1.

0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Learning to spell accurately and automatically is an important part of learning

to read and write, and it is brings a valuable experience in analyzing the sound
and meaning of language ( Treiman, 1997). Spelling is important skill which
students must acquire so that, they can be excel in the four major skill that is
reading, listening, speaking and writing. The undertaking of this research
project is to overcome misspelling the same words over and over in reading
and writing In ESL Primary classroom. The reason for highlight this issue
because spelling is the process of representing language by means of writing
system. According to (Tompkins, 2012), students need to learn to spell
words conventionally so that pupils can communicate effectively through
writing.
Now days, many students have problem in writing a simple sentences
because they are not able to spell the words correctly (Meriem, 2010). In
most of the schools pupils are poor in spelling. It is become a common and
serious academic difficulty which is prolongs from one generation to the next
generation (Helen & Weisse, n.d). In most of Malaysia primary school
English became a killer subject for the UPSR candidates. It was been proven
through The 2004 School Certificate Examination Report on English
Language 2 (MOE, 2005) that majority of the candidates have yet to master
the writing skills in English. This article shows that, most of the pupils writing
skills at the UPSR level in guided composition in vernacular schools are far
from satisfactory. This poor performance is primarily due to limited exposure,
usage and negative feelings towards English. According to Andrew Wright
(1997), many-middle and upper-grade students who can read and write
adequately may still experience serious difficulties in spelling. It is shows all
students facing the misspelling problems in their daily teaching and learning
process. So that according to (Helen & Weisse, n.d) mentioned in his article
 that lesson focusing on spelling is very important so that ,students can read
fluently and write accurately. Spelling is the learners ability to write a word

correctly. So that, it is very important to emphasis the spelling skill in students

since they are in primary level.

1.2 Reflection of Past Teaching Experience

During my teaching practicum phase one I was placed in SK Kelana Jaya

1 to teach in morning session. The students from the school were from
medium level of proficiency. I assigned to teach year 5. I taught them for the
whole duration of the practicum which for one month. I have experience a lot
through this one month teaching practicum. Over the period of time I faced
some problems due to classroom management and pupils language
development. Since my students are very active I could not control the
classroom effectively. But over the period of time, I was able to build good
rapport with the students through applying variety of activities.
Not only in classroom management I had some problems in pupils
academic performance. Since the level of my students is medium and active
they are not very bad in performing their work but however, they are very
weak in remembering new words and poor in spelling common words until
changing the meaning of a sentences. Sometimes, I have to spend much time
in correcting their spelling, due to this sometimes I have failed in achieving
the objective of the lesson because they even could not understand what they
are reading when they utter the words wrongly. I wont say that my pupils are
very low in English language but I realized that there is something lack in their
writing and reading performance which I must have a look. Thus, I carry out
some activities with them, as spell the words by seeing pictures correctly,
spelling, reading, listen and write, and I noticed that they were not up to my
expectation even though they are average in language. Through the activity
given I observe that students failed to spell words given correctly. For an
example when I ask pupils to spell the words introduced at the end of the
week they fail to spell it. Some of the students misspell the words again and
again, when I asked them to write a short simple sentences they wrote it with
spelling errors for a common word such as grey ( gray), spit (spet) and
ball (boll) snorkeling ( (snorkiling) and so on. I noticed
the same problem when I gave home work to my pupils, they tend misspell
words in the sentences. They would omit certain alphabet in the words, for
an example in year 5 pupils spell the word Island as (I Iand). It takes some
times for me to understand the words in the sentences.

I noticed this issue effect pupils writing and speaking dramatically when
conducting listening and speaking lesson. Most of my pupils can identify and
pronounce the word when I show the picture but when comes to spelling they
could not spell it correctly, for an example when I conducting The Elves and
the shoemaker for yearr 5 I have introduce them the vocabularies ( Elves,
Shoe maker, Cobbler, tools and so on ). The next day I showed the picture of
Elves and say aloud the words and asked my pupils to spell it out, there is
the twist where most of my pupils were spelt the words wrongly Elvs.
However in my second teaching practicum, I also faced the same problem.
Class controlling and language performance of pupils in English Language
lesson. I was placed in SK Menjalara Kepong to teach in morning session.
The students from the school were from medium level of proficiency. This
time I assigned to teach year 2. I taught them for the whole duration of the
practicum which for two month. I have observed a lot through this two month
of teaching practicum. Since my pupils were year 2 they were very naughty
and active during my lesson. It was really hard for me to control my pupils
behavior in my class. To overcome this I was applied the theory which have
taught by my lecturer in the class that is (Skinner reward and punishment)
method. It was really effective in controlling my pupils behavior.
In term of language my pupils were Intermediate level, but they also tend to
do errors in their writing and speaking. They also facing the spelling problem
which is spell the words given wrongly. They could not spell the common word
 like ( crow spell as cow), bear as beh and so on. Not only that, they omit
the letters in words even they copy right the words given. They would omit
certain alphabet in the words, for an example in year 2 Amanah pupils most
of them spell word grey as (gey). Sometimes pupils would not give fully
attention on the lesson, its might due to my lesson. To overcome this issue,
I have applied some technique which I have learned in my previous lesson.
Since they are kids, I have to make the lesson in fun way. So that, I implement
ICT which have highlighted in pedagogic principle. It helps me to attract my
pupils attention in the lesson. So that, when I introduced the words they give
full attention on it. Other than that, since they are year 2 kids I give them
spelling through having game like hang man, and Bingo. It was help my
pupils and encourage them to spell the given words correctly.
This is clearly showed the impact of misspelling the word is because of their
first language influences (L1). Not only that I think since pupils are from rural
area they are mostly influence by technology one of it is SMS. They do write
the words in short in their writing. In other hand, environmental also one of
the reason where they heard they words wrongly and spell it wrongly. I come
to know that spelling is also one of the element which all the teacher should
give important during the lesson. Through me experience I decide that I dont
want spelling is one of the root for my pupils poor writing and reading skill.
Therefore, I decide to carry out an action research aiming to improve their
spelling ability.

2.0 FOCUS OF INVESTIGATION

2.1 Research issue?

I have faced a lot of problems during my practicum I think from them this
misspelling problem is more dominant one in my two practicum school. I could
not understand when see the word tren in some of my pupils activity sheets
journal second week phase 2 . This shows that the consequences of the
spelling problem in my pupils writing sentences which make others confuse in
understanding the sentences. I have done some reading that, not only in my
class but it is also a major problem around the world. According to (Y.Hourani,
2008) most secondary school Arab students find it difficult to write essays free
of errors of various types. Therefore, teachers of essay writing need to
anticipate certain common types of errors. According to (weisse,n.d) on
January 4, 2000, the Denver Post reported that a middle-school child received
a note originating in the governors office that contained a number of spelling,
punctuation and grammatical errors. through these review I decide why not we
as a teacher not giving much important for spelling since it is the root for a good
writing. Thus the issue I have highlighted is more on spelling. I realize that this
spelling issue is not only in Malaysia classroom even most of the international
primary classroom pupils also are facing the spelling problem in their learning
process. Therefore, I decided to analysis more on this issue since I faced this
problem during my past teaching practicum in two schools.
During my Practicum, as I mentioned earlier I observed that some of my pupils
are shy to talk in class using English Language. At that time I was thinking that
because of the environment and because of my entry but, it is not. When I
asked one of my student name Shakira to tell about herself she was really in
nervous and bumbling the words within herself. Not only she but most of the
pupils are facing the same problem. When I check their workbook I realize that
their writing was full with spelling error and they wrote the words directly
translate from their first language. So that, they could not read a text with
pronouncing the word correctly because they worried that they will misspell the
same word again and again. (Journal week ..). I suspected that this is due
to their lack of knowledge on how to spell those words correctly. Since most of
the time they are using their mother language they could not pronounce the
words correctly and spell it wrongly.
Other than that, it is observed that the language learner misspell the words
resulted from influences by technology. The nature of spelling has been
influenced by technology including mobile phones, email, and so on. I would
agree on this statement due to the introduction of the short message service
 (SMS) which uses to simplifying the spelling of the word. In this 21st century
most pupils in schools are exposed to this technology. as a result Correct
spelling and the rules of grammar do not apply in the daily use of text and chat;
its about keeping it shrt n 2 da pnt in order to accelerate communication
(Mccrindle, n.d). Thus, meanwhile my pupils exposed in using what apps,
we chat, facebook and so on, they apply it in their writing.
I needed to find a way to provide a fun environment that help pupils to
memories the word easily and spell it correctly.

2.2 Lesson learnt from the research issue

One of the effective way to solve this misspelling problem among pupils are
through using spelling games. It makes pupils to remember better when conduct
the activities in a fun learning environment. based on my own experience during
practicum most of the English teacher wont teach the spelling using
different technique instead of using drilling method which is traditional method. So
that, this is could be another cause where students dont give serious attention on
it. So here I would like to overcome this misspelling problem through using spelling
games that is Spet spelling treasure game.

3.0 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

Explore spelling game as a technique in enhancing spelling skills

effectively.

3.0.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

How is the use of spelling game in enhancing pupils misspelling problem?

Since I have good respond from year 2 students when having spelling through
games, so I like to teach the spelling through using game.

4.0 RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS

I am going to have this research on year three pupil.

5.0 THE RECOMMENDED ACTION

Interview
Questionnaire
Testing

5.1 how implement it ( Spelling Treasure Game)

word list focus on phonemic sound

first divide pupils into pair consisting one male one female.

each pair had to create a name consisting both participants name

position of the players should be 1 meter of distance from one player

to another player.

a treasure box will be placed in front of all the player 1 whereas

player 2 will be given a marker

all player 1 were not allowed to turn their backs to look at their
partner (player 2 ) during the game.

teacher tell each player1 a different words and ask them to find it
from the treasure box

all player one shout out the word to their partners for a maximum of
5 times only

all player 2 listen and write down the word which have shout by their
partners player 1

all player 1 must not disturb one another during the game

all player 2 must not copy from one another during the game

6.0 DATA COLLECTION METHOD

7.0 DATA ANALYSIS METHOD

8.0 PLAN OF ACTION
- schedule

9.0 REFERENCES

10.0 APPENDICES