Improving English Vocabulary Through Pearl’s Peril Game

Abstract

The increasing use of technology as the medium of teaching and learning provides a great opportunity to adapt games especially computer games for educational purposes. Nowadays, educators are trying to find the effective way of teaching vocabulary using technology. It is because the students often get bored with the vocabulary learning process. This study is aimed to know whether the use of computer online game is useful for learning English vocabulary. This study was conducted by using Pearl’s Peril game in Facebook as the medium and Vocabulary Knowledge Scale from Wesche and Paribakht (1996) in the pre-test and the posttests. There were 30 (thirty) students Grade 2 from SMP Negeri 1 Banyubiru, Indonesia who participated in this study. The pre-test was conducted twice with different words, while the post-tests were conducted four times (two days and two and a half weeks after playing Pearl’s Peril game) with different words as well. This study used Wilcoxon T-test in order to analyze and compare the data. The findings, the result of pre-test and post-tests, showed the significance of game in learning vocabulary and some phenomenon related to the result of the study such as negative change. This study is hopefully providing benefit in teaching and learning vocabulary for both teachers and students.