Development of a Digital-Based Educational Snakes and Ladders Board Game to Improve Arabic Vocabulary Mastery for Seventh Grade Students at MTs Zia Salsabila Medan

Vocabulary (mufradat) is the foundation of Arabic language skills, but its teaching in Year 7 at MTs Zia Salsabila, Medan, still relies heavily on lectures, repetition and rote learning, with the result that the vocabulary learnt is quickly forgotten. This study aims to develop a digital educational snakes and ladders board game as a medium for teaching Arabic vocabulary, and subsequently to test its feasibility, practicality and effectiveness. The study employed the Research and Development (R&D) method using the ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation). Data were collected through observation, interviews, a needs analysis questionnaire, validation sheets completed by subject matter experts, media experts and language experts, teacher and pupil response questionnaires, trial observation sheets, as well as pre- and post-learning vocabulary tests administered to 22 Year 7 pupils. The validation results showed scores of 93.33 per cent (content), 91.00 per cent (media) and 88.00 per cent (language), with a combined average of 90.64 per cent, falling into the ‘highly suitable’ category. Teacher response rates reached 93.75 per cent and pupil response rates 87.91 per cent. The average student score increased from 70.91 in the pre-test to 90.00 in the post-test, with an average N-Gain of 0.66, which falls into the ‘moderate’ category. Consequently, this digital snakes and ladders game is suitable, practical and sufficiently effective for improving Year 7 pupils’ command of Arabic vocabulary.