IMPROVING STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY ACHIEVEMENT IN

READING RECOUNT TEXT THROUGH

ANAGRAM TECHNIQUE

*Maimunah

**Bachtiar

Abstract

This study concerns with improving students vocabulary achievement in reading recount text through anagram technique. The objective was to investigate improvement of students’ achievement in vocabulary by applying anagram technique. This research was conducted by using action research method. The subject of the study was grade VIII students of SMP SWASTA PEMBANGUNAN GALANG totalling to 29 students. They were taught vocabulary by anagram technique. The instruments for collecting data were quantitative data and qualitative data (observation sheet and questionnaire sheet). Based on the test score of quantitative data, students’ score kept improving in every evaluation. In the orientation test the mean was 43, 2, in the cycle I test the mean was 55, 6. In the cycle II test the mean was 67.2. The percentage of orientation test was 10, 34%, cycle I test was 24, 13% and cycle II test was 86, 20%. The finding of the research showed that applying anagram technique significantly improved students’ vocabulary achievement. The qualitative data show that the students were more interested and motivated on vocabulary achievement through anagram. It is suggested that teachers should apply anagram technique as one of methods to improve students’ achievement in vocabulary.

Key Words : Vocabulary Achievement, Anagram Technique, Test, Data, Classroom Action Research

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Introduction

Background of the Study

Learning vocabulary of foreign language is very important. Without

learning the basic vocabulary of foreign language, no one will successful in that

language. If we can use the basic vocabulary and realize its function, we may have

learned it for comprehensible communication. Although some teachers may think

that vocabulary learning is easy, learning new vocabulary items has always been

challenging for the learners (Nemati 2009).

Vocabulary is an essential one for students as their first step to go on

studying English. Vocabulary is important because word carries the content of

what we want to say. The more words we know the more we are able to

communicate and we can say a lot with words.

Stahl (1999) stated that there are four types of vocabulary which must be

known and mastered for any skills, such as reading, listening, writing, and

speaking.

Based on the statement above, vocabulary in reading is one of the

important problems for the student in learning English. And theoretically,

according to Stahl (1999) vocabulary in reading is all the words he or she can

recognize when reading.

In fact, not all the students are able to master all the vocabulary when they

are reading. Based on the writer’s experience in Teaching Practice Program

(Praktek Pengalaman Lapangan: PPL) at Junior High School, it was found that

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many students’ got many troubles in learning English because they had poor

vocabulary. Most of them were not interested in learning vocabulary and they do

not also give their full attention in the task and without that attracting and

interesting the process of teaching vocabulary can’t run well. This situation

happened because the methodology or the strategy which is used maybe not

suitable. The teacher usually teaches vocabulary especially to reading

comprehension by using the technique that focused in the text, read and memorize

every word. The students feel that they are forced and they would get bored. In

this case, and sometimes they still do not understand when they read a text,

teacher should make variations and choose a suitable technique in teaching

vocabulary in order to make the students to be interested. For that reason, the

teacher ought to know their media in teaching process to make the lesson more

interesting and inspiring. For this purpose, learning vocabulary by using the

technique can be one alternative in teaching learning process.

On the observation that was done by the researcher in grade VIII Junior

High School at SMP Swasta Pembangunan Galang, from 29 students it is found

that there are only 9 students could pass the passing grade (KKM) and 20 students

still could not pass the passing grade which is made by the teacher, the score of

the passing grade is 65. Moreover, it was happened because of many reasons. First

of all, when the students ordered to open the dictionary to find the meaning from

difficult word or a new word, there was only three or four students’ did it and the

rest of the students’ were lazy to open their dictionary and just waiting until their

friends got the meaning from that word. They afraid of making mistakes, being

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laughed at by his or her friends and having lack of confidence in their ability. And

the other problem was come from the teaching technique that used by the teacher,

because the teacher’s technique used in teaching vocabulary is not interesting or

monotonous. She/he usually gives many words to the students’ and asks them to

open their dictionary to find the meaning of those words, after finding the words,

they forget. So when the teaching learning process takes place, the students’ did

not give attention and feel bored. Here is the datum of the students’ who could not

pass the passing grade.

Table 1.1 Students who could not pass the KKM

No Students Initial Name Score KKM

1 AF 60 65

2 AW 50 65

3 CC 60 65

4 LH 60 65

5 MT 60 65

6 ML 50 65

7 NI 55 65

8 PL 60 65

9 SKD 55 65

10 SN 60 65

Based on the statement above, it can be concluded that the skill of a

reading in using a language is determined by his mastery of vocabulary. A wide of

vocabulary of the language opens bigger possibility to reader to be master in using

the language.

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To make the students to be inspired in studying English especially

vocabularies, the teacher must involve students and control the class. The teacher

ought to use some technique such as Anagram and use some new words to help

the students learn more and make the students fell interested to learn new

vocabulary for junior high school. The students know about the new words by

using Anagram. The topic must be selected according to the knowledge of the

students. Since the students may not use a lot of logical analysis it is important for

teacher ought to emphasize the use of memory and mimicry.

According to Collins (2003) Anagram technique is a type of word play, the

result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or

phrase, using all the original letters exactly once’ for example orchestra can be

rearranged into carthorse. Someone who creates anagrams is called an

anagrammatist. The original word or phrase is known as the subject of the

anagram. According to Richard, (2010) an anagram is the rearrangement of the

letters of a word, name, phrase, sentence, title, or the like into another word or

phrase. All the letters of the name or phrase must be used once and only once.

This is the basic rule anagramming. The best anagrams are meaningful and relate

in some way to the original subject. They can be opposite, funny, rude, satirical or

flattering.

Anagrams are in themselves a recreational activity, but they also make up

part of many other games, puzzles and game shows. The jumble is a puzzle found

in many newspapers in the United States requiring the unscrambling of letters to

find the solution. Cryptic crossword puzzle frequently use anagrammatic clues,

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usually indicating that they are anagrams by the inclusion of descriptive term like

“confused” or “in disarray”.

According to Barus (2010: 13) Anagram is a good technique in

teaching vocabulary. There are many ways in applying anagram to the

students, such as:

1. The students form other word from the key word given. For example:

a. Grandmother = mother, other, her, ear, etc

b. Learning = earn, lean, liar, etc

c. Reader = dear, read, ear, red, etc

d. Handsome = dome, hand, some, name, etc

e. Weather = her, tea, hat, eat, etc

2. The students rearrange the letters in bracket after that fill in each

blank with theappropriate anagram to complete the sentence. For

example:

Thecare bfiaueilu idouyl

Pnhuis shlcoo

a. Please speak loudly, so I can hear your voice

b. You are very beautiful wearing that gown

c. My English teacher is very friendly

d. The teachers will punish us if we don’t do our homework

e. My school is in front of my house

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3. The students omit one or some letters of the key word and transpose

rest. For example:

a. Key word : perceive

Defenition : got or accept something

New word : receive

b. Key word : apple

Defenition : whiter than usual because of illness; not bright

New word : pale

c. Key word : adore

Defenition : look at and understand something written

New word : read

d. Key word : blame

Defenition : food that is eaten

New word : meal

e. Key word : label

Defenition : having the power to do something

New word : able

4. The students transpose the letters of theword and form another word by

using thoseletters exactly once based on the defenition. For example:

a. Note

Defenition : quality of a sound or voice

Word : tone

b. Name

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Defenition : the explanation or defenition of something

Word : mean

c. Rail

Defenition : people who tells lies

Word : liar

d. Earn

Defenition : a short distance

Word : near

e. There

Defenition : the number after two

Word : three

5. The students match the scramble word on the left to its arrangement on the

right

a. Acdr Flower

b. Eflowrs Gift

c. Fg i t Card

d. Aehrt Chocolate

e. Accehloot Heart

Research Question

Based on the background of the study, the research of problem is

formulated as the following: “Is the students’ vocabulary achievement in reading

recount text improved if it is taught by applying Anagram technique?”

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Conceptual Framework

Learning a language means learning its vocabularies. Vocabulary is one of

the basic elements in mastering English. Vocabulary is a breath of language,

because without vocabulary proficiency, the students automatically cannot obtain

the four skills of English, such as listening, reading, speaking, and writing. In

teaching a subject matter, the teacher should have a technique to increase the

students’ achievement especially vocabulary in reading.

In obtain the four skills of language, teacher must use an effective

technique in teaching vocabulary. Anagram is considered as an effective,

enjoyable and interesting way to teach vocabulary because it can give the students

enjoyment or challenge in studying language and encourage them to look

carefully at words, students can practice to form other words from the given clues,

match words with defenition, provide spelling practice, show the students how the

letters of many words can be manipulated to form other words, emphasize the

importance of letter position in relation to word meaning.

It is clear that anagram is an interesting way of learning to increase one’s

vocabulary, anagram can motivate and encourage the students’ interest learning

vocabulary. Anagram will help the students to develop and enrich their stock of

vocabulary. It is designed to avoid the students felt bored that can stop them in

learning English. Therefore, teaching and learning process through anagram is

aimed to improve students’ vocabulary achievement in reading.

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Research Method

This study applied Classroom Action Research (CAR). Small – scale

classroom research implemented by teachers and directed at improving learning

outcomes is called action research (Thornburry, 1995:139). Action Research as

the research design used in social and education sciences, primarily used for social

science or reality. According to Wallace (1998:1), action research is defined as the

systemic collection and analysis of data relating to the improvement of some area

of professional field. The purposes of action research are to improve the quality of

studying practice, to find solution and to solve the problem.

The action research can be implemented for teaching and learning process

in the classroom therefore; the action research used in the classroom is called

Classroom Action Research (CAR). Classroom action research referred to

classroom, investigation applied by researcher, perhaps teachers, who looked

critically at their own teaching, and the quality of education.

Result and Discussion

Research findings were taken from the quantitative data and

qualitative data. The quantitative data were taken by applying anagram technique

and it was taken from students’ score in cycle I test and cycle II test where was

better than the orientation test. So, it could be concluded that the students’

vocabulary improved by applying anagram technique.

The qualitative data were taken from observation sheet, questionnaire

sheet and interview sheet which were shown in Appendices. From the data, it

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could be concluded that the students felt interest to study vocabulary by applying

anagram technique.

Conclusion and Suggestion

Conclusion

After analyzing the data, it is found out that the students’ vocabulary

achievement improved from the orientation test to the cycle II test. It means that

there was an improvement toward students’ vocabulary achievement by applying

anagram technique. It was shown from the improvement of the mean of the

students score namely the mean of orientation test was 43,3 , the mean of the

cycle I test was 55,6, and the mean of the cycle II test was 67,2. It can be stated

that the score continuously improved from orientation test to cycle II test.

Therefore, it could be concluded that Anagram Technique can improve students’

vocabulary achievement. Beside the mean of the score, there was percentage of

the students who got the score above 65. In the orientation test, there was 10,34%

(3 students), in cycle I test was 24,13% (7 students) and in cycle II test was

86,20% (25students). It means that there was an improvement of the students in

their vocabulary about 13,79% compared with the first test. And for the second

test with the last test were 62,07 %.

Suggestions

The result of this study shows that the uses of anagram technique enlarge

or improve the students’ number of vocabulary. And from the research that had

done, the writer has some suggestion. The following suggestions are offered:

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1. For the English teacher; they are suggested to consider anagram

technique in teaching vocabulary because by using this technique the

students can be more enjoyable in memorizing the words and they will

be able to remember the word easier for long time.

2. For the students; they are suggested to follow anagram technique to

practice their vocabularies regularly and know the meaning of the

words. It will improve and enlarge the number of their vocabulary and

also make them easier to understand what their teacher said.

3. For all the readers; they are suggested to consider anagram technique

because it can improve vocabulary knowledge and they may use the

information in this research as a useful input teaching-learning process

especially for teaching vocabulary.

References

Barus, Rina H. (2010). Improving Students’ Vocabulary Achievement through Anagram. Unpublished Thesis. Medan: State University of Medan.

Block, Collins, C. & Mangieri, J. (2006). The Effects of Powerful Vocabulary for Reading Success on Students’ Reading Vocabulary and ComprehensionAchievement. Journal of Reading Behavior, 1, 2963-005.

Nemati, Azadeh. (2009). Memory Vocabulary Learning Strategies and Long-Term Retention. Academic Journal, 1 (2), 014-024.

Pardiyono. (2007). Pasti Bisa! Teaching Genre – Based Writing: Metode Mengajar Writing Berbasis Genre Secara Efektif. Yogyakarta: ANDI.

Richard, J.C and T.S. Rodgers. (1998). Approach and Method in Language.

Stahl, S. A. (1999). Vocabulary Development. Cambridge, MA: Brookline.

Thornbury, Scott. (2003). How to Teach Vocabulary. USA. Cambridge University Press.

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Wallace, Michael J. (1998.) Action Research for Language Teachers. United Kingdom:Cambridge University.

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