increased. And the overall level was satisfactory. Furthermore,
(Rahmawati, 2016). Found out that Guessing game technique was not only capable to be
used in teaching vocabulary, but it also can improve students’ speaking skill. The study used
quantitative research. Therefore, it used pre-post—test design. It used controlled and
experimental classes. As for the class was divided into two classes that the controlled class
was taught by using workbook and not given guessing game technique in the process of
learning, while the experimental class was taught by using guessing game. In fact, she found
that the students who were taught speaking by using guessing game technique gained a
higher score rather than the students who were not taught by using guessing game technique.
The statistical data showed that the experimental class had higher scores rather than the
controlled class scores.
CONCLUSION
Based on the finding of the Study about the use of Guessing game on students’
vocabulary knowledge, this strategy was found out as an effective tool to improve students’
vocabulary knowledge. Based on the advantage mentioned by (Morris, 1976) about the use
of guessing game, the researcher found out that the role of guessing game provides language
practice in various English skills such as ; speaking, listening and writing. The effectiveness
of guessing game on student’s vocabulary knowledge was also proven by the result of the
study which was conducted to the experimental class whose score was 57.9. at the pre-test.
After given the treatment, the experimental class score gained 78.4. By means that, it
increases 20.5 points. Therefore, Ha (Alternative Hypothesis) was accepted. to find out how
significant the effect was, then the result of the effect size of guessing game to improve
students’ vocabulary reached 1.00. (Moderate effect).
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THE EFFECT OF GUESSING GAME ON STUDENTS’
VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE
(A Quasi-experimental Study at the Seventh Grade of a state Islamic
Junior High School of Tangerang Selatan)
Raudlatul Hasanah, Ismalianing Eviyuliwati, Maya Deviyanti
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54443/sibatik.v2i1.12

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