Improving students’ mastery on simple present tense through toothpick game : a classroom action research on the seventh grade of MTs Raudlatut Tholibin Pakis Tayu Pati in the academic year of 2015/2016

The background of this research is focused on the grammar especially simple present tense. Students have low competence in grammar.In addition, the English teacher used the innovative teaching strategy to teach English rarely. The aim of this research is to get the answer of the following questions. They are (1) what does the implemention of toothpick game in teaching simple present tense for students of seventh grade at MTs. Raudlatut Tholibin in the academic year of 2015/2016? (2) what can toothpick game improve the students’ mastery on simple present tense? The objectives of this research are (1) to describe the implementation of toothpick game in teaching simple present tense for students of seventh grade at MTs. Raudlatut Tholibin in the academic year of 2015/2016. (2) to find out the improvement of the students’ mastery on simple present tense after being taught using toothpick game This study is classroom action research that was done in two cycles and each cycle has four steps, they were planning, acting, observing and reflecting. The subject of this research was the students at the seventh gradeclass D of MTs. Raudlatut Tholibin Pakis Tayu Pati in the academic year of 2015/2016. The number of students was 26 students. In conducting the research, the researcher used documentation, observation and test as the techniques of data collection. The implementation of toothpick game in teaching and learning simple present tense was successful. The improvement can be seen on the students’ average score in every cycle that was started by pre cycle as the base data. The students’ average score of pre cycle was 67,12. That is why the research was conducted. The result of first cycle was 71,23 as the students’ average score and the second cycle was 75,38. Because more than 80% of the students who reached the 70 as the minimum criterion of passing score, the classroom action research was stopped. Based on the result of this study, the writer suggested that implementing toothpick game can be an alternative strategy to teach and learn English grammar especially for improving students’ mastery on simple present tense