THE EFFECT OF ‘TIE-N-THROW ME’ ON VOCABULARY SIZE: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY AT THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF MAN 2 PRAYA IN ACADEMIC YEAR 2016/2017

Abstract

This research deals with a familiar problem faced by the first year students of MAN 2 Praya in academic year 2016/2017, namely the lack of English vocabulary size. This problem led the study to adapt a principle in memorizing a word as a game which was named Tie-N-Throw Me that could transfer the lexical items into Long Term Memory (LTM). A game is not only just to make students fun, but also useful in line with transformation into LTM. Therefore, this study had three research problems: (1) the effect of Tie-N-Throw Me on vocabulary size, (2) the reason of such a game effective, and (3) the difficulties faced by students in playing it. The methods used in this study were quantitative and qualitative. The samples in this study were 56 students that were homogenous for both vocabulary size and memory. Then, the sample were divided into two groups: experimental group was treated by Tie-N-Throw Me and control one was with drilling. The T- test was 3.935. It was higher than 2.021 for the df 56-2. Thus, Tie-N-Throw Me was effective on vocabulary size. On the other hand, qualitative data showed that the students built mental representation by imagining the association they made where having mental representation is to support to remember the words. Qualitative data discovered that students were difficult to make association and discover a word similiar sound with Bahasa. As the conclusion, Tie-N-Throw Me was effective on vocabulary size. However, it was hard for students to make association and to find a similar lexical item sound.

Kew words: Vocabulary, Tie-N-Throw Me, and Long Term Memory