The use of mime game to improve students’ understanding on present continuous tense (an experimental study at 7th grade of SMP Islam Walisongo Penawangan Grobogan in the academic year of 2009/2010)

The background of this study is that students in Junior High School have difficulties to study English grammar especially on Present Continuous Tense. They felt difficult to understand the material. Usually, the teacher explains the material with classical ways, such as explaining in front of class. It makes students bored and difficult to memorize the material. In teaching Present Continuous Tense, the teacher may realize that the world of Junior High School students is full of fun activities, so that the students will relax, enjoy and easy to memorize the material. Mime Game is one of media which used to realize it. This thesis concerns in teaching Present Continuous Tense at Junior High School by using Mime Game. The main objective of this study is to find out whether effective or not the use of Mime Game to improve students’ understanding on Present Continuous Tense at the seventh grade students of SMP Islam Walisongo Penawangan Grobogan in the academic year of 2009/ 2010. The hypothesis of this research is that Mime Game is effective to improve students’ understanding on Present Continuous Tense at the seventh grade students of SMP Islam Walisongo Penawangan Grobogan in the academic year of 2009/ 2010. This research is quantitative research. The research design used is experimental design. The instrument used to collect the data in this research is test. The subject of this study is the seventh grade students of SMP Islam Walisongo Penawangan Grobogan in the Academic Year of 2009/2010. The number of population is 92. In taking the sample, the writer uses random sampling technique. Class VII A is chosen as experimental class who were taught Present Continuous Tense by using Mime Game and class VII B as control class who were not taught Present Continuous Tense by using Mime Game. In accordance with data analysis, the result shows the average score for the experimental class is 57.667 for the pre test and 74.667 for the post test. While the average scores for the control class is 57.167 for the pre test and 67.833 for the post test. In the result of post test of experiment class is 74.667 which higher than the control class 67.833. It means that teaching Present Continuous Tense using Mime Game is better than teaching Present Continuous Tense without Mime Game. The result of the calculation using the t-test showed that t value = 2.686 and t table for α= 5% was 2.390. It means that t value is higher than t table (2.686 > 2.390). It can be concluded that there is a significant difference in the students’ achievement score of the seventh grade students of SMP Islam Walisongo Penawangan Grobogan in the academic year of 2009/ 2010 between students who were taught Present Continuous Tense using Mime Game and those who were taught without Mime Game. So, can be said that the Mime Game is effective to improve students’ understanding on Present Continuous Tense, and so the hypothesis is accepted