The Use Of Snake And Ladder Games To Develop English Vocabulary Skills For Elementary School Students

Abstract

This paper discusses an English program designed to teach English at an elementary school in a rural area in Serang, Banten. The program aims to develop students' English vocabulary skills by providing fun and innovative learning activities. This program is part of a bigger activity called “Kampus Mengajar,” or Campus Teaching program from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology. The researcher attempted to include interactive activities and games such as snake and ladder to keep the students engaged and interested. Snake and Ladder is designed for the students to learn through games so that students do not feel bored when learning English vocabulary. Moreover, students can develop their vocabulary and communication skills in English by playing a game of snake and ladder. Snake and ladder games are a great tool to engage students and encourage them to learn and become interested in English. It appears to be a good technique to learn vocabulary in a fun way. The researcher used a snake and ladders game as learning media in 2 meetings implemented in grades 2 and 4. In the first meeting, the topic was about “Things at Home.” Then, in the second meeting, the topic was “Things at School.” The teaching practice shows that implementing snake and ladder games can develop students' knowledge of English vocabulary very well. From the teaching practice, it seems that some students were enthusiastic about joining the English program because they felt happy doing various fun learning activities.