Developing Snake and Ladder Game Board as a Media to Teach English Vocabulary to Elementary School Student

ABSTRACT Sari, Candrika Citra. 2012. Developing Snake and Ladder Game as a Media to Teach English Vocabulary to Elementary School Students. Sarjana’s Thesis, English Department, Faculty of Letters, State University of Malang. Advisor: Siti Muniroh, S.Pd., M.A. Key words: vocabulary, elementary students, Giant Snake and Ladder In general the purpose of the present study is to develop Snake and Ladder game as a media to teach vocabulary to elementary students. The design of this study is research and development. This study follows the R&D cycles which are presented by Borg and Gall (1983). The steps are: (1) need analysis, (2) product development, (3) try out, (4) product revision, (5) final product. The need analysis was done at SDN Percobaan I Malang. The product was developed based on the result of need analysis. Then, the try out was held in SDN Percobaan I Malang. The accessible population is the students in 5b class. Since all members of the accessible population are involved in the study, no sampling technique was applied. The product which is tried out is a set of board game called Giant Snake and Ladder. It consists of some equipment, i.e. (1) a board, (2) a dice, (3) eleven tokens, (4) vocabulary cards, (5) answer key, and (6) play guide. Different from the original Snake and Ladder, Giant Snake and Ladder has a larger board, so the students can step on it to move the tokens. The tokens and the dice are very unique. They are made from cardboard. All the equipments used in this game are user friendly and not dangerous for children. The materials of the vocabulary cards deal with post office, bank, and hotel. The result of the try out indicates that the game is suitable for learning vocabulary in 5b class SDN Percobaan I Malang. The majority of the students like the game, since it involves physical movement and group work. The students also learn some new vocabularies through this game. Based on the teacher’s point of view, Giant Snake and Ladder is suitable for learning vocabulary since the materials in the vocabulary cards suited the students’ level In addition to the vocabulary learning, through Giant Snake and Ladder the students can learn about cooperative work as the students must work in group. The group work challenges the students to have social interaction within the group’s members. Then, the students can also learn about up and down in life. Snake represent the unfortunate events, while ladder represent the fortunate events in life. There are two obstacles which are found during the product try out. First, the size of the board is not big enough for eleven groups. Second, the vocabulary cards are too small to be read together by the members of the group at one time. Thus, it is advisable that the English teacher who wants to use this game as a media to teach vocabulary to adjust the board size and the vocabulary cards sizes with the number of students and the students’ needs. At last, this game still needs more variation in term of topics, exercise, and rules. Therefore, further research is also advisable to be conducted to develop this game and to find out this game effectiveness in vocabulary teaching.