Shiritori As a Technique in Teaching English to Improve Vocabulary Mastery of Sixth Grade Students of SDN 2 Bae Kudus in Academic Year 2011/2012

English has been a compulsory lesson for students all over the world, even for the native country itself. Vocabulary is one of the most important components that should be given. It has to be mastered by the students in learning new language. It will help students to understand the language easily. But in fact teaching English vocabulary in Elementary School is not as easy as teaching vocabulary to adults. The writer found that the sixth grade students of SD N 2 Bae Kudus in the academic year 2011/2012 have difficulties in mastering English vocabulary. During teaching learning process the students get bored and did not interested to study English. Therefore the writer applied Shiritori word game in teaching English to improve the vocabulary. The purpose of this research is described as follows: To know whether Shiritori can improve the vocabulary mastery of the sixth grade students of SDN 2 Bae Kudus in academic year 2011/2012. This research applied a classroom action research. The research was conducted in the sixth grade of SD N 2 Bae Kudus during the second semester of academic year 2011/2012.The number of the students in the classroom was 21 students; 17 female and 4 male. Their ages ranges are from 10-12 years old. The data of this research was taken from the result of observation sheet, achievement test and questionnaire of those three cycles conducted. The findings of the research showed that: on the first cycle, the average score is 70.23. The category is good. In cycle II the students’ vocabulary mastery improves from cycle I. In this cycle, the average score is 79.28. The category of score is also good. The writer ends the action process at cycle III. The students’ vocabulary mastery of cycle III improve from the cycle II that is the average score 79.28 becomes 82.61. It means the students’ vocabulary mastery is excellent. This research comes to the conclusion that Shiritori word game as atechnique can improve vocabulary mastery of the sixth grade students of SD N 2 Bae Kudus in academic year of 2011/2012. Therefore the writer suggests that it would be better for the teacher to use Shiritori word game as a technique in teaching English vocabulary in order to make the students feel fun in study English and be able to increase their ability in English