JEEP-ISSN 2721-6896

http://dx.doi.org/10.26418/jeep.v2i1.43328

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING HANGMAN GAME TO

STRENGTHEN YOUNG LEARNERS’ VOCABULARY

Munikasari, Sudarsono, Dwi Riyanti

Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris FKIP Untan Pontianak
Email: [email protected]

Abstract
This research was conducted to find out the evidence of Hangman game in
strengthening young learners’ vocabulary to the Year-7 students of SMP
Negeri 4 Teluk Keramat-Sambas in Academic Year 2019/2020. This research
was a pre-experimental research with one group pre-test and post-test design.
The population of this research was all of Year-7 students with the total
number of students were 114 students. The cluster random sampling was
taken in this research as the technique of sampling, the participants consisted
of 26 students. Referring to the research findings, it revealed that the
technique could make students’ vocabulary increased significantly. It can be
seen when the students learn vocabulary. Their attention and involvement
indicated that the technique gave positive effect on students’ vocabulary
mastery. They already understood the meaning and how to spell words
correctly through Hangman game. The result of the research showed that
Hangman game was effective to increase students’ vocabulary achievement. It
was proven by the result of t-test computation is higher than t-critical value
(9.24>2.060). This means that the Null Hypothesis (H0) which is the
implementation of Hangman game does not affect the young learners’
vocabulary significantly was rejected, while the Alternative Hypothesis which
is the implementation of Hangman game affect the young learners’ vocabulary
significantly was accepted. The score of effect size was 1.8 and qualified as
strong effect. To conclude, Hangman game enabled the students to recollect
vocabulary easily and generate the students’ motivation in learning process.
Thus, the writer suggested this technique to be implemented in teaching
vocabulary.
Keywords: Hangman Game, Vocabulary

To cite this paper (in APA style):

Munikasari, Sudarsono, & Riyanti, D. (2021). The effectiveness of using
Hangman game to strengthen young learners’ vocabulary. Journal
of English Education Program, 2(1), 57-65.
http://dx.doi.org/10.26418/jeep.v2i1.43328

INTRODUCTION
Vocabulary is the fundamental element for language learners. It is the basic
resource for any language classes. Vocabulary has the greater role that
supports all language skills. The learners will speak, listen, read and write

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JEEP-ISSN 2721-6896
http://dx.doi.org/10.26418/jeep.v2i1.43328

well if they have sufficient numbers of vocabularies. Harmer (2001, p.15)

stated that having many vocabularies, learners will be able to comprehend
reading materials, catch other talking, give responses, speak fluently and
write various topics. Students cannot compose a sentence in writing and
speaking without vocabulary. Students will find difficulty to understand
what they read and listen with poor vocabulary. As a consequence, students
should master an adequate number of vocabulary and they must learn the
forms and the meanings of words.
Therefor, developing students’ vocabulary should be taken into
consideration.

From the observation that has been done by writer, the Year-7 students of
SMP Negeri 4 Teluk Keramat were indicated to have lack of vocabulary.
They have low achievement in vocabulary. They did not have English
subject in their elementary school. Therefore, they have to introduce to
English vocabulary because this is the first time for them. They also have to
maintain the vocabulary that they have learned before. Referring to the
problems, the writer must apply an appropriate technique to teach
vocabulary.

Based on those, the writer needs to propose the appropriate teaching

technique in order to make students interested on learning vocabulary and
enjoy the circumtances. Teaching vocabulary by using game is suitable for
students of junior high school. A game provide motivation, decrease students'
stress, and give them the opportunity to have a real communication. But,
using game in classroom should not lose the pedagogical values. There are
many kinds of games that can be used to teach vocabulary. In this case, the
writer decided to apply Hangman game because this technique provide
motivation for students to learn vocabulary.

Hangman is a guessing game which is represented with a set number of

dashes. The dashes consisted of unknown words and the clues. It involves the
progressive drawing, a line for each incorrect answer. Hangman game played
by two or more people that consist a host and players. The players guess letter
by letter, while the host draw the part of hangman. This game focus on
spelling, pronunciation and vocabulary. Wiratania (2018), Hangman game can
be used to enlarge vocabulary mastery, practice spelling, and trained
students’ concentration. This game helps teacher in controlling classroom.
While the students are playing Hangman game in the classroom, the teacher
observes the process of acquiring vocabulary.

According to Prasetiawati as cited in Wiratania (2018), there are some

advantages of Hangman game. First, Hangman game provide motivation for
students. It can make students interested in the language learning. Second,
Hangman game can avoid the monotony. Third, the students’ skill
particularly for pronunciation, concentration and spelling can be improved.

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Fourth, it trains them to be competed naturally and also cooperated at the
same time.

Descriptive text is a text which describes and reveal a particular person, place
and thing. In descriptive text students would find the language features that
match with vocabulary learning. Those such as the use of noun, adjective, and
action verb. Besides, in year-7 of Junior High School, the Curriculum 2013
includes descriptive text as the material. It is exists on the basic competency
point 3.7 and 4.7. In line with this, the descriptive text was chosen by the
researcher to teach vocabulary.

Previous research conducted by Hidayat (2015) in Year-7 of MTs Negeri

Sausu. He stated that students’ vocabulary increase after implementing
Hangman game technique. The writer also found a similar research entitled
“Teaching Vocabulary by Using Hangman Game to Eight Grade students
SMP DDI SSA Pontianak“ conducted by Evi from Tanjungpura University.
The result of the study revealed that the use of Hangman game technique to
teach vocabulary was effective and it is a helpful technique to Year-8 students
of SMP DDI SSA Pontianak. Therefore, the writer is still curious on Hangman
game technique for students of SMP Negeri 4 Teluk Keramat.

The researcher conducted a pre experimental research in order to examine

Hangman Game on strengthening young learners vocabulary. The study
focused on the use of Hangman game to strengthen vocabulary on descriptive
text to year – 7 of SMP Negeri 4 Teluk Keramat.

RESEARCH METHOD
The writer used pre-experimental study with single group pre-test and
post-test design. Pre-test was administered to measure the initial achievement
students’ ability of mastery vocabulary. The purpose is to collect data before
applying Hangman game. For the treatment, the researcher used Hangman
game to teach students’ vocabulary. In the process of teaching vocabulary by
using Hangman game, the researcher apply several procedures in using this
technique as follows: 1) The researcher explained about the instructions of
Hangman game, 2) The researcher divided the class into 6 groups, each group
consists of a host and players, 3) The writer displayed a text with a series of
dashes, these dashes represent the series of letters that make up the word, 4)
The students started playing Hangman game, the players guessed letter by
letter, meanwhile every host in group ready to draw the component of
hanged man or fill the correct letter in the appropriate dash, 5) If the players
guess the correct letter, then the host fill the letter into relevant dash.
Meanwhile if they guess the wrong letter, the host draw one component of
hangman, 6) The writer gave opportunity to answer the dashes in group, 7)
The writer shows the answer of the hangman game. Then post-test was
administered to measure students’ achievement after applying Hangman
game. The pre-experimental design can be represented in Table 1:

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 Table 1. One group pre-test and post-test design
Pre-test Treatment Post-test
X1 T X2
(Cohen et al 2007, p.212)
The population of this research was the Seventh Grade Students of SMP
Negeri 4 Teluk Keramat as in Academic Year 2019/2020. It consists 114
students. The cluster random sampling was selected as the technique of
sampling in which each individual in the population in the classroom has an
equal chances of being selected in the research. The researcher chose the
sample randomly by lottery, so the sample of this research is VII A that
consists of 26 students.

The writer used measurement technique as the technique of data collection.

The tool of data collection in this research is a test, especially multiple choice
test. The test were given twice. The first was pre test, it collected to know the
score about the students’ knowledge in vocabulary before treatment. The
second test was post-test, it collected after the treatment. The specification of
the items include, 30 items of objective. The researcher constructed the test . It
derived from a specification of Vocabulary Test. A good test items according
to Brown (2004, p.19) is effective and can be applied if possessed two qualities,
i.e. validity and reliability.

Validity
A valid instrument must have high validity. Ary et al. (2010, p.225) state,
“Validity was defined as the extent to which an instrument measured what is
claimed to measure.“ Content validity was applied to assure the test that is
relevant with the materials that have learned by students. It measured from
the specification of test items. The specification of test items could be seen on
the table1.
Table 2 Specification of Vocabulary Test
Vocabulary Number Total Number
Noun 3,4,9,11,14,15,17,20,21,27,30 11
Verb 1,5,6,7,8,18,19,22,26,29 10
Adjective 2,10,12,13,16,23,24,25,28 9
Total Number 30

Reliability
A reliable test is consistent and dependable. The test should be consistent and
stable although it applied at different respondent and time. Fraenkel (2008,
p.154), stated that, reliability is the capabilty of an instrument to give
consistency of score obtained. The reliability was taken from tried out from
class VII B. It consists 30 students. The researcher provides formula from
Kuder Richardson (KR21). The formula of reliability coeffisien

KR21= (

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 SD =
Legends :
KR 21 : Coefficient of Kuder Richardson Reliability
K : the total number of items in the test
M : the mean of test score.
SD : the standard deviation of the test score.
∑X2 : Total Sum of the Squared
∑X :Total Sum of the Scores
N : Number of Items

The criteria for the category of reliability coefficient can be seen in Table 3.
Table 3 Reliability coefficient of the Test Score
Coeffisien Reliability of the Test
0.00-0.19 Negligible
0.20-0.39 Low
0.40-0.59 Moderate
0.60-0.79 Substantial
0.80-1.00 High to Very High
(Cohen et al 2007, p.506)
The result of the reliability of test item was 0.43. Based on the table
classification, it classified as “moderate“. Therefore, it is reliable for collecting
the data.

Level of difficulty
The level of difficulty analyzed using, (Blerkom, 2009, p.128)
LD =
Legends:
LD : Level of difficulty
HG : The total number of higher group’s answer
LG : The total number of lower group’s answer
N : The total number of students
The Level of difficulty classified as following criteria:
Table 3. Level of difficulty
Difficulty Level Indicator Qualification
Minus- 0.29 Revised (R)
0.30- 0.49 Difficult (D)
0.50- 0.79 Moderate (M)
0.80- 100 Easy (E)
(Blerkom, 2009)
The tried out was taken from VII B learning group to measure the level of
difficulty of the test items. It consists of 30 students. It revealed that 2 items
are easy, 5 items are moderate, 20 items are difficult, and 3 items have to be
revised. The writer has already done the revision for items number 8, 13, and
25 by changing the questions.

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Discriminating Power
To distinguish between 2 groups, the highest and the lowest scoring group
the researcher use discriminating power formula. The formula is provided by
the researcher as proposed by Gronlund (1997, p.112):

DP = HG – LG
⅟2 N
Legends :
DP : discriminating power
HG : high group
LG : lower group
N : number of students

The Item Qualification of Discriminating Power classified as follows.

Table 4 Item Qualification of Discriminating Power

DP Item Qualification (IQ)
00-.19 Revised (R)
.20- .29 Sufficient (S)
.30- .39 Good (G)
.40- 1.00 Very Good (E)
(Gronlud 1997, p. 113)
The result of the calculation for discriminating power shows that there are 15
items categorized into sufficient, 1 item excellent, 4 items good and 10 items
have to be revised.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Results
The researcher analyzed the data to answer the research questions and test
the hyphothesis. The researcher used t-test and effect size formula to answer
the first and second research questions. To compute the data with t-test, the
computation of the mean difference (MD) precedes the computation of t-test.
Meanwhile, the second research question, was computed by the effect size
formula.

From the data analysis, the researcher obtained the mean score of pre-test was
41.5, while the mean score of post-test was 59.34. The result showed that the
mean score of post-test was higher than the mean score of pre-test. The MD
was 17.84. The researcher obtained MD from students’ post-test score minus
pre-test score.

The calculation of t-test indicates 9.24. So, the t ratio is 9.24. Then, the (df) =
N-1, it found: 26-1= 25. The t-critical with the significant at 0.05 level and df
25 is 2 .06 0. that means t-ratio is higher than t-critical (9.24>2.060). After
applying Hangman game, there was improvement from pre-test to post-test.
The effect size was 1.8 and categorized as strong effect.
Table 5 Summary of Students’ Score Analysis

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 Mean Score of Pre-test 41.5
Mean Score of Post-test 59.34
Interval Score 17.84
Test Significance 9.2
Effect Size 1.8
Based on the result of data calculation, it showed that the t-test was higher
than t- critical (9.24>2.060). If the obtained t result is bigger to the critical
t-value, then “the implementation of Hangman Game affects the young
learners’ vocabulary significantly”is accepted, meanwhile the null hypothesis
(H0) is rejected.

Discussion
Regarding to the data analysis, it was found that the use of Hangman game
technique gave the positive contributions toward students’ ability to increase
vocabulary mastery and also generate the students’ motivation in learning
process. The majority were enganged in learning vocabulary. They were
excited and enthusiastic when acquiring vocabularies. It can be seen when the
researcher asked them to guess letter by letter in their group, most of them
focus and tried to finish the guessing activity as soon as possible. Supported
with a theory by Manan (2016) that Hangman game is a useful technique for
students so that they can get a lot of vocabulary and the students can also
improve their courage to communicate with their friends, especially
in the lesson is proven. The researcher believes that the Hangman game
technique provides the students opportunities to practice their vocabulary
and bring the good atmosphere into learning activity. In here, they practice on
several activities like spelling, pronouncing, guessing letter by letter and also
drawing the part of Hangman. Through those activities, students can learn
new vocabularies and maintain vocabularies that have learned before. As the
result, students’ vocabulary had increased significantly.

In this research, the use of Hangman game was highly effective to increase
students’ vocabulary achievement. It was indicated by the students’ mean
score of pre-test to post-test, it increased. The effectiveness of the treatment
also could be seen by the increasing of number of vocabulary mastery after
the treatment applied. Besides, the effect size that obtained was categorized as
strong effect. It was consistent with the theory proposed by Novriana (2016)
through Hangman game student can enlarge their vocabulary. The findings
also extend similar result of previous study done by Hidayat (2015), the result
of his research found that after implementing Hangman game technique, the
students’ vocabulary increase significantly. Similarly, Evi (2017) conducted a
study on the use of Hangman game in teaching vocabulary to Year-8 students.
The result revealed that teaching vocabulary by Hangman game was effective
and it is helpful technique to the students.

The effectiveness of Hangman game technique on students’vocabulary was

also shown by the students’ learning process. The students show good
participation and attention in learning process. It can be seen when the

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researcher gave first instruction to start the Hangman game. Each group was
quite focus to finish the game first. It is supported by Wiratania (2018),
Hangman game supports students to be interested in learning English and it
also provides motivation for students.

Through Hangman game, the students able to place the words in a sentence
orderly, they able to spell English word fluently and also identify the
meaning of words. Through Hangman game, the students were able to
recollect the vocabularies that had been taught before. From another result of
conducting Hangman game technique in their research. The students learning
achievement was improved by Hangman game technique, so it proves that
Hangman game gave positive outcome to the students’ voabulary
achievement.
In the first treatment, the researcher found that some students did not
follow the activities, they did not understand the procedure of playing
Hangman game. Because the students did not paying attention to the writer’s
explanation. They also made mistakes in mentioning the correct letter and
some of them repeated the wrong letter that was mentioned before. Thus, the
researcher explained on how to guess the word and explained how many
chance to guess the word. Then, they also did not understand to draw the
correct part of Hangman. Thus, the researcher gave them more explanations
and examples on how to draw part by part of Hangman orderly.

Then, in the second treatment, the researcher reviewed vocabularies in the last
meeting. In this treatment, the researcher stressed again on how to play
Hangman game. The host and the players have different role, so the researcher
explained more about it. Then, the researcher instructed them to practice in the
group. They guessed letter by letter. The students were getting familiar with
the game. They understand well on playing Hangman game.

Furthermore, in the third treatment, the researcher noticed that most of

students involved in playing Hangman game. They worked in group while
competing with other groups. Then, the researcher instructed every groups
to submit their papers that contain the result after playing Hangman game.
Those papers contains list of guessed words and also the part of Hanging
man that have been drawn by students. Later, the researcher asked them to
mention vocabularies that had been taugt in three days treatments. They still
remember the pronunciation, spelling, and meaning of those vocabularies.

The researcher found some problems in applying Hangman game in the

classroom. First, the class was noisy because the students were competing
with each other. The researcher tried to handle this problem by ordering them
to allow the rule quietly. Second, a few of students still confused about the
rules of playing Hangman game. To overcome this problem, the researcher
tried to explained the rules again.

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Overall, based on the data analysis, the calculation classified the effect size as
strong effect which asserted in the rejection of the null hypothesis and
conclude that the use of Hangman game to strengthen young learners’
vocabulary is highly significant to Year-7 students of SMP Negeri 4 Teluk
Keramat in Academic Year 2019/2020.

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

Conclusions
From the entire data on the previous explanation, the researcher can conclude
that the implementation of Hangman game contribute a significant
enhancement to strengthen young learners’ vocabulary of Year-7 students of
SMP Negeri 4 Teluk Keramat in academic year 2019/2020.

Suggestions
From the conclusion of this research, the researcher gives recommendations
dealing with the result accomplished. (1) English teachers are suggested to
use Hangman game as a technique in teaching vocabulary. It recommended
because Hangman game provide motivation for teaching and learning
vocabulary. In implementing Hangman game, the classroom would be noisy.
English teacher should be well-prepare in order to covers this problem. Beside
that, the teacher should explain the order clearly to avoid students’ confusion
in playing Hangman game. (2) For the students, It suggested that the students
should be more responsible in group. The students also suggested to pay
attention to the teacher’s explanation, especially when the teacher explains the
steps of playing Hangman game. (3) For other researchers who have any
intention to explore and complete this technique to different kinds of material
suitable with its characteristic and school curriculum. Hangman game also
possible to be used in other genre of text, for example report text, recount text,
and narrative text.

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