Kajian Tindakan Eprd
Kajian Tindakan Eprd
Penghargaan
Abstrak
Bibliografi
Lampiran
Penghargaan ➢ Pihak yang terlibat dengan
kajian tindakan terutamanya
di peringkat sekolah
3. Objektif Kajian
Seperti di dalam kertas cadangan Seperti di dalam kertas cadangan
a. Objektif Am
b Objektif
Khusus
4. Kumpulan Sasaran
Seperti di dalam kertas cadangan Seperti di dalam kertas cadangan
ii. Refleksi
➢ Huraikan apa-apa yang
difikirkan guru dari segi
Pelaksanaan keberkesanan aktiviti 1 atau
Aktiviti 2 kegagalan aktiviti dan sebab-
sebab keadaan ini terjadi
i. Pemerhatian
ii. Refleksi
By
Hjh Hafiza Aini Bte Hj Hassan
Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar
Johor Bahru
Abstract
This research was carried out to assist the students in enhancing their speaking skills in responding to
Task A in their MUET Speaking Test by using the Genre Analysis approach. There were 8 students who
were involved. Early observations had been carried out through speaking exercises in classrooms.
Through the observations, it was seen that the students were having difficulty in fulfilling the two tasks-
Task A (Individual Presentation) and Task B (Group Discussion). Thus, this research focuses on
enhancing the students’ speaking skills in Task A, that is the Individual Presentation. In this task, the
students need to be able to have the skills of stating and justifying their points of view. 5 lessons were
carried out by using the Genre Analysis approach. Students show their understanding and positive
attitude towards participating in all the activities carried out in the lessons. Lessons via Genre Analysis
approach should be carried out more often as it gives a clearer guideline to the students in mastering
English Language as their second language in speaking and writing.
I observed that the students were having difficulties in giving their opinions and giving reasons to
support their opinions. As part of MUET examination, the students are required to be able to present and justify
their points of view formally. However, my students demonstrated their inability to perform the tasks well. They
showed lack of confidence during speaking lessons. They showed difficulty even to come up with one
justification to the topics given and could not reason out their answers. Basically, less than 5% of the students
would go beyond stating the first justification to the tasks given despite frequent reminders and prompts during
the activities. Their passive responses were also lack of explanations to the justification that they produced.
Due to the predicament of giving even just one justification with no explanation, the students were
unable to go beyond the first minute in presenting their responses. 62% of them responded below 40 seconds.
Not only that, they paused a lot during their responses. Half of the class even paused too frequently when they
responded. Although it is a natural phenomenon to pause while verbally responding due to the thinking process
indulged by the brain, the students paused too long. Some of them even paused as long as 30 seconds during
their responses. This is a clear indication that the students were facing a serious problem in giving, what more
justifying their points of view. The time factor is crucial as in the actual MUET Speaking Test, students are only
given 2 minutes to perform Task A and the students need to be able to state and justify sufficient points of view
within the time limit.
The students’ limited experience to the patterns of similar responses in the target language worsen
the scenario. This caused them not to know the best way to present their responses to the tasks given. That
was why they resorted to just state one justification.
2.Research Focus
The research focused on the speaking skills which are crucial for the students to perform Task A in
MUET Speaking Test. This research was essential as it would assist the students to be more confident in
performing the task given. Their responses would be clearer and thus help the students to be more focused in
delivering their points of view.
With the anxiety that accompanies them throughout the MUET Speaking Test session, the students
would experience intimidation in preparing and responding to the task. This situation did not help the students
in their performance at all. So, equipping the students with speaking skills via Genre Analysis approach would
help to minimize their nervousness as it prepares the students with the common structures used in their
response.
3. Research Objectives
a. General Objective
To tailor a more effective lesson for oral communication by applying the Genre Analysis
approach in instilling the oral skills of the genre of stating and justifying points of view in the learners’
response to the tasks similar to Task A in MUET Speaking Test.
b. Specific Objectives
This study was carried out to meet the following specific objectives:
ii. To guide the students on exploring and identifying the structure of the genre of stating
and justifying points of view with the guidance of the teacher,
iii. To assist the students in producing three justifications for the opinion given,
iv. To make the students aware of the time limit of their responses – 2 minutes only,
v. To highlight and assist the learners in acquiring the salient linguistic features involved
in presenting their responses to the tasks similar to Task A in MUET Speaking Test.
4. Target Group
For this action research, the subjects were purposive, personally hand-picked, abiding the criteria set.
They were currently the students of Upper Six Form (2005) who would be sitting for MUET examination in July
2005. Since the students in the class were mostly of those who had achieved 7D – 9G, and only a small
number with 3B – 6C in their 1119 English Paper in SPM 2003, I carried out the observation and treatment on
the students who were of the two criteria. 8 students were chosen and grouped into two different groups. The
first group, the mediocre, consisted of those who achieved 3B – 6C in their 1119 English Paper in SPM 2003.
The second group involved those with Low English Proficiency (LEP) who only managed to achieve 7D – 9G
in their 1119 English Paper in SPM 2003.
5. Action Implementation
In order to overcome the problems faced by the students in responding to Task A, certain actions were
taken. The actions were as below:
c. Problem Identification
In collecting the data, I used 2 approaches:
ii. Observation
The students seemed to shrink in anxiety when they heard from me that they would
have to perform speaking presentations. It would be impossible to see any one of them to
volunteer to be their group’s spokesman, what more to go first during presentations.
During the presentations, it was not their concern whether the listeners could either
hear or understand them. They would just state what they had to quickly and be satisfied with
that.
iii. Tests
As it is only through tests that we are possible to see students’ real ability, two tests
were carried out. The first one was a speech presentation where the students were given two
weeks to prepare a speech on a title of their own choice and present their piece within two
minutes.
The second test was a mock of MUET Speaking Test which was carried out exactly
as how it would be carried out during the real test. The students came into the room and were
seated in fours. Each group was called into the room at different time and they were not able
to hear other groups’ performance.
i. Observation
The reason for the observation was to see how keen the students were with speaking
presentations. Speaking presentations were done twice a month and the students’ response
were not encouraging. They always answered the announcements of speaking assignments
with groans.
For group presentations, although they knew that they should not have the same
speaker as their spokesmen, they did try to trick me in asking the same persons to represent
their groups. Usually they were the ones identified as having the best speaking skills compared
to the others in the group.
In individual presentations, they were very reluctant to volunteer to perform first. Even
with two weeks preparation time given, some even said that they were not ready to perform
their speech with the title of their own choice.
ii. Tests
In the individual speech, the students did not present clearly. They mumbled their
words and were not interested to ensure that their listeners could understand them.
They also did not use up the whole two minutes provided and this shows that they
had bad time management. This could also be seen in their mock MUET Speaking Test. A
few exceeded the two minutes while the rest did not even touch the first minute.
In their mock test, the students just tend to go straight to the main issue being stated
without dealing with the introduction and topic introduction. Instead of giving three reasons to
justify their views or opinions, they just gave one and were satisfied with it. Their responses
were also lack of the use of salient linguistic features thus decreased the impact of formality.
e. Research Methodology
Based on the observations and tests done, it was clear to me that the students were oblivious
of the structure that they need to follow in order to present their responses. They were also unable to
use the transitional signals correctly and with variety in their responses. Thus, I used the Genre
Analysis approach in order assist the students to respond to the task given better. Genre Analysis
approach was used in assisting the students:
a. to be aware of the required structure,
b. to understand the variety and correct usage of the transitional verbs.
The stages of the action research taken are as below:
i. A pre-test was carried out in order to identify students’ initial level of competency and
ability in responding to Task A.
All instruments used were prepared by me and I personally graded the students myself.
i. Observation
The students’ evaluation can be seen in the table below:
Table 1: The bands achieved by the students.
Student A B C D E F G H
PT 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1
3 state role 25 7
6 end 50 Moves
ii. Reflection
From the assessment made, it was clear that all of the students were with low
competency. Looking at the moves made, about 59% had been neglected. So, this
highlights that the students did not have the skills to present their responses for the
task well. They did not justify their reasons and those skills need to be highlighted to
them. The matter became worse as they were also showing problems in constructing
sentences and some were groping for words.
i. Observation
Graph 2: The number of responses made by Graph 3: The number of responses each
student in Playback 1 made by each student in Playback 2
Number of response given by the individual Number of response given by the individual
students: students:
Playback 1 Playback 2
8 8
7 7
6 6
5 5
4 4
Number of response
Number of response
3 3
2
Graph 4: The number of responses2 made
1
by each student in Playback
1 3
A B C D E F G H A B C D E F G H
4
Number of response
2
1
A B C D E F G H
Student
During the brainstorming session, the weaker students were at first more to the
quiet side and allowing the better ones to take charge (refer to Graph 2). However,
after the recording was played for a few times and they had familiarised themselves
with the response, a few started to take part in signalling and naming the moves (refer
to Graph 3 & 4). They would refer to their friends who were more competent before
they give their answers.
ii. Reflection
It was good for the students of mixed abilities to go through the sessions together.
The better one got the discussion started and the weaker ones soon joined in. The
weaker ones also had the better one to refer to and that also helped in giving them
more confidence to participate in the discussions.
It was also interesting to see how the better one did not try to dominate
the discussions. When the weaker ones gained more confidence in participating, the
better one had actually gave them the chance to respond.
The second stage of the approach required me to expose more samples of the
same genre to the students. That was the phase when the students were able to enrich
their knowledge on the genre being analysed. At this point, the students used the
knowledge gathered in the first stage and labelled the text types accordingly to the
samples provided. Then, they were given stimuli to practice the language features that
they had identified
1. I asked the students to recall and list the text types for the genre of stating
and justifying points of view. I listed their answers on the board.
2. I asked them to check if all the moves they had mentioned were correct and
in order.
3. I played a sample answer of the similar genre once.
4. I asked the students to listen to the recording once again, and signal the
moves.
5. I did the same way for two more recordings.
6. I distributed the transcription of the recordings played.
7. I asked the students to identify and label the text types for the four transcripts
given.
8. I discussed the labelling with the students.
9. I asked them to refer to the transcript again and looked at how the opinions
were expressed.
10. I asked the students to give other ways to state opinions and I wrote them on
the board.
11. I distributed a handout on stating opinions. I went through the list of samples
on expressions used to state opinions with the students.
12. I asked the students to practice giving opinions by using the phrases which
they had learnt earlier. They were asked to attempt the topics one by one. I
kept the time, just giving them 2 minutes to prepare their answers before they
were asked to give their responses. I listed their responses on the board. After
each topic was discussed, I went through the responses and asked the
students to correct the responses if there were any grammatical errors. This
allowed them to be aware of the errors that they had done in their responses
and at the same time, the students were able to share their responses.
i. Observation
Graph 5: The number of responses made by each student in Activity 2
9
8
6
5
4
3
2
1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
In the second activity, the students were exposed to more listening activities of
the recorded responses. Graph 5 above shows that even Group 2 could manage to
identify most of the text types in the genre. Exposing them to the recorded responses
also made them realised that they needed to work on their speed and pronunciation
too.
When they were given the transcript of the recorded responses, they managed to
label the text types. Seeing the responses in written form helped them to see the
distinction of the text types better. The labelling of the text type also helped them to see
the sequence of the responses that they needed to follow when they had to produce
their responses later.
ii. Reflection
Since the spoken discourse is dynamic and is more difficult for them to follow the
flow of ideas, they needed more time to listen to the recording and identify the text
types. Although the process of identification took up a long time, with my careful
guidance, the students felt it was worth doing it as it made them understood the layout
of the responses better.
Exposing the students to a native-like recording is essential as they did
not have enough contacts with good samples of authentic answers by the native
speakers. As the result, the students also benefited as they learnt the right
pronunciations, intonations and thus had a good source for practice. Having the
printed transcript also helped the students to be aware of the salient linguistic features
for the production of the genre.
i. Observation
At this stage the students were exposed to various ways of using transitional
signals in expressing opinions and reasons to justify the points of view. The students
were more aware of the choices that they had. They said that they always had the
tendency to keep using the same expressions to state their opinions and reasons, and
the exercise on the expressions and the application that they made in the exercises
helped them to be more confident in using other expressions too.
ii. Reflection
As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, the students being average and weak
ones really gained more confidence after umpteen practice of using transitional signal
for various situations. This also helped them to be aware of the different usage of
transitional signals and the right way of using them.
v. Implementation of Activity 4
At this stage the students were already exposed to various ways in expressing
opinions and reasons to justify the points of view. The students were more aware of the
choices that they had. Now the students need to put their knowledge into practice within the
time limit of 2 minutes for each statement given.
i. Observation
Graph 6: The number of responses made
by each student in Activity 4
9
8
Number of response
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Student
At this stage, the students were able to use their knowledge on the expressions
and transitional signals in producing their responses. They said that they were able to
vary their expressions in stating their opinions and reasons, and the exercise on the
expressions helped them to be more aware of the 2 minutes and had to force
themselves in presenting their answers within the time limit.
ii. Reflection
More practices would be a great help to the students. Though they were uneasy
and felt disturbed for having to produce their responses within 2 minutes, it would be
a blessing in disguise as they would be accustomed to it. Thus, during the real test,
they would be more aware of the 2 minutes provided.
This was the last stage, stage 5 where the students had to put into practice of
what they had learnt in the exercise focusing on situations similar to Task A in MUET
Speaking Test.
i. Observation
Table 2: The Moves covered by the students Graph 7: The Moves covered by the students
Students
A B C D E F G H %
Moves
1 greeting 100 8
Number of Students
explanation of 4
4.1a 37.5
justification 1
4.2 justification 2 87.5
3
explanation of
2
4.2a 12.5
justification 2
1
4.3 justification 3 50
6 end 100
I could see that at first the students were quite uncomfortable to give their
responses with the other group watching and listening. However, after the feedback
and discussion session, Table 2 and Graph 7 show that they managed to take the
exercise positively. In the second round responding to their second set, the students
were more confident and could give better responses.
ii. Reflection
Naturally, the students were shy to be heard by their friends. However, with
persuasions and encouragements, many were able to present their responses
better.
At first, the students found it difficult to come up with enough opinions and reasons within the
two minutes given. However, with a lot of discussions and oral practices, the students found that they
were more confident in giving their answers. Even Group 2 would volunteered to give their answers
first and this showed that they had gained their confidence not just in preparing the responses, but
also in presenting them aloud in class.
I managed to highlight and facilitate the students to produce their responses in the correct text
types and use the appropriate linguistic features. With the ample oral practices carried out by the
students, they had gained more confidence and thus, helped them to produce their responses in better
sentences.
The Genre Analysis Approach has allowed the students to be aware of the text types and the
salient linguistic features which becomes the crutch to these weak students to produce their responses
to the task given.
This research only focused on the individual response to the speaking task. It is crucial especially for
the weaker students in gaining the salient linguistic features. With that, I personally suggest that there should
be another research in helping these weak students in the second task in the MUET Speaking Test, that is
Task B. In this task, the students are required to be able to manage discussions. The research should focus
on ways to highlight the essential features of managing discussions and the proper ways to carry them out,
and help the weak students to understand and be able to carry out discussions properly.
Bibliography
Lim, J.C. (2002) Malaysian University English Test (MUET) – Coursebook. Selangor:Pustaka Sarjana Sdn
Bhd.
Martin, J.K. (1984) ‘Language, register and genre.’ in ECT 418, Language Studies. Children Writing: Reader.
Victoria: Deakin University.
Ng, K. S. et al. (2004) Study Skills for the Malaysian University English Test. Shah Alam: Federal Publications.
Riggenbach, H. (1999) Discourse Analysis in the Language Classroom. USA: University of Michigan Press.
Roberts, P. (1997) Genre Analysis: A way out of the CUL -DE-SAC. In: The International House
Journal of Education and Development Issue 3 April 1997. Access date December 10, 2004 at:
www.ihworld.com/ihjournal/genre_analysis_paul_roberts.doc
Smith, G. (1997) Learning to Speak and Speaking to Learn. Journal for College Teaching, Vol. 45.:49+. Access
date January 1,2005 at: www.questia.com
Swales, J.M. (1990) Genre Analysis – English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Vale, A., Tan, A., and Ali, M. (2004) Text MUET, A Complete Guide. Selangor : Pearson Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.