Action_research_report_2019.docx

INTRODUCTION The Context of the Research Wellspring Academy of Canlubang Inc., is a private school, located at Palao, Kapayapaan Ville, Canlubang, Calamba City, Laguna. There were 199 pupils that went to the school. In this school, I was assigned to teach English language to the Grade 3 class and I taught them for one month. There were 15 pupils in the class, aged between 8 and 9 years old. There were 8 boys and 7 girls in the class. The pupils were of mixed-abilities which ranging from average to below average level of proficiency. Most of them came from villages near the factories. Generally, the pupils’ parents worked as company/factory workers, and teachers. They worked from early morning or late evening because there are night shift and day shift so they had no time to look at their children’s development in school. I noticed that the school is English speaking zone. But the students speaking in Tagalog. This shows that some of the teachers did not really stress on their student’s the English language inside and outside the school premises. I could also see that some of the pupils had low motivation towards learning in English subject as the English teacher told me that the pupils wants to translate everything in Tagalog. Apart from that, I also had problems with my pupils’ reading. Each time I asked them to read, most of them mumbled the words when they were reading the sentences. The pupils also tend to pronoun the words according to its spelling whenever they encountered new and unfamiliar words. Normally, when doing reading aloud activity, I could only hear voices from the good pupils. Sometimes, I had to model the reading few times. Reading was very important for the pupils as it will be one of needs to be good in English. So I believe, as a teacher, it was crucial for me to help them in their reading problems so that I could ensure smooth lessons in future. FOCUS OF INVESTIGATION / ISSUE OF CONCERN Statement of Problem During my teaching period, the first problem I observed that most of my pupils had low levels of proficiency in English language. How well English language learners can write and read is directly related to their levels of English language proficiency in writing and reading. The second problem identified was that most of the pupils in my class had difficulties in their reading. They only read certain words that were familiar to them and they stopped at some points when they did not understand the words. The pupils were unable to read and pronouncing words that unfamiliar to them while they read. This problem occurred because the pupils were not aware with the phoneme of letters in English words. For example, most of my pupils read the word “refer” as /refer/ instead of /rɪˈfəː/. Another example of word that my pupils had problem to deal with was the word “eleven”. The pupils pronounced the words as /eleven/ instead of /ɪˈlɛv(ə)n/. These examples clearly showed that my pupils were having difficulties in pronouncing English words that were unfamiliar to their ears. To overcome this problem, in each lesson, I need to model the reading to the pupils so that the pupils were aware on how to pronounce the words correctly. The third problem that caught my attention was that most of my pupils could not understand grammar especially demonstrative pronouns although drilling process had been done with them. During my lessons, I had used pictures and flashcards to help them but the problem was not solved. The pupils cannot differentiate between this, these, that and those. For example, the pupils usually used these for singular object and those for plural objects but the objects were close to the speaker. Perhaps, they made mistakes because of their understanding was not so deep enough in grammar. The Initial Survey Taking into considerations of the pupils’ background and their surroundings, I chose to work on the third problem which was the pupils’ grammar problem or to be more specific; I chose to help pupils in using demonstrative pronouns correctly. This problem was given priority that the other two problems because of several significant reasons. Firstly, I believe that to be good in English language, one’s must have deep understanding of grammar and they need to use it correctly. This is because most of English lessons will involve grammar whether the pupils’ notice it or not. The teaching of grammar nowadays usually do not stand on its own in a lesson but they are integrated in their reading, writing or speaking skills. It always bothered me that when the pupils did simple grammar mistakes in their speaking or writing, I had to spend more time explaining on how to use grammar correctly. Thus, my lessons were disturbed because it was crucial to ensure that they could use simple grammar correctly before I continued to the next steps. 1

Furthermore, from the diagnostic test (Appendix A) that I had carried out on the pupils, I felt that the gap between the pupils who were categorized as the intelligent pupils and the weak pupils were too wide. During the test, the intelligent pupils did not have problem in answering the test while the weak pupils started to felt uneasy and restless. This happened because the pupils did not know the answers and they had no knowledge about Demonstrative Pronouns. So, the pupils started to choose any answers given as long as they completed the test. Literature Review Grammar teaching has always been one of the most controversial and least understood aspects of language teaching. Few teachers remain indifferent to grammar and many teachers become obsessed by it. So, what is grammar actually? Based on Oxford Dictionaries (2014), grammar is the whole system and structure of a language or of languages in general, usually taken as consisting of syntax and morphology (including inflections) and sometimes also phonology and semantics. On the other hand, according to Thornbury (1999), grammar is partly the study of what forms (or structures) are possible in a language. Thus, a grammar is a description of the rules that govern how language’s sentences are formed. Good grammar knowledge is vital for children to become successful in learning. To develop a child’s grammar knowledge, they should have a strong foundation and exposure to English subject in the early age. As stated by B. Bradshaw in his article Why Grammar is Important, he said that grammar, regardless of the country or the language, is the foundation for communication – the better the grammar, the clearer the message, the more likelihood of understanding the message’s intent and meaning. From this statement, we can understand that without adequate knowledge in grammar, the message that one’s trying to deliver will not be so clear, as it is the foundation for communication. With good grammar knowledge, the children can communicate with other people fluently and express their opinions or ideas conveniently. So, to improve my pupils’ knowledge on how to use demonstrative pronouns correctly, I use song as my main tool in this research. For your information, song is one of the alternative ways to increase the pupils’ proficiency level in English especially on vocabulary. Besides, the songs are easy to be found in the internet. The songs are also more fun and familiar to the pupils’ ears. Most children enjoy listening to songs and this is one of the main reasons why it has become my choice in enhancing my pupils’ vocabularies in the English lesson. The song also plays a significant role in motivating students to learn English. They can support the development of learners’ abilities in reading, writing, listening and speaking, as well as provide opportunities for learning pronunciation, rhythm and vocabulary (Lo & Li, 1998). In addition, songs often offer a change from routine classroom activities. Orlova (1997) identifies some additional benefits of songs in language learning. First, they can encourage learners to use English. In a non-English environment, the main problem for teachers is how to stimulate learners to speak in the English class; songs may be the starting point for that. Secondly, listening to songs, especially when these are supported with pictures and actions helps students to recognize words and meaning more easily. Finally, songs can stimulate a positive emotional attitude to the language learning. Through songs also, vocabulary will be learned explicitly through direct instruction and attention. Songs, by exposing the learners to many examples of words used in meaningful contexts, create such opportunities for indirect vocabulary learning. Besides, songs also allow the pupils to repeat and to memorize chunks of language. This will contribute to vocabulary learning to where repetition is needed to help learners remember words (Nation, 1990) and many lexical items that learners need to know are multi-word items rather than single words. Songs can thus be an effective method of helping children to learn lexical patterns that will be stored in their minds and can be naturally recalled during oral communication (Murphey, 1992). In other words, songs can help the development of automaticity which means the ability to use language naturally and without conscious effort. According to Schoepp (2001), is the main cognitive reason for using songs in second language learning. Through songs children can also repeat words and phrases spontaneously even if they do not initially understand them. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY The objective of this action research is to: Improve the use of demonstrative pronouns among year 3 pupils by using song. RESEARCH QUESTION The research question is: How can I use song to improve the use of demonstrative pronouns among Grade 3 students?

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TARGET GROUP / PARTICIPANTS For my action research, I made my decision to choose pupils of Grade 3 as my respondents. This class consists of 15 pupils and there are 8 boys and 7 girls. But for my action research, my focus was on the 3 pupils that were chosen as my respondents. My respondents were the weakest pupils in this entire group. Although there are only 15 pupils in this class, most of them are very active and uncontrollable. I need to be firm when giving instruction to control the class before I could start the teaching and learning session. For their abilities, most of them could read and understand basic instructions given in English. There were only 3 pupils who cannot read an English text. The pupils had problems in their vocabulary which they did not know on how to pronounce the words and they also did not know its meaning. This happened because the pupils had lack of numbers of vocabularies in their mind and their knowledge. Apart from that, the pupils are slow learners. I need to give them a short works because the pupils can easily been distracted by the environment around them and they also had a short attention span. Last but not the least, my 3 pupils are very excited in learning English because I give them rewards. They also enjoyed themselves once I prepared a lesson by using the pupils-centered style. They felt like they were involved in the lesson and did not act as passive learners. Based on my observation, the lesson that my pupils enjoyed the most was the language arts class because the pupils got the chances to sing with actions in the classroom. As a conclusion, teaching this class was actually quite challenging, as there were lots of characters that I need to face and caters to their needs. IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTION PLAN The Action Plan Based on my observation for a few weeks in this school, I found that the pupils were having difficulty in understanding about the demonstrative pronouns (This, These, That, Those). So, through my reading and some research, I have made my decision to improve their understanding about demonstrative pronouns by using song as the stimulus. I have chosen song because it is one of the best alternative ways to increase pupils’ proficiency level in English. According to Wrenshall, she said that “there is also plenty of evidence that song help memorization, and the rhythm and rhyme of the lyrics can certainly help vocabulary as well”. Besides, most of the children also enjoy listening to songs as it can easily be found on television, internet/social madea, and radio nowadays. The intervention was implemented to the whole class of Grade 3 because I did not want my respondent felt that they were the worst among their friends. But I have put my focus on them and always observed on their responses throughout the lesson. Although my focused were on my respondent, I did not want the other pupils to be left out doing nothing in the lesson. So to overcome this problem, they also were asked to participate in the lesson as the respondents did. In this action research, there were steps that have been done through the intervention in order to achieve the goal. All the information has been summarized as follows: Table 1 Step 1 – Test 1 and Introduction of Demonstrative Pronouns (This, These, That, Those). Teacher Action Pupil Action Rationale of Activity Steps Teacher conducted test 1 to check upon Pupils answered test 1 by using The test was conducted to identify the pupils’ understanding about the their prior knowledge about pupils who had the difficulties in Demonstrative Pronouns. Demonstrative Pronouns understanding and using demonstrative pronouns correctly. Teacher introduced and recalled about demonstrative pronouns with the pupils. Teacher pasted flashcards that contain the words This, These, That, and Those on the whiteboard. Teacher conducted the question and answering session and observed the pupils.

Pupils listened to the teacher. Pupils gave feedback and response through the Q&A session.

Based on the Q&A session, teacher picked pupils who had difficulty in demonstrative pronouns as his respondents.

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For the first step, the teacher conducted the test to the pupils. The aim of the test was to identify the problematic students who really need help in demonstrative pronouns. From the Test 1 (Appendix B), 3 respondents were chosen based on their results gained from the test. Next, the teacher recalled and introduced again demonstrative pronouns (this, these, that, those) to the pupils. Actually, the pupils have learned about demonstrative pronouns early of this year but some of them did not really understand about them and did not know on how to use them correctly. That is why the action research needs to take place. Table 2 Step 2 – Introduction of the lyrics and rhythm of Demonstrative Pronouns Song. Teacher Action

Pupil Action

Rationale of Activity Steps

Teacher distributed the lyrics of the song to the pupils. Teacher reads the lyrics while pupils followed after her. Teacher explained the meaning of the lyrics to the pupils. Teacher drilled the pupils a few times in reading the lyrics.

Pupils followed after the teacher’s reading of the lyrics. Pupils practiced by reading the lyrics a few times and understand them.

The pupils had the chance to understand more about the meaning of the lyrics.

Teacher played the demonstrative pronouns song and introduced the rhythm of the song to the pupils.

Pupils listened to the song carefully with interest.

Helped the pupils to have some idea on how to sing the song.

The second step was introducing the lyrics and the rhythm of the song that was used in the intervention process (Appendix G). This step was implemented because of its own reasons. The first rationale of this step was to let the pupils know and understand the lyrics and used to it. They have to know on how to pronounce the words correctly and the meaning of the lyrics itself. The pupils were asked to know the song by their heart. The second reason of conducting this step was to help the pupils to have general idea about the song so that they will not left behind in the lesson. They were introduced to each line of the lyrics and every single beat of the rhythm. Table 3 Step 3 – The Intervention Process. Teacher Action Teacher pasted flashcards and pictures of demonstrative pronouns on the whiteboard. Teacher played the song and asked the pupils to follow after her. Teacher explained to the pupils on how to use the demonstrative pronouns correctly in sentences. Teacher played the song once again and sang the song together with the pupils. Teacher asked questions to gain feedback from the respondents.

Pupil Action Pupils sang the song together with the teacher while doing actions. Pupils listened to the teacher’s explanations. Pupils gave feedback and responses to the teacher.

Rationale of Activity Steps Helped the pupils and respondents to understand more about the demonstrative pronouns. Helped the teacher to observe the respondents progress.

This step was the most vital process in the research. The intervention was implemented in the one hour lesson. The teacher pasted the words in flashcard form and pictures to describe the demonstrative pronouns on the whiteboard. The pictures helped the pupils to do the actions while singing the song after that. Then, the teacher explained briefly on how to use the demonstrative pronouns correctly in their writing. This happened to add and clarified more about the knowledge and understanding that the pupils already have in their mind. Next, the questioned and answering session took place in order to measure the pupils’ understanding about the lesson. From the feedback given by the pupils, the 4

teacher could make his decision whether his intervention was a success or vice versa and be prepared for the second cycle. Table 4 Step 4 – Final Observation and Test 2 Teacher Action Teacher recalled about the previous lesson and asked questions to check upon pupils understanding and progress. Teacher conducted the test 2 with the pupils.

Pupil Action Pupils showed their progress in understanding the demonstrative pronouns. Pupils answered the test for 30 minutes.

Rationale of Activity Steps To show the effectiveness of the intervention and showing the progress of the respondents.

For the final step, a test was conducted in order to gain the validity of the action research. Data was collected from the test and being tabulated in the data. The Test 2 (Appendix C) results will show the progress of the respondents and the marks will be compared with the Test 1. From the results tabulated in the data, the teacher can conclude whether he needs a second cycle or not. METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY Data Gathering Methods To collect data for my research, I used observations as one of the methods (Appendix H). Observations includes the opportunity to record information as it occurs in a setting, to study actual behaviour, and to study individuals who have difficulty in verbalizing their ideas like small children (Cresswell, 2014). It aided to collect information to show in what ways my intervention strategy had helped the participants to use the demonstrative pronouns correctly while singing the song during the process of the intervention. By observing them, I could study their behaviours and performance during lessons as the participants could not tell me their feelings and thoughts. Classroom observation can be made based on a checklist (Goh, 2012). The checklist was used during the observations to record the respondents’ behaviour along the interventions process. From that, I could see their progress or struggles. The checklist has three aspects which are pupils’ facial expressions, pupils’ participation and pupils’ response during the process of interventions. Next, I used Test 1 (pre-intervention test) and Test 2 (post-intervention test) to collect information to see the improvements made by my respondents after all the interventions has been carried out. I intend to utilize this method as to measure the degree of change occurring as a result of intervention (Shuttleworth, 2014). The pre-intervention test was done prior to starting the intervention which means before the intervention was carried out. After the interventions have been implemented, the same test was administered on the respondents which called as post-intervention test. Based on the results from both tests, I can measure the change resulting from the intervention by comparing the measure of scores from both tests. If the marks for the post-intervention increase, this will indicate that the intervention has worked in helping the pupils to use the demonstrative pronouns correctly or vice versa. Thus, with measurements being collected at the beginning and end of the intervention, the impacts are often revealed by calculating the differences between two measures. On top of that, another type of instruments used in this research was the students’ work. Based on Goh (2012), she stated that evidence of student learning can take many forms, and the most useful are those in which you can demonstrate quite clearly the developments in the students’ understanding. From this type of collecting data method, it helps me in having a valid and reliable data. The pupils’ progress can clearly been seen in the data collected during all the interventions done by me. Data Analysis Method Previously, as I have collected the required data, the next process is the process of analysing the data whether they are of quantitative or qualitative data. I intend to analyse the scores from the pre-intervention test and postintervention test and present the data in the form of percentages in table. According to Goh (2012), descriptive statistics presented quantitative data in measures like percentages. The data are arranged in this way to facilitate me in data interpretation to answer the research question. This is because I intend to interpret the changes of scores from both tests as an indicator that the intervention has succeeded to help the pupils in improving the use of demonstrative 5

pronouns correctly. Hence, the different scores would provide information to show how each respondent’s performance has improved based on the test scores (Cresswell, 2014). For instance, when comparing both scores, if the scores in postintervention test are higher than the scores in pre-intervention test, this proves that the intervention has worked in helping the pupils to solve their problem in Demonstrative Pronouns. On the other hand, if there are no changes of scores or if the scores from the post-intervention test decreased, this illustrated that the intervention did not went well and work on the pupils. Besides, to analyse the data collected from the observations (checklist) made by the teacher during the interventions, the data from the checklist will be tabulated in one table where all the checklists from the first intervention to the last intervention are combined into a single table. The observations were based on the pupils’ participation in the intervention, their facial expression and also their response during the interventions. All of these aspects help the pupils to express what they feel or their emotions in a non-verbal way. To add, the mass of information collected from the observations will also assist me in better exploring the respondents’ answer by looking into responses that helped in answering the research question. According to Cresswell (2014), triangulation is the process of corroborating evidence from different types of data or methods of data collection in descriptions and themes in qualitative research. In order to answer my research question, the third data analysis method which was the students works are tabulated in the table to see their progress from the starting point until the research interventions are done. Test 1 and Test 2, observations and students works are triangulated to increase the validity and to reduce the like hood of errors in the findings when similar results are analysed from many sources. By doing this, it will provide an accurate measurement of the scale in the performances of the respondents and help me to illustrate on ways the intervention helped them to improved their use of demonstrative pronouns. As mentioned by Goh (2012), triangulation of data that involves combination of methods will reduce biasness and increase confidence in reporting research, clearer and more understanding on the issue. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY Pupils’ Test This instrument was used to test upon the respondents understanding after the interventions were done with them. Test 1 was given to the respondents before the interventions took place in the classroom. Based on the test 1 given, the researcher found that there were lots of mistakes done by the respondents and most of the respondents gained low marks in their test. Therefore, she have introduced the using of song in order to help the respondents improved the using of demonstrative pronouns in their writing skills. After the interventions were done with the respondents, the researcher gave the same type of test paper with the same questions from the Test 1 to them. From the result gained from test 2, there were big differences in the respondents’ marks. The result in Test 2 was a lot better compared to the test 1. Table 6 Marks gained by respondents in Test 1 and Test 2 Test Marks ( % ) Respondent names Test 1

Test 2

One

40

70

Two

10

70

Three

10

100

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Respondents' Progress

Respondents' Marks

120 100 80 60 40 20 0

Test 1 Test 2

One

Two

Three

Respondent Names

Figure 1 : Comparison graph between respondents’ marks from Test 1 and Test 2. Based on Figure 1, the researcher observed that there were improvements for each respondents in this research. For the first respondent, there was 30% improvement from the Test 1 with the Test 2. For the next respondents which were respondent 2 and respondents 3, both of them got low marks for the Test 1 which were 10%, but after the intervention were carried out in the classroom, both respondents improved by 60% and 90% respectively. This data have clearly shown that there were improvements with my respondents after the interventions took place. So, based on the Figure 1 above, this data can be one of the evidence that the using of song can surely help the pupils to have a deep understanding about demonstrative pronouns. Teacher’s Observation (Checklist) Apart from Test 1 and Test 2, the researcher also had chosen teacher’s observation as one of his instrument to analyze the data. To make the data more reliable and valid, the researcher had made a checklist to jot down the data gained during the intervention. There were 3 checklists made by the researcher as there were 3 interventions done by her. Below is the summary of the 3 checklists done by the researcher: Table 7 Summary of Checklists Observation’s Elements

Pupils’ Participation in Class activities

Number of Intervention

X

Pupils’ Facial Expression During Intervention

Pupils’ Response During Intervention

X

X

Checklist Intervention 1

5

-

-

5

2

3

Checklist Intervention 2

5

-

5

-

2

3

Checklist Intervention 3

5

-

4

1

5

-

Based on the data in the table 7 above, it was clearly showed that the respondents participated well in all the class activities done by the researcher. Without the participation from the respondents, the data could not be gained and the research could not be completed as planned earlier. So, there was no problem at all for pupils’ participation in class activities in all interventions conducted by the researcher. The next element that was observed by the researcher during the interventions was the pupils’ facial expression during the process of interventions. Based on the table 7, all of 3 respondents showed that they were uninterested at all in the intervention process. This problem occurred because the pupils did not want to learn about grammar or demonstrative pronouns specifically. They automatically lost their motivation to learn English when it comes to grammar. But we can see the improvement made by the researcher in the second intervention as she introduced song to teach demonstrative pronouns to the respondents. During the second intervention, the pupils were very excited and eager to sing the demonstrative pronouns song. In the third intervention, only one respondent did not show interest in the intervention process. This thing occurred because the respondent felt that she is good enough and did not need any explanation anymore. So she stated to lose focus and interest during the intervention process. 7

For the next element that had been observed by the researcher was pupils’ response during the intervention process. During the first and the second interventions, only two of the respondents could give answers to the questions asked by the researcher. This problem happened because the other respondents felt shy to give answers as they did not have the knowledge about demonstrative pronouns. But by the end of the interventions which was the third interventions, all of the respondents started to give response to the researcher. All of them already had the knowledge and they felt confidence with their answers which also can be concluded as a positive behavior shown by them. Pupils’ Work The next instrument that was used by the researcher in the research was the pupils’ work. For every intervention done in the classroom, teacher gave worksheet to the respondents for the drilling process. So, there were 3 worksheets given to the respondents as there were 3 interventions were done by the researcher. The worksheets results were taken and recorded in the table 8 below: Table 8 Respondents work’s marks Number of exercises Respondent names Respondent 1 Respondent 2 Respondent 3

Exercise 1 10 marks

Exercise 2 10 marks

Exercise 3 10 marks

6 3 3

6 5 6

7 6 6

Based on table above, we can see the improvement made by the respondents between each intervention that they had undergone. For respondent 1, there was only minor improvement that can be seen. For the first and the second worksheet given to respondent 1, the respondent already have the knowledge about demonstrative pronouns and there were no changes happened to the respondent as the respondent only got 6 marks for both worksheets. The minor improvement was only can be seen in the third worksheet where the respondent 1 got 7 marks for the worksheet. For respondent 2, we can see the progress made by her from one intervention to another. It can be seen from the marks gained by the respondents which increases from 3 marks to 5 marks and then moved to 6 marks. Next we move to the respondent 3. For respondent 3, there were major changes in terms of marks gained from the worksheets. The respondent got 3 marks for the first intervention’s worksheet and has improved as much as 3 marks to gain 6 marks in the next worksheet. In the third intervention’s worksheet, the respondent 3 maintain his marks and there was no improvement made by the respondent 3. As a conclusion, the students’ work’s instrument was surely helps the researcher to observe and manage his respondents’ progress from one intervention to another. DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS Based on the findings that have been gathered, I can conclude that my research was a success. This research helped the respondents to improve the use of demonstrative pronouns among them by using song. The results from the Test 1 and Test 2 were clearly showed that there were improvements done by all of the respondents. Before the researcher started to conduct the intervention, most of the respondents did not have the knowledge on how to use demonstrative pronouns correctly. They are confused on how to differentiate between this, these, that and those. Before the intervention, the respondents tend to choose randomly the answers and did not think critically before answering those questions. However after the intervention had been done, the respondents showed positive response by getting higher marks in their Test 2. Based on my observation, the usage of song as the element in helping the respondents to improve the use of demonstrative pronouns was a brilliant idea. All of my respondents felt excited and motivated to learn once the researcher introduce the demonstrative pronouns song. As stated by Nambiyar (1985), songs have a great tendency to attract the attention of the students. It also introduces an atmosphere of gaiety, fun and informality in classroom. From her statement, it was well explained why the researcher’s respondents responded well during the intervention 8

process. They enjoyed the lesson and as a result, all the respondents’ marks increased and there were improvements made by them. Apart from that, there was another reason why this research was a success. In the intervention process, the researcher used pictures that were pasted on the whiteboard to help the pupils in their understanding besides singing the demonstrative song. While singing the song, the respondents need to point to the pictures based on the lyrics they sang. Orlova (1997) stated that listening to songs, especially when these are supported with pictures and actions helps students to recognize words and meaning more easily. This statement was proven when the respondents’ marks increased from one exercise to another in the students’ work instrument data. With the help of those pictures during the intervention process, it was easier for the pupils to remember and build deeper understanding as pupils have different types of learning styles. Some of them were visual learners, audio-visual learners and others. So at least, the researcher had fulfilled all the pupils need in their learning style and that was why the research succeeds. On the other hand, the researcher also had built confidence in his respondents to use demonstrative pronouns correctly by using song. Read (2007) once said that by building on children’s pleasure in rhythm and sounds, they engage children in responding to and producing language in ways which develop their confidence and self-esteem and lead to a sense of achievement and success. This can be seen in the checklist form provided by the researcher in the appendix section. In the third intervention, all respondents were very eager to join the questions and answering session held by the researcher. The respondents were very confident with their answers and they wanted to share their answers with others pupils in the classroom. If we compared to the first intervention, most of the respondents sat quietly at their own places and they refused to take part in the questions and answering session. Now, the pupils are able to use demonstrative pronouns correctly with confident. Besides, the researcher also had triangulated the data to gain more reliable and valid results in his research. Triangulation involves the conscious combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies as a powerful solution to strengthen a research design where the logic is based on the fact that a single method can never adequately solve the problem of rival causal factors (Patton, 1990). Below is the data triangulation made by the researcher:

Before Intervention & After Intervention Test.

Students’ Work

Teacher’s Observation

Figure 2 : Triangulation of Data The figure above showed on how the data complement each other in order to gain a valid and reliable data. In this research, teacher’s observation was very important to see changes made by the respondents. The respondents may answers the test correctly and got high marks in the test but there will be possibility that some of them cheats during the test. So with the observations done from the teacher, it will shows how the pupils progress and improve from time to time. In this research, the researcher made an observation for each intervention. So, he could see his respondents’ progress and that made his data contain high validity and reliability. For the test that was held before and after the intervention, it must be tally with the students’ work and teacher’s observations. As a conclusion, this research was considered as successful because it had achieved the objective stated earlier before the intervention was held with those respondents. It had helped the respondents to improve the use of demonstrative pronouns by using song as the stimulus. The data also tally with each other which mean that the data contained high validity and reliability which also contributed to the research succeeds. CONCLUSION AND REFLECTION

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From this action research, several conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness of using song to help the pupils in using the demonstrative pronouns correctly. It was discovered that using song as the stimulus in this research had enhanced the respondents’ ability to use the demonstrative pronouns correctly. From the data collected during all the interventions done by the researcher, all respondents had showed improvement and some of them even showed great improvements. The respondents managed to score higher marks in the Test 2 that had been conducted after all the interventions were carried out by the researcher. From the findings also, it appeared that the pupils had managed to memorize the use of each demonstrative pronouns correctly by singing the song and do actions as they learned during the interventions. Generally, this research can be reflected in three stages which are before research, while research and after research. There were many insights that the researcher gained before conducting this research. First of all, the researcher realized that she needs to consider about the pupils’ background and their level of proficiency in English before selecting her respondents for the research. These elements were very crucial in the process of planning the action research. Besides, the researcher also did lots of observation and interview sessions with the class and English subject teacher for Grade 3 in order to find problems that faced by the pupils. From this point onwards, the researcher started to plan the research paper and conducted the interventions based on the objective and research question stated earlier. In addition, during the research, there were also few elements that gave insightful experiences to the researcher. One of the major issues is the respondents’ participation during the singing process. From the observation, some of the pupils seemed restless. They liked to disturb other pupils by talking or poking the others. At the same time, they disturbed the respondents’ concentration in the class. In a way, they made the teaching and learning process to become disturbed. So, one of the ways that could help to prevent this thing from happening again is by giving detention to the pupils every time they disturbed others. For example, the researcher should give them a time out from participating the in the singing session. This is to ensure the other pupils are not being disturbed and stay focus. The research gives experience to the researcher on handling the other non-participants of the research. Lastly, the skills in conducting the research is one of the experiences gained after completing the research. This is because, as a trainee teacher, the researcher has to gain knowledge from all aspects in order to deliver a quality and meaningful lesson. Thus, the experience gained could be used so that the researcher can develop the professionalism of a teacher in them. Through action research also, it helps the researcher to create awareness that every problems regarding the pupils’ learning can be overcome by doing this systematic acts. PLANS FOR FURTHER ACTION This study is conducted to improve the Grade 3 pupils’ ability in using demonstrative pronouns correctly by using song. So, the plan for the next action must also be using the same technique which is song. This is because the technique is proven can help to improve the respondents’ ability to use demonstrative pronouns correctly. However, the technique can only assist the respondents in a certain degree. It also means that the technique can be improved from several aspects. Time constraint is the first aspect of this research that can be improved in future. The drilling session by using song should be allocated more time as the pupils were enjoying it very well. Most of the pupils in the intervention process asked and begging the researcher to let them sang the song again and again. If the drilling session can be done few times, there is higher possibility that there will be deeper understanding gained by the pupils about demonstrative pronouns. So, it is recommended that this research should be carried out over a longer period of time. It is also recommended that the teacher should add more questions in the worksheets given to the pupils. As mention by Brown (2000), he states that learners should be exposed to language slightly higher that their level but they still can understand most of it and able to progress (p.278). Based on the researcher’s observation, the pupils were having improvement from each intervention to another. So, the pupils should be test with lots of question that are more challenging for them. For example, in the first worksheet, the researcher could start with only 10 questions and then move to 15 questions in the second worksheets and so on. Next, another improvement that is recommended is the researcher could vary the activities in order to assess the pupils. In this research, the researcher used only worksheets to observe the pupils’ progress. The researcher may provide with a more fun and enjoyable assessment to evaluate the pupils’ improvement. For example, the researcher can use games or treasure hunt as tools to assess the pupils. To conclude, it is hoped that these initiatives can help to improve the pupils understanding, skills and interest of the participants in learning regarding the demonstrative pronouns. With the several recommendations above, this research should be more comprehensive and the result gain in future will be more precise, accurate and reliable. 10

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