THE ACADEMIC Journal of English Language Education Volume 7 No. 2 December 2022 ISSN: 2528-3677; E-ISSN: XXXX-XXXX THE USE OF SPELLING BEE GAMES IN IMPROVING ENGLISH VOCABULARY STUDENTS AT NEGERI 8 MAKASSAR Natalia Padidi1, Dahlia D. Moelier2, Andi Hamzah Fansury3 123 English Language Education Department, Bosowa University, Indonesia ABSTRACT This research was conducted with the aim of determining whether or not there was an improving in students' English vocabulary by using Spelling bee games in grade 7 students of SMP Negeri 8 Makassar. This study used a pre-experimental design with pre-test, post-test, and data analysis.The population in this study were students of SMP Negeri 8 Makassar for the 2021/2022 school year. the sample in this study was 36 students in grade 7.4. The results of this study were analyzed using a paired sample T-test on SPSS. According to the results of using the bee spelling game, it can increase the vocabulary of grade 7.4 students of SMP Negeri 8 Makassar.This can be seen based on the results of the Paired Sample T-test on the pre-test value the column is 0.00. Thus, it can be concluded that the Spelling Bee games can improve students' vocabulary skills in english learning at SMP Negeri 8 Makassar. Key Words: Spelling Bee, Games, Vocabulary INTRODUCTION Language cannot be separated in human life. We use language to communicate one to another. Through language, people gain a better insight into human relation. We use language to express our ideas and thought. According to Mangum (2010:257), “most linguists consider human language a unique type of communication system”. Through language, people gain a better insight into human relation. They use language to express their ideas and thought. In this globalization era people use English as an important language because English became an instrument for communication with people around the world. Language and human being cannot be separated. Human life perspicuity can run well. They’re using language to communicate something one another. Through language, people gain a better insight into human relation. They use language to express their ideas and thought. One of English components to be taught to the learners is vocabulary. As it has primary role for all language skill. Without extensive vocabulary knowledge, even those who show mastery of grammar might experience the failure to communicate. Moreover, vocabulary knowledge plays an important role in language learning. Language ability of learners will be improved overall by vocabulary. And the vocabulary also is more important than grammar as the basic of knowledge. So it is known that “word” is the most common element in English Language Education Department Bosowa University 136 THE ACADEMIC Journal of English Language Education Volume 7 No. 2 December 2022 ISSN: 2528-3677; E-ISSN: XXXX-XXXX sentences because a language is a collection of word. The complex materials need to be understood through the vocabulary knowledge as an important part of language. Problem in learning and teaching English language is English as a foreign language (EFL). English language is completely different of Indonesian language in the system of structure, pronunciation and vocabulary. In teaching vocabulary, the teacher should facilitate the student to master vocabulary. The fact problem that faces in teaching vocabulary class is students only force to remember a long list of vocabulary without a change to the vocabulary to know. Another problem is the students don’t take attention in teaching learning process. Students are not interested in learning vocabulary because they are difficult to memorize the new vocabulary. Furthermore, according to Cahyani (2016:2) she found that there were some problems in mastering vocabulary. Students have difficulty to remembering the meaning of vocabulary. They’re lazy to open their dictionary and getting bored in class. The students have low motivation in learning English because they feel English is difficult. The teacher must find other technique in teaching vocabulary to make students interesting and enjoy in learning process. Therefore, to solve the problems above, researcher realize that the teacher has an important role in teaching. In junior high school teacher often find difficulties in teaching vocabulary because some teacher still using traditional method. The teacher should be creative to discover way to help students resolve issue in learning English, especially vocabulary. In teaching vocabulary, the teacher should find suitable method to teach and should be taught in various ways so that the students could be interested in learning. Azzar (2012:253) state that the use of game in teaching vocabulary is a way to make the lesson more interesting, enjoyable and effective. According to Ur et al. (2014), there are a lot of activities that can be used to teach vocabulary, one of which is a game such as the Spelling Bee game (SBG). Spelling bee game is an activity that could give enjoyment. Spelling bee game also can be used as a technique to teach English especially vocabulary, because spelling bee game is not only merely fun but also contains educational learning. According to Macmilan (2012:3) a spelling bee is a competition can help students to improve their spelling, increase their vocabulary, and develop correct English usage. In this research, the reason why the researcher use spelling bee game in teaching vocabulary because spelling bee game was a fun activity and increased students’ interest to learn. The researcher was interested to know whether there was any significant difference in the result teaching vocabulary by using spelling bee game and without using spellillng bee game. English Language Education Department Bosowa University 137 THE ACADEMIC Journal of English Language Education Volume 7 No. 2 December 2022 ISSN: 2528-3677; E-ISSN: XXXX-XXXX METHOD OF THE RESEARCH In this research was used pre-experimental pre-test and post-test design. The researcher gave a pre-test about multiple choice to know their prior knowledge before giving treatment (O1), and then in treatment the researcher explained and teaching vocabulary using the spelling bee games technique (X), and finally the researcher gave a post-test to examine the students’ vocabulary increasing (O2). This research started on 18th May 2022 and took for one month. This research conducted at SMPN 8 Makassar at the 7th grade student in 2021/2022 academic year. The population of this research was the 7th grade students of SMPN 8 Makassar in 2021/2022 academic year. Consisting of 432 students devided into twelve classes which each class consist of approximately 36 students. The researcher used total sampling. Based on the total sampling, the researcher took one class VII.4 students of SMPN 8 Makassar as the sample. The number of the sample were 36 students. The instrument of this research was vocabulary test. The researcher collected the data by provided pre-test, treatments, and post-test. The researcher assesses students' speaking skill by using the criteria of speaking score. The data analyzed by using SPSS version 26. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS The test were done twice namely pre-test and post-test, the researcher gave the students’ vocabulary test before and after the treatment. To know the students’ vocabulary ability the researcher conducted pre-test and posttest. As mentioned before the researcherr used spelling bee games as instrument in collecting the data. It was given to the 7th grade students of SMPN 8 Makassar. Pre-test and post-test were done to get vocabulary score of the students. The students’ scores in pre-test are presented in the following table. After analyzing the data derived from pre-test and pot-test below is the result of data analysis. The result of students’ vocabulary score in pre-test and post-test could be seen in the table below: Table 1. Frequency Table Pre-Test Pre-test Valid 33 40 47 53 60 67 Frequency Percent Valid Percent 1 2.8 2.8 2 5.6 5.6 3 8.3 8.3 9 25.0 25.0 8 22.2 22.2 8 22.2 22.2 Cumulative Percent 2.8 8.3 16.7 41.7 63.9 86.1 English Language Education Department Bosowa University 138 THE ACADEMIC Journal of English Language Education Volume 7 No. 2 December 2022 ISSN: 2528-3677; E-ISSN: XXXX-XXXX 73 80 Total 2 3 36 5.6 8.3 100.0 5.6 8.3 100.0 91.7 100.0 Table 2. Frequency Table Post-Test Pre-test Cumulative Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent Valid 73 11 30.6 30.6 30.6 80 15 41.7 41.7 72.2 87 5 13.9 13.9 86.1 93 5 13.9 13.9 100.0 Total 36 100.0 100.0 Based on the table 1 and table 2 above, there were 36 students as the sample of the research. The test was conducted by the researcher before and after treatments using Spelling bee games. The test focused on vocabulary test. For the pre-test, the writer gave explanation for all students in the class about the test. The test intended to know the students’ vocabulary ability before students were given the treatment. For the instrument, the researcher provided a worksheet containing pictures and multiple choice. Students were asked to match the picture and choice of words, under the picture.After that, the researcher gave wheather the answer is right or not. For the post-test, the researcher gave the same explanation about the test same as the pre-test. The test intended to know the students’ vocabulary ability after students were given the treatment. Figure 1. Students Pre-Test English Language Education Department Bosowa University 139 THE ACADEMIC Journal of English Language Education Volume 7 No. 2 December 2022 ISSN: 2528-3677; E-ISSN: XXXX-XXXX Based on figure 1 above, we could see the students' pre-test scores. which there are: 1 student who scored 33, 2 students scored 40, 3 students scored 47, 5 students scored 53, 8 students scored 60, 8 students scored 67, 2 students scored 73 and 3 students get a score of 80. Figure 2. Students Post-Test Based on figure 2 above, we could see the students' post-test scores. which there are: 11 students who scored 73, 15 students scored 80, 5 students scored 87 and 5 students who scored 93. Table 3. Students Paired Samples Statistics Paired Samples Statistics Pair 1 Pre-test Post-test Mean 59.25 80.64 N 36 36 Std. Deviation 11.195 6.791 Std. Error Mean 1.866 1.132 The data in the table 4.3 showed that the highest score of pre-test was 80 and the lowest was 33. And the highest score of post-test was 93 and the lowest 73. The mean score of pre-test was 59,25 and the mean score of post-test was 80,64. there was a difference in improvement when viewed from the comparison both. English Language Education Department Bosowa University 140 THE ACADEMIC Journal of English Language Education Volume 7 No. 2 December 2022 ISSN: 2528-3677; E-ISSN: XXXX-XXXX Table 4. Students Paired Samples Test Paired Samples Test Paired Differences 95% Confidence Interval of the Std. Std. Difference Deviatio Error Sig. (2Mean n Mean Lower Upper t df tailed) Pair 1 Pre-test -21.389 7.252 1.209 -23.843 -18.935 -17.697 35 .000 - Posttest In the table 4 we could see pair sample test, The researcher used a test to find out if there was an increase in vocabulary after the students were taught to use the spelling bee game. in this table it can be seen an increase, where the significance of the data shows the value of sig. (2tailed)s’ column is 0.00, if the significance value (2-tailed)< 0.05, the Ho is rejected and Ha is accapted and if the significance value ( 2-tailed) > 0.05 then Ho is accepted and Ha is rejected. moreover in this table show Ho is rejected and Ha is accepted it means there were an impact using Spelling Bee Games to improving students vocabulary. DISCUSSIONS This section provides a discussion of the results of the data analysis, in which the results was presented in three steps. The first step was a pre-test, in which the researchers gave the students an idea of their vocabulary skills before teaching them Spelling Bee Game. In a second step, the researchers treated the students with Spelling Bee Game for two days. The third was a post-test, which the researchers administered after learning Spelling Bee Game to see how students scored. For the pretest, the researchers explained the test to the students, who seemed to be listening carefully, occasionally asking questions. The results of the pre-test showed that the students had deficits in vocabulary, especially in writing. picture. So the researchers taught students Spelling Bee Game, making it easier for students to distinguish each word based on the spelling. At first, the students did not understand, but after asking several times, they began to understand how to distinguish the various spellings of words. For the post-test, students was given the same test as the pre-test. The researchers previously sampled a class 7.4 of 36 students. There were significant differences between the pre-test and the post-test based on English Language Education Department Bosowa University 141 THE ACADEMIC Journal of English Language Education Volume 7 No. 2 December 2022 ISSN: 2528-3677; E-ISSN: XXXX-XXXX student scores and classifications. In the results, the study was successful, showing that the mean score on the pre-test improved from 59.25 to 80.64 on the post-test. It was found that after learning Scrabble, the students showed differences in their vocabulary. The results showed that students scored higher after using Spelling Bee Game than before. Therefore, this is accepted and encouraged to expand students' vocabulary, especially in writing. Based on the study Leni Nuspitasari (2018) In her research, she use spelling bee game as technique in teaching vocabulary. Show that the students between pre-test and post-test had the different mean where using Spelling Bee Game could increase the test. She said that this game was effective to be used in teaching vocabulary. The student must have strategies to memorize and practice new words and improve their vocabulary. According to Rita Kumalasari (2018) In her study she finds there is any significant effect in using of guess-the-word game in learning vocabulary. The game makes the students more easily to add some vocabulary. The students are more enjoyable to learn using this game. And the last according to Hidayatul Khoiroh (2019) In his research he use scramble game as technique in teaching vocabulary simple past tense to find out the effectiveness of the game. The techniques of collecting data were test and documentation. There were two kinds of test which were used, those were pre-test and post-test. CONCLUSION From the results of this study, it can be concluded that Spelling Bee Game is capable of mastering students' vocabulary. students in grade 7.4 in the class had better development and post-test scores than their scores in the pre-test. in this study it means that Spelling Bee can improve students' vocabulary mastery in grade 7.4 students at SMP Negeri 8 Makassar 2021/2022. since the Paired Sample Test result on SPSS program was used to know whether there is a significant difference between pre-test and post-test. In paired samples test table showed that sig. 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