Engaging “Snakes and Ladders Games” to Enhance English Speaking Skill and Vocabulary for Middle School Students
Abstract
In recent years, the gap in English speaking skills at the junior high school level has decreased significantly. Some students have good English skills, while others still have difficulty expressing ideas in English, the average duration of speaking is under 5 minutes, lack of vocabulary, not confident in using English well in class (Suganda. et al. 2007). Snakes and ladders game is a board game consisting of small squares with 100 numbered squares played by two or more people who are played using dice. According to Melsi (2015: 10) snakes and ladders is a board game that is played together in turns by 2 or more people. Using snakes and ladders game media in speaking skill and vocabulary skill lessons in class will seem interesting and the learning atmosphere will be more fun.
The aim of this game is to make students enjoy speaking and increasing students’ vocabulary skill without worrying about being blamed. When something goes wrong in the pronunciation, no one blames each other, only needs to be given direction so that self-confidence is built and continues to open up knowledge in speaking skills. The more often they use English when talking to their opponents without realizing it makes them more confident and unconsciously speaking verbally will often be trained.
The main focus of this study is to describe the strategies used through “snakes and ladders games” to enhance English integrated skills for middle school students. The research participants selected in this study were students in the VIII grade (D) of the second semester of 2021/2022 academic year, totaling 25 students. In this case, the researcher explains the research procedure starting from a preliminary study and the implementation of the research which consists of planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting.
From the result of the study the students' mean score of the row score was 45.64 with the lowest score was 34 and the higher score was 62. While the average score of the cycle was 73.35 with the lowest score were 54 and the highest score was 92 and three of twenty-five students failed the criteria of successful. The researcher can conclude that the students' speaking skills are getting better and the students' vocabulary knowledge is increasing after the researcher implemented snakes and ladders games to improve students' ability in teaching English, especially in teaching speaking and vocabulary. The researcher concluded that the snakes and ladders games in learning English can improve students' abilities especially, their speaking skill and vocabulary skill.
Based on the finding of the study, the implementation of snakes and ladders games has positive results many students can improve their English-speaking skill and vocabulary skill when playing this game.
Keywords: Speaking, Vocabulary, Snakes and Ladders Games