The background of this research is based on the phenomenon that students regard English is difficult subject, besides they have difficulties in using simple past tense because of some factors. One of the factors is the English teacher provided less exercises. Another factor is the students’ difficulties in changing the verb from present into past. There are many tanses in English. It is difficult for the students to differenciate between those tenses with the different pattern. The impact is the student’s ability is low. To improve the students’ ability, the English teacher needed an appropriate strategy in his teaching learning process. Grab the word game is a strategy that may be appropriate. It is for beginning level and takes 5-10 minutes. The function of this game is to create sentences and to create the students’ enthusiasm in teaching learning process.
The problems in this study are:
1. How is the implementation of grab the word game to improve students’ mastery of simple past tense at class 8A of MTs Fatahillah Ngaliyan Semarang in the academic year of 2013-2014?
2. Can grab the word game improve students’ mastery of simple past tense at class 8A of MTs Fatahillah Ngaliyan Semarang in the academic year of 2013-2014?
3. How is the improvement of students’ mastery of simple past tense using grab the word game at class 8A of MTs Fatahillah Ngaliyan Semarang in the academic year of 2013-2014?
The objectives of this study are to describe the implementation of grab the word game to improve students’ mastery of simple past tense, to identify whether grab the word game can improve students’ mastery of simple past tense and to identify the improvement of students’ mastery of simple past tense after being taught using grab the word game.
This research is a classroom action research. It was done through three cycles. The subject of this study was students of class 8A in MTs Fatahillah Ngaliyan Semarang in the academic year of 2013/2014. The number of the subject was 40 students. The data gathered through test, documentation and observation. The result of the study shows that grab the word game can improve students’ achievement in writing simple past tense. The average of the students’ result in cycle 1 was 56.1, in cycle 2 was 68.25 and in the last cycle was 81.75.
Based on the result, the writer concludes that using grab the word game can improve students’ mastery of simple past tense. By doing this research, the writer hopes the students enjoy in learning English and the English teacher can use this research as reference when he wants to teach simple past tense in the future