5.

0 Research Implementation

The research participants are Year two pupils from the class that I will be teaching for the next
practicum. Therefore, those 10 pupils will be the low proficient pupils in writing will be selected.
Based on my first practicum in SK Taman Bukit Maluri, The class that I was teaching was the
first class. Thus, the pupils’ proficiency in English were very high. I had monitored their
progress continuously and I found that most of them keep making errors in using punctuation
especially in their writing ; precisely in adding full stops and question marks.

When marking the task sheet, I noticed that most of the pupils in Year 4 X
had made errors regarding the SVA rules in their writing. They were
confused about the rules and I think they did not memorise the SVA rules
correctly.

(Journal Entry No. 24, 25th August, 2016)

Therefore, I had decided to conduct my research regading this problem that occurred during.
Apart from that, I had also observed the pupils’ behaviour during the teaching and learning.
session in the classroom. I found that the pupils love interactive and hands on activities. They
responded well when I used realia or play games with them. However, most of them will be off
task when I started my ‘chalk and talk’ teaching.

I realised that my pupils’ love interesting and engaging activity. They had different
learning styles but every time I started to use ‘chalk and talk’ in my teaching most of
them will be off task and start to play with their friends sitting next to them.
(Journal Entry No. 26, 27th August, 2016)

As a summary, from the information that I had collected, I found that most of the pupils has a
low social economic status (SES). Most of their parents are factory workers. They lived at flats
near the school and most of them walked to school every day.They said that English is hard to
be learnt. They also claimed that their parents never buy them exercise and reference books
due to their parents’ low income. The reason for choosing the set of pupils is because I strongly
feel they need help and guidance in order to improve their writing with the correct use of
punctuation. I feel that these ten pupils need to be guided in order for them to improve their
writing skill and also the English language. Good teachers will not only focus on the advance
pupils but also the weaker ones
6.0 Planning of Research Implementation

Tests

First, I would like to use tests to collect data for my research. The rationale for me to use
this instrument was because according Kizlik (2012), test is a suitable method to determine
pupil's ability to complete certain tasks or demonstrate mastery of a skill or knowledge of
content. Therefore, by using test, the information obtained from the result of the test on the
pupils’ performance in using punctuation which is full stop and question mark before and after
the intervention can be easily analysed and compared.

Next, the test will be conducted twice which will be before and after the intervention. Both
tests will be designed specifically in order to measure the effectiveness of my intervention. The
questions for Test 1 and Test 2 will have the same format which is objective items and the same
number of question to enhance the face validity of the test. The reason objective type test will be
used because objective test has a high reliability. Reliability refers to the consistency, stability,
dependability, and accuracy of assessment results (Brown & Abeywickrama, 2010). Therefore,
it was free from biasness and subjectivity in determining the scores as it was not exposed to a
variety of interpretations.

Besides that, it will suit the low proficient students as they won’t find it too hard. The
reason why I chose test as one of my instruments because test could clearly show the strengths
and weaknesses Apart from that, both tests also had the same level of difficulty with familiar
topic to increase the content validity of the test. According to Gronlund (2006), content validity
can be defined as the extent to which the content of the test matches the instructional
objectives. Thus, the items for both test were constructed based on the adaptation of English
Year 2 textbook and also the DSKP English Year 2 activity book which matched with the content
of the KSSR syllabus.

The duration of the test will be set for about 20 minutes, which includes instructions and
description of the test. Test 1 will be administered after the conventional teaching and learning
has been carried out (Appendix 1 and Test 2 will be carried out after Punctuate me game has
been used in the class (Appendix 2) The rationale for the selection of Test 1 and Test 2 as one
of the instruments in this study was that it facilitates the results of tests.
Observation

The next method in collecting data is observation. Observation can be defined as

obtaining, and often recording, what we notice, in order to support the elaboration of starting
points for further work (Malderez, 2004). Schmuck (2006) defines observation as a qualitative
data collection tool, involves looking carefully and systematically record what you see and hear
is happening in a particular situation. Checklists offer a simple evaluation method that you can
use repeatedly (Frost,2015). When you make your own behavior checklist, you can customize
the list to meet your specific objectives for the evaluation. You can adapt the original checklist
as your evaluation needs change. This type of assessment is usually quick to complete since
you only need to check whether or not the child exhibits the behavior. Therefore, I will observe
my target group carefully so that all required information could be obtained with good and clear
manner.

The observation that I am going to use is structured observation, which I have already
defined some aspects that I wanted to look among my target groups. it is highly systematic to
data collection and provides an opportunity to record the behaviors in a relatively objective
manner (Gerish & Lacey, 2010). Structured observation is the quantitative method of data
gathering and evaluation, which uses observation schedules and predetermined behavioral
categories (Treanor, 2010). Among the aspects to be noted is the attention that my target group
is going to give during the lesson, the way they participate in the intervention process, and the
way they answer questions prompted during the lesson .

Triangulation method

According to Shenton (2004), the trustworthiness of qualitative research generally is

often questioned by positivists. Qualitative research is multi-method in focus, involving an
interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matters (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011). This research
is an action research which belongs to the qualitative research category. Thus, in order to
ensure the validity and reliability of the findings of this research, I will be using triangulation
method with the combination of qualitative and quantitative research strategy.

According to Golafshani (2003), triangulation is typically a strategy for improving the validity and
reliability of research findings. Triangulation refers to the use of two or more data sources,
methods, investigators, and approaches to analysis in the study of a single phenomenon
(Sapsford & Jupp, 2006). Therefore, in this research I used two different instruments to collect
the data. The instruments are tests (quantitative data) and also observation (qualitative data).

According to Yates (2005),quantitative means the collection of numerical data or evidence

while qualitative means using words rather than quantification in collecting data.The reasons of
using the mixed method (qualitative and quantitative) were because quantitative data may
facilitate the interpretation of qualitative data (Bryman, 2004). This means that the analysis
obtained from the qualitative data can be supported through the analysis obtained from the
quantitative data to further strengthen and enhance their credibility.