ABSTRACT
The topic of this study is the use of nursery rhymes in improving students’ vocabulary (The case of the fifth graders of SD Negeri Gunugpati 03 in academic year 2005/2006). The objective of this study is to find out the improvement of the students’ achievement in learning English vocabulary by using nursery rhymes.
In order to achieve the objective of this study, the writer used experimental research. The population of this study was the fifth graders of SD Negeri Gunugpati 03. The number of the subject was 32 students. There were three meetings during the experiment. Before the experiment was conducted, a pre-test was given. A post-test was given after the experiment was done. The test was on vocabulary consisting of 25 multiple-choice items.
Before the test was used, it has been tried out first. The purpose of conducting the try-out was to find out the validity, reliability, discriminating power, and level of difficulty of the test as an instrument.
The result of the analysis showed that the experimental group gets better scores than the control group. It can be seen by comparing their means. The mean score of the experimental group is 74,75, while the mean score of the control group is 65. It is clear that the mean score of the experimental group is higher than the control group. The difference between the two means is 74,75 – 65 = 10,75.
The result of applying the t-test also reveals that the experimental group obtained better score than the control group. The obtained value (3,11) is higher than the table value (2,04). It means that the students’ achievement in learning English vocabulary taught using nursery rhymes is better than from those taught using conventional method.
In line with the result, the writer suggests that English teachers should be able to create their own way to arise their students’ interest in following their teaching. The use of nursery rhymes as an aid is one way to achieve this goal. However, teachers must select the suitable nursery rhymes related to the topic they are going to teach.