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59
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VOLUME
Vol.05 Issue02 2025
PAGE NO.
59-64
10.37547/ajsshr/Volume05Issue02-14
Word Puzzles Technique Designed for Developing
Pupils’ Productive and Comprehension Skills
Asst. Lect. Ahmed Jamil Sulaiman Al Dulaimy
College of Education for Humanities, Department of English, Iraq
Received:
19 October 2024;
Accepted:
12 December 2024;
Published:
24 February 2025
Abstract:
This research aims to determine whether word puzzles technique is a helpful tool for improving pupils' productivity
and cognitive abilities in the classroom of the primary level. Word searches, is an example of word puzzles that aims to
captivate pupils engagingly and entertainingly while fostering their language and critical thinking skills.
The current research delves into how word puzzles can enhance pupils to learn the four learning skills: listening, speaking
reading and writing. It also aims
to develop pupils’ skills of thinking and problem
-solving. The research evaluates pupils'
development in sentence construction, complicated text comprehension, and vocabulary retention through a battery of
classroom activities and tests.
In light of these
aims, the research’s null hypothesis has been formulated to be tested. The design of one group is adopted
and pre and post-tests are used. The sample includes (30) female pupils who are randomly selected from Asia primary private
school in Mosul city.
The results show that word puzzles improve pupils' production and comprehension abilities and pique their desire to learn a
new language. Findings from this study support the idea that word puzzles can be a useful supplemental tool for language
teachers looking for new ways to help their pupils become more proficient speakers.
Keywords:
word puzzles technique, improving pupils' productivity and cognitive abilities.
Introduction:
Puzzle learning is a new teaching and
learning technique that focuses on the development of
problem-solving skills. Word puzzles technique is one of its
tools. Falkner, (2012).
It is an effective learning tool in medical education,
psychology, sociology, communications, nursing, biology and
business. It falls in two models: Crossword puzzle model and
Word search model. The latter modal is tackled in this
research. Word search model is a structural, self-learning
educational tool that reviews and enhances knowledge and
concepts acquired during the lesson. Latha, and Madhavan
(2020).
Statement of the Problem:
Teachers of primary schools concentrate on traditional
techniques of teaching, they rarely make efforts on using
non-traditional techniques of teaching such as word puzzles
technique
which
develops
the
productive
and
comprehension skills among pupils, so their level is not as
good as it should be, which reflects their poor results in
English.
Aims of the Study
This study has designed a word puzzle technique to develop
the productive and comprehension skills among primary
school pupils. It aims to give pupils chance to learn the four
learning skills: listening, speaking reading and writing. It also
aims to develop pupils’ skills of thinking and probl
em-solving.
Besides, it advances tactics for developing pupils' productive
and comprehension skills of the English language in one of
the primary schools in Mosul. The theme expressed should
promote introducing word puzzles as a means of motivation,
and accordingly creates new educational techniques. If word
puzzles are viewed from an educational psychology
perspective, their use in the classroom provides a variety of
learning activity, contributing to the development of pupils'
attention themselves locally and generally, memory, and
logic in general. To develop all sorts of mnemonic operations,
it is advisable to use word puzzles, which require a lot of
attention and call for pupils to express themselves locally and
generally. Orawiwatnakul, (2013).
In middle aged, children should be prepared for easy
orientation of data material. Examples of methodological
based use of word puzzles in the teaching of English show the
perspective of this phenomenon and highlight their
educational importance, in other words, the opportunity to
introduce some reference material in its educational
function and purpose. Accordingly, the installation of
figures should lead pupils to the above-mentioned
technique, as well as to the establishment of the pupils'
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American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research (ISSN: 2771-2141)
productive and receptive skills, the aim of that is to increase
formation of an algorithm of pupils' technique based on
word puzzles promotion aimed at developing productive and
receptive skills. Gilmore, (2007). In addition, tasks are used
in the past, to test pupils' ready knowledge of words and
phrases, at the moment they are tested at the stage of
understanding the ability of the meaning of the text. Finally,
the research aims at finding how word puzzles are designed,
the procedures of the strategy, and the results gained in the
learning process especially for increasing pupils' productive
and comprehension skills.
Hypotheses
The present research hypothesis the following assumptions:
-
The research assumes that there are no statistically
significant differences between the development
mean scores of the group in a given pre-test and
post-test.
-
The research assumes that there are statistically
significant differences between the development
mean scores of the group in a given pre-test and
post-test.
Models
The current research adopts the model of word puzzles
technique: "word search puzzles" model.
Definitions of Terms
-
Word-Search Puzzle is a game consisting of a
collection of words in which the player must locate
the word (Anggraeni, 2015).
-
A word search is a puzzle consisting of many words
concealed within a grid of letters (Ambiyatul, 2018).
-
A "word search puzzles" is a word search game in a
randomly arranged collection of letters that are
usually square. The word search puzzle is found
horizontally, vertically, diagonally, or backward
(Bailey et al., 1999).
Background and Rationale
The historical aspect shows that long before our times,
people liked solving puzzles. Using linguistic ones, teachers
have to diversify the educational process, create a cognitive
motive for communication, motivate favorable emotional
development progress in language education, and develop
the pupils' cognitive domain.
As a background historical aspect, word puzzles present a
huge interest. Many etymologists are fond of word puzzles
and admit that word puzzles originate from ancient times
when people made their first attempts in writing. Such
attraction towards word puzzles is easily explained. First of
all, their direct interpreter is language, which deserves
constant interest from speech researchers. Secondly, word
puzzles, in a vicarious way, can show all the variety of
language phenomena. Md. Hafizur, et al (2024).
There are different types of word puzzles and diverse
rationale behind teaching them. These linguistic games may
serve different educational purposes: language material
presentation was considered in the form of an educating
exploratory dictionary, adapting it to some website, and
integrating the learned introductory vocabulary. Having a
puzzle might enable the pupils to become aware of their
native language and make connections to the foreign
language, which is one of the goals of the teaching
techniques. The main purpose of the given linguistic games
is to reveal the novelty, originality, and importance of the
entry item given in the games. Emine, and Cagda, (2016)
Theoretical Framework
The behaviorism theory is based on the thought of the
development of the black box concept from the behaviorists
in the early part of the 20th century such as Keller, Skinner,
Thorndike, Pavlov, Edward and L. Thorndike. The basic
theory undergirding behaviorism is that pupils revert or
organism will tend to behave in any new learning situation in
the years in which behavior has been previously reinforced.
Therefore, the lessons taught should be based on three
capabilities known as initial stimulus-response (S-R), natural
laws and the facility of duty theory between presentations.
According to this theory, learning is only made after a
reaction made by the pupils after a stimulus given by the
teacher. Besides, the current research discusses such
theories as the behaviorism theory and principles of
educational psychology representing other theories.
National university. https://www.nu.edu/blog/behaviorism-
in-education/
Educational psychology principle includes the principles of
readiness to learn, practice and knowledge that are not too
hard and are not too easy, distributed practice, without error
practice, whole-part-whole practice, accurate and timely
feedback, use of increasing method, and integrated
interference. Psychology of Learning.
https://archive.mu.ac.in/myweb_test/SYBA%20Study%20M
aterial/edu-II%20psycho.pdf
The principle of readiness to learn states that new concepts
or new learning will happen if the preparations for the pupils
are good. The position in the readiness of the pupils is the
level of human psychological response to stimuli received at
the level of good physical and mental. Based on theory and
principles of educational psychology, the pupils learn to be
more profitable through the use of puzzles in learning such
as word puzzles.
https://gcwgandhinagar.com/econtent/document/1587719
14320200419_175051.pdf
Cognitive Development Theories
There are several cognitive development theories that
believe that play can impact children's cognitive growth.
https://www.starshinemontessori.com/role-of-play-
enhancing-cognitive-development-early-childhood/
One of them, is Vitalismo, (based on the Gray basic idea,
which took root not only during the Renaissance and the
Baroque era but also even becomes a guidance in some
countries in contemporary educational thinking). According
to Gray, play helps a reached perfectionist. Vitalismo is very
oriented in considering good teaching is due to methods,
procedures, and strategies used in developing their pupils to
isolate steps of learning activities that are done from the
reasons or objectives to pursue in conducting it. Besides,
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American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research (ISSN: 2771-2141)
Vitalismo also encourages a child's play in fostering a spirit in
a self-directed, creative activity and full of learning feel and
provide fun. In other words, the attention and energy they
can be concentrated to the maximum at the time of play.
Francesco et al, (2012)
According to Sue-Uie, word puzzles are useful educational
interaction so that the pupil was heard could learn with the
lessons he received. Besides, from the experiments, it can be
concluded also that the method of word puzzles suitable for
teaching in school. Connolly defines word puzzles as
activities. This method helps individual pupils to develop the
ability to build relationships between words that are near or
far between one another, apply their meaning in different
contexts. In the development of modern educational
paradigm is a method of activity-based learning. Activity-
based language learning can be defined as a method of
language learning with active learning activities. Tira, (2023)
Word Search Puzzles
One of the oldest and easiest word puzzles is the "word
search puzzles". There are only two main directions for the
words. In general, "word search puzzles" contains
surrounding letter detectors. "Making a word search
puzzles" is not an easy thing to do; it can take hours for only
one puzzle. There are three kinds of features in "word search
puzzles":
1- the standard words,
2- the rarely used letters, and
3- the pattern of the words which are completed with the
surrounding letters.
https://www.hhhistory.com/2017/07/the-history-of-word-
puzzles.html
"Word search puzzles" is much easier than other puzzles
because they are only a combination of words. However,
finding the hidden words becomes the main problem
because the words are often hidden in the middle or they
situated vertically or horizontally. "Word search puzzles" can
develop productive skills, since the words are depicted in
some lines so that the pupils must explore the spaces related
to the words explained in the letters. It will develop the
pupils' power of analysis. Comprehension skills can also be
developed through "word search puzzles", because the
children can learn what to look for, why it is connected and
mentioned, when, who, what, and other questions relating
to the content of the "word search puzzle".
Besides that, "word search puzzles" can improve the
analytical skills of the children because the children should
be able to explain the letters to form the pattern of the
words or phrases. Interest is also another aspect involved in
this kind of puzzle, assuming that when the children feel
interested in this game, they can do it with good results.
Moussiades, (2022)
In this research, the word search is also used to measure the
vocabulary mastery of the pupils. This is due to several
advantages of "word search puzzles"
"Word search puzzles" becomes the easiest puzzles; they do
not require any kind of order or logic, and they can begin
theory training to strengthen the understanding or build the
emergency plan for the solving of various answers. The
main application of "word search puzzles" is that can
increase vocabulary mastery for the children because the
children can learn words they have never found before,
either from the answers of completing the sentences or from
the outside world or story aroused in this kind of puzzle.
According to these advantages, our teachers can teach what
they think, such as history, language, and others, to the
children by providing this kind of puzzle in order to solve it in
class. It is also useful to train the children's patience to
complete the job they have done or persist to solve it. In
addition, another advantage of this kind of puzzle is to
eliminate distress, to break the routine work, and postpone
the problems being faced for a while. Therefore, to improve
the hedge skill of the children, "word search puzzles" is
suggested to compete and analyze, and to have fun because
without reward, the result cannot be reached amazingly.
Benefits of Word Puzzles
Word puzzles can be effectively used as a technique in
fluency writing practice to develop pupils' productive skills
and to enhance their ability to spell. It can also be used to
improve understanding of vocabulary. In addition, word
puzzles
are
a
technique
for
developing
pupils'
comprehension ability. Hariffin, (2023)
Many experienced teachers believe that word puzzles just a
waste of time because there is no systematic register in the
language teaching method. Whereas, the outputs of this
research, confirm that the word puzzle technique can indeed
be an effective method in teaching in schools. First of all,
some of the obvious advantages of word puzzles and
crosswords as a teaching tool are the possibilities of
increasing vocabulary, providing an excellent example of
social studies, as well as spelling practice. In some ways,
these puzzles can play a very useful role in increasing
memory and thinking skills. Because pupils need to be more
critical in checking words or thinking of answers to puzzle
games.
Procedures:
The research follows six steps. First, after explaining the
"Camel" passage which is taken from their text book, fifth
grade pupils are given a five-sentence pre-test based on the
passage. Appendix (1). Second, the teacher gives the pupils
instructions about the first model crossword puzzles model
(Word Search Puzzles), and applies it in front of them. Third,
he writes down and reads aloud a sentence taken from the
text book as shown in Appendix (2). Fourth, he requests from
the pupils to repeat the sentence loudly after him. Fifth, he
asks them to write the sentence on their notebooks. Lastly,
he asks some pupils to come in front of their classmates to
find the words inside the diagram he draws on the board
according to the sentences he already writes.
In the next lesson, he draws a diagram on the board includes
words based on the "Camel" passage and writes the previous
questions about it. Appendix (3). Then he asks some pupils
to find the missing words inside the diagram and to write
them in the suitable blanks. He repeats the activity with
different pupils for ten minutes. Then he explains other
topics of the text book.
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In the next lesson, the teacher reviews the last topic. He
writes a paragraph on the board and explain it to them. He
asks the pupils to read the paragraph loudly after him. Then
he writes five questions based on the paragraph. He draws a
diagram includes the answers of the questions. And asks
some pupils to come and find the missing words inside the
diagram and to write them in the suitable blanks. Appendix
(3). After that, he asks other pupils to come and find
meaningful words inside the diagram and writes them on the
board. Then he explains other topics of the text book.
In the next lesson, he reviews the last topic and repeats the
same activity with different pupils and different sentences
taken from the text book for twenty minutes. Then he
explains other topics of the text book.
Finally, the teacher implements the post-test as the following
experimental design:
The Experimental Design of the Research
Research
Group
Pre-test
Independent Variable
Post-test
Five questions based on a
passage taken from the text
book
Puzzle Words Technique
Five questions based on a
passage taken from the text
book
Implementation of the Post-Test
After completing the experiment, the post-test of the same questions as shown in the Appendix (4) is conducted to the
research group.
The results shown in the table below are reached:
Mean, Standard Dev
iation, and T Values in the Pre and Post Tests of the Pupils’.
Research
Group
Tests
No. of
Pupils
Mean
Standard
Deviation
T Value
Level of
Significance
Calculated
Tabulated
Pre-Test
Post-Test
30
30
6.467
9.933
3.9193
0.2537
4.845
2.042
(0.05)
At 29 degrees of
freedom
Data Analysis and Results Discussion:
It is obvious that the calculated T value (4.845) is higher than
the tabulated T value which is (2.042) with (α = 0.05) alpha
and (29) degree of freedom. Consequently, the null-
hypothesis is rejected and the alternative one is accepted.
That is to say, there are statistically significant differences
between the mean scores of the Pre-Test and the Post-Test
in favour of the Post-Test. In other words, the use of "Word
Search Puzzles" technique has a positive effect on productive
and comprehension skills of the fifth grade primary pupils, as
the pupils' scores in Post-Test are higher than with their
scores in the Pre-Test.
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Appendix (1)
A Model of Pre-test
Fill in the blanks
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American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research (ISSN: 2771-2141)
1-
Asian camel has two ----------------.
2-
Camels like -----------------together.
3-
Camels keep ---------- in their humps.
4-
Camels can ------------ their noses.
5-
Camels can drink ---------- liters of water in one go.
Appendix (2)
Example of One Sentence
SHE PLAYS TENNIS.
Fill in the blanks:
1-
----------- plays tennis.
2-
She ----------- tennis.
3-
She plays -----------.
Appendix (3)
Applying the Technique
Fill in the blanks
1-
Asian camel has two ----------------.
2-
Camels like -----------------together.
3-
Camels keep ---------- in their humps.
4-
Camels can ------------ their noses.
5-
Camels can drink ---------- liters of water in one go.
Appendix (4)
K E Y
S H E
T
G A R D E N A
M
P L A Y S
C
W O M A N I A
T E N N I S
R
H U M P S G O 3
L
O F V T F O
R 5 I
E S O L C A N 1 V
C O M E I
F T O E
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American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research (ISSN: 2771-2141)
Example of a Paragraph
Read the following paragraph and fill in the blanks:
My name is Sara. I am eleven years old. I am from Iraq live in Mosul. I am a pupil at Asia primary school I have two brothers
and two sisters. My father is an engineer and my mother is teacher.
1-
My name is --------------------.
2-
I have -----------------sisters.
3-
My mother is a -------------.
4-
I ---------- in Mosul.
5-
I am from -----------.
Z
L
E
V
I
L
O
S
Q
U
E E
N
T
N
A
A
T
E
A
C
H
E
R
R
I
W
C
O M
E
A
I
N
O
L
A
T
E
Appendix (5)
A Model of Post-test
Fill in the blanks
1-
Asian camel has two ----------------.
2-
Camels like -----------------together.
3-
Camels keep ---------- in their humps.
4-
Camels can ------------ their noses.
5-
Camels can drink ---------- liters of water in one go.
