An Analysis Of Students' Attitude Toward Vocabulary Games in The Efl Classroom

Abstract

This study examines the students' attitude toward the games used in learning vocabulary in EFL classroom. The study involved eighteen participants from English Club (EC), an extracurricular activity at SMA Laboratorium Kristen Satya Wacana Salatiga, to be the participants. The findings showed that the participants showed positive attitude in individual competitive games. The participants listened to the teacher's explanation about the rules and did the games as instructed. No one disturbed others or violated the rules while playing the games. In group competitive games, there was only one representative needed from each group to do the games. The rest of the group members just sat and watched their representatives playing the games. The findings also showed that the participants showed negative attitude toward group competitive games. During the games, the rest of the groups showed unsupportive behavior such as rarely paying attention to the games, playing with their mobile phone, chatting with their friends, and refusing to play the games. This research is limited to the participants of EC that makes the findings probably inapplicable to other contexts. However, it is hoped that the findings of this research can serve as a guideline for EC tutors to select more appropriate vocabulary games to adjust to the classroom condition. It is also expected that this research can be a guideline for other English teachers working in senior high school context to design games based activities to teach vocabulary.