THE EFFECT OF WORD MAPPING STRATEGY ON STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MASTERY AT THE NINTH GRADE OF SMP NEGERI 9 TARAKAN
Vocabulary mastery is a fundamental yet challenging aspect of English language learning, particularly for secondary school students. Effective instructional strategies such as the Word Mapping strategy are essential to address this issue. This study examines the effect of the word mapping strategy on ninth-grade students' vocabulary mastery. Employing a pre-experimental method with a one-group pre-test and post-test design, the study involved 30 students from class 9.1. Data were collected using a written test comprising 20 multiple-choice items administered before and after the intervention. The analysis showed improved students' vocabulary mastery, as indicated by the increase in the mean scores by 5.34 points from the pre-test to the post-test. Due to the non-normal distribution of one data set, the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test was used. The test yielded a significance value of 0.047 (p 0.05), suggesting that the alternative hypothesis (Ha) was accepted while the null hypothesis (H0) was rejected. Therefore, it can be concluded that teaching vocabulary through the Word Mapping strategy effectively enhances vocabulary mastery among ninth-grade students at SMP Negeri 9 Tarakan.