This research was aimed at improving students’ participation through cooperative games. It was used Classroom Action Research (CAR) which was conducted at the VII D of MTS Ma’arif NU 1 Jatilawang in academic year 2012/2013 as the subject of the research. The number of the students was 43 students. This study was done on one month (April 2013). The writer works collaboratively with the English teacher. The writer applied both of qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data consisted of observation, questionnaire, interview, and documentation, while the quantitative data were pre – test and post – test.
The result of the research showed that there were improvements in the students’ participation after the implementation of the CAR through cooperative games. Observation result showed that the means of students’ participation were 32.05% in Cycle 1, and 84.54 % in Cycle 2. The Questionnaire result showed that 94.60% students felt happy, interest and enthusiastic in the implementation of cooperative game. Then, the interview result showed that almost students were happy, enthusiastic, motivated and participated in teaching and learning process.
Besides that, there was improvement in students’ achievement. The means of the students’ test were as follows: pre – test showed 52.70%, Cycle 1 showed 57.30% and Cycle 2 showed 78.90%.Therefore, the improvement of students’ achievement from Cycle 1 to Cycle 2 was 40.99%. Those showed that the result reached the target of the research. The criteria of the action success in the students’ observation result reached 52.49%. It was above of the criteria of successful 40%. Then the students’ achievement reached 40.99%. Having seen the result, the writer concluded that cooperative game was able to improve students’ participation in teaching and learning process.