Yusmayanti Yusmayanti

Journal article English Language Teaching Society Journal • 2017

IMPROVING VOCABULARY OF THE SEVENTH GRADE

STUDENTS THROUGH BLINDFOLD TECHNIQUE

Yusmayanti1, Jos. E . Ohoiwutun 2, Wahyudin 3

Abstract

The research aims to find out whether blindfold technique improve

vocabulary of the seventh grade students or not. The researcher applied quasi
experimental research design. The population of this research was the
seventh grade students of SMP Negeri 5 Sojol which consisted of 75 students.
The sample was selected by using purposive sampling technique to assign
class VII B as the experimental class and class A as the control class. The
data were collected by using test. The test was pre-test and post-test. The pre-
test was given before the treatment and the post-test was administered after
the treatment. It is to measure whether the students vocabulary can be
improve or not. The data were analyzed statistically by using t-test formula.
After analyzing the data, the researcher found that the result of experimental
class was (27.98) and control class was (14.09). The results of data analysis
showed that the t-counted value was (5.06) while the degree of freedom was
Nx + Ny - 2 = 46. By applying 0,05 level of significance, it was found that the
t-counted value (5.06) was greater than t-table (2.01). In this case, the
research hypothesis was accepted. It means that the use of blindfold
technique improves the students’ vocabulary.

Keyword: Improving, Vocabulary, Blindfold, Technique

INTRODUCTION

English becomes one of compulsory subjects taught from SMP to University level. It
aims at helping students to be able to understand text books which are written in English. In
addition, the purpose of teaching English is to improve their skills and language

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components. The language skills are listening, speking, reading, and writing while the
language components are vocabulary, grammar and pronounciation. These language skills
and components function as devices in improving science, technology, culture and art.
Learning English is very important, because English is an international language.
Many countries use English as their second language. In Indonesia, English is not
considered as a second language but it is a foreign language. To improve the students’
ability in mastering English, the teachers have to think how to make the students mastery
English for their own purposes. There are so many approaches, methods, and techniques
that can be used by the teacher.
English components are very important in mastering English language. They are
grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. Those components can give some advantages to
the learners such as; the students can communicate by using accurate sentences, the students
can pronounce words well, and the student can understand reading passages easily.
Mastering English components is a way to improve other skills.
The students get dificulty in mastering English because of their lack of vocabulary.
Vocabulary is considered as the basic component of language learning. It is important for
the students especially for those who realise that they need to learn the vocabulary. It has a
good supply to make sentence which is used to communicate by the students. The effect that
could happen if the vocabularies are not taught to them is that they will get difficulty to
communicate or express what they have in their mind. The students get bored and
uninterested in learning the lesson if the teacher presents the materials in monotonous way.
As the result, the learning achievement tends to be low.
Vocabulary is important to be learnt not only for senior high school students but also
junior high school students, as stated in English Curriculum of KTSP for junior high school
(2006:11) “ memang diakui seseorang tidak mungkin akan dapat berkomunikasi dengan
baik kalau pengetahuan kosa katanya rendah. Oleh karena itu, penguasaan kosakata
memang tetap diperlukan”. It means that English vocabulary is very important to learn.
There are some reasons why the researcher is interested in conducting this research
especially of the seventh grade students. Firstly, most of the students have lack of
vocabulary and difficulty in pronouncing the word correctly. Secondly, it was difficult for
them to know new vocabulary items and differentiate which one is noun, verb, and
adjective. Thirdly, the students still get difficulty in making sentences.
To overcome the problems, the researcher proposed blindfold technique to be applied
in teaching and learning vocabulary because the students are more interested in blindfold as
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a technique in teaching learning English. The blindfold technique requires students to guess
something after touching it with closed eyes. It is a challenging activity where the students
have to touch and guess the name of things and describe the things. In addiitions, it helps
the students to memorize the new word, remember the vocabulary items. Moreover, it is
expected to make the students enjoy the teaching and learning process. Therefore, this
technique will help the students in solving the problem when they have difficulty in
vocabulary. For some students who do not have confidence to practice spoken English,
blindfold technique can help them overcome it.
Based on the background above, the researcher assumes that the the seventh grade
students of SMP Negeri 5 Sojol have problems in learning English particularly in
vocabulary. The reason of choosing them as the researh subject because they were lack of
vocabulary especially in nouns, verbs, and adjectives, they cannot find out the meaning of
words and cannot differentiate which one is noun, verb, and adjective, and they have low
ability in making sentences because of lack of vocabulary.

METHODOLOGY

The researcher used quasi experimental design. Ary et al. (2010:316) state, “Quasi-

experimental designs are similar to randomized experimental designs in that they involve

manipulation of an independent variable but differ in that subjects which randomly assigned

to treatment groups”. The sample of the research was divided into two groups which were

experimental and control group. The pre-test was given to both groups. Only the

experimental group was taught by the researcher through blindfold technique. The design of

this research is proposed by Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2005:214) as seen below:

O1 X O2
---------------------
O3 O4

Where:

O1 : pre-test of experimental class

O2 : post-test of experimental class
O3 : pre-test of control class

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 O4 : post-test of control class
X: treatment of experimental class
----------- : there was no random of subject
Population is considered as participants of the research. Creswell (2012:142)
states, “Population is a group of individuals who have the same characteristic”. Thus, the
population of this research was seventh grade students which consisted of three parallel
classes. Each class consists of 24 until 27 students. Therefore, there were 75 students.

Creswell (2012:142) defines, “ A sample is a group of the target population that the
researcher plans to study for the generalizing about target population. In an ideal situation,
you can select a sample of individuals who are representative of the entire population”.
Therefore, the researcher determined the sample to be the subject of the research. The
sample of this researcher was selected through purposive sampling technique. In applying
purposive sampling, the researcher choosed VIIB as the experimental class and VIIA as the
control class because both of classes were lack in vocabulary. The researcher took the
classes based on the teacher’s recommendation because the students of this research class
had similar characteristic in their problem, that was lack of vocabulary.

Variable is a focus of the research that we want to measure through the use of
blindfold technique. Creswell (2009:157) describes, “The variable need to be specified in an
experiment so that it is clear to reader what groups are receiving the experimental treatment
and what outcomes are being measured.” In this study, the variable was divided into
independent and dependent variables. The independent variable of this research was the use
of blindfold technique, while the dependent one was English vocabulary of the seventh
grade students.

The researcher used test as the instrument in collecting the data. The test consisted

of pretest and post-test. The pre-test was given before the treatment in order to know the

students’ prior knowledge. It consisted of multiple choices, completion, and spelling items..

Pretest was conducted by the researcher after collecting the data. The researcher did it for

the control and experimental group. The researcher wanted to know the comparison

between them.

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 After conducting the pretest, the researcher applied the treatment and used the
blindfold technique to teach vocabulary to experimental class only. The students of
experimental group learnt vocabulary through blindfold technique. The treatment was
conducted for eight meetings and each meeting spent about 80 minutes.

Therefore, the researcher continoue to gave the posttets to the experimental. The

aimed of giving the postest to experimental group is to find out whether or not the using

blindfold technique can improve the students vocabulary.

After conducting the treatment, the reseacher gave the posttest to both of
experimental group and control group. The purpose of this posttest was to know the
students ability in vocabulary after giving treatment. It was intended to find out whether
there was any significant change after the researcher gave the treatment to the students or
not. At the end, it can prove whether the technique in the treatment would be succesful or
not.

To score the students’ result in pretest and posttest, the researcher presents the
scoring rubric in the following table:

Table 1. The Scoring Rubric

No Explanation Score
1 Correct answer 1
2 Wrong answer 0
3 No answer 0
Source : Adapted from KTSP (2006)

The researcher analyzed the data by using statistical analysis. Firstly, she counted
the individual score by using formula that proposes by Margono (1996:208). Secondly, the
researcher calculated the students’ mean score of each group by using formula stated by
Gay (1996:208) After getting the mean score of both experimental and control group, the
researcher analyzed the data of the pre-test and post-test by using standard deviation
formula stated by Gay (1996:486). Then researcher also analyzed the data that she got from
pre-test and post-test by using t-test formula proposed by Gay (1996:486).

FINDINGS

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 The data presentiation of this research was explained in this chapter. In applying the
technique which was given to experimental group, the students’ result of pretest and posttes
were examined before and after the treatment. while, in control gruop the students’ result in
the pretest and posttest was examined without the treatment.

The researcher observed the instructional process in the classroom in order to find
out the real condition of the English classroom activities especially the students’ behaviour
toward English lesson. The students were quite interested in learning English especially in
vocabulary, but they were not able to differentiate which one is noun, verb, and adjective.
The researcher gave test (pre-test and post-test) as the instrument in collecting data. The
researcher used the tests to asses the students’ prior knowledge. The researcher gave pre-test
and post-test to find out the effectiveness of blindfold technique. The pre-test was given on
Monday, August 22th 2016 and the post-test was given on September, 30th 2016.

The researcher presented the results of pre-test of both experimental group and
control group. The test consisted of 10 items of multiple choices, 5 items of completing and
10 items of spelling. In multiple choices, there were 10 questions. Each correct answer was
scored 1. In completion, there were 5 numbers and the score for each correct number was
scored 2. If one of the column is incorrect or empty, the score was minus 0,5. The
maximum score would be 10. In spelling, there were 10 numbers and each of them was
scored 1. So, the total score of three kinds of test were 30.

After conducting this research by using blindfold technique to improve the

students’' vocabulary in noun, verb, and Adjactive, the researcher conducted the treatment.
For the first meeting, the students still confused and did not understand about noun, verb
and adjective. Then, the teacher provided them blindfold technique but before that the
teacher gave explanations and examples of noun, verb, and adjective. After that, the teacher
told them the role of blindfold technique While they played blindfold technique, they were
still confused about the rule because that was the first time for them and the technique was
not familiar for them. However, they were interested to play blindfold technique. For the
second meeting of the treatment, they had understood how to play and they work in group
by using blindfold technique. Eventhough, they still confused but they slowly understand
because they enjoy the technique. For the third meeting of the treatment, they had
significance in their vocabulary than meeting one and two. For the fourth and five meeting
of the treatment, thet had significance improvment in their vocabulary but they still difficult
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in making sentences. For the sixth and seventh meeting for the treatment, they focused how
to make a sentences well and slowly. After that, they can make it by looking many example
and practicing. For the eight meeting for the treatment, they progress vocabulary was better
than previous meetngs and their vovabularuy were really improve and the way they make
sentence was also good. Furthermore, the researcher presented the pretest and postest of
experimental group in the following table:

Table 2. Experimental Group’s Score on Pretest and Posttest

Maximum Standard Score

No Initials
Score Pretest Posttest
1 Abd 30 40 76.66
2 Ach 30 70 93.33
3 Ald 30 70 93.33
4 Aim 30 56.66 60
5 Ang 30 23.33 71.66
6 Asm 30 23.33 60
7 Asw 30 61.66 66.66
8 Fer 30 43.33 96.66
9 Fit 30 50 71.66
10 Mas 30 46.66 96.66
11 Moa 30 43.33 63.33
12 Mor 30 60 66.66
13 Nah 30 56.66 96.66
14 Nis 30 56.66 96.66
15 Nov 30 56.66 93.33
16 Nur 30 26.66 50
17 Ran 30 43.33 80
18 Ren 30 43.33 60
19 Rif 30 43.33 53.33
20 Sai 30 13.33 60
21 Sap 30 43.33 66.66
22 Sil 30 50 63.33
23 Wit 30 36.66 56.66
24 Raf 30 40 76.66
Total Score 1098.25 1769.6

By looking at the result above, the students’ highest score of the experimental
group students on the pre-test was 70 and the lowest was 23.33. When these scores were
compared with minimum mastery standard used of 70, there was no student of experimental

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group who passed the pretest.. This result proved that the students still got difficulties in
learning noun, verb, and adjactive. Meanwhile, The highest score of the experimental group
on the posttest was 96.66 and the lowest score was 56.66. Thus, total students categorized
‘pass’ was 10 students, while the remaining 13 students were categorized ‘fail’. The result
of the data indicated that there was a significance progress of the students achievment after
the treatment.
Table 3. Control Group’s Score on Pretest and Posttest

Maximum Standard Score

No Initials
Score Pretest Posttest
1 Afr 30 40 46,66
2 And 30 53,33 73,33
3 Ari 30 71,66 76,66
4 Eko 30 36,66 63,33
5 Ela 30 40 53,33
6 Hae 30 65 86,66
7 Hai 30 60 83,33
8 Fer 30 76,66 90
9 Fit 30 50 53,33
10 Mas 30 55 56,66
11 Moa 30 63,33 93,33
12 Mor 30 50 56,66
13 Nah 30 50 75
14 Nis 30 30 40
15 Nov 30 43,33 73,33
16 Nur 30 55 48,33
17 Ran 30 50 66,66
18 Ren 30 80 86,66
19 Rif 30 65 61,66
20 Sai 30 40 73,33
21 Sap 30 66,66 83,33
22 Sil 30 63,33 73,33
23 Wit 30 48,33 63,33
24 Raf 30 50 63,33
25 Afr 30 40 46,66
26 And 30 53,33 73,33

Total Score 1233.63 1461.58

By looking at the result above, the students’ highest score of the control group on
the pre-test was 80 and the lowest score was 30. The result showed that there were 1 student
passed and 23 students failed. The students highest score of the control group on the post-

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test was 86.66 and the lowest score was 40. It also showed that 7 students got passing score,
while others failed.
After collecting the score of the students in both experimental group and control
group, the researcher computed the mean deviation of the experimental group which was
27.98 and the control group was 14.09. Next, the researcher computed the t-counted to find out
the significant difference between the control and experimental groups. The value of t-counted
is 5.06. Next, the researcher tested the t-counted with the table by using the level of
significance 0.05. The researcher found that the value of the t-table is 2.01. Thus, the
researcher tested the hypothesis of the research by comparing the values of t-counted and t-
table.
Referring to the t-table value above, the researcher drew a conclusion that the research
hypothesis of this research was accepted because the value of t- counted was higher than the
value of ttable. It means that the use of blindfold technique is effective in improving the
students’ vocabulary of the seventh grade students.

DISCUSSION

The discussion was provided to explain about the result. Based on the result of

observation and the test given, there were some points need to be discussed. When the

researcher did preliminary observation, the researcher found that the students had

difficulties in learning English especially vocabulary. Therefore, they have low ability in

making sentences. Furthermore, they cannot find out the meaning of word and cannot

differentiate which one is noun, verb, and adjective.

To collect the data, the test is used as the instrument of the research. The tests are
pretest and posttest. The main purpose of conducting pretest and posttest in this research
was to find out whether the use of blindfold technique improved the vocabulary of the
seventh grade students or not. The researcher conducted pretest for both class on Monday,
August 22th. Experimental class at 7.15-8.45 a.m. while control class at 10.30-12.00 a.m.
Experimental class and control class received the same form of pretest. The researcher gave
pre-test to know the students prior knowledge before giving the treatment. The mean score
of experimental group in pre-test was 45.76 and the mean score of control group in pre-test

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was 51.40. It indicated that the ability of the sevent grade students was low before getting
the treatment.

The result of pretest in experimental class only one student who gets score 4 in the

pretest, while the maximum score is 30. The highest score is 70 and the lowest score is

13,33, whereas the highest score of control class is 76.66 and the lowest score is 36.66. The

slight difference indicates that the level of knowledge between the both classes in pretest

was nearly equal before conducting the treatment. It means that most of students got low

scores in vocabulary. There are some reasons why all of the students failed in pretest

After doing pretest in experimental and control class, the researcher conducted
treatment to experimental group. In doing the treatment, the researcher taught vocabulary in
terms of noun, verb, and adjective. During the treatment, the students got difficulties in
learning noun, verb, and adjective. At the beginning of the treatment, the students’
vocabulary is really lack. When the researcher taught those three parts of speech, the
students found it easier to understand noun than adjective or verb. It was because in learning
noun, they could see things around them, such as table, pen, and chair which were familiar
with them. However, even though the students knew the word, they did not know how to
spell the word orally or written. But after the researcher provided blindfold, they were
interested to learn vocabulary. After several meetings, the students had already understood
about noun, verb, and adjective and they also had known how to make sentences by using
those three parts of speech (noun, verb, and adjective). By using blindfold, the students’
vocabulary was improved because they were enthusiast in guessing the things while
learning vocabulary.

After conducting the treatment, the researcher gave posttest to both experimental
and control groups in order to find out whether the students’ understanding was improved
after getting the treatment or not. The students who received posttest in experimental group
are 24 students, and in control one are 24 students. The result posttest of experimental group
can be divided into 2 categories. There are 3 students in poor category and 8 students very
poor. Most of students of control class fail in posttest. Based on the KKM for English lesson
in SMP Negeri 5 Sojol there are 13 students in successful qualification and there are 11
students failed, because they do not achieve the KKM, 70. Based on the result of the post-
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test, there was a progress of student achievement. The result showed that the students post-
test was better than pretest. It can be seen from the mean score of experimental group which
was 73.74.

The mean score of control group was 60.89. Furthermore, the total score of the
students in experimental group was higher than the total score in control group. It was
influenced by teaching and learning process using blindfold technique which was conducted
in experimental group. Based on the result, almost all of the students could make a simple
sentence and describe the things. It indicated that the use of blindfold technique can
improve the students’ vocabulary particularly noun, verb, and adjective. In addition, the
result above revealed that there was a significant improvement after giving the treatment
and it supported the hypothesis of this research.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

After collecting and analyzing the data, the researcher comes to a conclusion that
vocabulary of the seventh grade students was improved through blindfold technique. First,
the teacher asks the students about the previous material related the topic, then the students
answer the question orally. Second, the teacher explains noun, verb, and adjective of the
topic, then the students pay attention to the teacher’s explanations and ask the students to
mention of noun, verb, and adjective. Third, the teacher tells the students to play the
blindfold technique. Fourth, the teacher guides the studen to do exercises. By selecting 0.05
levels of significances with 46 degrees of freedom, the researcher got the t-counted was
5.06 is greater than the t-table was 2.01. Based on the result of the t-counted and the t-table,
it can be concluded that there is a significant improvement of the students’ achievement. It
means that the researcher hyphothesis is accepted because the t-counted is greater than t-
table. In other word, the use of blindfold technique improves the students’ vocabulary of the
seventh grade students of SMP Negeri 5 Sojol.

Based on the conclusions above, some suggestions are provided for the
improvement of English teaching in general by using blindfold technique. Firstly, the
students should learn much about vocabulary as a language component. When they are
learning vocabulary through blindfold technique, it will be better if they also try to improve
their ability in constructing vocabulary, because this is the interesting way to sharp their
brain in learning English. Secondly, the teacher should motivate the students to learn
English and provide them with more classroom practices. They should also solve the
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students’ learning problem. The teacher can apply blindfold technique as one of the ways in
teaching. When using blindfold, the teacher can minimize the difficulties on teaching
vocabulary. Thirdly, for other researcher, the result of this research can be used for them.
They should be creative not only preparing the media but also motivating the students in
learning English especially in vocabulary.

REFERENCES

Ary, D., Jacob, L.C., Sorensen, C. & Razavieh, A. (2010). Introduction to Research in
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Creswell, J.W. (2009). Research Designed. Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods
Approaches (Third ed.) New York: University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Creswell, J.W. (2012). Education Research; Planning Conducting and Evalueting

Quantitative and Quantitative Research (fourth Ed.)Los Angeles: University of
Nebraska-Lincoln.

Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2005). Research Method in Education. (fifth ed.)
London: Routledge Falmer.

Depdiknas. (2006) Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP) Petunjuk Teknik

Pengembangan Silabus SMP/MTs, Mata Pelajaran Bahasa Inggris Jakarta: BSNP

Gay. L.R. (1996).Educational Research. New Jersey. Prentice Hall.Inc.

Margono.S. (1996).Metodology Penelitian Pendidikan. Jakarta. Rineka Cipta.

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