Developing Computer-Based Snake and Ladder Vocabulary Game for Seventh Grade Students

ABSTRACT Khoirunnisa’, Aidha. 2017. Developing Computer-Based Snake-and-Ladder Vocabulary Game for Seventh Grade Students. Sarjana’s Thesis, Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang. Advisors: (I) Dr. Emalia Iragiliati, M.Pd., (II) Dr. Mirjam Anugerahwati, M.A. Keywords: R&D, computer-based, snake-and-ladder, vocabulary, game, seventh gradersVocabulary plays a significant role in students’ process of learning English. However, the students expressed that vocabulary was also the most difficult thing to learn in English, resulting on the insufficient vocabulary mastery. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a prototype of a product in the form of a computer-based vocabulary game which could be utilized as a medium for promoting vocabulary mastery of seventh graders. The materials covered in the product would be taken from the syllabus and textbook that were applied for the students of seventh grade.The design of this study was a Research and Development design.The method that was used in this study was adapted from Borg and Gall’s Research and Development theory which consisted of seven steps, namely: (1) needs assessment; (2) developing the product; (3) experts validation; (4) first revision; (5) try-out; (6) final revision; (7) final product. Meanwhile, the data obtained in this study were in the forms of quantitative and qualitative data. The data were collected from needs analysis process, experts’ validation, and product try-out as well. The quantitative data was analyzed using simple mean calculation and presented in percentage. The qualitative data was analyzed using Miles and Huberman’s technique which consists of: (1) data reduction; (2) data display; and (3) conclusion drawing. The experts’ validation showed a result on the average score of 98% from the teacher and 96% from the lecturer. The result meant that the product was appropriate to be used as a medium for the seventh grade students based on the aspects of its effectiveness, relevance to daily life and interests, practicality, difficulty level, instruction, usability, design, also hints and clues as well. The try-out result also revealed that the students enjoyed using this product to learn vocabulary. It had some strengths like it promoted motivation which could engage students and it was fun to be used for learning. Meanwhile, the weakness of it was that it only had limited number of vocabulary and limited tasks. The future researchers may use the product as a reference for conducting a classroom action research or an experimental research. The future researchers may develop the same type of game with different topics, objectives, and also different grade or level of difficulty as well