Action Research Proposal

Title: The effectiveness of using autobiography text in helping the pupils to construct
simple sentences with the correct sentences structure (SVO).
1. Background of the Study
1.1. Introduction
The basic idea of the 21st century learning is that students, who will come of age
in the 21st century, need to be taught different skills than those learned by students in
the 20th century, and that the skills they learn should reflect the specific demands that
will placed upon them in a complex, competitive, knowledge-based, information-age,
technology-driven economy and society (21 st Century skills, 2014). Realising the
importance of preparing our students to face the 21 st century challenges, the Ministry
of Education had launched a comprehensive review of the education system in
October 2011 in order to develop a new National Education Blueprint. This decision
was made to improve the international education standards, the Governments
aspiration of improving and preparing Malaysias children for the needs of the 21st
century, and increased public and parental expectations of education policy
(Malaysia Education Blueprint, 2013-2025). One of the goals in the Malaysian
Education Blueprint is to improve the national education standard as well as produce
students who are proficient in more than one language especially in English.
1.2. Reflection of My Past Teaching and Learning Experience
I have been teaching in three different school for practicum and I have realised
that every school has encountered different learning problems that faced by the
pupils. I went to S.K Convent (1) in Klang for my first practicum. The school was one
of the high performance school and also the best school in Klang in 2014. Though,

there are remedial pupils in the school but the number is less compared than other
schools. I was assigned to teach the first class in which pupils were scored good
results in their examinations and they were able to understand the English language.
Therefore, it was easy for me to communicate with my pupils by using English.
However, even the students can communicate in English, I realised some of the
students are hard to understand my instructions as few of them need to ask their
friends for the translations in their first language.
I asked the pupils to exchange their paper with their friends, but there are few of
them still do not know what to do
(Journal Entry No. 12, Date)
Therefore, I assumed that it was my instructions that very difficult for them to
understand and I should make it become simpler and clear so it is easy for the pupils
to comprehend and follow my instructions. According to (citation needed) when
teachers can give clear instructions, learners feel more secure in the lesson and it
also means learners can begin tasks more quickly, which increases time for learning.
I realised that it is important for a teacher to have clear instructions in teaching and
learning in order for the pupils to learn in class. Therefore, before entering the class,
I have planned and rehearsed the instruction and asked my friends if the instructions
that I have provided is suitable and clear for my pupils. I have met my cooperative
teacher and ask her advice regarding this issue and pupils participations in class.
She told me that even the class that I entered is the first class in year 4 and higher
achievement pupils are most in there, but there are few pupils in the class with low
achievement in English but well achieved in other subjects. She suggested to me to
do the demonstration to the pupils before giving my instructions to them. As

according to (citation needed) it is helpful for students if teachers plan their

instructions and use simple language also, often supported by clear gestures or
demonstrations (date). After I had changed my instructions to become more clear
and simple to the pupils and did demonstrations before asking them to do the task,
as a result, I found that the participations of the pupils had improved and they are
more engaged with the task and the activities that I conducted with them. In fact,
there are no pupils asking for the translations for my instructions again.
My school that I was teaching for the second phase of practicum is S.K Taman
Sea in Petaling Jaya. The school is considered as small school because the
enrolment is 260 pupils and there is only one class for every year and except for
year 4 as there are two classes of them. I was been assigned to teach year 3. Since
there is no streaming in the school, there is a mix ability which consists of the low
and intermediate achievement of pupils in the class. In fact, only few of the pupils
can understand and use English very well in the class. I found that it is a bit
challenging for me to carry English lesson to them as many of them are not
interested in learning the language and every pupil has different needs that need to
be met by the teacher.
The pupils are not paying attention to the lesson as some of them are playing
and talking at the back. I thought it was my lesson that is not interesting to them, but
when I asked them personally they told me that they dont understand and not
interested in learning the language. As a teacher, I think this is my important mission
to solve!
(Journal Entry No. 4, Date)

Therefore, by looking at this issue, I have met and discussed it with my

cooperative teacher on how to overcome this problem. She suggested to me to use
token economy or reward system in class during English lesson. This is because
there is a research done by Abdul, Amir and Rusni (2006), reported that the usage of
token economy was successful in encouraging positive academic behaviour and
improved achievement among the students at SK Anak-anak Tentera, Kepala Batas.
She also told me that she had done it with the year 3 pupils and it was a success in
dealing with the pupils misbehaviour in class. After meeting her, I had applied token
economy to my pupils. Token economy is defined as a form of positive reinforcement
whereby tokens are ascribed value for what they can exchange with desired or
needed things (Edward, 2008). This action can reinforce the desired behaviour to be
occurred. Therefore, I started to reward a stamp to my pupils who could finish their
work fast with the correct answers as well as to pupils who are showing good
behaviour in class. They have to collect a number of stamps so that they can redeem
the prizes at the end of the month. Thus, by doing this, it really can help me to deal
with the pupils misbehaviour in class as the pupils will try their best to get the stamp
and compete with each other in a healthy way. As the result, the pupils are
performing the desired behaviour in class.
2. What is the Focus of My Study
2.1. What is My Research Issue
The Ministry of Education has set down the objectives for the teaching of writing
in Malaysian schools that stated in the Document Standard as the year five writing
module aims to develop the pupils ability to write and present a range of texts using
appropriate language, style and form for different purposes and audience through a
variety of media. In this stage, they learn to write words, phrases, sentences and

paragraphs in neat legible print and cursive writing. In fact, pupils are also introduced
to the process of writing simple compositions which includes planning, drafting,
revising and editing. In addition, the mechanics of writing such as spelling,
punctuation and grammar checking is emphasised. The writing at this level is guided.
The amount of control is gradually relaxed; moving pupils towards independent
writing (KSSR, 2011). As a result, by the end of Year 6, pupils will be able to write a
range of texts using appropriate language, style and form through a variety of media.
Therefore, it is the teachers responsibility to make sure every and each of the pupils
are able to write and construct sentences correctly.
Though, Nesamalar, Saratha and Teh (2005) mentioned that writing is the skill
most pupils are least proficient in because they have little use for it in the immediate
present and also very few social uses for writing in English in the school period of a
Malaysian citizens life. By looking at this, writing skills has been introduced to the
pupils as early as year 1 in order for them to grasp and have good writing skills,
indirectly able to meet the governments aspiration that stated in the curriculum. This
is because writing skills are an important part of communication.
However, in order for the written product to be understood and the effective
communication to be occurred, people have to avoid making any grammatical
mistakes as grammar is one of the fundamental elements in writing. This is because,
if you do not use correct grammar such as punctuation, tenses or your sentences are
too long and complex, what you are trying to say will become unclear and the reader
will be unable to follow the text because the flow of meaning is interrupted. As a
result, this will lead to the miscommunication between the sender and receiver as the
meaning is being misunderstood. (insert evidence here)

Hence, one of the main problems I faced in teaching English was that my
pupils are not able to express their idea in orderly manner when it comes to writing
because of the grammatical errors and unstructured sentences. Indeed, all school
that I went for practicum have encountered the same problem as the pupils are
unable to write and construct the sentences correctly in writing as some of them had
constructed the sentences with the wrong sentences structure. Thus, it is difficult for
me to understand what the pupils are trying to say in their essay as they cannot even
construct simple sentences correctly.
An example of the errors that my pupils had done in their written work can be
seen in Figure 1 and 2. Figure 2 shows the stimulus and Table 1 shows examples of
pupils work. In this exercise, the pupils were to write a postcard by writing a short
message.

2.2. What Have I Learnt About My Research Issue

Causes

After analysing the errors made by the pupils, there were several possible
causes identified on why they cannot construct the sentences correctly as shown in
the Figure 1-5.
There are several possible causes for pupils having problems in constructing
the simple sentences with the correct sentence structure in writing. For one, the
interference of the pupils first language that caused them failed to construct
sentences with the correct sentence structure. Brown (2000) states that specifically
in the early stages of learning a L2, before the system of the L2 is familiar; the L1 is
the only previous linguistic system upon which the learner can draw. The error
occurs as a result of familiarity with the L1. Therefore, there is a transfer effect
whether directly or indirectly of the L1 to the new language. When parallel features of
the two languages correspond exactly, there is a positive transfer from L1 to L2.
When they do not correspond exactly, there is a negative transfer, that is,
interference (Ho, 1973). Kesumawati, Nor and Norshimah (2008) mentioned that one
of the main constraints of English acquisition particularly in constructing sentences in
writing among Malaysian students is the differences of syntactical structures
between the Malay and English language. This is because, syntax is one of the main
areas of linguistics in which sentence structures and patterns are analyzed. Although
Malay and English share the same basic structure that is subject-verb-object (SVO),
there are numerous other differences between the two languages especially in
sentence structure. It is clear that a large number of sentence structure mistakes
were identified due to first language interference as is not found in the Malay
language.
Sentence structure is defined as the arrangement of words, phrases,
and clauses in a sentence. The grammatical meaning of a sentence is dependent on

this structural organization, which is also called syntax or syntactic structure. The
most common word order in English sentences is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO). When
reading a sentence, we generally expect the first noun to be the subject and the
second noun to be the object. This expectation (which isn't always fulfilled) is known
in linguistics as the canonical sentence strategy. Fernandez and Cairns (2011)
mentioned that pupils syntactically were not fully aware of sentence structure as it is
abstract in a way that sounds and words are not and by that, it making the pupils
become more confused in constructing the sentences with the correct sentences
structure as they are not able to differentiate the grammatical functions in
constructing the sentences.
Thus, it is believed that the interference of mother tongue is the possible
cause of constructing the sentences incorrectly. In fact, the influence of native
language can be positive in transferring features of the native language on to the
target language (Woo, 2010). This is because the sentence structure in English are
different from one language to the next, and hence direct translation would result in
an ungrammatical sentence.
Other causes include the pupils lack of knowledge and inability to apply the
grammar rules as listed by Rosniah (2003), several types of common grammatical
errors of English among Malaysian students and subject-verb agreement is one of
those. Very often, students use the wrong form of verb in a sentence which does not
agree with the subject as well as the tenses. There is a research done by Darus and
Subramaniam (2009) show that errors that the students committed in writing were
basically grammatical. The students also had a relatively weak vocabulary and they
committed errors in applying grammar rules in English. The study concludes that the
students have problems in acquiring grammatical rules in English.

Solutions
By analyzing and listed the causes, I found that there are several possible
interventions can be used to address my research issue such as using electronic
sentence puzzle (ePuzz) and the autobiography text.
Nesamalar, Saratha and Teh (2005), mentioned that writing is a system for
interpersonal communication using visible signs or graphic symbols on a flat surface
such as paper, cloth or stone. In fact, good writing skills allow you to communicate
your message with clarity and ease to a far larger audience than through face-toface or telephone conversations (Skills you need, 2015). This is because writing is
constructed by putting sentences in sequence, one after another. If a single sentence
is read, it should form a meaning and can be understood by the others. Thus,
meaning should flow from one sentence to the next, carrying the argument or point
of view forward in a clear and concise way (citation). Whereas, a sentence is a
sequence of words whose first word starts with a capital letter and whose last word is
followed by an end punctuation mark (period/full stop or question mark or
exclamation mark (citation). Therefore, in my opinion Electronic sentence puzzle
(ePuzz) can help the pupils to construct meaningful sentences as it requires the
pupils to sequence and rearrange the words correctly with the correct sentence
structure (SVO).
ePuzz is an electronic pocket chart where the pupils are required to locate
and rearrange words in a variety of positions in order for them to form sentences or
from sentences to form a paragraph. According to Nesamalar, Saratha and Teh
(2005), pocket charts are very useful in mixed ability classes where it is necessary to
set separate work for different groups, and for individuals or small group of children

who need helping with reading and the formation of sentences. In fact, ePuzz is one
of the sight word skills in reading as the pupils can easily recognize the word by
looking at it and without any need to think about what the word would be. By doing
this, it can reduce the anxiety of the pupils in constructing sentences as the words
are provided for them in order to construct the sentences. Moreover, the ePuzz
method also helps the pupils to be familiar with the correct sentence structure as
they are drilled and exposed to it when they are doing the ePuzz. Thus, it can help
the pupils in constructing the sentences correctly as they have to rearrange the
words to form sentences with the correct sentence structure as well as expressing
the idea in a correct and meaningful manner.
The intervention that I have chosen in order to overcome my research issue is
using the autobiography text in helping the pupils to construct sentences with the
correct sentence structure.
A descriptive writing is a written text that describing a person, place or thing in
such a way that a picture is formed in the reader's mind and one of the examples of
descriptive writing is an Autobiography. This is because an autobiography requires a
person to write about his or her own life as well as an event that happened. Cox
(2008) stated that autobiography can be used as model for writing as it offers lots of
skills that can help the pupils to improve in writing. For instance, autobiography can
help the pupils to be familiarised with sentences structure in the text, organize their
ideas coherently based on the events that happened and increase their motivation in
writing. In fact, Steve (2013) mentioned that teaching students to write more
descriptively, particularly in writing an autobiography will improve their writing by
making it more interesting and engaging to read. Due to that, autobiographies have

the reputation of being a somewhat inferior subgenre of childrens literature (Cox,

2008).
As mentioned above, autobiography can help the pupils to construct the
sentences correctly as they are exposed to the correct sentence structure (SVO). By
doing this, the pupils are familiarised with the sentences structure as they have to
construct the simple sentences in order to write a complete autobiography. Examples
of the simple sentences in the autobiography text will be shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Example of the sentences in Autobiography.

Thus, by showing the example above, we can see that the pupils will practice
on constructing simple sentences with the correct sentences structure as the
sentences contain a subject and followed by verb and an object. By doing this, the
pupils will know that a sentence must consist and usually begin with a subject (noun)
and followed by verb.

Besides, by using autobiography, pupils can learn on how to organise the

information or idea in writing. This is because, when writing an autobiography, the
writer must follow the sequence of event that happened based on the story or
someones life. Cox (2008) stated that children can focus on such an event in a
persons life when writing an autobiography by providing some information about the
circumstances leading up to it or following it, as needed. Thus, by doing this, it can
help the pupils to write their ideas coherently in writing as they have to follow the
sequence of idea in the event. For example, the pupils have to write about their
name first before start to write about their hometown.
In fact, it is believed that autobiography can increase the intrinsic motivation of
the pupils. This is because when writing an autobiography, the pupils actually write
about themselves. According to Nesamalar, Saratha and Teh (2005), intrinsic
motivation comes from within the individual where the person might be motivated by
the enjoyment of the learning process itself or by desire to make themselves feel
better. Supported by Harmer (2007), students motivation is far more likely to remain
healthy if they enjoy doing, and which they can see the point of. Since,
autobiography is writing about the pupils life, they can loosely organize information
about themselves to compile autobiographies as there are no right or wrong
information needed (Cox, 2008). Thus, this can lead them to create their own story
based on what they have on mind and indirectly it can help to enhance their
creativity in writing. By doing this, the pupils will enjoy doing the autobiography
where it leads to the acceleration of their motivation level in writing. This is because,
according to Ramos (2013), autobiography can encourage students to boost their
confidence by writing about what they know through personal experience and indeed
this activity shows students on how to break down and organize the memoir writing

process. Hence, it is the teachers choice of what are the activities that they assigned
the pupils to do have an important role, therefore, in their continuing engagement
with the learning process.
3. What is My Research Objective
My research objective was to determine the effectiveness of using the
autobiography text in helping the year 5 pupils to construct simple sentences with the
correct sentence structure.
4. Who Will My Research Participants Be?
I will carry out my research at SK Seksyen 17, Shah Alam, Selangor, during my
third phase of practicum. The research participants are the Year Five pupils. There
are five classes of Year Five. The school had practised the academic streaming and
the pupils are placed according to their academic performance. The class that will be
involved in this research is 5X, which is the third class in Year Five and it consists of
mixed-ability pupils. That is, the class that I was assigned to teach English. I found
that the pupils in 5X class are weak in constructing sentences but I decided to focus
on 10 pupils that have low proficiency in English language. My research participants
are all Malays. Their mother tongue is Malay Language. They come from nonEnglish speaking environment and English is their second language. They dont use
English with their family or peers at home.
The pupils came from average and below average social economic groups.
Based on the interview that I had with the pupils, I found that they stayed at the lowcost flats near the school. Most of the pupils walked to school or came to school by
bicycle. Most of the pupils in the class did not attend private tuition for extra
academic guidance but most of them did attend religious school in the afternoon.
5. How Will I Collect My Data
Harmer (2007) mentioned that in order for our inquiry or research to be
effective, we have to gather data. There are many ways of doing this, but in this
research I will use test, questionnaire and journal writing in assessing the

effectiveness of my intervention in helping the pupils to construct simple sentences

with the correct sentence structure.
5.1 Test 1 and Test 2
One of the instruments that I will use in this research is test. I used test as my
instrument because I want to see how well they pupils on after I did my intervention
to them. This is because according to Brown and Abeywickrama (2010), a test is the
systematic process to collect information on the pupils knowledge, ability and
performance. Thus, it is in line with the purpose of doing the test as the tests were
specifically designed to measure changes that may occur as a result of exposing
pupils to an intervention (Mertler, 2006).
The test that I designed for this research is a summative test as I will ask the
pupils to take the test after I had implied knowledge on them. This is because the
summative test is the kind of measurement that takes place to round things off or
make a one-off measurement (Harmer, 2007). In fact, Brown and Abeywickrama
(2010) mentioned the aims of the summative test are to measure or summarize what
a student has grasped and typically occurs at the end of a course or unit of
instructions. I designed Test 1 and Test 2 for this research (refer to Appendix 1). This
is because the tests were specifically designed to measure changes that may occur.
According to Mertler (2006), the changes that occurred is the result of exposing
pupils to an intervention The questions for Test 1 and Test 2 were same in terms of
the level of difficulty and format of the questions. This is because Rosinah (2011)
mentioned the similarities that shared by both test can enhance the validity of the
research instruments.
Despite of the purpose or test or exam has, a major factor in its success or
failure as a measuring instrument will be determined by the item types that it
contains (Harmer, 2007). Hence, there are four questions in each test. The pupils

have to construct five simple sentences based on the picture. The tests will be
constructed with reference to documents and books. I will refer to the KSSR syllabus
for Year Five by the Ministry of Education (2015) in order to ensure that the area of
coverage was within Year Five syllabus. Further, I refer to textbooks Year Four and
Five.
5.2 Questionnaires
Questionnaire, which are sometimes more effective that the interviews or any
methods as we can get respondents to answer open question such as questions
which ask for some kind of rating response (Harmer, 2007). Brown and Dowling
(1990) stated the use of questionnaire is common among the researchers who wish
to collect information from a large number of people. Thus, I choose the
questionnaire as one of my instruments because I want to collect information on the
pupils response about the effectiveness of the intervention that I have conducted.
In the process of designing my questionnaire, I will focus on the types of
questions and organisation. Therefore, my questionnaire only included questions
relating to my objective and the information that I want such as it is easy to write in
English. By getting the responses from the pupils, I could determine the
effectiveness of my intervention. Moreover, the language used in the questionnaire
was simple. The reason is to ensure all my participants were able to understand and
clear with the questions. This is because according to Wallace (1998), a good
questionnaire must laid out in a straightforward manner. The questionnaire was
attached as the Appendix 2.
In this questionnaire, I only involved 10 participants and distributed to them
after I have impart knowledge on them. In fact, the participants will be anonymous
when answering this questionnaire because in my opinion, pupils will be more

comfortable to express their thoughts honestly if their identity is unknown. This is

supported by Christensen and Johnson (2012) as sometimes participants are scared
to answer honestly because of the presence of a researcher.
I used closed-ended questions for my questionnaire in which to make my
participants answering it easily as according to Wallace (1998), the closed questions
will make the questionnaire easier and quicker to fill in. I also have use the Likert
scale in order to help my participants to answer the questions as they only needed to
choose from the scales given. The five-point scales which are, 1 represents strongly
disagree, 2 represents disagree, 3 represents do not know, 4 represents agree, and
5 represent strongly agree were used to allow my participants expressing how much
they agreed or disagreed with the statement. By using this scale, it will encourage
my participants to think before they answered the statement. As a result, it will help
to increase the reliability of the questionnaire.
5.3 Journal Writing
Mc Niff and Whitehead (2009) define reflection as a process regarding
thinking about and exploring an issue of concern, which was triggered by an
experience. This was because journals can reflect the learning process and provide
insights to an issue (Goh, 2012). According to Wallace (1998), journals are the
shared accounts of a persons actions, thoughts and feelings written by the person
himself or herself, usually on a daily basis. Thus, journal writing will be my third
instrument to find the effectiveness of using the autobiography method in helping the
pupils to construct simple sentences with the correct sentence structure.
By writing journal, it can help me in improving my lesson by reflecting the
teaching and learning process that happened every day in school. In this respect, I
will record anything that related in the process of completing this research such as

my feelings, hopes, fears, and mistake for the lessons. Through writing journal also, I
can reflect on various factors that led to the events that happened in the classroom.
By doing so, it helps to enhance my understanding of the context as well as the
process of action research.
6. What is My Recommended Intervention?
7. How Will I Analyse My Data?