TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY

BY USING CROSSWORD PUZZLE GAME

Krisna Indah Puspitasari
2011 E

Abstract : Teaching vocabulary is something challenging, especially if it is done to young
learners. It is chalenging because young learners usually do not like to learn something in a
serious way. A serious way in teaching will just make them bored. It is why teaching
vocabulary to young learner requires creativity of the teacher. One of the alternatives that can
be used to teach vocabulary to young learners is by using game.
The one of the games to teaching vocabulary is crossword puzzle. This game do by giving the
students a quiz, the quiz is about fill in the puzzle. The clues can be synonyms, antonyms, or
complete the sentences. Crossword puzzle is a game that makes the teaching-learning process
attractive and fun, because by using this game the students can focus on spelling as well as
meaning.

Key Words : Crossword puzzle, Teaching Methode, Vocabulary development, Game.















1. Introduction
Vocabulary is an important aspect in the English learning process. It is the basic aspect in
learning English because it will be needed by students when they learn English skills like
reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Students who learn English must have a strong
foundation on vocabulary in order to make them able to learn English easily.
Teaching vocabulary to young learners is challenging. Young learners still like to play
and do some fun activities. They can be bored easily when they are asked to study. Teaching
vocabulary to them by using traditional way (using dictionary to find the meaning of words)
can make them bored easily. Therefore, teacher is required to be creative and innovative in
teaching so that students can be fun in learning vocabulary. Mc Carten (2007: 18 ), learning
vocabulary is a challenge for learners, partly because of the size of the task, and partly
because of the variety of vocabulary types to be learned, including single words, phrases,
collocations, and strategic vocabulary, as well as grammatical patterning, idioms, and fixed
expressions.
The Young Learners interesting to use the games in learning process. According to
Harmer (2002: 38) said that there are several characteristic of young children :
- They respond to meaning even if they do not understand individual words.
- They often learn indirectly rather than directly.
- Their understanding comes not just from explanation,buat also from what they see and hear
and, crucially, have a chance to touch and interact with.
- They generally display an enthusiasm for learning and a curiosity about the world around
them.
- They have a need for individual attention and approval from the teacher.

The use of games for teaching and learning can often be a very effective teaching
tool.As we know that using games is as prompts for vocabulary teaching. It means that
through the games, the students will get the advantages, such as the students vocabulary
mastery will increase and it will not make the students bored.
According to Thornbury (2002:80), using games is the prompt for vocabulary teaching.
It means that through the games, the teachers can teach their students effectively especially in
vocabulary mastery. In addition Hadfield (1984:5) said that games are best set u, especially at
this level, by demonstration rather than by lengthy explanation. Thornbury said that useful
games are those that encourage learners to recall words and, preferably, at speed (2002:102),
it means that the game can stimulate the learner to be more understand what is the word
mean.
Learning vocabulary through games is an effective and interesting way that can be
applied in any EFL classroom and make the lessons morefascinating for the language
learners. In addition, Karim and Hasbullah (1986:36) say that one of the interesting
techniques inteaching language is Crossword Puzzle. This showed that Crossword Puzzle
could beused to make students interest motivation in learning English vocabulary and make
the students feel more relax.
This article presents the theories related to the use of crossword puzzle in vocabulary
achievement. There are definition of vocabulary, techniques in teaching vocabulary, games,
crossword puzzle, the procedures and technique using crossword puzzle in vocabulary
teaching.
2. Discussion
2.1 Teaching and Learning
According to Brown ( 2007 : 8 ) There are several definitions of learning :
1. Learning is acquisition or "getting."
2. Learning is retention of information or skill.
3. Retention implies storage systems, memory, cognitive organization.
4. Learning involves active, conscious focus on and acting upon events outside or inside
the organism.
5- Learning is relatively permanent but subject to forgetting.
6. Learning involves some form of practice, perhaps reinforced practice.
7. Learning is a change in behavior.
In the state of Brown ( 2007 : 8 ), Teaching cannot be defined apart from
learning. Because Teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learner to
learn, setting the conditions for learning.




2.2 The Definition of Vocabulary
Vocabulary is vital to communicating with others and understanding what one is
reading. I know that information is known to everyone, but acknowledging it instead of
taking it for granted adds important goals to your child's list of basic skills to master. It
supports the teaching and learning of four skill of reading, listening, speaking and writing. As
the language component, vocabulary must be taught in a prefer way. Vocabulary skill
involved deducing meaning from the context use of dictionary, word formation coining and
ignoring unfamiliar words, vocabulary activities involved guessing, word association,
crossword puzzle, cline, word classification,etc . Students can learn many new words by
reading extensively on their own the more children write on their own, the more words they
encounter and the more meanings they learn.
Vocabulary is the central of language teaching and learning. It plays an important role
in the four language skills. It gives contribution to the learners to perform or practice their
skills better. It means that by mastering the vocabulary, the learners will able to produce so
many sentences easily either in spoken or written one. It is impossible for the learners to
perform their English well if their vocabularies are very poor. They will find any difficulties
in expressing or mastering their language skills because of having too limited vocabularies.
Therefore vocabulary mastery must be on the first priority in English language
teaching and learning. Without mastering the vocabulary, the learners will be difficult to
master the other language skills.
2.3 Classifications of Vocabulary
The term to classify words based on their functional categories are called part of
speech which include nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverb.
This research focuses on part of speech that covers nouns, verbs, adjectives, and
adverbs. The following part will review the indicator of vocabulary used in this research,
consisting of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
a. Nouns
Noun is a person, place, or thing. There are four kinds of nouns as the following with
the example of each:
1. Common nouns : dog, man, table.
2. Proper nouns : France, Madrid, Mrs. Smith, Tom.
3. Abstract nouns : beauty, charity, courage, fear, joy.
4. Collective nouns: crowd, flock, group, swarm, team.
b. Adjectives
Adjectives used to highlight qualities or attributes. There are six kinds of adjectives as
the following with the example of each:
1. Demonstrative adjectives : this, that, these, those.
2. Distributive adjectives : each, every, either, and neither.
3. Quantitative adjectivess : some, any, no, little, many, much, one, twenty.
4. Interrogative adjectives : which, what, whose.
5. Possessive adjectives : my, your, his, her, its, our, their.
6. Adjectives of quality : clever, dry, fat, golden, heavy, square.
c. Verbs
Verbs are words that denote action. There are two kinds of verbs as the following with
the example of each:
1. Auxiliary verbs
The auxiliary verbs: based on the size of available vocabulary, auxiliary verbs are not
the member of large vocabulary. The examples of auxiliary verb are: to be, to do, modals, and
used.
2. Ordinary verbs
There are two kinds of ordinary verb. They are:
a. Regular verb : in the simple past and the past participle are both by adding d or ed to
the infinitive, for example:
Infinitive Simple Past Past Participle
talk talked talked
close closed closed
work worked worked
b. Irregular verb: in irregular past tense and past participle are not added by d ored.
However, it has no fixed rule, for example:
Present/ infinitive past past participle
Write wrote written
Go went gone .




d. Adverbs
Adverbs are similar to adjectives in many ways although they typically assign
attributes to verb, to clauses, or to entire sentences rather than to nouns. There are five kinds
of adverbs as the following with the example of each
1. Adverb of manner, for examples : happily, hard, and slowly.
2. Adverb of place, for examples : down, here, near.
3. Adverb of time, for examples : now, soon, yet, then.
4. Adverb of frequency, for examples : always, never, often.
5. Adverb of degree, for examples : certainly, luckily, definitely.
(http://ozi379.blogspot.com/2011/04/crossword-puzzle.html)

2.4 Techniques in teaching vocabulary
Good learning atmosphere and teaching technique can make the students to learn
more effectively and meaningfully. Teaching technique is one factors that affecting the
success of the teaching learning process. Therefore, the teacher should choose appropriate
teaching technique because it will make the students easy to comprehend the material and
enjoy the teaching learning process so that the learning outcome will be obtained optimally.
There are ten ways to teach vocabulary; Word Walls, Content Rich Words, Context,
Repeated Reading, Word Book/Personal Dictionary, Graphic Organizers, Prediction,
Sketching, Compare, and Games.( http://www.trcabc.com/blogs/teacher-resources/8570757-
top-ten-ways-to-teach-vocabulary )
Based on the above explanation, one of the teaching techniques that will be used in
this research is games, in this case is language games.

2.5 The Definition of Games
According to Hadfield (1998:4) as quoted in Diana (2010:16), a game is an activity
with rules, a goal, and element of fun.. On the definition is from wikipedia A game is
structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational
tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from
art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements. However, the
distinction is not clear-cut, and many games are also considered to be work (such as
professional players of spectator sports/games) or art (such as jigsaw puzzles or games
involving an artistic layout such as Mahjong, solitaire, or some video games). Language
games can be divided into two further categories : linguistic games and communicative
games, Thornbury (2002:4).
Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interaction. Games
generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both. Many games help develop
practical skills, serve as a form of exercise, or otherwise perform an educational,
simulational, or psychological role. Based on the above explanations, game is one of
technique that can be used to minimize the language problems.
2.6 Crossword Puzzle
1). The Definition of Crossword Puzzle
Puzzles are teaching techniques which bring their own motivation with them.
They challenge learners and focus attention on language. Puzzle can be consists of a
word circle puzzle, a word square puzzle, and crossword puzzle. Crossword puzzle
is making an art form, and very few people are really good at it. Crossword puzzles
is an arrangement of numbered squares to be filled in with words, a letter to each
square, so that a letter appearing in a word placed horizontally is usually also part of
a word placed vertically: numbered synonyms and definitions are given as clues for
the word.
Vocabulary is not a syllabus list of words that teachers prepare for their
learners to memorize and learn by heart. Memorizing may be good and useful as a
temporary technique for tests, but not for learning a foreign language. Language
students need to learn vocabulary of the target language in another way. If we are
really to teach students what words mean and how they are used, we need to show
them being used together in context. Words do not just exist on their own, they live
together and they depend upon each other. Therefore, teaching vocabulary correctly
is a very important element in language learning. Correct vocabulary instruction
involves vocabulary selection, word knowledge and techniques.
The need to improve vocabulary instruction, the high but less than perfect
relationship among the vocabularies There is no question that people who have
large speaking vocabularies generally tend to have large listening, reading, and
writing vocabularies; likewise people who are limited in one of these aspects are
likely limited in other aspects as well. (http://universityofibnkhaldunbogor-
indonesia.blogspot.com/2011/07/teaching-vocabulary-in-superlative.html)
2). The History of CrossWord Puzzles
The first word-cross in the United States was published in the New York World in
1913, although similar puzzles have been around in different forms since Egyptian times. In
19 th century England, they were aimed mostly at a juvenile audience, and did not become a
craze for adults until Simon and Schuster printed the first book of them in the US in the
1920s, when they then took on the familiar name crosswords. The puzzles popularity
continued to build throughout the rest of the twentieth century. Today, most daily newspapers
include a crossword puzzle as well as many magazines. In fact, magazine racks usually
include a number of magazines and books containing only crossword puzzles.
(http://vocabulary.co.il/blog/learning_vocabulary/teaching-with-crossword-puzzles/)
3). The Kinds of Crossword Puzzle
Karim and Hasbullah (1986: 2.37) state that there are two kinds of crossword puzzle :
1. The first crossword puzzle is crossword puzzle using picture as the clues. The place of
the clues (picture) around of the crossword puzzle.
2. The second crossword puzzle without picture. This crossword puzzle use a phrase or
sentences for the clues.
4). Educational Value of Crossword Puzzles
First of all, crossword solving involves several useful skills including vocabulary, reasoning,
spelling, and word attack skills. To solve any crossword puzzle, a person must be able to
identify and understand the terms being used. This often involves acquiring new vocabulary
or terminology. It can also involve making differentiations between similar words or
phrases. Correctly deciphering a crossword also requires exact spelling, which for students
may mean practicing dictionary skills. Other important skills required for completing these
puzzles include making inferences, evaluating choices, and drawing conclusions.Another
benefit of using crossword puzzles in the classroom is that they are associated with
recreation, and can be less intimidating for students as review tools. Students who might
normally balk at practice tests, flashcards, or review sessions with the teacher find puzzle
solving to be much less threatening and more like game play. Puzzle solving is a much more
active type of learning, and will engage students with the material more than passive types of
review techniques do. Crossword puzzles also have the advantage of appealing to different
learning styles. Visual learners often have strong puzzle-solving skills, and feel great
satisfaction when they complete one. Auditory learners enjoy step-by-step reasoning, so they
also benefit from the sequential steps of completing a crossword. Even kinesthetic learners
enjoy the multi-task strategies required to solve a crossword.Finally, crossword puzzles have
the benefit of being customizable to study content. Puzzle creation software and websites are
abundant, and easy to use, so teachers can create curriculum-specific crosswords with little
trouble. Whether you are studying Abraham Lincoln, geometry terms, or the water cycle, a
crossword puzzle with subject-specific vocabulary can be created with ease and in a short
amount of time.Crossword puzzles have endured as a favorite national pastime because they
are appealing to all ages, they can be completed in a rather brief period of time, and solving
them provides a sense of accomplishment. For all these reasons, crosswords make a terrific
educational tool, and teachers and homeschoolers will probably continue to use them for
many years to come.
By Kerry Jones, Home Educator & Writer on Educational Games
(http://vocabulary.co.il/blog/learning_vocabulary/teaching-with-crossword-puzzles/)
5). The procedures using crossword puzzle
The teacher can create or use a simple and easy Crossword Puzzle that is suitable with
students ability and the teacher should select the words that will be used in Crossword
Puzzle. It will make the students enjoy in answering Crossword Puzzle clues.
The procedures of using crossword puzzle in vocabulary teaching are as the following:
a. The English teacher gives the example of crossword puzzle to the students.
b. The English teacher explains the crossword puzzle to the students.
c. The English teacher asks the students to fill the crossword puzzle individually with a deadline
that will be given before students do the crossword puzzle.
d. The English teacher asks the students to exchange their work with their friends.
e. The English teacher discusses with the students about the correct answer of the crossword
puzzle.
f. The English teacher collects the students work.
g. Discussing the correct answer.
This game can be done in individual, in pair, or in groups. The teacher gives a copy of
the crossword puzzle and explains the rules, such as students have to complete it as quickly
as possible. For the individual game, the student who can complete it first is the winner and
gets the good point from the teacher. In pair work or group, the winner is the pair or group
who can complete it first. All of the winners will have prizes from the teacher. It makes this
game to be more attractive. The use of crossword puzzle game in teaching vocabulary is
one of the alternative techniques to help the students to construct and improve their
vocabulary mastery.
(http://ozi379.blogspot.com/2011/04/crossword-puzzle.html)

Example of crossword puzzle :

3. Conclusion :
According to hadfield, Games can be used at any stage of the lesson once the target
language has been introduced and explained (1987:4). Game is the one of the way to
stimulate the studenta to learn the language. Game is a welcome break from the usual routine
of the language class. Game is one of the ne techniques that can be applied in teaching
vocabulary because learning vocabulary using game can make the students feeling enjoy and
fun without pressing and it make the students interest to learning vocabulary.
Crossword puzzle is the most favorite game to the students, the game do not make the
students bored. The advantages are Crossword puzzle with subject-specific vocabulary can be
created with ease and in a short amount of time and using crossword puzzles in the classroom
is that they are associated with recreation, and can be less intimidating for students as review
tools.













Reference :
McCarten, Jeanne. 2007. Teaching Vocabulary Lesson from the Corpus Lesson for the
Classroom. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
Thornburry, Scott. 2002. How to Teach Vocabulary. Singapore.Longman.
Hadfield, jill. 1987. Elementary Vocabulary Games.London.Longman.
Hadfield, Jill. 2001. Elementary Grammar Games. England. Longman.
Harmer, Jeremy, 2001. The Practice of English Languace Teaching, Third Edition;
Completely Revised and Update. Cambridge: Cambridge university press.
Brown, H Douglas, 2007. Principles of language learning and teaching, Fifth Edition. White
plains, N,Y,: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.
Brown, H Douglas, 2001. Teaching by Principle: An interactive Approach to Language
Pedagogy, Second Edition. White plains, N,Y,: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.
Karim, M. & Hasbullah, F. A. 1986. Language Teaching Media. Jakarta : Universitas
Terbuka.
The procedures using crossword puzzle :
http://ozi379.blogspot.com/2011/04/crossword-puzzle.html ( Acessed on 30/04/2014,
10:47 ).
The Definition of Crossword Puzzle :
http://universityofibnkhaldunbogor-indonesia.blogspot.com/2011/07/teaching-
vocabulary-in-superlative.html ( Accesed on 1/05/2014, 8:02 ).
Educational Value of Crossword Puzzles :
http://vocabulary.co.il/blog/learning_vocabulary/teaching-with-crossword-puzzles/
(Acessed on 27/04/2014, 19:23 ).
Definition of game :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game ( Acessed on 29/04/2014, 20:35 ).

Top Ten Ways to Teach Vocabulary :

http://www.trcabc.com/blogs/teacher-resources/8570757-top-ten-ways-to-teach-
vocabulary