CONTENTS

CONTENT
INTRODUCTION
Research Background
Reflection of Previous Practicum Experiences
Preliminary Data Collection

RESEARCH FOCUS
Research Issues
Action / Innovation

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH

QUESTIONS
RESEARCH CORRESPONDENTS
IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTION PLAN
Steps Involved
Data collection method
Data analysis method
Data validation method
Implementation schedule
Research Cost

FINDINGS OF ACTION RESEARCH

REFLECTION
SUGGESTION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
REFERENCES
APPENDICES

SUPERVISORS CONFIRMATION

PAGE

I acknowledge that I have read this report and in my opinion this was sufficient in terms of scope
and quality for the award of Bachelor of Teaching with Honours (TESL Primary Education)

Signature

Supervisors name : Puan Noor Akbari Binti Ismail

Date

:
DECLARATION

I hereby confess that the contents of this action research excluding the citations and quotations
which I have stated the sources are of my own work

Signature

Name

: Azmeer Firdaus Bin Iskandar

Date

: 18th August 2016

DEDICATION

This research is dedicated to:

~ My caring parents, Phillip Iskandar Abdullah and Zunaida Mohd Zain for motivating, encouraging
and supporting me throughout my years of studies. This is my gift to both of you.

~ My fellow course mates who are also the future group of Malaysian English teachers. I hope this
research assists you in your English teaching and learning sessions. I sincerely wish more
learners could learn spelling effectively through the use of this Pirates Adventure Spelling Kit.

~ English teachers out there who are looking forward to improve their pupils ability to spell English
words. It would be an honour for me if this innovation of mine enhances your pupils capacity to
learn spelling.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, thank Allah S.W.T for the blessed knowledge, strength, determination and
patience that He had given me in the process of completing this action research. Without Him, I
am no one and it would be impossible for me to achieve whatever I have accomplished today.
My deepest sense of gratitude also goes to my supervisor, Puan Noor Akbari Binti Ismail,
my mentor, Puan Azlina and also my Action Research subject lecturer, Madam Tan Siew Poh. I
would have never made it without their thoughtful guidance, supervision and assistance. With
Gods willing, I would definitely practise the valuable knowledge gained from them in my future
researches.
To my beloved parents, Phillip Iskandar Abdullah and Zunaida Mohd Zain, thank you for
your continuous prayers, amorous encouragements and undivided belief in me. I know all of you
have always been so proud of me. My appreciation is also extended to my supportive classmates
for their unceasing assistance since the earliest to the final stage of completing this action
research.
Not to be forgotten, special thanks to administration of Sekolah Kebangsaan Parang Puting
for giving me the permission to carry out this action research in their school. To my treasured
correspondents, thank you very much for being part of this research. May incessant success,
everlasting happiness and Allah S.W.Ts blessings be with you throughout your life.

LIST OF TABLES


LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF APPENDICES

ABSTRAK

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION
RESEARCH BACKGROUND
On the 14th of January, I was placed in Sekolah Kebangsaan Parang Puting in the outskirts of
Kota Bharu district for my third phase of practicum. I was assigned the task of teaching English
language to 33 pupils of year 2 Bestari. The Year 2 pupils possess a very low proficiency in the
English language and majority of them were facing few common problems in acquiring the
language such as pronunciation mistakes, the use of improper grammar structure in sentence
construction and the inability to response to comprehension questions effectually.
Several students in this school have difficulty in correctly spelling common noun words as
well as applying the correct spelling of words in their examinations, tests and also daily writing
activities. I found that some of the teachers in this school were using traditional spelling activities,
which included giving pre-test and post-test exercises for the students. Teachers have been
frustrated because they have found that "pre-packaged spelling programs had little impact on
young children's writing" (Rymer, 2000, p. 244). I have found that the students have not mastered
the common noun words that frequently found in the English textbook, and that students do not

apply the words from their spelling tests to their writing in class activities. In addition, most of the
students inclined to memorize the words for their tests, but then they forgot the correct spelling
when writing.
Rymer, R. & Williams, C. (2000). "Wasn't that a spelling word?": Spelling instruction and
young children's writing. Language Arts [online], 241-9. Available: First Search/Wilson Select
Plus [2001, January 25].

Spelling is a developmental process. Good spellers use a variety of strategies, whereas

poor spellers use a minimal amount of strategies. A primary goal of spelling instruction is to have
students "broaden the range of strategies the students use to spell unknown words"
(DudleyMarling, 1997, p. 242). Recently there has been an interest in how children learn to spell
words. Many people assume that children are either naturally good spellers or poor spellers.
However, it has been found that "...learning to spell involves a basic understanding of the
principles of English orthography and an ability to apply that knowledge in the process of writing"
(Rymer, 2000, p. 26). Students who have a greater ability to spell words correctly tend to be
students who use various strategies to learn the spelling of words. This is a process that develops
over time as students "actively investigate how words work" (Beers & Beers, 1997, p. 25). Meeting
the needs of learning disabled students has become more prevalent in today's society. A learning
disabled student has an average or an above average IQ with a discrepancy between ability and
achievement. To help meet students with these needs, each learning disabled student has an
individualized education plan. Each individualized education plan has a set of goals that each
child must meet.
Technology has become a major part of society and schools. One would think that students
with learning disabilities would benefit or improve their spelling skills by using spellcheck on a
computer. Since most students with a learning disability do not spell words correctly on the first
attempt while using spell check, they usually will either go to the next word, skip it, or not make a
change at all. A reason for this is that "...the correctly spelled version of the word the students with
learning disabilities are attempting to write is not presented as an alternative" (Ashton, 1999,

p.26). Students are then left with a document containing many misspelled words. By doing this,
students are not becoming better spellers.
In addition, the problems that attracts me the most about the class was their inability to spell words
correctly apart from being passive in class and unable to respond to English wh-questions
correctly. The mother tongue, especially at public institutions, occupies a large proportion of the
language used in class. Both students as well as teachers constantly resort to L1, leading to its
overuse and to avoiding using English (Cuartas Alvarez, 2014, p. 139). Moreover, the pupils
frequently replied to spoken English questions using their mother-tongue which is Bahasa
Malaysia. Furthermore, they also have the problem in spelling words that they regularly
encountered in the topics that they have learned during the English teaching and learning
sessions in class.
Proficiency in a language is an all-encompassing attribute of the mastery of language for
informational and interpersonal purposes. (Baylis, 2009) states that literacy skills are essential to
succeeding in today's society and help people participate in their communities. The undertaking of
this research project was in accordance with one of the anticipated student aspirations from the
Malaysian Blueprint that every child can acquire bilingual proficiency whereby they should be able
to work in both Bahasa Malaysia and English language atmosphere upon leaving school. Based
on my observation, countless students were not exposed to the correct strategy of how to spell as
teachers usually overlook the importance of spelling. As a result, students developed incorrect
application of strategies which resulting in poor spelling knowledge.
REFLECTION OF PAST TEACHING AND LEARNING EXPERIENCE
I carried out my third phase practicum at Sekolah Kebangsaan Parang Puting and I was teaching
a Year 2 class with mixed proficiency level in English which is 2 Bestari. However, they were weak
in spelling common noun words correctly. Having to teach Year 2 pupils, I was expecting them to
be able to recognize and spelt the common noun words correctly. However, after carrying out few

activities with them, I noticed that they were not up to my expectation. Therefore, I decided to carry
out an action research targeting to improve their spelling ability.
From my knowledge in teaching my pupils for five weeks, the pupils were unable to spell
words correctly. As an example, some of the pupils were incapable to comprehend the words
meaning and some of them wrote with spelling errors for common words such as shoes for
shous and teet for teeth. I can conclude that this happened due to their lack of knowledge on
how to spell those words appropriately. In addition, pupils would omit certain alphabets in the
words. For example, many of them wrote fried as frid. This could be due to their ignorance while
copying what is accurate and when I conducted a listening routine by asking pupils to write down
the words that I read out aloud, most of them spelt the words wrongly and in Malay words syllable.
Ms. Azlina, my mentor for third phase practicum from Sekolah Kebangsaan Parang Puting
and also Level 1 English teacher agreed that they are weak in spelling words. She remarked that,
many of them are reluctant to learn the correct spelling. In addition, Ms. Azlina also told me that
the pupils have a bad habit of copying their friends homework. Thus, it made the teachers found it
hard in identifying the pupils spelling problem. The teacher could only assume that the pupils have
the common spelling difficulty.
Preliminary Data Collection
Pupils showed noticeable lacking in knowledge on how to spell correctly. Many spelling mistakes
were highlighted in their homework. To further confirm the presence of this problem, the spelling
diagnostic test was conducted, followed up by a questionnaire.
Diagnostic test
The purpose of this test was to reconfirm the early informal observation. Also, it was to
serve as a pre-test to confirm the pupils problem in spelling of common noun words. The choices
of words were selected randomly from the Year 2 English language textbook. This was conducted
as to ensure that the words tested were within the curriculum and was not too difficult in meanings
for the pupils.

There are a total of 20 common noun words being tested in the diagnostic test. The words
are as in the Table below:
Table : List of words used in pre-intervention test
pilot

thorn

coffee

Camel

baker

stem

juice

chicken

actor

leaf

pudding

ostrich

sailor

soil

sugar

Goat

dentist

petal

butter

Rabbit

Interview
From the diagnostic test result, interview is a way to find responses from the
correspondents and it is essential to explain the informal observation of the pupils poor spelling
ability. Therefore, a simple interview was designed and carried out for the correspondents of this
action research to investigate the result of the diagnostic test.
There were two open-ended questions in bi-lingual were asked to the correspondents
based on the questions raised earlier. One aspect might be in limits of the interval, in such
situations, use of open-ended questions might provide complementary and supportive data to
make decision (Tuzzi, 2001). The questions that included were as below:
1. Do you think you can spell new words correctly?
(Bolehkah awak mengeja perkataan baru dengan betul?)
2. How do you spell new words? Describe the way that you used.
(Bagaimana kamu mengeja perkataan baru? Terangkan cara kamu itu.)
Pupils were asked to acknowledge about how they dealt with the spelling of new words
before the intervention so that evaluation could be done later. The questions were designed to
target the way how the pupils spell unfamiliar words. Not much is known about how L2 learners
process unfamiliar words in listening comprehension. We are not clear whether, in most cases,

they infer word meaning, ignore unfamiliar words, or not even notice the unfamiliar words in
continuous speech due to cognitive overload (Cai & Lee, 2010, p. 126). It is essential to know the
strategy used and does it capable to make the pupil spell new words before undergoing the
intervention. Likeness in strategies used would improve the effectiveness of the intervention.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Ministry of Education (2014) states that KSSR curriculum familiarizes pupils to the process of
writing simple compositions but the mechanics of writing such as punctuation, grammar checking
and spelling are also emphasized. It is important to explain the writing process adopted in our
class (Polio & Glew, 1996). In addition, I can conclude that the ability to spell correctly is sturdily
emphasized in two of the content and learning standards of the writing skill. The proof can be
perceived in the table below:
Content Standards
3.1 By the end of the 6-year primary

Learning Standards
3.1.1 Able to write in neat legible print

schooling, pupils will be able to form

with correct spelling:

letters and words in neat legible print

a)phrases

including cursive writing.

b)sentences
c)numerals in word form
3.1.2 Able to write in neat cursive writing
with correct spelling:
a)words
b)phrases

3.2 By the end of the 6-year primary

c)numerals in word form

3.2.4 Able to spell words by applying

schooling, pupils will be able to write

spelling rules.

using appropriate language, form and

style for a range of purposes.
Orthography is the usage known closely related to spelling in which forming of word from
letters are used (Bell, 2004). The focus of my research would be working towards pupils ability to
spell noun words available in the Year 2 textbook. Spelling is the convention which determines
how the graphemes of the writing systems are used to write in a language (Peter, 2009).
Moreover, during his investigation on spelling errors on Malaysian Learners Corpus, Botley (2007)

states that misspelling happens when rules often known as phonographic rules, determine how a
given phoneme is to be represented in writing are broken. As he states in his research, spelling
errors are divided into two categories and the types of mistakes in the first category were;
a) typographical errors
b) punctuation errors
c) dyslexic errors
d) confusable
e) Malaysian spelling of English words
In addition, I noticed that my pupils committed two mistakes from this category and they are
further explained in the table below along with some examples.
Types of spelling mistakes
a) Confusibles confusions between
word pairs that have similarsounding or morphemes.
b) Malaysian spelling of English word

Examples of mistakes
-

soil vs. soy

leaf vs. leave

coffee vs. kofi/kopi

actor vs. aktor
juice vs. jus

In addition, the pupils were inclined to use Bahasa Malaysia as their first language most of the
time since they are studying in the national public school.
RESEARCH ISSUE
I learned that majority of my pupils were unable to spell noun words correctly because of the lack
of exposure towards English language in daily lives, ineffective teaching methods where no stress
towards accurate spelling was given during lessons and the deficiency of English reading
materials both at home and at school. Lan, Y.-C, Degotardi, & Torr, (2011) stated that the earlier
children are exposed to a second language, the more proficient they will become in that language.
Through my observations and interviews with the pupils, I found that pupils were not interested to
read English storybooks because of the perception that the language was very challenging or hard

to be understood. They preferred to look at the illustrations instead of reading the books and
choosing storybook or comics which were written in Bahasa Malaysia, their first and daily
language. In addition, the experience made me aware that this might be a cause of why my
correspondents choose to write a word using Bahasa Malaysia spelling method when they do not
know how to spell the words. Spelling deserves a much higher status in the attention of writing
educators (Paula, 2013).
ACTION / INNOVATION
Model of Action Research
The action research process was based on Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) Action Research
Cycle. In this model, there are four steps as the figure below.
Action Research Cycle

Planning
Based on the problem that I have encountered during spelling test practise in class, I decided to
plan an intervention which was more effective in enhancing pupils spelling ability. Moreover, I had
chosen 4 correspondents who faced similar problems in spelling tests result I had implanted in

class. I designed the interventions according to their level of proficiency in order to help them to
develop in their common nouns spelling ability.
The words selected were based on their highly frequency used in their textbook. Therefore, it can
really help the correspondents in their examination and topical tests at school. In choosing suitable
words to be used, I had chosen the words based on the units in the Year 2 textbook. I had planned
my intervention according to the model that I chose. Moreover, I had done my research for
relevant information through books, online websites and previous researchers action research
samples. In addition, those extra data had helped me a lot in designing intervention and planning
my data collection before, during and after the intervention.
Acting
I was focusing on improving pupils spelling of words which were commonly required in a writing
exercise by using the spelling kit which I have created namely the Pirates Adventure Spelling Kit
as intervention. This spelling kit is an adapted version of big book with couple of games inside it.
Moreover, the adaptation was required as I personally feel that the common letter game only
focusing on guessing the right words to answer the questions on certain topic and there were less
or no guide in choosing the letters. In addition, the spelling kit consists of several types of games
that hopefully can arouse the pupils interest in learning to spell words. A combination of logo quiz
game 4 Pictures 1 Word adapted from -Android mobile phones application, widely known
Hangman and Spell-It-Right game are used in developing the Pirate Adventure Spelling Kit. With
addition of thematic concept of pirate character, decorations and pictures that are clear (font,
design, colours etc.) for each tested words will attract the pupils memory too in spelling skills.

How To Play?

1. Each correspondent will be given a note book consist of a list of 20 words with pictures from
four different units of Year 2 English textbook.
2. Pupils go through each word by observing the pictures, pronouncing and spelling the words with
teachers guidance.

3. The pupil takes out an envelope from the Words Treasure Chest and places the picture in the
picture case
4. The letters will be jumbled up and teacher pastes them on the Velcro tape.
5. The correspondent needs to rearrange the letters based on the picture and copy the word to be
written on the three lines whiteboard flashcard.
6. The correspondent tries to write the letters with correct spelling on the 3 lines card. If the pupil
gets it right, he/she can take a gold coin from the pirates gold chest. However, if the pupils spell
the word wrong, a coin will be taken from him/her.
7. Teacher will be the host that checks the spelling.
8. The spelling kit will be played by every correspondent involved. The pupil with the highest
amount of gold coin wins the game.

The significance of this intervention was that it would diminish their spelling mistakes
especially in their examination. Christopher (2012) states that more deeply, and thoroughly student
knows a word, the more likely he or she is to recognize it, spell it, use it, define it and use it
appropriately in writing. Furthermore, pupils might be able to reduce the spelling mistakes
involving common noun words in their dictation exercises, worksheets and construction of simple
sentences during their English teaching and learning session. I also purposely chose noun
category for this intervention as for research purpose only. In addition, I had discussed the
intervention with my mentor, Ms Azlina, and she advised me to also specifically use the game to
focus on the noun words from few topics that the pupils have learned in their Year 2 English
textbooks. Thus, I would break the words into specific topics and focus only on enhancing pupils
ability to spell five common noun words from each of the topic that I have selected. Those topics of
words were chosen based on their regular occurrences in writing exercises and examination
questions. Examples of those topics were:
Topic
Unit 6 Delicious Food

Categories
Foods

coffee
juice
butter
sugar

Unit 8 Growing Plants

Plants

Unit 9 When I Grow Up

Occupations

Unit 12 On the Farm

Animals

pudding
thorn
stem
leaf
soil
petal
pilot
baker
actor
sailor
dentist
camel
chicken
ostrich
goat
rabbit

Observing

Reflecting

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this research were to;
1. To determine whether the Pirate Adventure Spelling Kit could improve the pupils ability to
spell common words.
2. To know whether the use of Pirate Adventure Spelling Kit could enhance the pupils
motivation level in learning to spell common words.

RESEARCH QUESTION
The research questions would guide the analysis of the result of the intervention:
1. How and to what extent the Pirate Adventure Spelling Kit game could improve pupils
ability to spell common words?
2. Does the use of Pirate Adventure Spelling Kit in learning how to spell common words
correctly able to raise pupils motivation level?

RESEARCH CORRESPONDENTS
The target population for this study consists of 33 pupils of Year 2 Bestari of Sekolah Kebangsaan
Parang Puting in the outskirts of Kota Bharu. The class was mixed-abilities class where few pupils
have good efficiency of the language, majority of them were of intermediate proficiency level
whereas few of them were really weak in English. Four pupils consist of 2 girls and 2 boys from
the class were selected carefully as correspondents for this study. They were selected because of
their lower scores as compared to their other classmates in the spelling-bee activities held in
class, observations during teaching and learning as well as the mistakes observed in the dictation
activities and worksheets given to them during English teaching and learning sessions. The
correspondents came from families with low socio-economic backgrounds and they were all
Malay. In addition, most of the correspondents parents are fisherman, housewives and work by
themselves. Moreover, the correspondents do not practice the use of English language other than
during English lessons. The table below shows some information and details about the
correspondents as well as their test scores in the classroom spelling-bee test.
Scores in the
No.

Correspondent

Race

Gender

s
1
2
3
4

Aifaa
Rafiqah
Amirul
Ubai

classroom
spelling-bee

Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay

Female
Female
Male
Male

test
3/10
4/10
3/10
4/10

IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTION PLAN

Steps Involve
I have decided to use Pirates Adventure Spelling Kit. Before the intervention, correspondents
were required to complete pre-spelling test of 20 syllabic words taken from Year 2 English
textbook randomly. There were four phases in the intervention and it consisted of 3 different levels
namely easy, medium and hard. The phases were not only showing the fun side of the game but it

also considered as a medium to know how much the correspondent progress throughout the
intervention. Then all the four correspondents went through the steps as presented in flow chart
below:

PRE-INTERVENTION
- Spelling Bee was carried out to the correspondents as a pre-intervention
test.
- During the test, teacher pronounced all the 20 nouns chosen one by one
and pupils spelt them in their exercise book.
- The marks of each of the correspondents were recorded.

PHASE 1 (Introduction)
Each correspondent was given a notebook of words with pictures
(20 nouns).
- Teacher pronounced and spelt the words with correct
pronunciation and spelling followed by the pupils.
- The teacher introduced the Pirate Adventure Spelling Kit to the
correspondents.
- Teacher said the dialogue of the pirate in the book, and told the
correspondents on how to play the game. (refer to appendix a)

PHASE 2 (Individual Play Easy)

- Teacher chose one correspondent to do the activity in the spelling kit.
- The correspondent chose an envelope from the Treasure Words chest.
- The correspondent took out the picture and put it in the picture case in the spelling
kit.
- The teacher took the letters in the envelope and jumbled the words before sticking
the letters onto the Velcro tape.
- Teacher wrote the correct category on top of the picture case.
- Correspondent arranged the jumbled up letters to form a word based from the picture
and write down the spelling on the 3 lines whiteboard card.
- If the correspondent spells the word correctly, he/she will get a gold coin from the
pirates treasure chest and no gold coin will be given to the correspondents if he/she
produced wrong spelling of the word.
- However, a gold coin was taken from the correspondent if he/she has one or more
coins.
- Steps above will be repeated until all the envelopes in the Treasure Word chest
were taken by the correspondent.

PHASE 3 (Pairwork Medium)

- Teacher divided 4 correspondents into 2 pairs.
- The first pair will play first and the second pair will be called on other period of
learning.
- Player A from a pair took out an envelope from the Treasure Word chest, brought out
the picture and put the picture in the picture case.
- Player A then took a notebook containing the list of words and pictures to see which
word was matched with the picture.
- Player A pronounced the correct word to Player B, however, Player B cannot see the
correct spelling from the notebook.
- Player B arranged the letters given in the envelope in correct spelling of the word
uttered by Player A on the Velcro tape.
- Player B also needed to write down the correct spelling on the 3 lines whiteboard
card in order to complete his/her turn.
- If Player B got to spell the word correctly, he/she will get a gold coin from the pirates
treasure chest and no gold coin will be given to the Player if he/she produced wrong
spelling of the word.
- However, a gold coin will be taken from the Player if he/she had one or more coins.
- The steps above will be repeated with Player A changing the role with Player B
- Each player had to play with 20 words in total.
PHASE 4 (Competition Hard)
- In this phase, both pairs will compete to win the game in the spelling kit.
Named as Pair 1 and Pair 2, they will be seated side by side and they are given a
bell for each pair.
- The teacher will be the referee of this round and the teacher will take out the
envelope from the Treasure Word chest.
- Teacher insert the picture in the picture case and the pair which rings the bell first
will get the opportunity to spell the word.
- However, this time the letters will not be shown to the players.
- A player from each pair needs to whisper the spelling to his/her partner. Another
player from the same pair will be needed to write down the correct spelling of the
word on the 3 lines whiteboard card after listening to the spelling and word.
- The other pair must not hear the answer from other pair.
- If the pair gives the wrong spelling, the other pair will have the opportunity to spell
the word correctly.
- If the pair gets to spell the word correctly, they will get a gold coin from the pirates
treasure chest and no gold coin will be given to the pair if they produce wrong
spelling of the word.
- However, a gold coin will be taken from the pair if they have one or more coins.
- The game will end after all 20 envelope of picture are taken out from the Treasure
Words chest.
POST-INTERVENTION
-

- An activity called Spelling Bee is conducted where teacher pronounces 20 words that
pupils run into during the steps of the intervention.
- The words are the identical set of 20 words that pupils have spelt during preintervention phase.
- Teacher collects pupils work and marks them. In Correspondents Improvement
Checklist, teacher make use of it to check the progress of each pupil.

Data Collection Method

There were four different types of data gathering methods were used in this study:
a) Personal Interview Open ended questions were used thoroughly during the interview
sessions to collect the correspondents views, suggestions and opinions about the
interventions that they had been through. The data gathered were analysed through content
analysis (Bechtel & Fisher, 1941). In addition, I had interviewed my correspondents
separately and transcribed the sessions by recording them for further analysis. This data
gathering method allowed me as the researcher to get better understanding in the context
of their experience and needs. Furthermore, I selected this method as it produces a
medium for direct interaction between the researcher and the correspondents.
b) Correspondents Works A spelling-bee activity and exercise were given as a diagnosis or
progress checks to the pupils before and after they go through each intervention session.
Moreover, the researcher was having several sets of each correspondents works which
were compared to check the pupils improvement before and after the intervention was
done.
c) Observation Observing and documenting childrens development, the work they do, and
how they do it, with the goal of gathering meaningful information about the child in order to
make educational decisions that will benefit the child (MacFarland, 2006) . In addition, I
have selected this method because I strongly agree that it can help me to make stand and

support my opinions or observation concerning a pupils skill other than thoroughly

monitoring their emotional, social and behaviour.
Data Analysis Method
a) Personal Interview The recorded transcription from the interview were analysed using the
thematic analysis technique. In addition, I analysed the interviews transcription and
selected the themes which were regularly repeated, the one which relate to this study and
the most significant one. Among the predicted themes that I predicted for this study were
pupils perception about their interest level, effectiveness and enjoyment of the intervention
in helping them to spell common words.
b) Correspondents Works Correspondents were required to complete a spelling exercise
and a progress check where marks were not taken into consideration but detailed analysis
to be done on the terms of spelling. In addition, the researcher examined the finding of
results of pupils work by creating a checklist listing the 20 words that pupils had learned
during the intervention period together with pupils name and a tick sign if they were able to
answer it correctly and a cross sign to denote wrong spelling. Moreover, the analysis
focused on the ability to spell the learned common noun words correctly after intervention.
c) Observation I analysed this method by specifically making notes about every
correspondents interaction and the materials after every intervention session was done.
Moreover, observation records from the first up to the fourth interventions were then
recorded and examined to check pupils attitudes towards the intervention and how it had
helped them to progress in their learning processes. Short notes and observations were
written in a table based on three categories which are the correspondents behaviour and
interest towards the intervention as well as their improvement over time. The layout of the
anecdotal record that I have used is as shown in the table below:
Improvement in
Correspondents
Aifaa

Behaviour

Interest

terms of spelling

Rafiqah
Amirul
Ubai

Process of Data Validation

The meaning of a text, then, is negotiated among a community of interpreters, and to the extent
that some agreement is reached about meaning at a particular time and place, that meaning can
only be based on consensual community validation (Watson, 2000) .
a) Motivation and Behaviours
In observing both of the motivation and behaviours of the correspondents, I was referring to my
behavioural records and personal interviews with them. With recorded and examined observation
of the correspondents, the researcher can check whether the pupils attitude and motivation were
positive and increased after the intervention. In addition, the data is valid if all the correspondents
were having good perception towards the spelling kit and their understanding in learning spelling is
greatly improved by interviewing them.
b) Progress Check
Exercises were given as a diagnosis or progress checks to the pupils before and after they went
through each intervention session. Therefore, the correspondents works were taken into
consideration in order to validate my finding. If the correspondents, four of them, showed the
improvement in spelling given after the intervention thus it was a validated data as all of the
correspondents appeared to have higher correct spelling than previous test.

Action/ Implementation Schedule

NO.
ACTIVITY
1. Identifying pupils problems

WEEK / DATES
Week 1 Week 3

Reflection on the teaching and learning

processes
2.

Getting to know the pupils

Identifying research focus and questions

Week 4

3.

Identifying the correspondents of the study

Preparation for research implementation

Week 4

4.

- Action plan
- Implementation steps / intervention
- Determining data collection methods
- Determining methods of data analysis
Submission of research proposal

Week 5 & Week 6

5.

Making further improvements to the proposal

Implementation of intervention

Week 8 & Week 9

6.

Data collection related to the study

7.
8.

- Personal interview
- Correspondents works
- Observation
Analysing the data
Reflection on to what extent the intervention

9.

helps improve pupils spelling ability

Writing the research report

10.

- Draft 1
- Editing
- Review
- Draft 2
- Final report
Sharing the research findings
-

Seminar presentation
Action research publication

Research Cost

(After mid-term break)

Week 10

Week 11
Week 12
July August 2016

September 2016

NO.

ITEMS

QUANTITY

PRICE (RM)

1.

Mounting board A2 size

2 unit

3.00

2.

A4 papers

1 ream

11.00

3.

Laminating papers

1 ream

20.00

4.

Envelope

8 unit

8.00

5.

Printer ink

1 set (black &

35.00

6.

Color papers

colour)
1 set

5.00

7.

Velcro tape

1 roll

5.00

8.

Felt cloth A4 size

1 piece

2.00

9.

Zip

1 piece

3.00

10.

Marker pen

1 unit

3.50

11.

Glue (UHU)

1 tube
Total

4.50
RM100.00

FINDINGS AND REFLECTION

Based on the presentation and analysis of the data on the intervention for improving spelling ability
of common noun words, the correspondents in the research groups showed a significant
improvement in their mastery of spelling words. The strategies and intervention that were used
were aligned with appropriate practices for teaching spelling. In addition, the amount of researcher
preparation time and energy that was devoted to applying the intervention of Pirates Adventure
Spelling Kit increased, but it was worthwhile because the strategies and steps in conducting the
intervention were effective. Moreover, the mastery of common noun words which were also high
frequency words greatly increased as the correspondents used different strategy apart from
traditional pre-test and post-test for learning the words in spelling activities. Thus, the intervention
used to effectively improve spelling words to correspondents is highly recommended.
By using a combination of the various strategies, students were able to master more of the
high frequency words. The teacher-researchers recommend using a combination of the various
strategies for the most effective results. In order for the intervention to be most beneficial for the
students, it is recommended that the 90 high frequency words be divided into six words per week.

Each week for spelling, a regular spelling list, which consists of a set of words with a pattern,
should be used along with the six high frequency words for the week. Introduce a new strategy
every two weeks to the class. Continue to use all of the strategies once they are introduced. If
students have not shown mastery of a certain strategy, the teacher-researchers recommend
modifying the amount of time spent on that strategy. Some strategies are more complicated to
learn than others, so students may need more than two weeks to master a particular strategy.
It is important to review previous spelling words. Even though the high frequency words are
divided into six words per week, the students should still be reviewing the previous week's words.
One of the drawbacks in using this intervention is when students are absent and a new strategy is
introduced. Either a teacher or a peer can teach the new strategy, however, the absent student
often needs more than an explanation. Another drawback to this intervention is that it requires
several materials to be purchased. Materials that need to be purchased include paper forspelling
dictionaries, word bank journals, and materials for the word wall bulletin board. If the school does
not pay for the materials, the materials become the teacher's own expense. In conclusion, the
teacher-researchers found that all the strategies used for the intervention were effective. They
were most effective when they were used consistently and when they were used together. The
intervention used was very successful, and many of the students improved their spelling skills.
They became more motivated and apt to learn their spelling words. The intervention can be
successfully incorporated into any classroom. However, there would have to be teacher training.
Many teachers are not familiar with the spelling strategies used throughout research. Once
teachers are familiar with the new spelling strategies, they can be integrated into the classroom,
and a high rate of success will be evident.
DATA ANALYSIS
Observation
Questionnaire
Group Interview

Correspondents Works
CONCLUSION

Findings

Suggestion for Practical Improvements

Suggestions for Future Research

REFERENCES
APPENDICES