The Effect of Kahoot! on Junior High School Students’ Achievement in the Simple Present Tense

Abstract

This study investigated whether Kahoot! is capable of greatly improving the mastery of students in the simple present tense. Accordingly, quasi-experimental design was employed. 64 students of SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Taman were chosen separated into experimental group and control group. A pre-test and post-test of 20 multiple-choice questions, which were delivered during the first and last meetings, were used to gauge the ability of the students to use the simple present tense in both groups. The pre-test mean score in the experimental group increased from 44.69 to 80.78 in the post-test; nevertheless, the control group’s mean score increased from 35.63 to 56.09 in the post-test, according to the analysis results using IBM SPSS Statistics 25. Furthermore, the results of an independent sample t-test on the post-test scores demonstrated that the difference appeared statistically significant, and revealed that the effect size (Cohen's d = 2.14) indicated a strong effect. Therefore, it can be said that Kahoot! greatly improves students' grasp of English tenses, particularly the simple present tense, and the teachers can use it as an efficient method of teaching grammar to junior high school students.