The snake and ladder game in Indonesian English language teaching context: a meta-synthesis study

To make teaching and learning more engaging, dynamic, and enjoyable, teachers can use games as creative media. The Snake and Ladder game is one that educators can utilize as a teaching tool. This study aims to analyze the use of the Snake and Ladder game as a teaching media in Indonesian ELT, examine how teachers use it in class, and examine students' learning achievement when the game is applied. This study uses a qualitative meta-synthesis method by reviewing 13 published articles on Snake and Ladder game in the Indonesian ELT context. The 13 selected articles are from online platforms such as Google Scholar, Open Knowledge Maps, and Publish or Perish from 2018 to 2023. The research results show that this game is used in primary and secondary education, but it was not found to be used in higher education. This game is used to teach vocabulary that is embedded in speaking and reading skills. The study also found that in the cognitive aspect, the Snake and Ladder games enhance students speaking and reading skills. There are also noncognitive student’s learning achievements, including increasing student’s social abilities, enjoying the learning process, getting motivated, and increasing selfconfidence. Moreover, since the 13 selected articles were investigated in manual format, the next researcher may take the opportunities to investigate the use of the game in the digital format.