1.

0 Introduction

1.1 Introduction and Context of the research.

Language learning is a process that takes place since birth of a child as

affirmed by Victoria Fromkin (2011:p.22) who states that “under normal
circumstances, a child is introduced to language virtually at the moment of birth”.
As humans, language acquisition is important because of its role as a mean for
communication. Manivannan (2006) explains “A language is a systematic means
of communication by the use of sounds or conventional symbols. It is the code
we all use to express ourselves and communicate to others. It is a
communication by word of mouth.” Therefore, it is undeniable language learning
is an important element in educational curriculum in order for pupils to be able to
communicate effectively.

English Language is regarded by Malaysian government as the

international language of communication as stated in the Malaysia Education
Blueprint (2013:p.10) which says that, “Every child will be, at minimum,
operationally proficient in bahasa Malaysia as the national language and
language of unity, and in English as the international language of
communication.”. In the Dokumen Standard Kurikulum dan Pentaksiran (DSKP,
2012:p.4) English Language learning is emphasized in primary schools mainly “to
help them [pupils] use it in their daily lives, to further their studies, and for work
purposes.” It shows the importance for English Language teachers across the
country to prepare the pupils with adequate skills to use English Language in
their daily life.
I was assigned to do my phase three practicum in Sk Apin-Apin. The school
is a small rural school located in the outskirts of Keningau which is about 30
kilometers from Keningau town to the south and around 40 kilometers to the west
of Tambunan Town. It is a descent but beautiful school with the size of 215 pupils
and 36 staffs. The school has only one session which is a morning session.
In term of facilities, the school provides good facilities for the pupils and
teachers. The school is equipped with 12 classrooms, staff room, a computer
laboratory, library, science laboratory, meeting room, treatment room, special
education class, canteen and toilets. Facilities in classroom such as desks, chairs
and whiteboard have been improved through the years and a friendly

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environment has been created. However, the fans in some classes are not fully
functioning thus making the learning environment are not condusive.
I was assigned to teach year 2 Kreatif. There are 15 pupils in my class which
consists of seven boys and eight girls. Based on my discussion with their English
teacher and my own observation during the teaching and learning session, the
pupils have different level of proficiency which can be categorized as low,
average and advance level of proficiency. Most of the pupils are not so keen in
learning English language as they found it very difficult especially for the low level
of English proficiency pupils.

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1.2 Reflection of Teaching and Learning

Reflective teaching is a part of learning process as clarified by H. Douglas

Brown(2007:p.487) in his writings, “Teachers can benefit greatly from focused
reflection and critical examination of their own teaching experiences, which will
then lead to improvement and further development.” Therefore, I will briefly
explain my teaching experience during my teaching and learning with the year 2
Kreatif pupils.
The first time I entered the class was on the first week of the practicum and I
begin to know my pupils’ background by asking them a few questions like name,
race, where they live, parent’s occupation, and do they like English subject or not
and do they find it is difficult to learn or not. Based on their answers, most of
them are Dusun and their most of them come from a poor family. Most of them
said that they do not like English and they find it difficult to learn English.
However, there were a few of them who like English although they find it a little
bit difficult to learn.
I have found out a number of problems among the pupils in learning English,
but their vocabulary was a major concern to me. Nesamalar, Saratha and The
(1995) stated that, ‘..without vocabulary, structures and functions cannot be used
for comprehension and communication., This statement clearly indicated that
vocabulary is one of the important elements in English that should be taught
carefully by all English teachers.
Based on the worksheets I have given in every lesson to the pupils, I can see
that most of their performance was not very satisfying and I have analyzed and
found out that one of their major problems was vocabulary. Apart from that, I can
see that the pupils have set a barrier in their own thought that English is difficult,
boring and not interesting. Thus, this is one thing that needs to be change in their
mind. I should think an alternative to changes their mind and perspective that
English is fun and will be easy to be learn if they are motivated to learn by the
well-planned and interesting lesson from the teacher.
On my phase 1, 2 and early phase 3 practicum, I have used picture cards,
word cards, drawing on the whiteboards and explain using situations to teach
vocabulary for the pupils. However, I found out that the pupils were easily
forgetting the meaning of the vocabulary. In other words, the pupils tend to
remember the meaning of the vocabulary only in a short period.
Teacher plays important roles in creating fun and interesting way of teaching
and learning session in order to ensure the teaching and learning session to be

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 effective. As an English teacher to be, I always wanted to give the best for my
pupils and I hope that I can help them with the alternative I have created through
this project so that they can improve on their vocabulary and change their
perspective towards English. This is also to train myself to be a knowledgeable
and skillful teacher in the future. (Linsin, 2011) said that, “All the things you’re
working so hard to achieve with your students will improve as you get better at
creating an environment your students love being part of.”

1.3 Initial Information Gathering

On the beginning of my phase 1 practicum, I have done a few methods to

collect information about the year 2 kreatif pupils of Sk Apin-Apin.

1.3.1 Interview
One of the methods was by interviewing the English teacher of
Year 2 Kreatif. Madam Mellisa is the English teacher for year 2 Kreatif
pupils. I have asked a few questions regarding the pupils’
performance, problematic pupils, advance pupils and common
problems in teaching and learning English in the class.
Based on the interview, she has told me about the pupils that
consist of mixed-ability pupils with different learning style and interest.
From there, I can plan a teaching lesson that can fulfill the needs of
the pupils according to their learning style and ability. Moreover, she
has listed out a few names of pupils who have problem on their
behavior so that I can think of ways or alternative to address the
problem in them.
Apart from that, she also shared about a the problems that she
always encounters in teaching English subject. One of the problems is
most of the pupils are very low proficiency in English and they have a
very limited in their vocabulary knowledge. Brown (1994) stated that
“for a long period of time, in second language country, grammar and
vocabulary has been the main teaching focus in the classroom”. Thus,
it was a bit difficult for the teacher to teach other things as they have
the main problem in their vocabulary.

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 1.3.2 Documents

Another method is through the documents regarding year 2 Kreatif

pupils. I have met the classroom’s teacher which is Madam Nor Leha,
and asked about their performance in English subject paper for the
previous examination. Thus, she has given me the pupils’ result of the
last examination for English paper in a document form. From there, I
can identify which pupils are in weak, average and advance category
and find out a suitable task and activities for them in class.
Moreover, I have identified the pupils’ problem by analyzing their
worksheets in every lesson whether they have achieved the learning
outcomes or not. This can be seen if the pupils have answered the
questions in the worksheet mostly correct or the other way around.
Pupils that can answered mostly correct are considered has achieved
the objectives of learning and pupils who answered mostly with wrong
answers are considered did not achieved the learning outcomes

2.0 Research Focus

In this chapter, I will discuss about the issue and the focus of my research.

2.1 The Focus of the Research

In my classroom, I found out that teaching them vocabulary in one or two lessons
is not enough as they still tend to forget the meaning of the vocabulary easily. In
other words, their ability to remember the meaning of the vocabulary was only
temporarily. Thus, my focus on this research was to teach them how to
remember the meaning of words to improve their vocabulary development.

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 2.2 Action

Action research is a practice for the teachers to be able to improve their teaching
through their experience in classroom as explained by Mertler (2014:p.13) in his
writing “Through action research, teachers are encouraged to become continuous,
lifelong learners in their classrooms with respect to their practice.” This could be
achieved by undergoing a series of planning, acting, developing, and reflecting
process which are considered as the fundamental stages in conducting action
research. For this study, I will be employing Kurt Lewin’s model as the core
example of framework in conducting action research.

Figure 5.1: Kurt Lewin’s action research spiral.

Using Kurt Lewin’s action research model, I will find an identification of general idea
stage before going into a detailed research that will support the area of the study in the
fact finding and planning stages. In reconnaissance or fact finding stage, the general
idea will be narrowed down and focused into specific area of study. With this, preliminary
investigation will be carried out to search and support the study with information and data
related to the area of study. In planning stage, I will plan for suitable intervention to be

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 implemented as the action plan for the study using the data gathered and analyzed from
the preliminary investigation. Next, I will go to a reflective stage after implementing an
action plan where I will evaluate the data gathered during implementation of the
intervention for improvements before proceeding to the next implementation of the
intervention.

3.0 Research Objectives And Research Questions

3.1 Research Objectives

The following are the research objectives

1) To study the effect of picture big book to improve students’ mastery of

vocabulary.
2) To examine pupils’ participation on the use of picture big book in learning
vocabulary..

3.2 Research Questions

The following are the research questions

1) What is the effect of using picture big book on pupils’ mastery of vocabulary?
2) What is the effect of using picture big book on pupil’s participation in learning
vocabulary?

4.0 Target Group

The target group of this research consisted of 15 mixed-ability, year two pupils from 2
Kreatif class of Sk Apin-Apin, Keningau. There were eight girls and seven boys in this
group. They came from various background of family and mostly lived at the area of
Apin-Apin.

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5.0 Planning Of the Action

5.1 Action Plan

“Picture Big Book” is a tool or a teaching aid that can be used for various
activities. It is a compilation of colored word picture cards in A4 size which is
used specifically in this context to drill the pupils with vocabularies. The
vocabularies in the book are taken from the word list stated in the document of
year two KSSR syllabus page 25 -26.This idea came out when I realized that the
pupils are most likely to forget the vocabularies that have been taught a few days
before. They need to be reminded and explained again and again and it is such a
tiring thing for any English teacher to do. Thus, I have figured that I should
compile all the vocabularies in one book so that I can drill the pupils any time in
any activities or stages that I want to do.
The “Picture Big Book” can be used in any activities with different purpose.
However, in my study, the use of “Picture Big Book” is specifically to be used in
every lesson before the set induction. The teacher will take 2 or 3 minutes to drill
the pupils with three new vocabularies a day. In the next day, the teacher will ask
the three new vocabularies that they learnt yesterday. New vocabularies will only
be taught if they can master the previous vocabularies that have been taught.
The objective of these interventions is in the end of year 2 primary schooling, the
pupils will be able to remember the wordlists stated in their KSSR syllabus.
Apart from that, the objective of the “picture big book’ is also to help pupils to
master the vocabularies in any activites. I will give the pre-test in the beginning
of the interventions and post-test will be given to the pupils in the end of the
interventions to see the effect of the ’’picture big book’’

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5.2 Data Collection Method

In this chapter, I will explain the method that I have chosen to collect the data
needed for the study.

5.2.1 Measurement

To answer the research question, I used the pre and post

vocabulary tests mean scores. The rests were similar for both pre and
post vocabulary tests as the constant variable to see the result in the
end. A table of specification was developed as in Table 3.

Table 3 :
Table of test specification

Section Skill Format No. of Marks

Item
A Reading Matching 10 10
-Word level

B Reading MCQ 10 10
Comprehension
-Vocabulary
C Reading Blank Filling 10 10
comprehension
-vocabulary

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5.2.2 Documents

Another method I use is documents in a form of worksheets. There

will be given to the pupils as a monitoring tool. At the end of the
intervention session, I will collect the scores and identified whether
there will be any changes in their vocabulary knowledge.

5.2.3 Observation

Observation is my third method in this project. I will be observed by

my mentor and teacher trainer on my lesson and they will use the
checklist that consists of a few questions that use a dichotomous
scale and will be answered by underlining yes or no by the them. This
checklist will be given to the mentor and teacher trainer in the
beginning of the lesson and percentage will be count based on their
answers.

5.2.4 Journal

My last method is using a reflective journal. Based on the whole

interventions, I will write a short journal that reflects the development
of the pupils from the beginning until the end of the interventions. I will
analyze the content of the journal in the end of the interventions.

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5.3 Analysis of Data

In this section, I will explain on how I analyze and interpret all the data through
every method that I use.

5.3.1 Quantitative Data Analysis

Most of my methods are in quantitative data. For measurement

method, I will use my instrument to answer the first research question.
It is the tool to determine whether the picture big book produces a
positive, negative or no effect to the pupil’s vocabulary development.
The test will be administered to obtain the score and will be converted
to percentage.
As for the documents method, I will construct 10 worksheets that
are vary in topics. The vocabularies selected were taken from the year
two syllabus. Each pupil’s performance will be analyzed to determine
their progress from time to time.
The last method that is presented I quantitative data is observation
method. The checklist will answer the research question of this
project. This method will be carried out in the end of the interventions.
The answers will be analyzed and converted into percentage.

5.3.2 Qualitative Data Analysis

The one and only method that is presented using qualitative data
is the journal reflective method. I will analyze all the data in the written
journal to support the results in the end of the interventions.

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5.4 Data Checking Methods

E. Mills, (2011) in his writing said that the desire to use multiple sources of
data is referred as triangulation. He also furthered his statement that a researcher
should not rely on any single source of data, interview, observation or instrument.
The importance of using triangulation method is to avoid measurement bias,
sampling bias and procedural bias just as stated by Kennedy, (2009). In my
study, I have used mixed-method to answer the research questions which are
measurement, observation, documents and journal.
In measurement method, I will use the mean of scores to answer the research
question. As for the observation, I will use the percentage of the checklist that
has been filled by the mentor and teacher trainer to support the result of the
interventions. Moreover, for the documents and reflective, I will analyzed and
make a conclusion from it to answer the research questions.

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 5.5 Work Schedule

No. Actions Date Data Sources

1 Problem and research focus
identification.

 Reflecting the year 2 Kreatif 25-29/1/2016

of SK Apin-Apin teaching
and learning sessions. - Observation.
 Identified some pupils with
reading problem through
observation.
 Listing out names of pupils
with reading problems.
 Collecting participants’
background data. - Age, family
background,
academic results.
2 Preliminary investigation.

 Interviews the participants’ - Unstructured

English Language teacher. interview.
 Collecting participants’ 1-5/2/2016
previous examination result - Collaboration with
from the teacher. the English
Language
teachers.
Analysis of data gathered.
- Document and
 Analyze the data gathered data analysis.
from preliminary
investigation.
 Identify target participants
for the study.
3 Preparation for intervention.

 Plan for an intervention 8-12/2/2016

based from the preliminary
investigation analysis.

4 Implementation of the first session

for the first cycle of the intervention.

observation.
 Researcher conducts an
activity using the picture big
book to the participants. 15-19/2/2016

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 - Reflection for the
Analysis for the first session of the intervention.
intervention.

 Teacher trainer reflects

based on the first session of
the intervention.

5 Implementation of the second

session for the first cycle of the
intervention.
22-26/2/2016
 Researcher conducts an - Documents
activity using the picture big
book to the participants. - Data analysis.

Analysis for the first session of the

intervention. - Reflection for the
intervention.
 Teacher trainer reflects
based on the second
session of the intervention.

6 Analysis for the first cycle of the

intervention.
29/2-4/3/2016
 Comparing the result from
the first and the second
sessions of the intervention. - Data analysis.
 Analysing the progress
made by the participants in
their reading fluency.

Reflection of the findings and plans

for cycle 2.

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5.6 Budget

No. Item. Cost per item Quantity Price

1 A4 papers RM 12.00 1 RM 12.00

2 Laminating films RM 27.50 1 RM 27.50

3 Printer ink. RM 10.00 RM 10.00

4 Ring binder RM 3.00 1 RM 3.00

Total RM 52.50

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References

Brown, D.H (1994). Teaching by principles : an interactive approach to language pedagogy.

New Jersey: Prentice Hall

Dokumen Standard Kurikulum Sekolah Rendah (2010) , Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia.

Bahagian Pembangunan Kurikulum

E. Mills , Geoffrey (2011). Action Research. Southern Oregon University. Pearson

Education, Inc

Kennedy, Patrick (2009, August 20) How to combine multiple research methods. Retrieved
from Johnny Holland : http://johnnyholland.org/2009/08/practical-triangulation/

Linsin, M. (2011, July 9). How To Have A Fun Classroom Without Extra Planning. Retrieved
from Smart Classroom Management:
http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2011/07/09/fun-classroom/

Manivannan, D. G. (2006). Importance of the English Language. Retrieved 2 5, 2015, from

Using English: http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/importance-english-
language.html

Mertler, C. A. (2014). Action Research. United States of America: Sage Publications. Inc.

Malaysia Education Blueprint, (2012 ), Retrieved at )http://www.moe.gov.my/en/pelan-

pembangunan-pendidikan-malaysia-2013-2025

Nesamalar Chitravelu, Saratha Sithamparan and The. S.C (1995). ELT methodology,
principal and practice. Shah Alam : Fajar Bakti.

Victoria Fromkin, R. R. (2011). An Introduction To Language. Canada: Wadsworth, Cengage

Learning.

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Appendices

17