CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1.Research Background
There are some difficulties experienced by the students in learning English. The
teacher dominance in the classroom might be the source of the difficulties causing several
problems. The students have low opportunities to participate actively in the classroom.
Furthermore, the teacher are accustomed to speak in Bahasa in teaching English making
the students have limited time to practice their vocabulary inside and outside the classroom.
The 21st century learning encourages the students to be independent learners. The
use of technology in learning process should be applied in the teaching and learning
process. In line with this statement, Motteram (2013) supports that in this early part of the
21st century the range of technologies available for use in language learning and teaching
has become very diverse and the ways that they are being used in classrooms all over the
world have become central to language practice.
One of the technology that is suitable to be used is smartphone, since smartphone
provides some interactive applications that let the user learn one or two things in there.
Nowadays, children spend most of their time by playing games on their smartphone.
Because of the numerous presence of smartphones games, it changes the children learning
style and learning environment these days. In order to teach these children, teachers need
to understand how to inspire their learning motivation instead of forbidding them using
smartphones. Teachers can consider this phenomenon as an advantage by providing their
students a learning environment that incorporates the use of smartphone to the learning
process. Thus, the students can get entertained during their English learning process.
This study intends to develop a smartphone game that is going to be played by the
students of elementary school for their English learning. Then, by the presence of the game,
it is expected that the English learning can be meaningful and interesting.

1.2.Research Problems
1. How is the smartphone game for children English learning developed?
2. What is the quality of the developed smartphone game for children English learning?

1
1.3.Research Objectives
1. To develop a smartphone game for children English learning.
2. To identify the quality of the developed smartphone game for children English learning.

1.4.Research Significances
1. Theoretically, this product is expected to help children learn English in fun and
effective way.
2. Practically, the result of this study is expected to give positive contribution to the
teachers, students, and other researchers.
a. For teachers
This product is expected to ease the teacher because the teacher does not need to
explain much about the topics, or to prepare exercises for their students
b. For students
This product is expected to make the students learn English independently while
playing in fun and enjoyable way.
c. For other researchers
The other researchers can use this study as a reference in developing related study
or product.

1.5.Research Scope
This study is limited to the development of a smartphone game for children English
learning. The target children is limited for only four-grade students of elementary school
in Denpasar. The target smartphone is limited to Android, meaning that it cannot be used
in IOS. The content in the game is limited to certain topics in English syllabus for four-
grade students.

2
 CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Theoretical Review

The theoretical review describes about theories of teaching English for children, the
concept of mobile assisted language learning (MALL), and the concept of smartphone in
English learning.

2.1.1. Teaching English for Children

Most people often see teaching English for children as an extension of children
mothering/parenting. According to Cameron (2001) in Gautam (2016), teachers of
young children should be such that they need to understand the children, find out what
they need and offer them the materials in a way that they take them with interest. From
that statement, it means that teachers, in fact, need to be highly trained and skilled to
understand their students’ interest to make the learning process fun.
Teaching English for children seems to be easy that children only need to be
taught simple language. However, teaching language to children is not simply as
parroting what the teachers say and then the students will understand. In order to teach
English to the young children effectively, the teacher should have knowledge and skills
of how language should be presented at the very young age (Gautam, 2016).
To be able to successfully teach language to children which means that children
do not only remember the language they listen or read but also they understand the
meaning and are able to use it to speak and write in English, teacher should take into
account some considerations as mentioned by Scott and Ytreberg (1990) in Gautam
(2016), as follows:
a. Words are not enough: “You will need to have plenty of objects and
pictures to work with and make full use of the schools and your
surroundings.” It means that teachers need to prepare something visual such
as pictures and other concrete things.
b. Play with the language: “When you present language, you can ask children
to play with the language the way they like.” It means that the teachers can
let the students change the words they get to get more words.
c. Language as language: “The reading could be very simple with a lot of
pictures and very few words.” It means that the teacher can limit the
readings and give more picture or space for the students to draw.

3
 d. Variety in the classroom: “Since the concentration and attention spans are
short, variety is a must.” It means that the teacher can make variety of
activities, organization, class rules, or learning media.
e. Routines: “Have a story time, fun time, game time, and rhyme time in your
routines.” It means that the teacher has interesting and routines / activities
inserted within the learning process.
f. Cooperation not competition: “Make a room for shared experiences and
create an atmosphere of involvement and togetherness.” It means that the
teacher can have cooperation activities and lower the possibility to have
competition in the learning process.
g. Grammar: “Children are good picking-up grammar rather than consciously
learn the rules of language.” It means that teacher does not have to pressure
the students to remember the grammar rules during the learning process.
h. Assessment: “Look at the progress of the students on a regular basis and
use the continuous assessment model in order to monitor the progress of the
students.” It means that the teacher does not need to do pencil and paper test
to assess the students understanding, but the teacher can monitor and correct
what their students do during the learning process.
Based on all the statements above, it can be concluded that teaching English for
children should be fun and natural, in which the teachers need to understand their
students’ need and interest. Furthermore, to have the students learn the language,
teachers need to understand several considerations on how to present the language to
the children.

2.1.2. The Concept of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL)

In this 21st century, the emerging of technology has become the main issue in
all of the development. One of the technologies is mobile device. The term “mobile”
stands for the “mobility” or the ability to move freely and easily from one place to
another (Gangaiamaran, 2017). Thus, mobile device means devices that can be brought
freely anywhere and anytime. Mobile learning is, therefore, the implementation of
mobile devices in the learning process. In line to this, Hussein and Cronje (2010) in
Gangaiamaran (2017) explains that the features of mobile technology such as the
portability and information accessibility plays a major role in the enhancement of
English language teaching and learning.

4
 The widespread use of mobile devices led to the abbreviation MALL which
stands for Mobile-Assisted Language Learning which is in its use of personal, portable
devices that enable new ways of learning, emphasizing continuity or spontaneity of
access across different contexts of use (Kukulska-Hulme & Shields, 2008 in
Gangaiamaran, 2017).
To support MALL, educators should first notice and understand which
applications (apps) are good and suitable for a particular learner. Gangaiamaran (2017),
in his research, classifies the learners into three, namely; the primary, secondary, and
tertiary level. He divided the learners that includes children belonging to primary level,
school students in the secondary level, college students and adults in tertiary level.
The primary learners as mentioned above include children of a very young age
who use mobile devices to interact and for playing games. Some researchers (Ramya
& Madhumathi, 2016 in Gangaiamaran, 2017, Liu, Scordino, Reurtz, Navarrete, Ko,
and Lim, 2014, in Gangaiamaran, 2017) that study MALL with children strongly agree
to that and found the result of their research that mobile devices uplift children learning.
Furthermore, it is also found that the integration of technology into learning fetched
positive outcome that resulted in effective learning.
Related to that effective result, however, it depends on the apps that is used for
the learning. There are many educational apps available in the App Store or Google
play. Gangaiamaran (2017) mentions the benefits of mobile application in education,
that include; 1) more social, 2) entertainment, 3) round the clock availability, 4)
effective utilization of leisure hours, 4) alternate modes of learning, and 5) fun and
informal.
Since children are not good enough in choosing good apps to be used for their
learning, the parents and teachers are responsible for this situation. In line with this
statement, Kim & Smith (2017) state that the duty lies here both with parents and
teachers to act as a decision-maker in guiding them in the choice of the correct or
suitable content which produces no harm for children in turns enhances their learning.

2.1.3. The Concept of Smartphone in English Learning

a. Smartphone as Learning Media
Smartphone has become one of the human primary needs. It can be seen from
the phenomenon that the society, starting from children to parents, has their own
smartphone and use it for their own purpose. One of the purposes is to learn English.

5
 Zilber (2013) supports that smartphones have attributes that make them well suited
to the delivery of certain kinds of English language learning and practice.
Smartphones will not replace English teachers. Zilber (2013) adds that the
growing prevalence of smartphones among English learners creates opportunities
to provide supplementary English language practice anytime, anywhere. It means
that smartphones is one of the supplementary media for learning English that will
be effectively used with the guidance and instructions from English teachers.
b. Criteria for Good Smartphone Application for English Learning
The extensive usage of mobile devices has fetched loads of mobile application
in English language teaching (Gangaiamaran, 2017). It means that a large number
of smartphone apps for English learners have emerged by the presence of
smartphones. Although smartphones can provide inexpensive and portable access
to learning and practice opportunities for ESL students, the challenge is to find tools
that are compelling, engaging, effective, and complementary to classroom learning
(Zilber, 2013). From that statement, it shows that it is difficult to look for apps that
are useful. Besides, teachers do not have much time to spend on downloading and
testing one of thousands apps in the Apple’s App Store and Google Play.
Regarding to the problem, Zilber (2013) suggests teachers look for apps with
the following considerations.
1. Designed in small segments
A good app should be designed in small segments that can provide a
complete experience in five minutes or less. In this regards, people can use
their smartphones in between other activities.

without smartphone with smartphone

play play
study study
sleep sleep

family family

class class
work work
travel travel

Figure 1. Smartphone interactions influence learning opportunities

6
 From figure 1, it shows how smartphone adds more study time into the day of
the learners. Therefore, smartphone designed in small segments increases the
opportunities to have English practice and learning.
2. Engaging, entertaining, and addictive
Smartphone apps should be engaging, entertaining, and addictive in which
they provide interactive contents. Thus, smartphone should avoid boring
content that usually ask the user to read and watch a lot. Zilber (2013) states
that games and game-like activities are the most obvious examples of
engaging apps. It means that games and quizzes apps is highly
recommended to be used.
3. Created by native English speakers
Zilber (2013) explains that there are ESL smartphone apps created by people
whose ability to communicate in English and understanding of ESL teaching
methods is poor. Good ESL apps are created by teams that combine
expertise in app development, user experience, and ESL.
4. Highly focused and complementary to classroom learning
Smartphone apps should not cover everything, but only focus on one thing
well. For example, when the teachers wants their students to practice
alphabets, look for app that covers alphabets. Not only to ease the students,
it is also to focus their learning to what is being taught in the classroom.
5. Specifically designed for smartphones
Apps designed for smartphones are easy to use and interactive. Very few
people are going to read a textbook or watch a one-hour instructional video
on a smartphone (Zilber, 2013). It means that apps that is specially designed
for smartphone do not contain a lot of texts or list of videos.
Based on the considerations above, it can be concluded that whether to choose
or to create a good smartphone game, teachers or educators need to understand
several things as mentioned above to create an effective and interesting learning
environment for the children in learning English.

2.2 Empirical Review

There are several studies that are related to the present study. The first study was
conducted by Wang (2017), entitled “Designing Mobile Apps for English Vocabulary
Learning”. In her research, she presented a pilot study and aims to develop a mobile app to

7
improve college students’ English vocabulary learning with both English and Chinese
descriptions. The target of her study was low-level students in college. The questionnaires were
used to collect students’ opinions toward the app. During the pilot study and with the use of
mobile app, it is hoped that students’ learning motivation can be increased and the self- study
habits can be built. The similarities to the present study is that both studies develop
mobile/smartphone application in which it is going to be used for learning English. The
differences lies on the target of the study, in which the previous study targeted on college
students, but the present study targeted on children or young learners. Thus it is important to
conduct the present study to understand the difference result of college students and children
towards the use of mobile/smartphone apps to English learning.
The second study was conducted by Nushi & Eqbali (2017), entitled “Duolingo: A
Mobile Application to Assist Second Language Learning.” In their research, they develop and
describe a mobile language learning application of Duolingo, and explores the possibilities this
app offers for learning a second language. This mobile app has unique features in which the
target of user can be of any age, children to parents. With four main exercises that are provided
in this app, which are namely, translation, matching, pairing, listening, and speaking, the user
can learn English in fun way. The similarities to the present study is that both studies develop
mobile/smartphone application in which it is going to be used for learning English. The
previous study also let children play the app. However, the previous study did not find out the
quality or the effectiveness of the app. Thus, it is important to conduct the present study to
understand if smartphone game is effective for children to learn English.
The third study was conducted by Gunter et al., (2016), entitled “Language learning
apps or games: an investigation utilizing the RETAIN model.” This previous study examines
two English language learning apps under the RETAIN model. The findings indicate that
although these apps offer some language learning opportunities, they do not present scenario-
based quality or gameplay, among other elements, if they are to be considered games. The
similarities to the present study is that both studies use mobile / smartphone application to learn
English. However, the present study does not use RETAIN model as what was used in the
previous study. Since the previous study found that games should present scenery-based quality
or gameplay, it is important for the present study to consider that findings to create better
mobile app, especially a smartphone game.
The fourth study was conducted by Ghanbaran & Ketabi (2014), entitled “Multimedia
Games and Vocabulary Learning”. This study was an attempt to look at the reported effect of
multimedia games on language learning in the related literature. In this study of concept of

8
incidental and intentional vocabulary learning were introduced, some aspects of vocabulary
(learning) were dealt with concisely, and finally multimedia games and their effect on
vocabulary learning were briefly discussed. The result of this study was that the advancement
rate of technology in various fields, including multimedia games, further research considering
the effect of various facets of this technological development on different aspects of vocabulary
acquisition/learning seems very promising. Regarding to the present study, the similarities were
found. Both studies related the multimedia games (including smartphone game) to vocabulary
(English) learning. It had been concluded that multimedia/smartphone game’s effect towards
the vocabulary were very promising. Thus, it is important to develop the
multimedia/smartphone game as what this present study had done.
The fifth study was conducted by He, Ren, Zhu, Cai, & Chen, (2014), entitled “Mobile-
Based AR Application Helps to Promote EFL Children’s Vocabulary Study.” In this previous
study, they attempted to use augmented reality (AR) technology to design and develop mobile-
based English learning software for pre-school children in order to solve the problem of bored
students and teachers’ non-standard pronunciation. The 40 pre-school children who
participated in this research were assigned to an experimental and a control group. From the
pre-tests and post-tests as well as the interview of the English teacher, it was found that the
students learning with mobile-based AR software had greater learning achievement than
control group ones. Thus the teacher hold positive attitude to this software. The similarities to
the present study is that both of the previous and present study develop a mobile/smartphone-
based application to help children learn English. However, the difference is that the present
study do not use AR to design and develop the game. Therefore, it is important to conduct the
present study to find out if it has the same result/findings or not.

9
 CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the research design, research subjects, research procedures, and
the process of data collection.
3.1 Research Design
This study will be designed in a form of educational Research and Development
(R&D). The researcher will develop a smartphone game for children to learn English. The
design of this research will be developed based on the model proposed by Dick and Carey.
Figure 1 shows the research design proposed by Dick and Carey.

Source: http://www.geolawsdesign.com/glossary/dick-carey-instructional-design-model/
Figure 1. Research Design Proposed by Dick and Carey
The research design proposed by Dick and Carey above is modified in this study into
simpler components that can be formulated as follow.

Conduct
Instructional
Analysis
Developing
Conduct smartphone
need Write game for Conduct
Conduct
analysis to performance children material
Revision
identify he objectives English evaluation
goal learning
Analyze
learners and
contexts

Figure 2. Modified Dick and Carey Research Design

10
3.2 Research Subjects

The subjects of this research will be the four grade students of elementary school in a
school in Denpasar.

3.3 Research Procedures

There are three main procedures, namely; 1) Need Analysis, 2) Product Development,
and 3) Product Evaluation.

3.4 Process of Data Collection

The data collection will be conducted in several steps. The first step is conducting
preliminary observation. The school facilities, teaching and learning process in the classroom
will be observed. The second step is conducting pre-questionnaire. In this questionnaire, there
will be questions asking student’s learning activity, student’s interest, and teacher’s perception.
The third step is conducting pre-test for the students. The fourth step is designing and
developing the product. In this step, there will be revision from expert and teachers. The fifth
step is conducting evaluation of the product from the expert and English teachers. The sixth
step is dividing the students to control and experimental group. The seventh step is giving
experimental group the product and letting them play the game. The eight step is conducting
post-test for the students. The ninth step is conducting post-questionnaire to find out the
students’ and teachers’ opinion about the final product.

3.5 Data Analysis

The data will be analyzed descriptively. The data in the form of numbers such as the
pre-test and post-test result will be analyzed by using SPSS ver. 22.

11
REFERENCES
Gangaiamaran, R. (2017). Review on Use of Mobile Apps for Language Learning, 12(21),
11242–11251.
Gautam, G. R. (2016). Teaching English to Young Children, (July 2015).
https://doi.org/10.3126/jns.v4i0.12857
Ghanbaran, S., & Ketabi, S. (2014). Multimedia Games and Vocabulary Learning. Theory and
Practice in Language Studies, 4(3), 489–496. https://doi.org/10.4304/tpls.4.3.489-496
Gunter, G. A., Flórida, O., Unidos, E., Campbell, L. O., Flórida, O., Unidos, E., … Racilan,
M. (2016). Language learning apps or games : an investigation utilizing the RETAIN
model, 1–29. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1984-639820168543
He, J., Ren, J., Zhu, G., Cai, S., & Chen, G. (2014). Mobile-Based AR Application Helps to
Promote EFL Children â€TM s Vocabulary Study Mobile-Based AR Application Helps to
Promote EFL Children ’ s Vocabulary Study. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2014.129
Kim, Y., & Smith, D. (2017). Pedagogical and technological augmentation of mobile learning
for young children. Interactive Learning Environments, 1(25), 4–16.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2015.1087411
Motteram, G. (2013). Innovations in learning technologies for English language teaching.
London: British Council 2013. Retrieved from www.teachingenglish.org.uk
Nushi, M., & Eqbali, M. H. (2017). DUOLINGO : A MOBILE APPLICATION TO ASSIST
SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING ( App Review ). Teaching English with
Technology, 17(1), 89–98.
Wang, B. (2017). Designing Mobile Apps for English Vocabulary Learning. International
Journal of Information and Education Technology, 7(4).
https://doi.org/10.18178/ijiet.2017.7.4.881
Zilber, B. J. (2013). SMARTPHONE APPS FOR ESL, (March), 15–21.

12