Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the Guessing Game method in improving descriptive text writing among seventh-grade students at SMPN 1 Beji. A quasi-experimental design was employed, utilizing pre-test and post-test measures in both an experimental class (7H) and a control class (7i), each consisting of 34 students. The findings revealed that the implementation of the Guessing Game method significantly enhanced students' descriptive text writing skills, as demonstrated by a t-test value of 0.003, which was below the significance level of 0.05 (0.003 < 0.05). This suggests that the Guessing Game method is an effective instructional approach for teaching descriptive text writing to seventh-grade students. The advantages of using this method include its simplicity, requiring minimal steps in writing, and its facilitation of students' ability to draw upon their prior gameplay experiences. This research provides implications for educators to employ interactive and engaging approaches, such as the Guessing Game, to foster students' writing abilities effectively.

Highlights: 

• The Guessing Game method significantly improves seventh-grade students' descriptive text writing skills.
• The method simplifies the writing process and incorporates students' prior gameplay experiences.
• Interactive and engaging approaches, like the Guessing Game, enhance student engagement and learning outcomes in writing.

Keywords: Guessing Game method, descriptive text writing, seventh-grade students, quasi-experimental design, writing instruction.

Introduction

When we write something, we need more time to think and choose words to express our thoughts and ideas. After writing we corrected and revised things that were less clear from our ideas. In writing there are separate principles and methods that need to be considered. Mastery of grammar, concepts, and judgment is also required when writing. So to fixing it takes a lot of practice. Speaking and writing are productive activities that require students to produce their own language[1]. It means that students must be able to convey their ideas or thoughts in words and sentences with proper grammatical arrangements and in good writing when participating in writing activities. For that, it needs practice to be able to write well and effectively. Writing has several purposes, including communicating with readers, expressing ideas in face-to-face communication, exploring subjects, recording experiences, and getting acquainted with the conventions of written English discourse[2].

Students' writing difficulties, particularly when writing descriptive texts for several reasons, first is choosing a topic. Students are often confused about what topic they will choose. According Ismayanti et al (2020) Students are unable to describe objects, places, or people in detail because they lack of ideas when asked to describe something[3]. Second, they lack of vocabulary, so that in writing they have no idea what they are going to convey or write. It is in line with the problems found in previous research, the students were confused about what they should write and describe[4]. The third is that they also lack of adjective vocabulary where adjectives are an important part in descriptive texts. And fourth is students have difficulty in grammatical arrangement. Those writing problem was also experienced by 7th grade students of SMPN 1 Beji, , it was found that students had problems in writing. They have no idea what they are going to write because of the limited vocabulary they know. In adition they have difficulty in arranging words into good sentences. Also they do not pay attention to the grammatical order.

For that reason, students in writing activities need something to make it easier for them to choose vocabulary and arrange it into sentences to paragraphs. In this case the researcher recommended to use the game in writing activities, particularly when writing descriptive text. Learners enjoy language learning through games and communicative involvement in the classroom[5]. The name of the game thas use in this research is guessing game. Guessing is a game where someone has to guess something given some clues related to the word, title, or object that must be guessed. Interrogative sentences that begin with "what" or "who" are usually used in guessing games. The guessing game is one of the games that will be used in the classroom so that students do not get bored and have no difficulty writing[6]. The basic rules of the guessing game are very simple: one person knows something that the other person wants to know[7].

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of using guessing games in teaching descriptive text and whether there is a significant effect of using guessing games in teaching descriptive text.

Methodology

This research uses quantitative methods. The quantitative method is a method based on the philosophy of positivism which aims to: describe and test the hypothesis made by the researcher[8]. Quantitative research is a method for testing certain theories by testing the relationship between variables. According to Creswell (2012) variables were measured and data were obtained in the form of numbers that could be analyzed based on statistical procedures[9]. The research design used is Quasi-Experimental Design. The purpose of quasi-experimental research is to determine whether or not there is a causal relationship between independent and dependent variables[10]. The researcher used two groups, One class is designated as the experimental class, while the other is designated as the control class. This study was carried out in February 2022. The researcher conducting this study at SMPN 1 Beji, with the address Beji, East Java.

This study used two variables, the independent variable and the dependent variable. The dependent variable is a variable that depends on the independent variable; they are the result of the influence of the independent variable[11]. Independent variable and dependent variable on this research includes: a guessing game (X) and the student's ability to write descriptive text (Y). In this study data collection using tests, namely pre-test and post-test. The population in this study was class 7 which amounted to 10 classes. Meanwhile, the sample used was only 2 classes, each class consisting of 34 students.

The data analysis techniques used are: Description of the data includes the mean, minimum, and maximum, the analysis prerequisite test includes the test normality and homogeneity test, and hypothesis testing. hypothesis testing using independent sample t-test to see if there is a significant effect on the use of guessing games. This research is a correlational study. Which means correlation research is research that is intended to determine whether there is an influence or relationship between two or more variables[12].

Findings and Discussion

The data is analyzed by the author using the independent sample t-test. and before using the test the data must be declared normal and homogeneous. Following are the results of the analysis:

According to the descriptive statistics table above, the result of the pretest in the experimental class before using the Guessing Game was a minimum score of 20, a maximum score of 80, and a mean score of 53.24. The post-test scores of writing descriptive text in experimental class after guessing game treatment obtained a minimum of 56, a maximum of 89, and a mean of 73.97.

While pretest scores for writing descriptive text in the control class were as follows: minimum score 40, maximum score 68, mean score 53.06 The posttest scores of writing descriptive text in the control class after treatment obtained a minimum of 52, a maximum of 80, and a mean of 67.75.

Based on the calculation of data normality, Kolmogorov's significant score for pretest and posttest writing descriptive text in the experimental class and control the value is higher than the significance level. The value are 0.176 and 0.200 (pre-test) 0.019 and 0.200 (post-test). Where the significance score is 0.05. It's mean that the posttest value data for writing descriptive text in the experimental and control classes is normal.

Table above shows that the homogeneity value in the post-test is 0.013 with a significance of 0.05. This means that the post-test data is homogeneous, because the post-test value is greater thansignificant (0.013>0.05).

The table above shows the results of the t-test (t-test) analysis on students' descriptive text writing scores. According to the table the value of is 3,141 with a significance of 0,003. Mark significance which shows 0.003 < 0.05 so H0 is rejected. Thing it is also supported by the mean value of the experimental class which is 73.97 which is greater than the control class which is 67.85. Based on Table 4.7 it is possible to conclude that the use of a guessing game in teaching descriptive text in 7th grade at SMPN 1 Beji had a significant effect.

The results of this study indicate that the use of guessing games as a media for learning to write descriptive texts is effective for students. Using this media makes the learning atmosphere in the classroom more fun. Students become more active and more enthusiastic in learning English. As stated by Safitri et al in their research that “Guessing game helps English teacher to create an enjoyable atmosphere in the classroom, and the process of teaching and learning can be more attractive for students”[13]. Researchers believe the use of this media is appropriate for increasing student enthusiasm in English class. The use of the games make learning more enjoyable for students and the teacher will have a successful learning process [14].

In addition to making the learning atmosphere more enjoyable, the results of this study found that guessing games can help students increase their vocabulary so that when writing descriptive texts it is easier for them to get ideas about something to be described. This is in accordance with Daulay previous research, he discovered that the guessing game assisted students in developing their ideas and expanding their vocabulary[15]. During the guessing game, one student guesses a picture and the other students give some clues in the form of characteristics, characters, or physical form of something in the picture that must be guessed. In this way, students can acquire new vocabulary.The data has a significant effectiveness using the guessing game method, according to the results of the t-test of the experimental class and the control class. The independent sample t-test result was sig (2 tailed) 0.003, which is less than the significant level (0.003 0.05). Then, H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted.

Conclusion

Based on the preceding explanations, it is possible to conclude that the guessing game learning method can be used in the descriptive text writing class. And based on the theories in chapter 2, it shows that the guessing game method has several advantages in its application.

Meanwhile, the data calculation results show that the experimental class using the guessing game treatment received a higher standard score than the control class using the traditional method. This means that guessing games have a significant and effective influence in writing descriptive texts for students.

Several statistical tables show that the calculation data is normal data with significant results in the pre-test experimental class and control class 0.200 and 0.176 which means the calculation result is higher than 0.05. and the homogeneity table shows a significance of 0.013 which means it is higher than 0.05. Then for the independent sample shows sig.(2 tailed) is 0.003 and the level of significance is 0.05. So it can be said that the results of the calculation of normal data (0.200> 0.05), homogeneous data (0.013> 0.05), and independent tests showed 0.003 <0.05, this means that H0 was rejected and H1 was accepted.

References

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