Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Nama
Program
Ambilan
:
:
PPG
Februari 2012
Unit
Pensyarah
Tarikh Hantar
Table of Content
Content
Page
Content
1.2 Reflection
2-6
8
11
12
13-14
15-19
20-28
29
8.0 Conclusion
30
supervisor
Mdm. Yashwanora Bt Yahaya
also one slow learner and three pupils that need special attention and training. This
school is situated in Tambun which is a small town area, the population here are
mostly Malay, follow by Chinese and Indian. As the school building is behind Sekolah
Kebangsaan Tambun which is a larger school so it is hardly seen by people who
passed by this area. In my opinions, maybe due to this reason, many residences
around Ipoh still do not notice the existing of this school, so SJKC Hing Hwa is not in
the list of the choices of school that parents wish to sent their children. Parents prefer
to sent their children to town schools such as SJKC Min Sin, SJKC Sam Tet, SJKC
Ave Mariah and so on.
There was an enrolment of 100 over pupils during my first posting. The pupils here
had very limited English background and exposure to English language. They learnt
English in the classroom only and their mother tongue is Malay language. It was like
writing English words on a piece of white paper, learning English depend on
everything I have taught them, they have no interest and effort to study English
language. I had a very hard time teaching in this school, as like scribbling on white
paper is easy but to make pupils to understand English it will take a lot of effort and
time.
On the other hand, as I am not a well experienced teacher, I have no place to seek
for help in handling and teaching the pupils here. In teaching English, the most
difficult and challenging is teaching pupils grammar. During teaching in the class, I
used to translate words from English to pupils mother tongue. This enable my pupils
5
to pay their attentions because it helped them to understand. I also drilled my pupils
in the target language. This was when I was determined and decided to use
Grammar Translation Method as the method in my teaching.
Praetor and Celce-Murcia (1979, p.3) listed the major characteristic of Grammar
Translation Method, some of them are such as first, classes are taught in the mother
tongue, with a little use of target language. Second, vocabulary is taught in the form
of skill of isolated words. Third, long, elaborate explanations of the intricacies of
grammar are given . Forth, drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences
from the target language into the mother tongue.
Drillings had become the most activities I did with my pupils but still my effort caused
bad result in pupils examination. Richard and Roger (2001,p.7) pointed out ,it has
no advocates. It is a method for which there is no theory. There is no literature that
offers a rationale or justification for it or that attempts to examine language teaching
methodology in this book. Drilling and translating is not a good way of teaching as
pupils will just rememberised what had been taught by me but
understand the lesson on that time, this caused pupils to make lots of mistakes and
at last they will be fed up with the target language.
In the year of 2002, I have asked for a transfer and was shifted back to Ipoh to SK
Pasukan Polis Hutan in Ulu Kinta, Ipoh. It was a school with almost 900 enrolments
of Malay students where almost 95% pupils parents, either father or mother works
as a police officer.
My teaching became more difficult as the pupils were still not from English
background and with very limited exposure to English language. The pupils mother
tongue is Malay language and it got worse when I have to face pupils in a class of 40
to 45 pupils. Class control had become another issues. It is not easy to think of
activities that will involved a large number of pupils when you are teaching a
language that pupils could not even understand. I have to use the pupils mother to
teach English language. I have to do some translations in order to help my pupils to
understand my teaching and still drilling was my favourite activities with them.
6
others. Whenever I had conducted group activity in English language, it will ended up
with
language, I got frustrated and this had changed my teaching style. My teaching
become dull and I got fed up but there was nothing I can do. Still there is no
satisfaction I could gain in teaching, the pupils result still not good. I have been so
used with Malay language in teaching rather than the subject language that I have to
teach after many years feeling comfort with translations to Malay language during my
teaching all these years. I think I could be a better Malay language teacher than an
English teacher.
After eight years of teaching in SK Pasukan Polis Hutan, I have been shifted to
another school which it might be a dream school for all English teachers, SK
Tarcisian Convent, Ipoh. It was a totally different experiences if compared to the two
previous schools that I have taught. I got a shocked to see their teaching and
learning culture and it later motivated me to keep on upgrading my knowledge and
skills in my teaching.
SK Tarcisian Convent is a school with enrolment of around 600 pupils. About 80% of
pupils
are from English educated family background and can speak fluently in
English, mostly parents are both working. Quite of a number of parents are working
as supervisors, own family businesses, teachers and others, there are some pupils
where their parents are from higher social-economy stage society such as owner of
big companies, lawyers, doctors and others.
In SK Tarcisian, I was teaching a class of standard one and three classes of standard
three pupils in this school. Teaching the pupils especially all girls in this school was a
relief and a turning point in my teaching life after ten years of teaching. It was totally
different and challenging. I could do many kind of activities and conducted them in
fully English language. Although the pupils have been streamed according to their
final examinations every year, there were many pupils that are still could be
considered as very good in English subject in the lower intermediate class. I have not
much problems in teaching pupils vocabularies but again teaching grammar is the
most difficult part. I have gain more confident and knowledge teaching pupils here.
Teaching grammar in a convent school was much different than teaching grammar in
my two previous schools. The usage of mother tongue was less. Pupils here were
able to converse well in English, although sometimes with a number of mistakes, it
was still at an acceptable and understandable level of language. It was the first time,
I was able to deliver my lesson in English. Some pupils speaks better English
language than me, this group of pupils not just fluent but can comprehend well in
English, English would be the first language for some of the pupils. Their level of
acquisitions of English language gave me the motivation to work harder or else they
will not show respect to me as their English teacher. Just then, I discovered that I
have been so far left behind in learning and upgrading my English language. I was
struggling for three months in the good class in order to speak and communicate
with them in English, I did less speaking and more activities were planned to allow
pupils to express their ideas more.
But luckily, I managed to overcome these problems. I had changed my teaching
style, I started to practice the Direct Method.
In SJKC Hing Hwa, most pupils think that learning English language is a disaster as
they can hardly understand the language, they were forced to learn it and always this
is the subject that would dragged their academic achievement down.
Another words, for them English language is a monster and so do English teacher
too. I had a start with pupils in SJKC Hing Hwa, pretending that I did not speak other
language except English. I speak English more because I believe that my pupils
need to have more exposure. But it did not worked out well. So, I decided to do
some translations during the lesson but pupils are not allow to speak in their mother
tongue.
As cited by Anna-Maria Pinter (2006, p.30) a Canadian researcher, Jim Cummins,
mentioned in his book entitled Language, Power and Pedagogy, has suggested that
bilingual education can be very beneficial for children with regard to their general
development, cognitive and other skills. One factor seems important in this process
is to develop childrens mother tongue and second language literacy skills in parallel
rather than neglecting the first language to make way for the second. I am totally
agree with this statement, so my teaching in SJKC HIng Hwa would be in some
translations in order to make students understand, I have increase oral
communication, group works and lesson drilling activities. It has been working well
until now but still I think that pupils in this school are still significantly weak in
constructing simple sentences. They tend to ignore the changes of the singular and
plural nouns with their verbs. I believe if I could help them to identify the differences
in between the relation on noun and verb and on how do they match them in a
simple sentences, this would give me more motivation and satisfaction teaching in
this school.
I have been teaching my year five pupils since they were in year one, together they
learnt the target language with me. But why there are still at the different levels in the
English language achievement? I have conducted my teaching with them as a class
but why they are still at the different levels? Why some can construct simple
sentences correctly and some failed to do that?
Even though, when it is in pupils reading, pupils always omit the s sound at the end
of the verb, they would rather say, Amin eat an apple. Than saying Amin eats an
apple. I think pupils in Year 5 may be interfered by their first language at school and
tend to left out the s after every verbs for plural subject in their simple present
sentences construction. They are so used of making sentences without noticing the
form of subject as they do in Chinese and even Malay language.
10
In relation to the context of this action research proposal, the difficulty in constructing
simple sentences in pupils writing had create a tendency for them to make some
errors in the writing product. Pupils usually some errors in spelling, capitalization and
punctuation but the common errors that can be found in pupils writing is subject-verb
agreement. This has caused pupils for not be able to empower the writing skills and
they tend to lose marks in their examination especially in their English test , paper 2.
The difficulty in constructing simple sentences among pupils often demotivate them in
learning the target language.
prominent language are not prepared by their first language to expect the relationship
between subject and verb to be marked in any way. Pupils with this problem will not
be able to converse well in English as they are not be able to understand standard
grammatical treatments state for the verbs other than be, number agreement
between the subject and verb poses a problem in the present tense. Where third
person singular form are explicitly inflected while other forms are not.
I have learnt that my pupils tends to simplify and leave off altogether the third person
singular inflection. Example : Jenny live in Ipoh . However, sometimes pupils will
11
over generalize the inflection and apply it to uninflected forms such as auxiliaries or to
verbs following modals for examples, Jack cans dance disco. Or Jack can dances
disco. They may also overuse it as an agreement marker with subjects of
inappropriate person or numbers for examples, I goes to school., They goes to
school. Or You goes to school. Yet, another reasons what some pupils overuse
this form is that they interpret the-s ending as a plural marker on the verb to be used
in agreement with plural subjects, for example, They goes to the movies often. Or
The boys goes to the movies often. This has affected the qualities of their writing
especially in writing short essay. In their essays writing, I have found plenty of
mistakes caused by their lack understanding of the subject agreement. Although , I
still be able to identify their main ideas and know what do they were trying to express
in their writing but too many mistakes had distracted me to award them with higher
marks especially in their tests or examinations. Even in their daily writing works, with
a lot of correction that have been detected by teacher and correction that they have
to do, pupils begin to get demotivate and this have affected their level of confidence
in learning English language.
Pupils also having difficulties in their reading, where they tend to make mistakes
to left out of the-s at behind of the verbs. I have been correcting pupils regarding this
issue for many times but the same problems will occur during reading. It seems that
they do not bother about my explanations. They just read it because the teacher
asked them to do that. Why do pupils always omit the -s ? I think it is depend on the
pupils age , language background and what they have learn in class. A number
of studies have shown that students acquire English language morphemes in a fairly
predictable fashion, regardless of language background, age and what they learn in
class. I think maybe pupils are not clear with rule that perhaps was misunderstood or
only partially learned. I have tried to make students more sensitive to subject / verb
agreement in the input that surrounds them, the more they notice and re-notice the
third person -s outside the classroom, the more likely they are to restructure
their interlanguage. Besides that, encourage students to monitor their speech, which
might contribute to long-term overall accuracy is very important too.
According to Diane Larsen-Freeman (2003) , grammar is one of the three
dimensions of language that are interconnected. Grammar gives us the form or the
structure of language. It tells us how to construct a sentence. Pupils are having
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verbs and
understand that object is the person or thing that correspondent to the verb. This has
become the main difficulty for the year five pupils as I believe that pupils are
confused with the explanations of grammatical rule of SVO. I have observed and
learnt is in the form of pupils understanding towards grammar especially subject
verb agreement . Pupils can understand the concept in simple
sentences
construction during and after lesson by giving them the table, which was evidenced
by the worksheet after the lesson but still they keep on making mistakes after a few
days. I also drilled them with sentences patterns, pupils just repeat what I have read
to them many times without real understanding so it did not work out properly. Pupils
seemed to rely so much on the table, without the table they were not able to write.
Rememberising is another problems, pupils were asked to rememberize the
sentence pattern and the table but they will forget after a certain periods of time, So,
based on the things that I have learnt from pupils weaknesses.
I also asked them to copy down their notes in the exam paper once they have
received the test paper although it managed to increase the number of correct
sentences but it just worked out for other forms of sentences such as simple past
sentences and simple present continues sentences. This made my pupils depend on
the table all the time.
In addition to that it has created more confusions when they are speaking the
target language as they could not carry the table along with them all the time and
refer to it besides that speaking happened on the sport and spontaneously and
needed immediate feedback. Traditional table just not work out well enough in
helping my pupils. I got fed up from marking pupils works with the same mistakes.
Although there some improvements after using the SVO table in my teaching but it is
still not perfect as pupils still make mistakes.
13
According to David H and Gloria R (2003), You may have been told that a verb
describes an action. However, just as with nouns, the notional definition of a verb
does not always work. For example, own is a verb, but it is hardly to identify any
action that takes place in sentence for example , John owns two houses.. I think my
pupils are having difficulties in identifying and
grammatical treatments state for the verbs other than be, the agreement between
the subject and verb poses a problem in the present tense. Where third person
singular form are explicitly inflected while other forms are not. So, in my picture
substitution table I will provide pupils with the support of pictures showing them the
action and label them with the correct form of inflection -s. After that pupils will
construct sentences out of the substitution table.
Why do pupils make mistakes in constructing simple present sentences? Dont pupils
understand that English language is a very unique language that apply special rules
and regulations in its usage like other languages? What should I do? In line to this
matter, I manage to come out with a SVO substitution table by using pictures to guide
pupils to build up concepts on how simple present sentences can be constructed
correctly.
14
3. How does the picture substitution table assist the pupils effectively to construct
the simple sentences?
4.0 Who will my research participant be?
The participants of this research consist of 15 pupils from Year 5 pupils, which will be
of mixed abilities class of pupils, who obtained marks from the range of highest to the
lowest marks for English Language in the previous semester examination. They have
a low proficiency in English language as shown in appendix 1.
Appendix 1:
Profile of the Respondents
Location of the student
Respondents
Total number
Gender
Nationality
Number
Family Background
Male
Respondent 1
English level
Good
Respondent 2
Intermediate
Respondent 3
Intermediate
Respondent 4
Intermediate
Respondent 5
Intermediate
Respondent 6
Respondent 7
Lower Intermediate
(slow Learner)
Special need child
16
(OKU)
Fema
le
Total
Respondent 8
Good
Respondent 9
Intermediate
Respondent 10
Intermediate
Respondent 11
Intermediate
Respondent 12
Mother : housewife
Intermediate
Respondent 13
Mother : housewife
Intermediate
Respondent 14
Intermediate
Respondent 15
Lower Intermediate
(slow Learner)
15 respondent
In the year 2014 KSSR pupils band achievement. The highest achievement was at
band 5 and the lowest was at band 1. It was not a very ideal achievement. As my
pupils family background are unique, so I think this might be one of the reason why
they are at the different levels. Although they are studying in a school located in
Tambun town, which is a place that is near to Ipoh town area but they have low
proficiency in English language. It is because they use their mother tongue to
communicate at home and do not belong to an English language speaking family as
mostly their mother is a full time house wife, or they stay with the grandparents
whom acted as their guardians. Their parents or guardians do not practice talking in
this language at home. Thus, they show less interest in learning English language
and English language is perceived to be for learning purposes only. The only time
they are exposed to English language is through the English lesson with me in the
classroom, so the pupils give less importance to learning the language.
17
by
comparing
pre-intervention
information
to
post-intervention
information. It is important to get the same respondents to take part in both pre &
post-tests in order to draw valid conclusions. Pre-and post test is focusing on
18
constructing simple sentences and identifying the tenses usage. This is where I
undertake measurement before and after an intervention Pupils will be given a
worksheet such as below each on simple sentences construction and identifying
mistakes in the text before and after pupils were expose to picture substitution table
as shown in appendix 2.
Appendix 2:
Pre- Post test
Name :__________________________
cycle
read
run
eat
1. _____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
B. Circle the errors in the text and rewrite them in the space provided.
Picture 2:
Mrs. Tan and Mrs. Wong is at the beach. They brings along their children to
the beach. Both women sits on a mat under a shady tree. They talks about their
children while looking at them. Their children plays happily at the beach. Mrs. Tans
son, David, build a sandcastle next to Mrs. Wongs children. They builds a larger
19
sandcastle than David and Davids cousins plays ball in the water. They has an
enjoyable time together.
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Appendix 3:
Class :
Items
Tick ( /
)
Ye
s
No
Comments
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Other than that, structured interview questionnaire are another methods that will be one
of the instrument in data collection. I will be using a structured interview where the
questionnaire
large amounts of information can be collected from respondents in a short period of time
and in a relatively cost effective way. It also can be carried out by the researcher or by
any number of people with limited affect to its validity and reliability. In addition to that,
the results of the questionnaires can usually be quickly and easily quantified by either a
researcher or through the use of a software package. The data can be analyzed more
'scientifically' and objectively than other forms of research, when data has been
quantified, it can be used to compare and contrast other research and may be used to
measure change and lastly positivists believe that quantitative data can be used to
21
create new theories and / or test existing hypotheses. Structured interview questionnaire
as shown in appendix 4.
Appendix 4:
Structured Interview Questionnaire
Name : _____________________________
_____________
Class :
N
o
Scale
Items
2.
1 2 3 4 5
22
Comments
9.
Scales:
1. Strongly disagree
2. disagree
3. slightly disagree
4. agree
5.Strongly agree
6.0 What is my recommended intervention?
The concept
sentence construction. After the second intervention, I will ask my colleague from other
language panel to observe my pupils behavior. For this reason, I will plan another
observation by a the class teacher of the pupils progress and finally after the fifth
intervention, the post-test will be held. For the pupils, I will give them a structured
interview questionnaire to gauge their opinions on how the picture substitution table
could help them in improving their sentences writing s skills. The last step of this Kurt
Lewin model is reflect where the results of these three instruments which are the
posttest, behavioral observation as well as the structured interview, will be analyzed. A
reflection will be made so as to see whether the plan needs to be revised or modified for
the next cycle.
24
25
26
27
implementation of the action. Step 1,is on the first week , I have been reading and
searching inputs and to obtain knowledge regarding writing action research proposal.
Then, I reflect on teaching and learning to identify focus area and problems related with
focus area and related invention until the third week. From the third week to fourth
week , I will determine data collection techniques and instruments and do data analysis.
For step 2 , I write the first draft of research proposal, I also have discussion with by
lecturer on the research proposal on the fifth to eight week. In between this period of
time until the tenth week, I will carry out planned lesson with the intervention as
proposed , explore and monitor action. In the intervention I will use my
Picture
Firstly, I will expose my pupils to the plural subject picture substitution table as shown in
appendix 6, on the first lesson, then show them to the singular subject picture
substitution table as shown in appendix 7 on the second lesson and on the third lesson I
will show them both of the tables. I think if I can do this with them, my pupils will be able
to improve in simple sentences construction as I believe this will help them to build up
the scaffolding in sentences construction.
The rational to my intervention is I believe that a picture is worth a thousand words.
This phrase emerged in the USA in the early part of the 20th century. Its introduction is
widely attributed to Frederick R. Barnard (1921). Pictures convey information more
efficiently and effectively than words do. It is much easier to learn what do actions or
verbs do by looking at pictures, rather than by hearing some describe them.
I am totally agree that the Year 5 pupils in SJKC Hing Hwa will learn better and
effectively through pictures, posters, videos, games and realias.
Appendix 6:
Plural Subject Substitution Table:
Plural Subject
Plural Verb
Object
sandwiches.
The twins
29
eat
I
Letters.
write
We
in the sea.
swim
They
pictures.
draw
Appendix 7:
Singular Subject Substitution Table:
Singular Subject
Singular Verb
He
Object
a sandwich.
eats
30
She
a letter.
writes
in the sea.
The boy
swims
Ali
a picture.
draws
Back to our discussion that is on the 8th to 11th week, I will carry out intended
instrumentations regarding my foundlings from the invention.
On step 4, I will make it from the twelfth to 17th week, as I need more time to do
monitoring and interpret data, as well as to prepare me for the further steps.
On step 5, I have planned it from the 18th week to 21st week. The focuses are on
reflection, evaluation effects of action and making conclusion.
Step 5 will starts at the22nd week to 25th week. I this four weeks, I will draft, edit and
review the research report. Writing the research report will take me around three weeks
until the date of submission on the 27th week. The submission will be on the last day of
the 27th week.
31
Cost of Study
The estimate for the cost of the study is RM33.50. It can be seen in Appendix 8.
Appendix 8:
Cost of Study
No
Items
Quantity
Cost
1.
A4 paper
1 pkt
RM 5.00
2.
A4 paper ( Coloured)
3 pkts
RM 15.00
4.
Mounting board
2 pcs
RM 25.00
6.
UHU glue
2 bottles
RM 30.00
7.
Paper clip
2 boxes
RM 6.00
8.
Flash cards
2 pkt
RM 11.00
9.
Photostatting services
Not recorded
RM 10.00
Percentage of pre-test
scores
(%)
Scores obtained in X
pre-test
100
total scores
100
32
The differences in the score will be used in order to represent the improvement in
respondents performance. This data will help to indicate the minority and majority
improvement in simple sentence construction. I will be able to identify the improvement
for each respondent from the lowest to the highest range.
The data then will be presented in a form of bar chart. Bar chart
a chart with rectangular bars
represent.
among
to
the
values
that
is
they
categories of pupils that are good, intermediate and lower Intermediate. One
axis of the
chart shows the result of two categories that are Pre and Post test being
From the that pupils observation checklist that I am going to carry out, I will collect
data based on the founding that I am going to discovered and gather during my
invention. The data analysis will be display on a table that will shows the result of the
respondents answer Yes or No. from the checklist , I would be able to identify
respondents problems and take further action to make changes to improve the
respondents simple sentences writing ability.
Conclusion
The action study proposal will enable me to indicate a new method in dealing with my
Year 5 pupils problem in simple sentences construction that has been occurring
throughout the years. The steps from zero to the end will be a success and it will gives
33
a big impact to me in my instructional especially in teaching writing skill and it will allow
pupils to reach for a higher achievement in sentences construction in the future.
References
Books :
1. Dr. Goh Lay Huah (2012). A pratical guide to writing your action research.
Penerbitan Multimedia. Malaysia.
2. Patsy M. Lightbown & Nina Spada.(2006).How language are learned.
(fourth edition) Oxford, London.
3. Hyacinth Gaudart. (2006). English language teaching practices. Sasbadi
Sdn Bhd.Malaysia.
4. Pratt,C.C.,McGuigan, W,M.,& Katzev, A. R. (2000). Measuring program
34
35
Appendixes:
36