The using of COMCAR in motivating year 4 pupils

to read different English materials

MASHITAH BINTI ABDUL HALIM

810722025520

Laporan kajian ini dikemukakan sebagai memenuhi sebahagian

daripada syarat penganugerahan Ijazah Sarjana Muda
Perguruan dengan Kepujian Pengajaran Bahasa
Inggeris sebagai Bahasa Kedua (TESL)
Pendidikan Rendah

IJAZAH SARJANA MUDA PERGURUAN DENGAN KEPUJIAN

INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU
KAMPUS BAHASA ANTARABANGSA
2016

Abstract
Motivation is often cited as an important factor in students' becoming
proficient readers. How does student motivation affect the development of
reading skills? Paul Morgan and Douglas Fuchs (2007) draw on a large body
of research to explain the importance of early reading experiences. "Children
who read frequently grow to become skill full readers," they write. "Given
sufficient print resources, how often a child reads is explained by two
factors"- early success and motivation. The cycle of poor readers becoming
poorer readers seems to begin as early as first grade, according to some
studies (Morgan, Fuchs, Compton, Cordray, & Fuchs, in press). For students
who don't master reading skills early, reading may become a painful
experience. As a result, they may pass up opportunities for practice, putting
themselves even further behind successful, motivated readers, who may be
reading as much as three times more on their own time (Wigfield & Guthrie,
1997; Powell-Brown, 2006).
What is the meaning of COMCAR? COMCAR is the short form taken
from the words of comic strips and cartoon. As we know, comic books and
cartoons employ a complex interplay of text and images that gives them the
potential to effectively convey concepts and motivate student engagement.
This makes comics an appealing option for educators trying to improve
science literacy about pressing societal issues involving science and
technology. By using cartoon, students will be able to focus and also
interested to participate in the reading activities. Van Wyk (2007) believed

that cartoons can be used as stimuli in order to encourage and to creating

interest and developing critical thinking skills in learning. He also suggested
that cartoons can be used as a term to include stand alone illustrations.
Introduction
Reading is a way to get better knowledge of ones own experiences and it
can be an exciting journey to self-discovery. Green (2002) believed that
reading transfers experiences to the individual so that the reader may
expand ones horizons, identify, extend and intensify his or her interest and
gain deeper understanding of the world. In simple words, it is a process of
interpreting printed and written words. In depth, it is an effective process of
conscious learning that influences the accuracy of information, attitudes,
morals, beliefs, judgments and action of readers (Eyre, 2005).

As we know, reading is one of the most important activities that all pupils
have to engage in. Their roles as pupils require them to read a variety of
reading materials and different types of texts to deal with the demands of
academics task now days. Fairbain & Fairbain (2001) also stated that
students must read in order to become and remain aware of their subjects,
so that they will be able to keep their knowledge and understanding up to
date and also to check their works and ideas of their peers. Besides that,
Zainal etc al. (1990) mentioned that reading is not the only way to fill in free
time or merely as hobby but it is a habit that can help us to develop more
creative thinking, which can leads to mental and spiritual development.

Research Issues
Throughout my teaching experience, I noticed that my pupils have very low
motivation to read English materials. There were some other factors that
lead to problems in reading motivation. In past three years, I had tried
different methods and techniques to address my students motivation in
reading in the classroom. I could see that there were no effort and
determination from themselves in reading. Some students did not read at all
and always wait for teachers instruction only.
After a few years of teaching, I realized that I am still facing the same
problem which is how to motivate and develop my students to read. In 2016,
I taught Year 4 pupils in one of the cluster school in Cheras, Selangor. They
were intermediate and a few of them were advanced level pupils. Similar to
my pupils in Terengganu a few years ago, I found a problem that Malay
pupils dont like to read and communicate in English. Most of them were
interested in English but feel uncomfortable to read in English in the
classroom. Some of the children are capable, but de-motivated to read as
the text doesn't excite or interest them. They feel shy to read in English.
They are afraid of being laughed at by their friends so that they less
motivated to speak English among themselves. They were also not
interested to read English language book and that is why their vocabularies
were limited. My pupils were very weak in grammar usage. Some of them
understand the sentences well but they have problem to speak and read
English using correct grammar. They have no interest in reading. I believed
that my pupils tend to read story books or articles that have been written in

their mother tongue rather than English Language. Most of them also
seemed shy and afraid to read in English because their lower self esteem.

I noticed that read aloud activities have been neglected by most of the
teachers in primary school. This negative thought also brings a great impact
in students reading motivation. Some of the teacher think that reading aloud
activities was one of bored activity and need a lot of preparation. Teachers
were not giving the pupils the chance to prove that they were capable to do
better in learning if they get opportunities to do so. Many teachers are not
convinced that creativity can be taught. The pupils were motivated if they
have chance to seek more engagement and enjoyment. They will begin to
feel more empowered and it is easier to adapt to seek new experiments and
learning experiences.

Methodology
The methodology of the research such as the type of study, source of data
and the type of analysis is mentioned here. In order to achieve all the
focused objectives in this action research, it is a compulsory to ensure that
the most suitable methods, procedures and models of research methodology
have been used essentially. My research participants are Year 4 pupils in
one of the cluster school in Cheras. The research involved 32 pupils from
various family back ground. But the main focus in this action research is for
only 8 pupils who those really de-motive in reading activities. There are 5

boys and 3 girls in this research. Some of them able to communicate in

English fluently, but lack of motivation in reading. They came from
intermediate abilities with different personalities.

Intervention

In this research, I had chosen one method which is reading aloud by using
cartoon strips and cartoons. I used cartoon and comic strips for my reading
activities in the classroom. I really hope that by using this activity, I was able
to help my students in their reading skills. I really hope that I can slowly
develop their reading interest either in the classroom or outside the
classroom. I dont want my students only pretend to read because of me. I
really hope that my students willingly read as their own intention and
coercion.
Comic books and cartoons employ a complex interplay of text
and images that gives them the potential to effectively convey concepts and
motivate student engagement. This makes comics an appealing option for
educators trying to improve science literacy about pressing societal issues
involving science and technology. Here, I have some samples of report
results from the first systematic assessment of how a comic strips and
cartoon can affect students in their reading motivation. I used pre- and post
questionnaire to measure students interest about their reading attitudes
about comics, and content knowledge about their self motivation in reading.
On the pre test questionnaire, I could see that most of pupils did not get

support from their family in reading. Rather than using questionnaire in this
research, I used journal writing in so that I could easily identify the problems
directly that has been occurred during my teaching and learning process. It
helped me a lot to be more focused while developing my intervention as I
became clearer why they did not have interest in reading. I was also realised
that, one of the main x factor in nurturing reading habits came from inside
which were their self motivation. For the post questionnaire, my questions
focused on their reading interest, content of the book, the importance of
reading and also challenges in reading processes. However, after the
intervention, I was surprised to get the results. Some of the pupils start love
reading slowly. The improvement in attitudes about reading was correlated to
attitudes about comics, suggesting that the comic may have played a role in
engaging and shaping student attitudes in a positive way.

Results

From the research that has been conducted, the results shown that by using
comic strips and cartoon in learning processes has increased. The results
from pre-test and post-test have shown that comic strips improved the pupils
motivation in reading skill. Furthermore, some of pupils able to create their
own simple comic strips a few times after the activities conducted in the
classroom.

Conclusion

Using comic strips and cartoon in our classroom activities will bring a great
impact in our students perception in order to prepare ourselves as one of
the 21st century teachers. Rather than that, it will also develop their creative
side and also thinking skills instead. If we still using old fashioned ways of
teaching such as chalk and talk especially with low achievement pupils they
will lose their interest and get bored in learning reading skills. Young learners
will benefit more from this approach as they self motivation increased in a
positive classroom environment. Furthermore, based on the results from the
questionnaire above, the study has proven that comic strips and cartoons
gave a great significance difference in students reading motivation. Some of
them were able to produce their own simple comic strips and tense to create
their own comics strips with their friends. However, some results of another
test shown that there were also pupils that still do not interest in reading after
the research has been done.
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