The effectiveness of card game and translation of word list as a means of teaching vocabulary

English is a compulsory subject for both junior and senior high school students in Indonesia. Based on the 1984 Curriculum the teaching of English for high school consists of five components: structure, vocabulary. reading, speaking and writing. The objective of teaching English at junior high school is that the students are able to comprehend English texts. To comprehend English texts, adequate vocabulary cannot be ignored. Vocabulary is one of the language components. Some experts consider it as the most important part in learning a language. As it is really important so without mastering enough vocabulary, one will find difficulties in understanding the reading passage, in expressing his ideas or in conducting communication. Considering the important role of vocabulary in reading comprehension, students' vocabulary mastery must be improved. To improve the students' vocabulary mastery, the writer used card game in teaching English vocabulary. This technique helps the teacher to break the routine activities, to avoid the boredom, and to arouse the students' motivation. This also attracts them to participate in the classroom activities. Realizing the important role of vocabulary, the writer is interested in making a study entitled The Effectiveness of Card Game and Translation of Word List as a Means of Teaching Vocabulary to the third year students of Junior High School of Dapena I Surabaya. The population and sample of this study is two parallel classes of the third year students of Dapena I Junior High School Surabaya in the academic year of 1995-1996. The writer chose 3A consisting of 33 students as the Experimental group and 3B consisting of 32 students as the Control one. Both groups got the same materials. and teat items. The difference was only the way the writer presented the exercises. In the experimental group. the writer used card game while in the control group the writer used translation of word list. After analyzing the data. the writer finds that the experimental group got higher marks than the control one. The results of this study show that at 0,05 level of significance the t-table is 2,021 and the t-calculation is 3,358. Since the t calculation is greater than the t-table at the level of significance 0,05. the alternative hypothesis was accepted and the null hypothesis was rejected. This means that there is a significant difference between the vocabulary achievement of the students taught through card game and that of the students taught through translation of word list. Since game creates a relax situation, the writer suggests the teacher to pay attention to the students' activity in order not to disturb other class. An ideal time for an experiment is one semester. This experiment was conducted only five times. Realizing that five times is not enough, the writer suggests teachers of English of SMP or other fellows students to conduct similar research with longer period of experiment to verify the findings of this study