Using Dictation In Enhancing Students’ Grammar On Knowledge Of Indefinite Articles

USING DICTATION IN ENHANCING STUDENTSâ€&#x; GRAMMAR ON KNOWLEDGE OF INDEFINITE ARTICLES

HUMAIRAH BINTI LOKMAN

SMK SERI JEMPOL 2017

1

TABLE OF CONTENT

NO. 1 2

3

4

5 6 7 8

TOPIC INTRODUCTION THE CONTEXT 2.1 Research Topic 2.2 Research Objective 2.3 Research Question 2.4 Research Context 2.5 Literature Review

PAGE 3 4 4 6 7 8

RESEARCH PLAN 3.1 Research Process 3.2 Data Collection Techniques 3.2.1 Written Samples 3.2.2 Reflection Journal 3.2.3 Questionnaire 3.2.4 Dictation 3.3 Methods of Analysis

15 15 16 17 18 20

RESULTS 4.1 Findings 4.1.1 Written Samples 4.1.2 Reflection Journal 4.1.3 Questionnaire 4.2 Discussion

21 25 27 31

CONCLUSION IMPLICATION FOR PRACTICE REFERENCES APPENDIX

34 36 38 41

2

USING DICTATION IN ENHANCING STUDENTS’ GRAMMAR ON KNOWLEDGE OF INDEFINITE ARTICLES

1.0

Introduction

This paper is the report of an action research. This research is to find out how dictation practices can help students‟ writing skill as well as other skills in teaching and learning sessions in the classroom and to examine how teachers‟ creativity can promote students‟ interest and plays the important role in instilling it within the students or participants of this research.

This action research is conducted for over twelve weeks in a secondary school located in the rural area of Jempol, Negeri Sembilan. The participants are a group of Form One students in a class. This report consisted of six major sections including the introduction section.

These major sections then broken down into its subsections to ensure its

effectiveness in portraying the messages the author tries to convey.

The context section of this report consisted of the research topic, where the rationale and problems are stated, next is the research question and sub-questions and then the research context. The research context simply illustrates a brief description of the school involved in this research and its participants. This section finished with the literature reviews related to this research topic. Another major section is the research plan section. This section explains the sampling procedure, instruments, data collection and the analysis process to fulfil the objectives of this action research. Fourthly is the explanation on the results; the analysis and discussion. The fifth section is the conclusion and the sixth is the implications for practice section.

3

This action research aims to enhance students‟ skills by using dictation and to find out how it helps students in English language learning. The findings show high percentage of students agrees that dictation improves their language learning mainly in their writing skill.

2.0

The Context 2.1

Research Topic

„Using Dictation in Enhancing Students‟ Grammar on Knowledge of Indefinite Articles‟ is the topic of this research. Errors made by the participants of this research in their writings are found to be in a worrying state as it seems that they barely know the language despite of being exposed to the second language in the previous six years of primary education.

2.2

Research Objective

During the teaching and learning process, it is noticed that the participants of my research were struggling with English language. They refused to use the language when conversing neither with me nor with their classmates in any of my teaching sessions. When being pushed, they were able to utter some English words and simple phrases and I allowed errors coming from them as I prefer the „silent way‟ proposed

by Caleb Gattegno which emphasizes the autonomy of the learners in which teachers‟ role is to monitor the learners‟ efforts and the students are encouraged to have an active role in learning the language. Low proficiency level students‟ effort need to be acknowledged first before correcting them.

4

When it comes to writing session, most of the students passed up a short paragraph and some only managed to write a few lines instead of a whole essay to me, when they were assigned with themed essay writing. Some of them even refused to write and claimed that they had lost their books and I distributed small papers to them and they did not need more papers. From here, it can be said that the students have very weak proficiency of writing skill, no motivation to learn and they really need both guidance and attention from teachers. They were asked to write an essay entitled „When I Grow Up‟. Most of them wrote “When I grow up...” as the first line of their essays; which explains their limited comprehended phrases. As I went through their short phrases, most of them made such errors; “When I grow up is want to be a ambition teacher,” “When I grow up, I want to be an university staff...,” “When I grow up is want to be a ambition fashion disigner...”

These mistakes turned out to be errors they often made in their normal customs and this is confirmed when the students were given the diagnostic test of the same topic but with different instruction; they need to write down one paragraph of at least five lines starting with the “When I grow up...” lines. Most of them clearly have problems in English grammar as a whole and the problems are portrayed in their writings including the errors in using the indefinite „a‟ and „an‟ articles.

Thus, the main focus of this action research is on the indefinite articles problem. This research aimed to investigate what can be done to help reducing the common errors made by the students in their English writing; short essay. With the mentor teacher, I come up with the idea of using dictation method as a treatment for the students to be better in their grammar and together enhancing their writing skill.

5

The objectives of this action research are stated as follows: 1) To find out did the inclusion of dictation in the classroom can help students in English language learning.

2) To find out did dictation promote students‟ interest in English language learning.

This research will give the readers insight of the common problems faced by many ESL learners. Teachers too are facing difficulties in figuring out why such problems reoccur and how to cure it as grammar is the essential component in a language and what method is selected to be used to treat the problems faced by the learners.

2.3

Research Question

With the objectives stated above, this research seeks answers to several questions.

The research question for this action research is: 1)

Research Question 1 Did dictation in the classroom lessons enhance students‟ knowledge of indefinite articles?

The sub-question for this action research is as follow: 1)

Research Question 2 Did dictation promote students‟ interest in English language learning?

6

2.4

Research Context

I was selected to perform my first teaching experience as an English teacher in a local secondary school located in a rural area of Jempol, Negeri Sembilan. This research involved twenty three Form 1 Al Jabir students from a secondary school. From this group, there are fifteen male students and eight female students. There are twenty one Malay students and two Indian students.

Originally, there were twenty seven students altogether four students were identified as illiterate. With the exclusion, it leaves the participant group with twenty three students.

From this number, four students are excluded from the research

because of their poor proficiency level. Their data could not be taken into further analysis to ensure a better validity of this research. If included, the data could be distracted.

The selected class for this research is a class which ranked last in the form.

The participants are consisted of low level of English proficiency students. Generally, this class consisted of a mixed proficiency level from a low to a low-intermediate level.

However, after a few observations and remarks from staff teachers, the students can be categorized as a group of low level of English language of proficiency.

7

2.5

Literature Review

English language is not an official language for the Malaysians but the language is commonly used by the citizens.

English language is made compulsory for the

Malaysia citizens to at least pass with credit in order to pursue higher level of education hence the introduction of English language subject starting from the primary school level.

Grammar according to Rutherford (1987) is a necessary component of any language teaching program and thus plays an important role in language teaching.

Good writing skill comes with good mastery of English grammar. Sunita and Ahmad Fauzi (2013) included that many ESL teachers admit that the majority of the students are weak at the language due to insufficient knowledge of grammar and vocabulary.

This research brings about the errors made by high school students on their writing skills.

According to Fromkin et al.(1990:12), "The sounds and sound patterns, the

basic units of meaning such as words and the rules to combine them to form new sentences constitute the grammar of a language. These rules are internalized and subconsciously learned by native speakers".

La Brant (1946) adds that standard of satisfaction among language educators on the written works of language learners are good grammatical structures, appropriate punctuation marks, verbs in their right tenses, pronouns in the right case and correct spelling of words.

(Lozada & Masangya, 2009)

8

According to Saricoban & Metin (2000) teaching grammar has often been viewed as a structure based and formal activity to be taught in class. Teaching of grammar then gained a new insight after the several developments in which the integration of a number of sources and techniques.

The techniques-resource

combinations in grammar teaching are usually modified to structure-discourse match and they can be used effectively for all phases of a grammar lesson if well developed.

In order to make a grammar lesson effective, a teacher should use some welldeveloped and fascinating techniques in the classroom.

Nachiengmai (n.d.) stated that grammar, in brief represents one's linguistic competence. Therefore, it includes many aspects of linguistic knowledge: the sound system (phonology), the system of meaning (semantics), the rules of word formation (morphology), the rules of sentence formation (syntax), and the vocabulary of words (lexicon).

ESL learners often commit errors on articles usage besides other grammatical aspects.

Suhaila Mokhtar (2002), as mentioned in Mukundan, Leong &

Nimehchisalem (2012) stated that “although Form 1 to Form 5 learners are exposed to articles, they still commit frequent errors in using them in sentences�. The misuse of articles is included as one of the most common ESL mistakes. It is also classified as one of the most difficult grammatical components to be properly learned and acquired, especially to non-native speakers (Abdul Rahim & Chia, 2013).

From the same authors, Kim (2006) claims that L2 learners often encounter difficulties as in most cases; the English article system is known to pose learn ability issues. This became even worse a phenomenon as Master (2002) highlighted that English articles are often featured as significant elements in error analysis even among 9

advanced L2 learners who possess strong command in both spoken and written English.

The improper use of definite (the) and indefinite (a/an) articles is a common problem for ESL writers (Beckham, 2014). In an investigation which conducted by Chen (2002) which participated by freshmen and sophomore Taiwanese students‟ recounted vocabulary (60.7%) and grammar (50%) as problem areas in writing.

Meanwhile, AbiSamra (2003) had collected samples of written work from 10 students in grade 9. The author classified the writing errors detected into five categories including grammatical errors in prepositions, articles, adjectives, and etcetera.

Via Lozada & Masangya (2009), Mojica (2007) administered a questionnaire that required the 26 EFL participants to write two or three paragraphs on the subject of witting difficulties.

Rating the data collected from the samples, she identified

frequency of errors on vocabulary (61.4%) and grammar (69.2%). Grammar, in the paper was collectively coded errors on articles, determiners, number verb tense and prepositions.

Han, Chodorow and Leacock (2006) stated that ...one of the most complex problems faced by a non-native speaker is when to use a (or an), the, or 0 (zero or no) article at the beginning of a noun phrase (NP). This is particularly problematic for speakers of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, and other languages that do not have articles.

In these discussed studies, it clearly shows that grammar is the main concerning problem in writing competency. As a consequence, this action research is focusing on the indefinite articles „a‟, and „an‟.

10

Eastwood (2008) had written the introduction to a/an and the in Oxford Learner‟s Pocket Grammar: a or an is the indefinite articles, and the is the definite article.

Storms battered the coast of Britain yesterday. A man drowned when he was swept into the sea by an enormous wave during a storm at Clacton-on-Sea. Some onlookers tried to rescue the man but without success.

We use a/an only with a singular noun (a man, an enormous wave).

The plural/uncountable equivalent is some (some onlookers, some water). We can use the with all types of noun.

We use the when it is clear which one we mean. We say the coast of Britain because there is only one coast of Britain. We say a man when we mention him for the first time, but after that we say the man, meaning „the man already mentioned‟.

Eastwood also added that the choice between „a‟ and „an‟ depends on the pronunciation and not the spelling, of the word after the article especially words beginning with o, u, or h, or abbreviations. For example, a one-day event, a university, a European, a U-turn, an hour, an M15 agent. However, many ESL learners still make such errors in both writing and spoken English language. Barton (n.d.) stated that using English articles correctly is not easy. Even the native English speakers themselves make mistakes with indefinite articles.

Articles are difficult to use

correctly, but they are important in English communication, to use articles without errors.

11

Other than this, teachers often forget to explain the zero article concepts to their students. Nualla and Callum (n.d.) claimed that there are a lot of rules when not to use articles and here are four of them: 1) to talk about plural and uncountable nouns or when talking about things in general, 2) before countries, towns, streets, languages and single mountains, 3) Before some places and with some forms of transport, and 4) In exclamations with what + uncountable noun.

Dictation activity is one of the approaches that teachers can be creative with and make use of it in teaching and learning process in the classroom. Through Alkire (2002), “Davis and Rinvolucri write that „Decoding the sounds of [English] and recoding them in writing is a major learning task‟ (1988) and Frodesen writes that dictation can be „an effective way to address grammatical errors in writing that may be the result of erroneous aural perception of English....Dictation can help students to diagnose and correct these kinds of errors as well as others‟ (1991). Montalvan writes that „as students develop their aural comprehension of meaning and also of the relationship among segments of language, they are learning grammar‟ (1990)”.

Dictation can be used to help ESL students in their English language learning.

It can help them in many ways just like how G. Kavaliauskienė and I. Darginavičienė (2009) state in their research, “its advantages are numerous. The most common are that dictation can help students to diagnose and correct grammatical mistakes, it ensures attentive listening and trains students to distinguish sounds helps learning punctuation and develops aural comprehension”. According to R. Montalvan (1990), there are “at least 20 advantages of dictation, and the most important are: 1) dictation can help develop all four language skills in an integrated way; 2) it can help learn grammar...” It can also be employed as a teaching device (Whitaker, 1976).

12

Other than these, CDC (2004) stated that the purposes of dictation are: to develop phonic skills, help in the development of listening and note-taking skills, to help the development of writing skills, to promote autonomy in language learning and promoting assessment for learning. These show the advantages a dictation method brings in classroom.

Despite its numerous advantages, we rarely use this technique and often regarded it as old-fashioned method, teacher-centered and ineffective. However, I can suggest that with creativity, teachers can use this technique effectively. Through Kidd (1992), “Wajnryb's (1990) Grammar Dictation, also succeeds in laying our doubts to rest, though in a different way. It focuses exclusively on a single dictation technique called „dictogloss‟ which is interesting, motivating, communicative, and-of major importance here-specifically designed for the teaching of ESL grammar. Dictogloss is a sophisticated and ingenious procedure, an excellent example of the flexibility of the dictation format.” This brings the potential in using dictation as a tool to teach English Grammar and in fact, effectively.

According to Bowen (n.d.), dictation is seen by many teachers as old-fashioned and as a relic of the grammar-translation method that dominated language teaching. It often brings up the method of which dull, uncommunicative and difficult lessons but when this method being reflected on what dictation actually does, it is actually extremely versatile activity. Dictation practices first listening and writing skills in which comprises a range of sub skills from letter formation to spelling, punctuation and lay-out. It can also be said that it practises vocabulary, syntax, grammar and reading (when the writer reviews his or her work). In short, it gives practice in almost everything. He also concluded that dictation is a useful and flexible activity. It can be used to introduce and provide practice in different areas of grammar out of many other 13

useful activities such as to introduce to a new structure, to revise an area of vocabulary and more. If dictation is carefully linked to the rest of the lesson and has a clear and unambiguous purpose, students will probably enjoy doing it. If dictation is merely used as itself and by that it will appear to be a boring teaching material, inefficient and a waste of time.

Kidd also stated that dictation clearly offers an excellent platform for practising and improving the general capacity as it encourages learners to attend not only to the forms but also to the meanings which include both semantic and pragmatic of the grammatical structures. This approach therefore upholds grammatical competence in a learnerâ€&#x;s overall proficiency. Through Krashenâ€&#x;s (e.g. 1982) language acquisition model, a second plausible reason for the effectiveness of dictation as a grammar teaching method is that dictation passages may qualify as good comprehensible input, and therefore promote the subconscious acquisition of structures.

From these details, it shows that dictation method is a great tool to be used in classroom by teachers to teach and encourage learning process of his or her learners in English language learning. From these evidences, I choose to use this method as a treatment and enhancing studentsâ€&#x; writing skill and reducing grammatical errors in the indefinite articles.

14

3.0

Research Plan 3.1

Research Process

Four instruments are used for this research. The instruments are the participants‟ written samples which include samples from the diagnostic test and achievement test, reflection journal, dictation, and a set of questionnaire. Many observations are made during this research. A few observations are made in the earlier sessions to see the students‟ capability in the language. The diagnostic test was given to the students in one of the first few sessions with them only after they are asked to conduct a short conversation; tested for their speaking skill and for them to construct a composition; tested for their grammar proficiency level. Here, the students were asked to stand up to greet and to introduce themselves to the crowd. The questionnaire (refer appendix) was given at the end of the research, after all the treatments are done. The data collected was brought further to be analysed. Mixed method approach is used for this research.

3.2

Data Collection Techniques 3.2.1 Written Samples Written samples are collected from the diagnostic and achievement tests.

These tests are carried out to check for their occurring errors in the grammatical aspect of indefinite articles. In the diagnostic test conducted, the participants need to write a short essay between 100 to 150 words long. The instruction of the essay is: “Begin your essay with „When I grow up...‟” and they need to finish the task within the time given. They were given a full class

15

period, about one hour and a half. The essays are collected when the time was up and the essays are thoroughly scanned for the errors. The data is tabulated in a table 1.

The achievement test was given at the end of this research. This is to check for their progression after given a treatment in a few previous sessions.

In the test, the participants needed to write a short essay of 100 to 150 words long and they need to begin their essay with “Yesterday, I went to...” They were given a full class period, about one hour and a half. When the time given was up, the essays are collected and further analyzed. The data collected is tabulated in a table 2.

3.2.2 Reflection Journal I took down notes on their progression, attitude, responses and other details when I see any in my Rancangan Pengajaran Harian (RPH) book on every lesson plans carried out. I also make a short note whether my treatment lesson plans were working smoothly or not and what could be the problems. These are mostly notes on students‟ responses and reaction towards my teaching materials and teaching approaches. I also wrote down on what I feel on certain teaching sessions. I answered questions to myself such as: Do I like this lesson plan? Do my students like it or not? Do I like the teaching material I made?

Keeping self-reflective journals is a strategy that can facilitate reflexivity, whereby researchers use their journal to examine “personal assumptions and goals” and clarify “individual belief systems and subjectivities” (Ahern as cited in Russell & Kelly, 2002).

16

This reflection journal writing is important in ensuring the progression made by the participants and also other important details to be recorded on papers to be referred when needed. Researchers might be forgetting or left out some details if any information is not taken down properly and also changes or amendments can be made to the teaching materials and also how teachers managing his or her class. Researchers are urged to talk about themselves, “their presuppositions, choices, experiences, and actions during the research process” (Mruck & Breuer, 2003).

Keeping and using reflective journals

enabled me to make my experiences, opinions, thoughts, and feelings visible and an acknowledged part of the research design, data generation, analysis, and interpretation process (Ortlipp, 2008).

3.2.3 Questionnaire For this instrument, I gave a set of questionnaire to each of the participants.

The questionnaire consisted of 32 questions and is divided into four sections including students‟ basic details; A) Student‟s background, B) Educational info and background, and C) Teacher‟s approach, D) Dictation. These questions are written in a bilingual, English and Bahasa Malaysia.

The last two sections mainly a survey on what they think about the dictation method carried out by me during teaching and learning sessions.

Their answers are calculated and shown in pie charts.

This is a kind of

feedback that I can gather from the participants as my students, who received my teachings and treatments.

17

3.2.4 Dictation According to Kavaliauskienė & Darginavičienė (2009), dictation activities provide opportunities for each learner to compare her or his written work with a peer‟s work.

Fourth, post-dictation comprehension exercises proved

beneficial, but pre-teaching vocabulary might be optional depending on the students‟ general proficiency in language.

For the validity of dictation usage, through Mohammad Afsharrad and Aram Reza Sadeghi Benis (2014), it is a valid technique to measure language proficiency (Kaga 1991; Farhady and Malekpour, 1997). It is believed that language proficiency consists of several consistent components, not just one language component which can be measured by dictation (Bachman & Palmer 1981, 1982).

Using dictation is also incompatible with the theoretical

perspectives on second language proficiency provided by Canale and Swain (1980) and Canale (1981). These emphasize the importance of language for communication in real life. In contrast, dictation requires a word for word recall and taking down of what is presented in an audio form, an activity which is rarely related to daily communication but still a handy method for great teachers to use in helping and encourages learning in students.

From these statements, I chose to use dictation method as a treatment to reduce the indefinite articles errors made by the participants in earlier class sessions. Through this activity, I was able to make many things with it and the students can be benefited in many ways; not only on indefinite articles but also on other grammatical aspects and improving their vocabulary too. After the diagnostic test was carried out, I gathered audio clips or texts from various

18

sources such as education websites, reading materials both on and offline. The audio clips consisted of the narration of a few short paragraphs, and short stories including „Fair‟s Fair‟ short story by Narinder Dhami. This short story was chosen since the participants have the copies each as it is included in the syllabus. I asked the participants to read before and after every dictation sessions. Other than the passages from the short story, three songs were also used for the dictation activities to the participants. The songs used were „Let It Grow‟ a soundtrack from The Lorax movie, „Buses and Trains‟ by Bachelor Girls and „Elastic Heart‟ by Sia Furler.

Before the first session, I explained about the dictation method and how it would be carried out and the things that they need to do before, during and after the dictation. The participants first practised dictating with a random song to give them a picture how the process would be like. The treatment session was carried out five times the entire research duration.

On the first session, a partial dictation was carried out. It was a song dictation on „Let It Grow‟ song from The Lorax movie. The participants were first shown the music video clip to get their attention before preceded to a serious listening when they were only given the audio version of the song.

They were given a worksheet each on the song lyric and they need to fill in the blanks with the correct articles; both definite, indefinite and zero articles are included. The same exercise and instruction were carried out for the other two songs and they were carried out alternately with the „Fair‟s Fair‟ short story.

However, for „Fair‟s Fair‟ short story, the participants need to do a full dictation. Once finished, they would check on each others‟ work for spelling 19

errors with my help and they need to ask a few questions on the meaning of words before proceeding to the next activities. If any errors or mistakes were made in either spelling and grammatical rules, we go over the rule that they violated and explanations were given on why what they have written is wrong and how it should be corrected.

Other post dictation activities were the WH-questions, yes/no questions, and tag questions making. Other than these, they needed to read out loud the passage they dictated in front of the class.

The misspelled words or the

common grammatical errors may be put onto a spelling list or a grammar rule list for them to formally review. I wrote down important notes regarding their performance in the sessions carried out in my reflective journal book or the RPH book.

3.3

Methods of Analysis

The errors I gathered from the two tests; diagnostic and achievement test, are then classified according to the Surface Structure Taxonomy of errors (SST), namely, substitution, omission and addition. This includes the recording of the frequency of each error type and the percentage of the total. The analysis of the paragraph samples are focusing only on indefinite articles errors and other types of errors are ignored.

For questionnaire, the survey is analysed through the categorization of theme answers and also by percentage. The survey is to answer mainly on the second research questions.

20

4.0

Results 4.1

Findings 4.1.1 Written Samples In determining and analyzing students‟ errors, I followed the following steps identified by Ellis (1997):

Collecting data →Identifying errors →Classifying errors →Analyzing errors →Explaining errors

According to Alhaysony (2012), error analysis is very important for learners and teachers. Alhaysony also include, Hasyin (2002) observed that errors are advantageous for both learners and teachers. It provides information to the teachers on students‟ errors. This helps the teachers in three ways, firstly to correct their errors, secondly to improve their teaching and thirdly to focus on those area that need reinforcement. Coder (1967) described that analysis of learners errors provide insight into the innate nature of learners‟ learning system and process of language teaching.

Although there is only one indefinite article in English, „a/an‟, for the purpose of clarity, I divided the errors in the use of this article into two types for instance, errors in the use of „a‟ and errors in the use of „an‟. Errors in articles were categorized according to SST.

21

Table 1: Diagnostic Test: Frequency of Errors Error Type

a

an

total

‘a’ %

‘an’ %

Omission

39

3

42

92.86

07.14

Addition

5

2

7

71.43

28.57

Substitution

5

7

12

41.67

58.33

Error Total

49

12

61

According to table 1, it comprises three types of errors concerning the article system. The overall frequency of errors made by form 1 Al Jabir participants is 61 errors. The table shows clearly that omission errors occupy the first place according to error frequency with the percentage of 68.85%.

Indefinite articles were omitted in many contexts in which they must appear in complete sentences according to the rules of the target language.

In addition, the result also reveals that participants omit the indefinite article „a‟ more frequently than the other indefinite article „an‟ as the participants made 39 of such errors and that makes up a total of 92.86% of all combined errors in article omission. Table 1.1 below shows a few examples of omission errors with indefinite article „a‟: Error

Correction

...I want to marry footballer.

...I want to marry a footballer.

He is champion in my heart.

He is a champion in my heart.

I can buy house...

I can buy a house...

...with swimming pool...

...with a swimming pool...

Table 1.1

22

The reason behind the errors made by the participants might be that both Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Tamil do not have indefinite articles in their language. They tend to omit the articles when constructing English sentences.

Next, the substitution error of indefinite articles comes in second place.

The errors made by participants are summed up to twelve times. Substitution error of article „an‟ made by the participants is higher compared to article „a‟.

Seven of article „an‟ errors are recorded which comprises of 11.47% of total errors. Participants made different types of substitution which can be referred to table 1.2. They substitute article „a‟ with definite article „the‟ and substitute „an‟ to „a‟ and vice versa. They often made error by putting „an‟ before the word „university‟. They clearly have the previous knowledge of putting the article „an‟ before words that started with vowels; „a,‟ „e,‟ „i,‟ „o,‟ and „u‟.

When using the English indefinite article, „an‟ it should be more difficult than „a‟, due to the need to learn additional rules than those that apply to the article „a‟. Also, as shown in Table 1, „an‟ is not used as frequently as „a‟. This explains why the number of errors in the use of „an‟ is less than with „a‟. Table 1.2 below shows the examples of errors made with substitution of both article „a‟ and „an‟ and its correction (other errors are ignored): Error

Correction

...like a color uniform.

...like the color uniform.

...I can go to an university.

...I can go to a university.

...and an hansome man.

...and a hansome man.

...a ugly character.

...an ugly character.

Table 1.2 23

The students also use the indefinite articles „a‟ and „an‟ where they are not supposed to appear, but article „an‟ is less frequently than they do with „a‟ article, as shown in Table 1.

This clearly caused by the grammar rule

confusion with their first language which consists of no such rule.

Table 2: Achievement Test: Frequency of Errors Error Type

a

an

total

‘a’ %

‘an’ %

Omission

10

2

12

83.33

16.66

Addition

4

3

7

57.14

42.86

Substitution

4

-

4

100

0

Error Total

18

5

23

Based on table 2, it tabulates the data from the achievement test. It comprises of the same three types of errors concerning the article system. The overall frequency of errors made by form 1 Al Jabir participants after given treatment is 23.

It shows a lot of improvement since the diagnostic test.

However, participants still tend to make omission errors and this comprises of highest percentage of all errors. There is no error made in substitution of article „an‟. It seems that the participants must have understand the rule and learn to avoid using the „an‟ article in most of the times. The omission of article „a‟ tends to be made in such sentence, “...lot of...” The examples of article omission errors made in the achievement test are recorded in table 2.1 below:

24

Error

Correction

I ate lot of...

I ate a lot of...

...I go find book.

...I go find a book.

...I went to haunted...

...I went to a haunted...

We buy egg...

We buy an egg...

Table 2.1

Participants still made omission error of both articles. They left out the articles when it is compulsory to be added but they did not manage to.

However it is a good thing as they do not make substitution errors. They seem to make an avoidance of using any.

4.1.2 Reflection Journal These are a few excerpts collected from my reflective journal. The participants‟ progression on different timeline but chronologically was recorded as below: “They managed to dictate only one paragraph; the third paragraph.

Students need more repetitions...”

“The dictation exercise went fine. They still need a lot of repetition of my own narration.”

“Learning objectives were achieved by most of the students. They managed to write down the text spoken by with less spelling error. To me, they are improving. Their listening skill is improving as the time taken for them to finish the whole paragraph in shorter time compared to the first few sessions in earlier weeks...”

25

“...I explained the plural noun form and its several examples...I learned that this class have no big problem in changing the singular form to plural forms.�

From the reflection journal I made, I noticed that I had to make some adjustments to the dictation activities I carried out. The first few sessions were different than the other sessions in which the recorded audio only played twice and the participants needed to dictate right away. After that, I learned that I need to play the recorded audio a sentence by sentence and in much slower pace. The same step is repeated three times at least. In later sessions, I discovered that the participants prefer the dictation in which I narrated the lines myself. They claimed that the recordings are too difficult for them.

26

4.1.3 Questionnaire Question: “Which method do you prefer when learning English?”

Power point 10%

Games 30%

Talk and chalk 5%

Songs and audio 55%

55% of participants prefer to learn English language through songs and audio.

This is the highest percentage of all and it tops over other options: games, power points and technology based equipments and chalk and talk method.

Songs always attract people to get indulged with. Songs give the calming effect and stress reducer.

Young learners find learning through songs as an enjoyable activity.

They can learn new words and expand their vocabulary through the songs‟ lyrics. Songs also can teach students native speakers‟ slang and typical phrases.

Many activities can be generated with or through songs and audios. It takes a creative teacher to make it happen.

With this, it shows that we can make use of the dictation method as dictation is a form of audio. Teacher can also incorporate other options into one which leads to the need of teacher being a creative person.

27

Question: “Do you find it interesting when your teacher uses different approaches when teaching English?”

This is a yes/no question and 75% of participants said yes. Most of the participants agree that it is interesting if a teacher uses different approaches when teaching English. Dictation was unfamiliar to the participants of my action research thus this method seems a new and different approach from their previous teachers.

Other than dictation method, I also used a few other

teaching methods including hand drawn images, mixed up sentences, talk show, and more.

Frequent changing ways of teaching keeps students fresh and

motivated.

Question: “Do you think you will improve when your teacher uses different approach?”

75% of participants said yes that when teacher uses different approach, they tend to become better and are likely to improve in English language learning.

Old and same teaching methods by teachers can diminish students‟ motivation 28

bit by bit. Some students might not find the current method used suitable to their level thus get distracted from the whole teaching and learning process.

Learning English language through dictation is an interesting and effective method.

Question: “Do you like it when your teacher carries out a dictation activity?

The graph bar shows that 95% of participants said yes. Most of them like it when teacher carries out a dictation activity. This is a good indicator that dictation is accepted by the participants and how they find it helpful and interesting. This shows that dictation encourages and motivates them to learn and participate with the activities the teacher carries out in classroom. This method is approved and can be conducted in many sessions to come.

29

Question: “Do you agree that dictation can improve your English?”

90% of the participants said yes to the above question. They agree that by doing dictation activities, they can learn better and improve their English proficiency. The post dictation activities they went through; revision of basic grammar rules learnt, construction of types of questions and the encouragement to participate in the question and answer sessions help to improve their level.

Question: “Do you become more alert when dictation is conducted?”

85% of participants said yes to this question. They agreed that they become more alert when dictation activity is conducted. When dictating, we need to be focused on the audio being narrated to us in order to catch every words and phrases and turn them into a written form. Students are trained to be paying more attention or else they will miss the words. This will improve their listening skill as well. They will be more attentive and focused.

30

4.2

Discussion

Research Question 1 Did dictation in the classroom lessons enhance students‟ knowledge of indefinite articles?

The inclusion of dictation method in the classroom lesson as a treatment affects the students‟ proficiency in an effective way. Yes, dictation activities enhance students‟ knowledge of indefinite articles.

With the percentage difference made, dictation usage clearly makes changes towards 1 Al Jabir students‟ indefinite articles. There are 72.62% of total errors made in the diagnostic test and a great decrease to a 27.38% of total errors recorded in the achievement test.

It is a huge difference of percentage which shows that the

participants have improved a lot since the diagnostic test.

However, this is only referring to the error made with the indefinite articles.

There were still some other recurring grammatical errors made in the achievement test.

Their vocabulary and spellings however show a bit of improvement too but not significantly. The dictation allows them to be exposed by many grammatical rules, the importance of correct grammatical in writing skill and also new vocabulary.

From my reflection journal, I found that the participants are becoming more responsive towards my teaching method and their improving learning styles. Most of them were seen more active participating in dictation activity and the post dictation activities. As time went by, they need lesser time to complete the assigned lines or paragraph dictated. The participants are becoming familiarized with the post dictation activities in which they have to check for spelling errors (and correcting them),

31

meanings of words found, questions constructions and grammar rules. They can apply the knowledge gained from the dictation sessions in their future writing tasks.

Research Question 2 Did dictation promote studentsâ€&#x; interest in English language learning?

This question is answered by the participants in the survey question in the questionnaire given. Yes, students prefer it when teachers use dictation when in teaching in classroom. There are 95% of participants said yes; they like it when dictation method is used in class.

Dictation has always been perceived to be an old fashioned teaching method by many. However the creativity in teachers will change this fact. Teachers can amend the type of audios to be used in class. Choose suitable and fun types of stories to be narrated, design fun and effective post dictation activities, and have the students to come out with their own audio recordings and more. Fun is always a key in getting the studentsâ€&#x; attention.

When I choose to do dictation in my class for this action research, they were excited to give it a try. Most of them were never been exposed with the method and so this is a new approach for them. They have expectations and I tried making Furthermore, there are variations of dictation. Teachers are free to carry out the dictation activity in many ways available. The alternative ways to implement this method according to Mohammed Rhalmi (2009) are: 1) Students may work in pairs with a short passage for each. They first read it silently and then taking turns to dictate the passages for each other. 2) Before students see the original passage, students work 32

in groups to check for mistakes. 3) Teachers do not need to prepare long passages.

Separated sentences or words can be also used to carry out a dictation. 4) Teachers may prepare a short paragraph and dictates the sentences in disorder. Next, students check for mistakes in pair work or group work. Later they are told to put the sentences in the correct order to form a paragraph. 5) Students may work in pairs. One student is assigned the role of the writer and the other the role of the “runner”. The short passage is put on the wall. The runners have to go to the text and return to their partners having memorized the first line of the text, which they dictate. They keep returning to the text until they have dictated the full text to their partner. The role can be swapped halfway through. Their text is then compared to a correct version and corrected. 6) Teacher can play the role of a human tape recorder. As she or he reads the text, students call out instructions such as „Stop‟, „Rewind‟, „Play‟, „Decrease speed‟ etc. „This gives the students the opportunity to control the speed of the dictation and the amount of repetition. 7) Dictations can be carried out in the form of a „dictogloss‟. It requires the students to only take notes of the key words used as they listen and then later reconstruct the text so that it has the same meaning as the original text although perhaps not exactly the same form.

33

5.0

Conclusion

This action research investigates the use of dictation method to enhance students‟ writing skill and to reduce the grammatical errors particularly in the aspect of indefinite article in written form by secondary school students of form 1 Al Jabir class. It is also aimed to discover the frequency of indefinite articles errors made in their written paragraphs.

It can be seen that the majority of participants made numerous such errors.

Considering the error types, this research reveals that errors in omission of the articles were the most frequent than the other types. This finding was expected as article „a‟ is widely known even to the low proficiency level and they always seem to try to use it as many as possible to make the sentences appear longer.

Treatment is essential to be done as it is highly important for teachers to teach students the usage of articles as this aspect is widely used and encountered in most of the times in both spoken and written forms. A slight mistake can cause confusion and poor grasp of the target language. I have studied previous researches and it is true that dictation method can make a difference in students‟ writing skill.

From this action research, it shows that the usage of dictation can enhance students‟ writing skill and reducing the errors made in indefinite articles „a/an‟. It shows a great decrease in errors made from the diagnostic test and the achievement test. Dictation method is used to cover the indefinite article errors as well as other aspects. Dictation also helps to cover as many grammatical aspects as possible depending on the teacher.

Like all studies and researches, this action research has its limitations. For instance, the participants for this action research are only comprised of twenty students. The result would be more generalized if more participants were involved in this action research. The higher the number of participants in a research, the higher the quality of the data collected. A 34

larger number of participants in a research are more representative of the population, limiting the influence of outliers or from the extreme observations. In my case, it would be better if my students were more disciplined and not skipping schools. Students with frequent school absentees caused them to be excluded in this research which results in low number of participants.

Other than that, it would be better if this action research be conducted in a longer period of time. With shorter period of time, I find it difficult to balance many things at once.

As a novice teacher in a foreign place, I had to adapt and be comfortable to the new surrounding, be it in school or in the new neighbourhood, transportation problem, financial problem, be perfect in lessons planning, coming up with good teaching materials, finishing the tasks the school assigned us, be present in school events and to be accepted by the students. Our focus will be distracted by those things including the students being late.

Senior teachers would make a better action research as they are and will be with the students in many months to come.

35

6.0

Implications for Practice

From this action research, I gained a lot of new knowledge and experience while finishing this report. This task helps me to be disciplined and to be a dedicated teacher to my students.

From this action research‟s findings and how it concluded that dictation prove to help enhancing students‟ writing skill.

From this research, I learned that students love to learn language through songs and audios. These methods can benefit both parties as these methods are easy to be carried out and to be obtained. It can be obtained from many sources online or teachers can even make their own recordings. They are also excited at the sights of colourful images I made as my post dictation activities. If they continue to be taught and trained this way, I believe they will be better in English as time goes by. It is important to keep them motivated and freshened up with new and fun activities With this, it can be suggested that teachers should conduct more dictation activities in classroom sessions. Many lessons can be carried out with this method and this can be used for any language skills. Teachers should be able to be creative enough to design good and effective lesson plans that can promote students‟ interest in learning the language and to increase students‟ proficiency level.

Schools should provide more high quality facilities such as studios, labs, computers, and speakers so dictation exercise can be done smoothly. I had to bring my own laptop and speakers because the school‟s facilities are limited and the existence ones are not in a good condition.

Materials such as audios to be used during dictation exercise are easy to obtain.

Teachers can record themselves or their friends acting over a script with a microphone in a studio or with audio recorder. We can also have interesting dialogues by native speakers 36

downloaded from the internet for free. Teachers can do many post dictation activities and ideas can be shared around the internet on the platform for teachers.

Dictation should be practised more in schools as it is a good tool to learn language and to encourage fluency among the students too. Researchers who interested in article use may wish to see some recommendations for future research. It is recommended to investigate a higher level of proficiency students and of different age range (Form 3 and above), since this might yield different results.

It is also very important to compare the results of

intermediate school students with high school and university students. Other than this, I would like to suggest a research on both definite and indefinite articles usage or errors made.

37

Reference AbiSamra, N. (2003). An analysis of errors in Arabic speakersâ€&#x; English writing. In Mourtaga, K. (Ed.), Investigating writing problems among Palestinian students studying English as a foreign language.Unpublished doctoral dissertation Ab Aziz, M.J., Darus, S.,TG Mohd Maasum, TG. N.R.,Omar, N.,& Stapa, S.H.,(2007).

Developing an error analysis marking tool for ESL learners Acquisition of Grammar. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 4, No. 2 Alkire, S. (2002). Dictation as a Language Learning Device. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VIII, No. 3. http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Alkire-Dictation.html Alimi, M. M. (2007). English articles and modals in the writing of some Botswana students.

Language, Culture and Curriculum, 20(3), 209-222.

Ali Akbar Khansir. (2013). Error Analysis and Second Language Writing. Academy Publisher, Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3(2), pp. 363-370.

Amalina Johari. (2009). Syntactic Transfer among Form Four Malay Students.

Aram Reza Sadeghi Benis & Mohammad Afsharrad. (2014). The Effect of Transcribing on Beginning Learnersâ€&#x; Dictation. Academy Publisher. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 4(10), pp. 2203-2208 Arif Saricoban & Esen Metin. (2000). Songs, Verse and Games for Teaching Grammar. The Internet TESL Journal, 6(10). Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Saricoban-

Songs.html Barton, M. (n.d.) The Indefinite Articles A/An: The Importance of Word Sounds. English Current. Retrieved from http://www.englishcurrent.com/grammar/indefinite-articles-aan-english-sounds/ Boden, R., Kenway, J., & Epstein, D. (2005). Getting started on research. London: Sage.

Bowen, T. (n.d.). Methodology: using dictation in English language teaching. Retrieved from http://www.onestopenglish.com/support/ask-the

38

experts/methodologyquestions/methodology-using-dictation-in-english-languageteaching/146383.article Colorado, C. (2007). Improving Writing Skills: ELLs and the Joy of Writing. Retrieved from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/14539/ Education Department. (2000). Let‟s Experience and Appreciate Poetry (LEAP).

Firas Ali Suleiman Zawahreh. (2012). Applied Error Analysis of Written Production of English Essays of Tenth Grade Students in Ajloun Schools, Jordan. Macrothink Institute: International Journal of Learning & Development, 2(2) Florentina, G. M., (n.d.) Most Common Mistakes in English as a Second Language.

Haynes,

J.(2010).

Tips

for

Teaching

ELLs

to

Write.

Retrieved

from

http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/tips_teaching_ells_write_10803.php Han, N. R., Chodorow, M. & Leacock, C. Detecting errors in English article usage by nonnative speakers. Natural Language Engineering 12(2): 115–129. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.385.5863&rep=rep1&type= pdf Huzaina Halim. (2009). Creativity: Voices In The ESL Curriculum. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of Teaching and Learning Kashef, S. H., Mariann Edwina Mariadass, Neda Ghabool. (2012). Investigating Malaysian ESL Students' Writing Problems on Conventions, Punctuation, and Language Use at Secondary School Level. Macrothink Institute:Journal of Studies in Education Kavaliauskienė G. & Darginavičienė I.(n.d.) Dictation in ESP Class Clasroom: A Tool to Improve Language Proficiency. English for Specific Purposes World, 8(23) Kidd, R. (1992) Teaching Grammar through Dictation. TESL Canada Journal/Revue TESL Du Canada. 10(1)

39

Mia Emily Abdul Rahim, Emma Marini Abdul Rahim1 & Chia, H. N.,(2013). Distribution of Articles in Written Composition among Malaysian ESL Learners. Canadian Center of Science and Education, English Language Teaching; 6(10) Miller, J. (2005). Most of ESL students has trouble with the articles. International Education Journal, ERC2004 Special Issue, 5(5), 80-88.

Mohammed Rhalmi. (2009). Why Dictation? My English Pages. Retrieved from http://www.myenglishpages.com/blog/why-dictation/ Ortlipp, M. (2008). Keeping and Using Reflective Journals in the Qualitative Research Process.

The

Qualitative

Report,

13(4),

695-705

retrieved

from

http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR13-4/ortlipp.pdf Rutherford, W. (1987). Second language grammar learning and teaching. New York: Longman.

Sharifalnasab, A. & Fotovatnia, Z.(2013). The Effect of Different Tasks on L2 Learnersâ€&#x; Somchai Watcharapunyawong1 & Siriluck Usaha (2013). Thai EFL Studentsâ€&#x; Writing Errors in Different Text Types: The Interference of the First Language. Canadian Center of Science and Education, English Language Teaching; 6(1) Using

Dictation.

(2005).

Retrieved

from

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/using-dictation Wylie, R. (2006). Predicting Percent of Article Errors in ESL Student Essays. Applied Machine Learning.

Yawalak Nachiengmai. (n.d.) The Teaching of Grammar. Retrieved from https://www.teylj.org/service/course_E/modules/2/s3_tast10_6_TheTeachingOfGrammar.htm

40