The Use of Stad in Improving Students\u27 Vocabulary Mastery

This classroom action research is aimed at finding out whether STAD can improve the students\u27 vocabulary mastery and the class situation at the fifth grade students of SD Negeri 120 Tugu Jebres Surakarta in the year of 2011/2012. It was conducted in two cycles. The research findings are (1) STAD can improve the students\u27 vocabulary mastery and the class situation. The improvement of the students\u27 achievement could be seen from the mean scores of each indicator in vocabulary. In the pre-test, their mean scores were 73 for meaning, 56 for pronunciation, 70 for spelling, and 48 for using words. In cycle I their mean scores of each indicator increased to be 76 for meaning, 69 for pronunciation, 75 for spelling, and 63 for using words. In cycle 2 the increasing mean scores could also be seen such as: 84 for meaning, 76 for pronunciation, 80 for spelling, and 73 for using words. (2) The improvement of class situation includes: (a) The students focus on the materials by learning together in groups, (b) The students were more active in answering questions, and (c) The students were active in learning teaching process. Based on the result above, therefore, it is recommended that the English teacher use STAD since it can create comfortable situation in learning making teaching and learning process more alive