Paper 3 LEARNING VOCABULARY THROUGH CHAINED WORD GAME

LEARNING VOCABULARY

THROUGH CHAINED WORD GAME

1.          Preface

In learning English as a foreign language, vocabulary plays an important role. It is one element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing all together. In order to communicate well in English as a foreign language, students should acquire an adequate number of words and should know how to use them accurately.

Traditionally, vocabulary has not been a particular subject for students to learn, but has been taught within lessons of speaking, listening, reading and writing. During the lesson, students use their own vocabulary and are introduced to new words provided by the teacher and classmates which they apply to classroom activities. For many learners of English, whenever they think of vocabulary, they think of learning a list of new words with meanings in their native language.

A number of learners may share the same experience of looking up words in a bilingual dictionary to find their meanings or definitions when they encounter new words. Working this way, after a short period of time, many learners may find out that learning vocabulary in lists does not satisfy themselves, and they think the cause for it is just their bad memorization, Gnoinska (1998:12). Research and publications have shown that this is not a very effective way to study. Nation (2000, p.6) states that the "look and remember" way of vocabulary learning seems to be not very effective for learners of the English language.

Unlike the traditional method of learning and teaching, in a Contextual Teaching Learning (CTL) approach, learners are required to take part in a number of meaningful activities with different tasks. This is to improve learners' competence by encouraging them to be a part of the lessons themselves.  One of the good ways to learn vocabulary is by using a game. 

Many experts of language teaching methodology agree that playing games is a good way to learn vocabulary, especially in CLT class. With the use of games, the teacher can create various contexts in which students have to use the language to communicate, exchange information and express their own opinions (Wright, Betteridge and Buckby, 1984). Huang (1996: 1) comes to a conclusion that "learning through games could encourage the operation of certain psychological and intellectual factors which could facilitate communication heightened self-esteem, motivation and spontaneity, reinforcing learning, improving intonation and building confidence."
Some experts have also figured out characteristics of games that make vocabulary learning more effectively. Lee (1995:35) lists several main advantages when games are used in the classroom, including "a welcome break from the usual routine of the language class", "motivating and challenging" "effort of learning", and "language practice in the various skills."

In summary, games are useful and effective tools that should be applied in vocabulary classes. The use of vocabulary is a way to make the lessons more interesting, enjoyable and effective.

Here this paper discusses on using a chain word game to teach vocabulary. It is hoped that teachers will learn and use it as an alternative of language learning strategies that support students’ learning, especially in learning vocabulary.

2.     Learning Vocabulary through Chain Word Game

The game is adapted from “Kata Berkait” Quiz Program at RCTI Channel hosted by Nico Siahaan. It was popular 1n 2002 – 2004. It can be used to review vocabulary, practice spelling and develop the ability to cooperate, to complete without being aggressive, and to be “a good loser”.

3.      Steps in applying the Game

1. The teacher makes a draft in his/her paper 3 lists of chain words. Each consists of 8 words related one to another. They are based on the material given.

Example: The teacher will teach the vocabularies of school environment, so the teacher writes the words which relate it.

List 1                           List 2                           List 3

Book                           Flag                             Chair

Teacher                        Ceremony                    Broken*

Room                          Yard*                          Ruler*

Dirty                            Grass*                         Expensive*

Floor                            Green*                                    Shoes*

Ceramics                     Bag                              Girl*

White                          Student*                     Beautiful*

Dress                           Uniform                      School

2. Divide the class into groups (2 or 4 groups) and name them Group A, B, C, etc. or let the members of the group name themselves.
3. Draw 8 lines on the board and write the key words on the top and bottom lines.

See example:

Book

 

Dress

4. The turning group guesses the word by asking to the teacher a letter below, above or between the words.
5. The teacher writes the group’s score. It is based on the number of the letter  in a word which can be guessed by the group.

Example: The word “Teacher” has 7 letters. So the group which can guess it gets the score 7. Asterisk mark (*) means doubled score.

6. The winner is the group who gets highest score.

4.    Closing

That’s all the discussing of learning vocabulary through Chain Word game. I hope it is useful for all. Thank you.