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Statement of Problem
During my teaching period, the first problem I observed that most of my pupils had low levels of proficiency in
English language. How well English language learners can write and read is directly related to their levels of English
language proficiency in writing and reading.
The second problem identified was that most of the pupils in my class had difficulties in their reading. They only
read certain words that were familiar to them and they stopped at some points when they did not understand the
words. The pupils were unable to read and pronouncing words that unfamiliar to them while they read. This problem
occurred because the pupils were not aware with the phoneme of letters in English words. For example, most of my
pupils read the word “refer” as /refer/ instead of /rɪˈfəː/. Another example of word that my pupils had problem to deal
with was the word “eleven”. The pupils pronounced the words as /eleven/ instead of /ɪˈlɛv(ə)n/. These examples clearly
showed that my pupils were having difficulties in pronouncing English words that were unfamiliar to their ears. To
overcome this problem, in each lesson, I need to model the reading to the pupils so that the pupils were aware on how
to pronounce the words correctly.
The third problem that caught my attention was that most of my pupils could not understand grammar especially
demonstrative pronouns although drilling process had been done with them. During my lessons, I had used pictures and
flashcards to help them but the problem was not solved. The pupils cannot differentiate between this, these, that and
those. For example, the pupils usually used these for singular object and those for plural objects but the objects were
close to the speaker. Perhaps, they made mistakes because of their understanding was not so deep enough in grammar.
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Furthermore, from the diagnostic test (Appendix A) that I had carried out on the pupils, I felt that the gap
between the pupils who were categorized as the intelligent pupils and the weak pupils were too wide. During the test,
the intelligent pupils did not have problem in answering the test while the weak pupils started to felt uneasy and
restless. This happened because the pupils did not know the answers and they had no knowledge about Demonstrative
Pronouns. So, the pupils started to choose any answers given as long as they completed the test.
Literature Review
Grammar teaching has always been one of the most controversial and least understood aspects of language
teaching. Few teachers remain indifferent to grammar and many teachers become obsessed by it. So, what is grammar
actually? Based on Oxford Dictionaries (2014), grammar is the whole system and structure of a language or of languages
in general, usually taken as consisting of syntax and morphology (including inflections) and sometimes also phonology
and semantics. On the other hand, according to Thornbury (1999), grammar is partly the study of what forms (or
structures) are possible in a language. Thus, a grammar is a description of the rules that govern how language’s
sentences are formed. Good grammar knowledge is vital for children to become successful in learning. To develop a
child’s grammar knowledge, they should have a strong foundation and exposure to English subject in the early age.
As stated by B. Bradshaw in his article Why Grammar is Important, he said that grammar, regardless of the country
or the language, is the foundation for communication – the better the grammar, the clearer the message, the more
likelihood of understanding the message’s intent and meaning. From this statement, we can understand that without
adequate knowledge in grammar, the message that one’s trying to deliver will not be so clear, as it is the foundation for
communication. With good grammar knowledge, the children can communicate with other people fluently and express
their opinions or ideas conveniently.
So, to improve my pupils’ knowledge on how to use demonstrative pronouns correctly, I use song as my main tool
in this research. For your information, song is one of the alternative ways to increase the pupils’ proficiency level in
English especially on vocabulary. Besides, the songs are easy to be found in the internet. The songs are also more fun and
familiar to the pupils’ ears. Most children enjoy listening to songs and this is one of the main reasons why it has become
my choice in enhancing my pupils’ vocabularies in the English lesson.
The song also plays a significant role in motivating students to learn English. They can support the development of
learners’ abilities in reading, writing, listening and speaking, as well as provide opportunities for learning pronunciation,
rhythm and vocabulary (Lo & Li, 1998). In addition, songs often offer a change from routine classroom activities. Orlova
(1997) identifies some additional benefits of songs in language learning. First, they can encourage learners to use English.
In a non-English environment, the main problem for teachers is how to stimulate learners to speak in the English class;
songs may be the starting point for that. Secondly, listening to songs, especially when these are supported with pictures
and actions helps students to recognize words and meaning more easily. Finally, songs can stimulate a positive emotional
attitude to the language learning.
Through songs also, vocabulary will be learned explicitly through direct instruction and attention. Songs, by
exposing the learners to many examples of words used in meaningful contexts, create such opportunities for indirect
vocabulary learning. Besides, songs also allow the pupils to repeat and to memorize chunks of language. This will
contribute to vocabulary learning to where repetition is needed to help learners remember words (Nation, 1990) and
many lexical items that learners need to know are multi-word items rather than single words.
Songs can thus be an effective method of helping children to learn lexical patterns that will be stored in their
minds and can be naturally recalled during oral communication (Murphey, 1992). In other words, songs can help the
development of automaticity which means the ability to use language naturally and without conscious effort. According
to Schoepp (2001), is the main cognitive reason for using songs in second language learning. Through songs children can
also repeat words and phrases spontaneously even if they do not initially understand them.
RESEARCH QUESTION
The research question is: How can I use song to improve the use of demonstrative pronouns among Grade 3 students?
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TARGET GROUP / PARTICIPANTS
For my action research, I made my decision to choose pupils of Grade 3 as my respondents. This class consists of
15 pupils and there are 8 boys and 7 girls. But for my action research, my focus was on the 3 pupils that were chosen as
my respondents. My respondents were the weakest pupils in this entire group. Although there are only 15 pupils in this
class, most of them are very active and uncontrollable. I need to be firm when giving instruction to control the class
before I could start the teaching and learning session.
For their abilities, most of them could read and understand basic instructions given in English. There were only 3
pupils who cannot read an English text. The pupils had problems in their vocabulary which they did not know on how to
pronounce the words and they also did not know its meaning. This happened because the pupils had lack of numbers of
vocabularies in their mind and their knowledge. Apart from that, the pupils are slow learners. I need to give them a short
works because the pupils can easily been distracted by the environment around them and they also had a short attention
span.
Last but not the least, my 3 pupils are very excited in learning English because I give them rewards. They also
enjoyed themselves once I prepared a lesson by using the pupils-centered style. They felt like they were involved in the
lesson and did not act as passive learners. Based on my observation, the lesson that my pupils enjoyed the most was the
language arts class because the pupils got the chances to sing with actions in the classroom. As a conclusion, teaching
this class was actually quite challenging, as there were lots of characters that I need to face and caters to their needs.
Table 1
Step 1 – Test 1 and Introduction of Demonstrative Pronouns (This, These, That, Those).
Teacher Action Pupil Action Rationale of Activity Steps
Teacher conducted test 1 to check upon Pupils answered test 1 by using The test was conducted to identify the
pupils’ understanding about the their prior knowledge about pupils who had the difficulties in
Demonstrative Pronouns. Demonstrative Pronouns understanding and using
demonstrative pronouns correctly.
Teacher introduced and recalled Pupils listened to the teacher. Based on the Q&A session, teacher
about demonstrative pronouns with Pupils gave feedback and picked pupils who had difficulty in
the pupils. response through the Q&A demonstrative pronouns as his
Teacher pasted flashcards that contain session. respondents.
the words This, These, That, and Those
on the whiteboard.
Teacher conducted the question and
answering session and observed the
pupils.
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For the first step, the teacher conducted the test to the pupils. The aim of the test was to identify the problematic
students who really need help in demonstrative pronouns. From the Test 1 (Appendix B), 3 respondents were chosen
based on their results gained from the test. Next, the teacher recalled and introduced again demonstrative pronouns
(this, these, that, those) to the pupils. Actually, the pupils have learned about demonstrative pronouns early of this year
but some of them did not really understand about them and did not know on how to use them correctly. That is why the
action research needs to take place.
Table 2
Step 2 – Introduction of the lyrics and rhythm of Demonstrative Pronouns Song.
Teacher Action Pupil Action Rationale of Activity Steps
Teacher distributed the lyrics of the song Pupils followed after the teacher’s The pupils had the chance to
to the pupils. reading of the lyrics. understand more about the
Teacher reads the lyrics while pupils Pupils practiced by reading the meaning of the lyrics.
followed after her. lyrics a few times and understand
Teacher explained the meaning of the them.
lyrics to the pupils.
Teacher drilled the pupils a few times in
reading the lyrics.
Teacher played the demonstrative Pupils listened to the song carefully Helped the pupils to have some idea
pronouns song and introduced the with interest. on how to sing the song.
rhythm of the song to the pupils.
The second step was introducing the lyrics and the rhythm of the song that was used in the intervention process
(Appendix G). This step was implemented because of its own reasons. The first rationale of this step was to let the pupils
know and understand the lyrics and used to it. They have to know on how to pronounce the words correctly and the
meaning of the lyrics itself. The pupils were asked to know the song by their heart. The second reason of conducting this
step was to help the pupils to have general idea about the song so that they will not left behind in the lesson. They were
introduced to each line of the lyrics and every single beat of the rhythm.
Table 3
Step 3 – The Intervention Process.
Teacher Action Pupil Action Rationale of Activity Steps
Teacher pasted flashcards and pictures of Pupils sang the song together Helped the pupils and respondents
demonstrative pronouns on the whiteboard. with the teacher while doing to understand more about the
Teacher played the song and asked the actions. demonstrative pronouns.
pupils to follow after her. Pupils listened to the Helped the teacher to observe the
Teacher explained to the pupils on how to teacher’s explanations. respondents progress.
use the demonstrative pronouns correctly in Pupils gave feedback and
sentences. responses to the teacher.
Teacher played the song once again and
sang the song together with the pupils.
Teacher asked questions to gain feedback
from the respondents.
This step was the most vital process in the research. The intervention was implemented in the one hour lesson.
The teacher pasted the words in flashcard form and pictures to describe the demonstrative pronouns on the whiteboard.
The pictures helped the pupils to do the actions while singing the song after that. Then, the teacher explained briefly on
how to use the demonstrative pronouns correctly in their writing. This happened to add and clarified more about the
knowledge and understanding that the pupils already have in their mind. Next, the questioned and answering session
took place in order to measure the pupils’ understanding about the lesson. From the feedback given by the pupils, the
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teacher could make his decision whether his intervention was a success or vice versa and be prepared for the second
cycle.
Table 4
Step 4 – Final Observation and Test 2
Teacher Action Pupil Action Rationale of Activity Steps
Teacher recalled about the previous Pupils showed their progress in To show the effectiveness of the
lesson and asked questions to check understanding the demonstrative intervention and showing the
upon pupils understanding and pronouns. progress of the respondents.
progress. Pupils answered the test for 30
Teacher conducted the test 2 with minutes.
the pupils.
For the final step, a test was conducted in order to gain the validity of the action research. Data was collected from
the test and being tabulated in the data. The Test 2 (Appendix C) results will show the progress of the respondents and
the marks will be compared with the Test 1. From the results tabulated in the data, the teacher can conclude whether he
needs a second cycle or not.
Table 6
Marks gained by respondents in Test 1 and Test 2
Test Marks ( % )
Respondent names
Test 1 Test 2
One 40 70
Two 10 70
Three 10 100
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Respondents' Progress
120
100
80
Test 1
Respondents' 60
Marks Test 2
40
20
0
One Two Three
Respondent Names
Figure 1 : Comparison graph between respondents’ marks from Test 1 and Test 2.
Based on Figure 1, the researcher observed that there were improvements for each respondents in this research. For the
first respondent, there was 30% improvement from the Test 1 with the Test 2. For the next respondents which were
respondent 2 and respondents 3, both of them got low marks for the Test 1 which were 10%, but after the intervention
were carried out in the classroom, both respondents improved by 60% and 90% respectively. This data have clearly
shown that there were improvements with my respondents after the interventions took place. So, based on the Figure 1
above, this data can be one of the evidence that the using of song can surely help the pupils to have a deep
understanding about demonstrative pronouns.
Table 7
Summary of Checklists
Pupils’ Participation in Pupils’ Facial Expression Pupils’ Response During
Observation’s Elements
Class activities During Intervention Intervention
Number of Intervention X X X
Checklist Intervention 1 5 - - 5 2 3
Checklist Intervention 2 5 - 5 - 2 3
Checklist Intervention 3 5 - 4 1 5 -
Based on the data in the table 7 above, it was clearly showed that the respondents participated well in all the class
activities done by the researcher. Without the participation from the respondents, the data could not be gained and the
research could not be completed as planned earlier. So, there was no problem at all for pupils’ participation in class
activities in all interventions conducted by the researcher. The next element that was observed by the researcher during
the interventions was the pupils’ facial expression during the process of interventions. Based on the table 7, all of 3
respondents showed that they were uninterested at all in the intervention process. This problem occurred because the
pupils did not want to learn about grammar or demonstrative pronouns specifically. They automatically lost their
motivation to learn English when it comes to grammar. But we can see the improvement made by the researcher in the
second intervention as she introduced song to teach demonstrative pronouns to the respondents. During the second
intervention, the pupils were very excited and eager to sing the demonstrative pronouns song. In the third intervention,
only one respondent did not show interest in the intervention process. This thing occurred because the respondent felt
that she is good enough and did not need any explanation anymore. So she stated to lose focus and interest during the
intervention process.
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For the next element that had been observed by the researcher was pupils’ response during the intervention
process. During the first and the second interventions, only two of the respondents could give answers to the questions
asked by the researcher. This problem happened because the other respondents felt shy to give answers as they did not
have the knowledge about demonstrative pronouns. But by the end of the interventions which was the third
interventions, all of the respondents started to give response to the researcher. All of them already had the knowledge
and they felt confidence with their answers which also can be concluded as a positive behavior shown by them.
Pupils’ Work
The next instrument that was used by the researcher in the research was the pupils’ work. For every intervention
done in the classroom, teacher gave worksheet to the respondents for the drilling process. So, there were 3 worksheets
given to the respondents as there were 3 interventions were done by the researcher. The worksheets results were taken
and recorded in the table 8 below:
Table 8
Respondents work’s marks
Number of exercises
Exercise 1 Exercise 2 Exercise 3
10 marks 10 marks 10 marks
Respondent names
Respondent 1 6 6 7
Respondent 2 3 5 6
Respondent 3 3 6 6
Based on table above, we can see the improvement made by the respondents between each intervention that
they had undergone. For respondent 1, there was only minor improvement that can be seen. For the first and the second
worksheet given to respondent 1, the respondent already have the knowledge about demonstrative pronouns and there
were no changes happened to the respondent as the respondent only got 6 marks for both worksheets. The minor
improvement was only can be seen in the third worksheet where the respondent 1 got 7 marks for the worksheet. For
respondent 2, we can see the progress made by her from one intervention to another. It can be seen from the marks
gained by the respondents which increases from 3 marks to 5 marks and then moved to 6 marks.
Next we move to the respondent 3. For respondent 3, there were major changes in terms of marks gained from
the worksheets. The respondent got 3 marks for the first intervention’s worksheet and has improved as much as 3 marks
to gain 6 marks in the next worksheet. In the third intervention’s worksheet, the respondent 3 maintain his marks and
there was no improvement made by the respondent 3.
As a conclusion, the students’ work’s instrument was surely helps the researcher to observe and manage his
respondents’ progress from one intervention to another.
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process. They enjoyed the lesson and as a result, all the respondents’ marks increased and there were improvements
made by them.
Apart from that, there was another reason why this research was a success. In the intervention process, the
researcher used pictures that were pasted on the whiteboard to help the pupils in their understanding besides singing
the demonstrative song. While singing the song, the respondents need to point to the pictures based on the lyrics they
sang. Orlova (1997) stated that listening to songs, especially when these are supported with pictures and actions helps
students to recognize words and meaning more easily. This statement was proven when the respondents’ marks
increased from one exercise to another in the students’ work instrument data. With the help of those pictures during the
intervention process, it was easier for the pupils to remember and build deeper understanding as pupils have different
types of learning styles. Some of them were visual learners, audio-visual learners and others. So at least, the researcher
had fulfilled all the pupils need in their learning style and that was why the research succeeds.
On the other hand, the researcher also had built confidence in his respondents to use demonstrative pronouns
correctly by using song. Read (2007) once said that by building on children’s pleasure in rhythm and sounds, they engage
children in responding to and producing language in ways which develop their confidence and self-esteem and lead to a
sense of achievement and success. This can be seen in the checklist form provided by the researcher in the appendix
section. In the third intervention, all respondents were very eager to join the questions and answering session held by
the researcher. The respondents were very confident with their answers and they wanted to share their answers with
others pupils in the classroom. If we compared to the first intervention, most of the respondents sat quietly at their own
places and they refused to take part in the questions and answering session. Now, the pupils are able to use
demonstrative pronouns correctly with confident.
Besides, the researcher also had triangulated the data to gain more reliable and valid results in his research.
Triangulation involves the conscious combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies as a powerful solution to
strengthen a research design where the logic is based on the fact that a single method can never adequately solve the
problem of rival causal factors (Patton, 1990).
Below is the data triangulation made by the researcher:
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From this action research, several conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness of using song to help the
pupils in using the demonstrative pronouns correctly. It was discovered that using song as the stimulus in this research
had enhanced the respondents’ ability to use the demonstrative pronouns correctly.
From the data collected during all the interventions done by the researcher, all respondents had showed
improvement and some of them even showed great improvements. The respondents managed to score higher marks in
the Test 2 that had been conducted after all the interventions were carried out by the researcher. From the findings also,
it appeared that the pupils had managed to memorize the use of each demonstrative pronouns correctly by singing the
song and do actions as they learned during the interventions.
Generally, this research can be reflected in three stages which are before research, while research and after
research. There were many insights that the researcher gained before conducting this research. First of all, the
researcher realized that she needs to consider about the pupils’ background and their level of proficiency in English
before selecting her respondents for the research. These elements were very crucial in the process of planning the action
research. Besides, the researcher also did lots of observation and interview sessions with the class and English subject
teacher for Grade 3 in order to find problems that faced by the pupils. From this point onwards, the researcher started
to plan the research paper and conducted the interventions based on the objective and research question stated earlier.
In addition, during the research, there were also few elements that gave insightful experiences to the researcher.
One of the major issues is the respondents’ participation during the singing process. From the observation, some of the
pupils seemed restless. They liked to disturb other pupils by talking or poking the others. At the same time, they
disturbed the respondents’ concentration in the class. In a way, they made the teaching and learning process to become
disturbed. So, one of the ways that could help to prevent this thing from happening again is by giving detention to the
pupils every time they disturbed others. For example, the researcher should give them a time out from participating the
in the singing session. This is to ensure the other pupils are not being disturbed and stay focus. The research gives
experience to the researcher on handling the other non-participants of the research.
Lastly, the skills in conducting the research is one of the experiences gained after completing the research. This is
because, as a trainee teacher, the researcher has to gain knowledge from all aspects in order to deliver a quality and
meaningful lesson. Thus, the experience gained could be used so that the researcher can develop the professionalism of
a teacher in them. Through action research also, it helps the researcher to create awareness that every problems
regarding the pupils’ learning can be overcome by doing this systematic acts.
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