Scrabble Game: Boosting Vocabulary Mastery of English Foreign Language (EFL) Students

The background of this research is the lack of student participation and involvement in learning English in the classroom especially for vocabulary learning. This is caused by the lack of students’ motivation, laziness and less understanding of students in mastering vocabulary. The purpose of this research is to describe the students’ participation and the students ’ improvement in vocabulary after applying scrabble games. The method used in this research was Classroom Action Research (CAR). The data collection technique of this research are observation, interview, and measurement. The tools of data collection technique are observation sheet, interview guideline, and test. The researchers applied Classroom Action Research (CAR) where the data divided into two kinds of descriptions; they were Qualitative and quantitative. The researchers obtained the data from cycle one and cycle two and then described it into qualitative and quantitative description. From data the analysis, it showed that there was a significant improvement in the students' participation and students vocabulary mastery. It can be seen from qualitative and quantitative data. From qualitative data, the students ’ participations were increased from the first cycle into two cycle. Meanwhile, from quantitative data, the result of the test improved significantly from both cycles. It could be concluded that the scrabble game technique im proved students’ vocabulary mastery.


Introduction
Vocabulary is one of the language elements that is fundamental to be learnt.
Vocabulary plays an important role to build sentences. Without vocabulary someone not only cannot write but also cannot speak. In learning vocabulary, the learners not only memorizing amount of words but also their meaning and how they are implemented. From the English knowledge, vocabulary was the dominant problem, especially for memorizing the word, interpreting the words and pronouncing the words. In this case, the problem of each student is that it is difficult to remember the Any other way, if they have many words, they can increase their language skills.
According to Thornbury (2002:29) there are some problems related to vocabulary learning, they are form-related errors inject mis-excerpt, mis-information, spelling, and pronunciation omissions.
In addition, when students speak English in front of the class, many students feel insecure and embarrassed to mention the vocabulary they have learned. Sometime they difficult to remember the words, because they were confused about what the meaning of vocabulary. Other words they difficult to learn and remember about new word and difficult word. Therefore, the researchers propose a technique to solve the problems called scrabble games. Games might be used closely of the educational techniques in coaching learning process also Game is one of the appropriate learning strategies to teach vocabulary. Hadfield (1999:4) classify the game into three types.
They are (1) Memorising game is kind of games which is helped the students to memorise or remember the meaning of word in their mind. (2) Personalising game is kind of game which is designed to get the students to relate the new words to their personal experience. (3) Communicating game is focused on successful of completion of a goal.
Renandya and Richards (2002:270) found that vocabulary is also kind of language concentrate instruction if it embroils discussing the words' spelling or pronunciation, or giving an explanation of its meaning. It is feasible terminated that vocabulary is the words that we must apply in interact effectively and grammar can be understood. Vocabulary plays a very extensive act in everyday language life.
Through vocabulary, we can understand a reading and communicate and interact with fellow social beings. Hiebert and Kamil (2005:3) state that vocabulary is the carriage of words for which we know the hint when we speak or read personally. The conclusion is vocabulary in general is a word contained in a language; vocabulary can also be interpreted as supporting ideas when someone is talking. Vocabulary is a determined of words that are retained by someone or are part of a certain language.
Vocabulary is very necessary if someone wants to speak, because without vocabulary someone does not know the words they want to convey. Vocabulary is the entire word available both active vocabularies used by readers and writers as well as facilitative vocabulary used by readers and listeners.

Tuti & Ilinawati
Scrabble Game: Boosting Vocabulary Mastery of English Foreign Language (EFL) Students 273 Vocabulary mastery is the movement of mastering or the capability to understand and use words involve in a language, both spoken and written. Referring to Burhayani (2013) Vocabulary is central of language teaching and learning. It means that by mastering vocabulary, of course with grammar, the learners will produce so many sentences easily either in spoken or written one. They can also communicate with other people fluently and express their opinion or ideas conveniently.
In order to tolerate the language, vocabulary is pivotal to be mastered by the learner. Vocabulary skills are essential to thinking through our ideas and understanding what others are saying. It conceivable delineate as through awareness of the words of a language. Vocabulary is one component of the language that would be learnt and directed. It intends stiff to master the language without acquire or knowing a definite number of vocabularies. It makes vocabulary to appoint to the principle element to master the four language skills. Vocabulary required to masterly the four skills in English through vocabulary, one can dispatch ideas accurately. Without mastering it, people will not be able to use English excellently. Nation (2001:24) stated that there is a very importunate particular vocabulary for second language learners contemplate to do academic study in English. From the expert's opinion can concluded that learning vocabulary is not merely learn words but also learn to select the appropriate words that is needed by the learner.
Vocabulary mastery is earnest in learning English. If we have much vocabulary, we can also have good English skills because vocabulary is the underlying in learning English. Learning vocabulary is a component that admit everything, especially in terms of language, learning vocabulary can make a person know about other languages, learning vocabulary is in the first and second languages.
Teaching vocabulary is not easy. The richer the vocabulary, the more likely he is to be fluent in language, so the quantity and quality, level and depth of a person's vocabulary is the best needle for his mental development. Thus, those who have a large vocabulary, can master many ideas and can communicate fluently with other. Nation (2000:60) defined when learning vocabulary, it is very important for learners to quickly develop knowledge and strategies that increase the efficiency of short-term phonological memory and reduce its reliance on it. Vocabulary is one of the one element supporters or the basic in learn about language. "Each vocabulary teaching strategy has its own target, when the focus is vocabulary knowledge, it is better for teachers to teach vocabulary explicitly, meanwhile when skill aspect becomes the

Tuti & Ilinawati
Scrabble Game: Boosting Vocabulary Mastery of English Foreign Language (EFL) Students 274 target, implicit vocabulary teaching strategy is considered more effectively, then someone will fill difficult when they want do interaction with other people".(Aisyah,

2017)
Vocabulary is very important to learn, because vocabulary is an element that is used when speaking. Therefore, to improve the vocabulary of students' researchers use the technique of scrabble games to facilitate students in learning vocabulary.
Lidiasari, Sofian, Supardi (2017) define scrabble is board games which the players draw letter tiles and takes turn creating interlocking word like crosswords puzzle.
Scramble game has a simple way of playing but is assumed to give a pleasant impression to students (Fitriyah, 2021). Similarly, Khaira et al., (2021) explain that Scramble Game is one of the learning methods that can increase students' concentration and speed of thinking. This method requires students to combine the right brain and left brain. In addition, Halpern and Wai (2007:80) explained scrabble is a game where income is felt from the centre of the board, while chess is played from opposite sides towards the centre. Just as each chess game is completely determined by each player's choice of moves, each Scrabble game displays a different board impression, which is determined by the individual moves of the players in each game round. It can be concluded that the game of scrabble makes sense through the seven tiles on a shelf and the current word patterns that are present on the board.
Scrabble game can increase the vocabulary performance. This means that scrabble game to distribute a good advantage of teaching learning in English vocabulary.
Scrabble as each chess game is decided by choosing the changes made by the respective player; each Scrabble game displays different board layouts, which are determined by the individual changes made by the players in each game round.
Scrabble is a board game and arranging letters that are usually played by 2 or 4 people in a scrabble game determined by the score obtained in each arranged word. Scrabble game is a best game to help students in spelling word that makes them simple to write well. Scrabble games are considered effective and fun vocabulary learning games because they allow students can practice and discuss the meaning of vocabulary in teamwork. Afzal (2019) vocabulary learning consist of four phases: differentiation, understanding of meaning, memory, integration and expansion of meaning. Referring to previous study by Suci Padia Sari (2018) she conducted the study using scrabble game as extracurricular activity to support students' English vocabulary Learning. She found that by applying the scrabble games, the students were able to pronounce the words better.

Tuti & Ilinawati
Scrabble Game: Boosting Vocabulary Mastery of English Foreign Language (EFL) Students

275
Based on the teaching learning process, the researchers discovered that the students' participation in the classroom was still inactive, not enthusiastic and not involved actively. In this study, researchers used scrabble game to improve students' vocabulary. Scrabble game is a very practical technique to apply. The researchers examined student activities in the classroom. The subject of this study was second semester students of English Education study program. Researchers described activity in the learning process that is student's participation during learning vocabulary using scrabble game. Numerous advantages of using scrabble game as follow, it is pleasant for students, it makes student know about new vocabulary, it helps student to learn uttering and spelling words. Also Scrabble game very efficient to improve students' vocabulary mastery.

Research Methodology
A research design used in this study was Classroom Action Research (CAR) approach. According to Burns (2010:2) action research is generally part of a wide range of movements in education for some time. It is related to the idea of "reflexive practice" and "teacher as researchers. Besides, class action is a research or observation conducted in class, class action is carried out in order to retrieve data in a class. This data was used as material for a study. Classroom by using action research as a powerful means of contemplation. Knowledge of action research conducted through the hiring of teachers within groups rather than individuals.
Action research is a systematic approach to research that enable people to find effective solutions they face in daily life (stringer, 2007:1). Classroom action research can be implemented by teachers in the classroom to improve their performances so that the learning outcome can be improved.
The researchers used Classroom Action Research (CAR) to improve students' vocabulary mastery by using scrabble games for second semester students. The implementation of classroom action research through a series of cycles, cycle 1 and cycle 2. There were four steps namely plan, action, observation, and reflection in each cycle (Burns 2010: 8) This cycle aims to find out broaden in students' basic knowledge about vocabulary mastery.
The subjects of the study were 22 students, consist of 4 males and 18 females.
Researchers conducted research at second semester students English Education study program of STKIP Persada Khatulistiwa Sintang. In this research, the researchers used observation, interview, and measurement techniques in collecting the data. There are two kinds of data in this research, they are qualitative and quantitative data. In collecting the qualitative data, the researchers used observation sheet and interview guideline as instruments to describe the students' participation in the classroom. Meanwhile, for quantitative data, the researchers used test as instrument to find out the students' scores on vocabulary mastery.
In analysing the data, the researchers had two procedures; qualitative data and quantitative data for qualitative data the researchers applied qualitative design supposed by (Burn 2010:104) which consist of five stages (1) Assembling the data (2) coding the data (3) Comparing the data (4) Building interpretation (5) Reporting the outcomes. Meanwhile, the data quantitative was analysed by providing statistical data. Quantitative data was obtained from result of students' vocabulary test. From the result of the test, the researchers determined an improvement in students' vocabulary by using scrabble games. After completing the test, the researchers determined the level of vocabulary mastery in class. The level is obtained from the students' vocabulary score.

Findings and Discussion
The researchers presented the data obtained from the teaching learning process through observation sheets, interview guideline and test. The researchers conducted classroom action research by applied scrabble games. There were two cycles of teaching vocabulary by applying scrabble games, the first cycle was conducted in two meetings and the second cycle was also conducted in two meetings.

Finding
The implementation of cycle 1, cycle 1 was conducted in two meetings the research procedures in this research referring to lesson plan which was made in the planning phase. The researchers used observation sheets, interview guideline and test to find out the data about students' participation and students vocabulary mastery. Based on the observation sheets most of the activities ran smoothly also some students still inactive because, some students were still confused how to use scrabble games and made them not actively involved in teaching learning process. In line with that, from the interview most students still did not understand the vocabulary given by teacher. The result of vocabulary's problem and score can be seen from figure below. In second meeting, students get 3 points (identification almost complete and description arranged with almost the right words) for organization, students get 2 points (limited vocabulary range and confusing word forms) for vocabulary, and students get 2 points (often misspelling, punctuation, and capitalization) for mechanic. It can be

Authors Name
Titles indicated that the actions implemented in cycle 1, were succeeded in improving student's descriptive text in their skills with the goal of generating ideas. In conclusion, there were some improvements dealing with student's vocabulary mastery. However, there were still some problems. Thus, the researchers decided to continue the cycle to solve the problems and improve student's vocabulary mastery by using scrabble game.

Cycle 2
The procedures of teaching and learning in the second cycle were primarily the same as the procedure done in the first cycle. The implementation of cycle 2, cycle 2 was conducted in two meetings the research procedures in this research referring to lesson plan which was made in the planning phase. The researchers used observation sheets, interview guidelines and test to find out the data about students' participation and students vocabulary mastery. In cycle 2 all the activities ran very well, it supported by the result of observation sheets. The students were active, involved in teaching learning process and enthusiastic in playing the scrabble games. The students also responded positively towards the applying of scrabble games it can be seen from the result of interview. The result of students' test, it can be seen from figure below.

Chart 4.2 Mean scores of cycle 2
From the figures above, it can be explained about the rubric of assessment, and the assessment of students' vocabulary along with cycle 2. In Cycle 2, in first meeting , students got 2 points (incomplete identification and description set with a little misuse of words) for organization, students got 3 points (few misuse of vocabularies, word forms, but not change the meaning) for vocabulary, and students got 3 points (it has occasional errors of spelling, punctuation and capitalization.) for mechanic.
In second meeting students got 3 points (identification almost complete and description arranged with almost the right words) for organization, students got 3 points (few misuse of vocabularies, word forms, but not change the meaning for vocabulary).Meanwhile, for mechanics, the students got 4 points (it uses correct It can be implied that the action implemented in cycle 1 and cycle 2 were evidently showed the improvement in students vocabulary mastery by using scrabble games in terms of ideas organizations, vocabulary and mechanics. In cycle 2, the students' scores showed that there is significant improvement. It can be seen from the improvement of each categories. More than fifty percent students got good categories and there are no very poor students in this cycle. It can conclude that scrabble games are very effective to be used for teaching vocabulary.

Discussion
This study investigated the students' participation and the students' improvement in vocabulary by using applying scrabble games. This research is Classroom Action Research, the researchers used this design because the researchers believe it is able to help the EFL students of STKIP Persada Khatulitiwa to solve the problems they have faced.
The purpose was how is the improvement students' participation and vocabulary mastery by applying scrabble games. The researchers found, based on their teaching experience in this campus, the students were lack of motivation, laziness and less understanding of students in mastering vocabulary. Therefore, the researchers applied scrabble games as teaching strategy. The researchers analysed the data referring to the data analysis which was gathered from the observation sheet, interview guideline, and test. Scrabble games helps the students to learn vocabulary actively in the process of learning since the applied the strategy. In other words, by applying the strategy the students motivated to follow teaching learning process actively and enthusiastically. The applying of Scrabble games strategy was considered successful in this research. It was shown by the improvement of students' performance from the first cycle to the second cycle, as well as their score in each test and achievement in each item. There were three categories of vocabulary assessment organization, vocabulary and mechanics. All categories were successfully improved from first cycle to the second cycle. In line with Khaira et al., (2021) Scramble Game is one of the learning methods that can increase students' concentration and speed of thinking. This method requires students to combine the right brain and left brain. However, in its implementation of scrabble game was successful, but there are several things that must be considered because it did not only involve the knowledge, but also the skills to apply it. Things to be considered were selection of the words, thinking strategy, and execution technique. By using this strategy, the students are expected not only to know the translation of the word but also know the meaning and how to put the word to the context. (O'Callaghan & Antonacci, 2012:110).

No
Based on the observation sheets done, there are significant improvement from the students' participation, from cycle 1 it has seventy percent to eighty percent in cycle 2. The students respond it had proven that the students became more active, enthusiastic and involved to follow teaching learning process. Meanwhile, from interview transcript, in cycle 1, the researchers found the problems during that during classroom activity, the students still inactive and confused to apply scrabble games so that made the students not really involved in all activities in the classroom. In contrary with cycle 2 the students respond positively toward teaching and learning by applying scrabble game. The results of this study are similar to the results Hartina (2018) the scrabble game is effective to improve students' vocabulary mastery. The researchers also found.
Furthermore, the results of the researcher's calculation show that the percentage of all cycles were 72 percent is the highest scores.
Based on the test the researchers calculated and formulated into percentage for cycle 1 only seven students who got good category it was 31,8 percent. There are no students for excellent categories and the rest were fair and poor. Comparing to cycle 2, each category experienced significant improvement. Almost all students got excellent category. It means that scrabble game successfully improves the students' vocabulary mastery.

Conclusion and suggestion
This research aimed at describing the students' participation and the students' improvement in vocabulary by using applying scrabble games. The researchers found many phenomena during classroom activity and general problems dealing with student participation and students vocabulary. The problems were the lack of students' motivation, laziness and less understanding of students in mastering vocabulary. The researchers used classroom action research as the research method. The researchers conducted the research in two cycles. The researchers concluded that this research ran well although the time and teaching learning process has obstacle because of new normal era of learning and hard to adjust the time of teaching learning process.
Yet, the researchers believe from this research can give contribute to the prospective researchers or educators. It is recommended to use scrabble game in teaching vocabulary.
The research focused on describing the students' participation and the students' improvement in vocabulary mastery by applying scrabble games. This research is still limited therefore, the researchers suggest to further researchers who will conduct researcher about vocabulary to use as creative as strategy or media to encourage students in improving their vocabulary, the teachers also could use another game but make sure that it is not time consuming in the classroom.