KEMENTERIAN PENDIDIKAN MALAYSIA

PROPOSAL KAJIAN TINDAKAN

“Enhancing Vocabulary Through The Use Of Adapted Children Songs in Year 3T”

Oleh

SITI HAJAR BINTI ZAID@SAHID

SJK(C) MING TERK

81550 Gelang Patah

Johor Bahru, Johor

April 2018

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 CONTENTS
Appreciation
Abstract

1.0 REFLECTION ON PAST TEACHING EXPERIENCES

 Theoretical Framework

2.0 FOCUS OF INVESTIGATION

3.0 OBJECTIVES/RESEARCH QUESTIONS
 General Objectives
 Specific Objectives
4.0 TARGET GROUP
5.0 RECOMMENDED ACTION
• Problem statement
 Problem analysis
 Implemented action
 Plan of action and observation
 Implemented activity 1
 Implemented activity 2
 Reflection

6.0 PROPOSAL FOR NEXT RESEARCH

Bibliography
Appendices

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 APPRECIATION

With boundless love and appreciation, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude and
appreciation to the people who helped me bring this study into reality. I would like to extend my
profound gratitude to the following:

My headmistress, Mdm. Ho Siow Kin who gave me the chance of conducting this study
towards the pupils in the class of 3T.

To the classroom teacher, Mr. Luk Kuok Seng who allowed me to conduct a study of his
pupils.

Last but not least, a very special appreciation to all the 3T pupils for all the cooperation
showed throughout the study.

ABSTRACT

The pupils were unable to respond to questions about new vocabulary words or even the simple
vocabularies that they had learned in the Year 2. This happens when the new topic is introduced and
there are many vocabulary words that are beyond the pupils’ knowledge. In order to improve the
pupils’ ability in English Language, this research was carried out to enhance the pupils’ grasp of
vocabularies.

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1.0 REFLECTION ON PAST TEACHING EXPERIENCES

I am teaching in Year 3T class. This is the third class of all the 6 classes and this class can be
assumed as one of the high level class of all the Year 3 classes. I came with a big hope to this class
and they are indeed great pupils. But after all, they are still kids and as usual, they find that learning
English is somewhat difficult as it is not their first language. The thing that shocked me the most is
the grasp of vocabularies within the pupils. I could see that the pupils of Year 3T were unable to
respond to me whenever I asked about new vocabularies or sometimes even the simple vocabularies
that they have learnt in Year 2. As An English teacher of this class, I did explain the meaning to the
pupils and they can remember the vocabularies at that particular time only. When I enter the class in
the next morning, I found out that they were unable to remember the vocabularies that they have
learnt yesterday. From what I can see, the problem arise maybe because of the teaching and learning
that was not done in a fun and engaging manner, the pupils were lacking in English vocabularies
exposure and that they were unable to remember new vocabularies in a long term memory.

As a teacher, I feel that it is a necessary practice for me to help these pupils overcome their
problems and be better students towards their life. Based on my observations in the classroom, the
pupils really like to be involved in the lesson when there is songs and also movement. According to
Gardner, (1999) “musical is an ability to produce, remember, and make meaning of different patterns
of sound.” Through songs and music, pupils will be able to remember and store the vocabularies they
learnt as they remember the words from many different patterns of sound. This difference will help
the pupils to place the vocabularies into their mind for a longer time frame and thus, it also increases
their grasp of vocabularies from time to time.

This is supported by Palim, (1990) saying that “in teaching vocabulary, we have to use an
extra language practice through educationally sound activities such as songs”. This is because pupils
tend to learn the new vocabularies and do the actions when there is song used to teach them
vocabularies. So, I have deducted that teaching through sing of songs is one meaningful technique
that can be used in teaching English. This is especially aimed to increase pupils’ vocabularies as songs
can improve students' memory, interest and motivation towards the learning. Lo and Li (1998, pp.8-
11) also argued that songs provide a break from classroom routine and that learning English through
songs develops a non-threatening classroom atmosphere in which the four language skills can be
enhanced. Through the learning of vocabularies using songs, all other language skills namely the
Listening and Speaking, Reading, Writing, Language Art and Grammar can be enhanced.

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  Theoretical Framework

Children at an early age of 9 years old are undeniably loves music and movements. Instead of having
to learn in a traditional manner of only hearing the teacher’s lecture with the aids of only chalks and
the board, teachers can manipulate the pupil’s interest of music and movements into learning. Pupils’
way of learning can absorb some changes if the changes are done according to what the pupils are
interested in. According to Gardner (2010), “the theory of multiple intelligences is related to a
person’s unique aptitude set of capabilities and ways they might prefer to demonstrate intellectual
abilities.” This is to say that every learners or pupils have their own set of way in learning. So, it
depends on the teacher to identify the pupils’ uniqueness and implement a lesson that suits the pupils
as an individual.

Based on Gardner (2010, the multiple intelligence in musical intelligences is describes as “the
ability to produce and appreciate rhythm, pitch and timber”. Through the use of songs, pupils will be
able to appreciate songs into their learning. When children are having fun, they have more interest in
learning. Songs can provide the median through which students can learn information in a fun,
engaging manner. Engaging children in reading activities that keeps their interest is the key and
music and songs can lure children into a web of enjoyment.

According to Gardner (2010),“the multiple intelligence in bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence is

described as “the ability to control one’s body movements and to handle objects skilfully”. Through
the singing of song with action or simple movement, other than to enrich pupils with physical
movement, it can also acts as a way of remembering the input knowledge skilfully. When learning is
done with actions or movements, pupils will be able to remember the input knowledge better than
just hearing to teacher’s lecture in the classroom. After all, pupils do love to be involved in actions as
they are also the children who like to play and they will subsequently feel bored in a monotonous
classroom. Thus, songs with actions will attract the pupils’ interests and enthusiasts in becoming
more willing learners, and I believe willing learners become active participants in their own
instruction. As children become more actively involved in their learning, they develop interest and
enthusiasm for the content and the process for acquiring the new knowledge.

Through this research, I hope that the pupils will be able to memorize the vocabularies better
through singing of songs with actions. Besides that, it is also hoped that they will have fun in learning
English Language for all the 5 skills namely the Listening and Speaking, Reading, Writing, Language
Arts and Grammar. Thus, they will be able to become an effective English Learner and will also be
able to practice the language without fear.

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2.0 FOCUS OF INVESTIGATION

During my teaching, I had observed that most of the pupils were unable to respond towards my
question whenever I asked about the new vocabulary words or even the simple vocabularies that
they had learned in the Year 2. This problem happens when the new topic is introduced and there are
many vocabulary words that are beyond the pupils’ knowledge. So, during the class session, the
pupils will have no responds towards my question when I used new vocabularies to trigger their prior
knowledge. This situation had actually disturb the flow of the teaching and learning in which there
were only some pupils that will responds to me while the others will only stay quiet. This problem
exists due to the pupils’ own environment in which it is not an English environment. They are only the
second user of this language and thus, they are not practising this language at home or even with
their friends. This in turn, does not supply the pupils with wide range of English vocabularies
surrounding. Relying on this matter, students’ range of vocabularies is limited as they are not
practising it at home or with their friends. The vocabularies that they have did not expand as they go
through level of classes. Consequently, the teacher should be creative and be a good model in
teaching English for their students especially by focussing on the vocabularies. Without vocabulary,
the language is meaningless and I think that it is the most important skill in any language. Without it,
people or students cannot make any utterances, communicate or even writing to convey messages.

 OBJECTIVES/RESEARCH QUESTIONS
 General Objectives
To enhance the pupils’ vocabularies as a mean of helping them understand and enjoy the
teaching and learning of English Language lesson through children songs.

 Specific Objectives
- To use adapted children songs as a teaching technique in enhancing pupils’ vocabularies.
- To use adapted children songs as a teaching technique in instilling fun and motivating
learning environment.

4.0 TARGET GROUP

The target group of this research are the pupils in a primary school located in Gelang Patah, Johor. I
am the researcher of 37 pupils of 9 year old in a classroom. The participant chosen for this research
are 3 Malay pupils and 3 Chinese pupils with the problem of low grasp in English vocabularies. All the
pupils are living in the school neighbourhood which is situated in the sub-urban location of the
district. As they are living in a suburban district, they are also mainly not the language speaker of
English and using only their mother tongue. This class is also under the programme of KSSR in which

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they need to attend the English class for 7 times per week. This is divided into 1 or 2 times of English
lesson per day according to the 5 different skills which are day 1(Listening and Speaking), day
2(Reading), day 3(Writing), day 4(grammar) and day 5(Language Art). The pupils are indeed great
pupils but toward some extent, they are lack in vocabularies. This in turn had obstructs the teaching
and learning session.

The participant of this research are selected from the teacher’s observation during the English
lesson and through the pupils’ own work or exercise in every lesson as vocabularies is indeed
important and is used in all the 5 language skills. The participant selected also loves the use of music
during the lesson and always keen towards the next lesson with music. Through the suggested
intervention or treatment of using songs to teach vocabularies, it is hoped that the pupils will be able
to memorise and understand the new vocabularies in a fun and engaging manner.

5.0 RECOMMENDED ACTION

 Problem Statement
- To what extent do children songs can enhance pupils’ vocabularies effectively?
- To what extent do children songs can instil fun and motivating learning environment
towards pupils?

 Problem Analysis

How well a language learner can communicate and comprehend a foreign language is when the
learner has a full grasp of the targeted language’s vocabularies. Furthermore, with the
implementation of the new curriculum in Malaysian Education through the Kurikulum Standard
Sekolah Rendah(KSSR), English subject have gone through a slightly change if compared to the
previous curriculum. There are now the skills of Listening & Speaking, Reading, Writing, Grammar
and Language Art especially for the Year 3 classes. All the skills stated earlier are relying on the
pupils’ range of vocabularies in order for them to comprehend the language. For example, in the
situation of Listening and Speaking skills, if the pupils are lack in vocabularies, they could not even
listen with understanding and utter a sentence in English. This is relatively the same result for all the
other skills which also depends on pupils’ range of vocabularies to the success of teaching and
learning in the classroom. As a teacher, it is a necessary practice for me to instil wide range of
vocabularies towards the pupils and assist them to be successful in all the skills of the new
curriculum.

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  Implemented Action

Before the research is conducted, the researcher had always assessed the pupils’ performance in
their works given by the teacher. Through all the topics taught so far during my teaching, I could
make a deduction that in each topics taught, the pupils are having difficulties in the vocabularies
in each topic as they are not used towards new vocabularies and are also not able to remember
the already learnt vocabularies without ample use and practices. It is only that the pupils have
not gone into the topics yet and the researcher wanted to test whether students’ have already
know the vocabularies that have been learnt in the previous class level or year and also the new
vocabularies for the year of class they are in now. From the assessments of students’ work, there
are 6 pupils selected to be the participant of this research on increasing pupils’ vocabularies
through the singing of songs in the classroom.

 Plan of Action and Observation

Activities Jan 2018 February 2018 March 2018

1 2 3 4 2 3 4 4 1 2 3 4

1 Assessing the pupils’ work.

2 Identifying the participants

and problematic vocabularies.

3 Choosing the suitable nursery

rhymes and creating a new
vocabulary song.

4 Implementing the lesson.

5 Assessing the pupils’ work.

6 Analysing the data found.

7 Writing of research report.

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 a) Implemented Activity 1

After the pupils’ problems in vocabularies have been identified, the researcher uses nursery rhymes
music and adapts it according to the particular topic that the pupils will be learning later. It is plan to
be done at the beginning of each topic in which this is before they are exposed towards the
vocabularies in the topic. Every intervention or treatment will be done for about an hour lesson. The
pupils will be taught on the vocabularies within the targeted topic and researcher uses a simple
nursery rhyme tune to be adapted to the selected vocabularies. During the lesson, the researcher will
first introduce the nursery rhyme tune by asking the pupils to sing the song and remember the tune
of the rhymes.

b) Implemented Activity 2

Just after the pupils are used to the tune of the rhyme, the researcher will introduce a new song with
the lyrics based on the targeted topic. At the beginning of the introduction of the new song, the
teacher will first explain the meaning of the vocabularies to the pupils with lots of examples within the
pupils’ life context. After the pupils have comprehend the vocabularies, the researcher as also the
teacher will sing the new vocabulary songs to the pupils with the adapted tune from the nursery
rhyme learnt earlier. Later, the researcher will ask the pupils to sing the new vocabulary song
together with the researcher and all the class members. The researcher repeats this process until the
pupils are able to sing the song on their own and thus will make them easy to remember the
vocabularies later. After the intervention has been done, the researcher will make an assessments of
the pupils’ progress through their document of their daily work in the classroom regardless of
whether it is in the Listening and Speaking skill, Reading skill, Writing skill, Language Art skill or even
Grammar. The assessments can be done in many language skills lesson because vocabularies in
indeed important and are used in all aspects of language skills.

 Reflection

After all the implemented actions done, it was noticeable that the pupils’ grasp of vocabularies have
improved. This is however only happened to the pupils who are indeed interested in songs or music.
Some of them still showed not much of an improvement.

6.0 PROPOSAL FOR NEXT RESEARCH

In order to tackle those pupils who were unable to show a better improvement, I have concluded that
those pupils need other suitable approach. I am thinking to use pictorial cards as a way to trigger the
photographic memories.

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REFERENCES :

Palim, John and Paul Power. 1990. Jamboree Communication Activities for Children. Hong Kong:
Nelson.

Gardner, H. (1999). The disciplined mind : What all students should understand . New York:
Simon & Schuster.

Lo, R., & Li, H.C. (1998). Songs enhance learner involvement. English Teaching
Forum, 36, 8-11.

Manser, H. Martin. 1983. Oxford Learner's Pocket Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Thornbury, Scott. 2002. How to Teach Vocabulary. Series Editor: Jeremy Harmer. Malaysia: Longman.

Morales, Frank and Leah Gilner. 2003-2005. The Sage's English Dictionary and Thesaurus. Princeton
University. Morales, Frank and Leah Gilner. 2003-2005. The Sage's English Dictionary and
Thesaurus. Princeton University.

Schoepp, Kevin. 2001. Reason For Using Songs In The ESL/EFL Classroom. Sabanci University,
Istanbul, Turkey. The Internet TESL Journal. Vol. VII No. 2 http://iteslj.org/

Thomas, D. (1971). Notes on the Art of Poetry. In M. McNamee, J. Cronin & J. Rogers (Eds.). Literary
Types and Themes. New York: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston, Inc.

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