Kahoot: Its Effect on Students’ Vocabulary Mastery

Abstract

Vocabulary mastery is an essential component of English language learning, yet seventh-grade students may experience difficulties in understanding and using vocabulary due to limited learning engagement and less interactive learning approaches. This study aimed to investigate the effect of using Kahoot as an audio-visual learning medium on seventh-grade students’ vocabulary mastery, with a specific focus on nouns, verbs, and adjectives at SMP Negeri 1 Botupingge. This research employed a quantitative method with a pre-experimental one-group pretest-posttest design involving 26 seventh-grade students selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected using a 25-item multiple-choice vocabulary test administered as a pre-test and post-test and analyzed using a paired sample t-test after the data were confirmed to be normally distributed. The findings showed that students’ mean score increased from 50.29 in the pre-test to 75.14 in the post-test, representing an increase of 24.85 points, with a significance value of 0.000 (p < 0.05) and a t-value of -8.291. Improvements were also observed across the three targeted word classes, with noun mastery increasing from 56% to 90.63%, adjective mastery from 48% to 87.50%, and verb mastery from 55% to 82.31%. These findings indicate that the implementation of Kahoot was associated with a significant improvement in students’ vocabulary mastery and demonstrate its potential as an interactive audio-visual learning medium for vocabulary instruction.