1.0 INTRODUCTION

A reading habit is an essential life skill. Reading not only increases our knowledge,

but it also builds maturity and character, sharpens our thinking, and widens our

awareness in social, economic, political, and environmental issues. 

Although the government has launched several reading campaigns (the recent one is

the Mari Membaca 1Malaysia, launched in March 2010) to increase the reading habit

among Malaysians throughout the years, obviously these campaigns aren’t quite

working as desired.

Nonetheless, the last National Literacy Survey carried out in 2005 reported that

Malaysians still read an average of two books a year. In short, there had been no

improvement. The last survey also reported that Malaysians read increasingly less as

they grew older. By the age of 50, for example, only 20% of Malaysians would still

continue to read books, a drop from 40% (a figure which is already pathetic) from

those in the mid-twenties to thirties age group.

In an interesting paper by him in 2000, he surveyed that 80.1% of university students

are “reluctant” readers in English-language materials. In other words, 80.1%

university students read because they have to. Children who experience success in

literacy learning tasks that are appropriate, interesting and challenging are more

likely to be motivated in their learning (Pressley, 2002). The teacher’s role in

supporting this motivation includes facilitating learning that is within a child’s reach,

providing scaffolding to support learning and monitoring students who are having

difficulties. It also involves fostering the development of oral language,

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comprehension, vocabulary knowledge and writing skills; providing a range of

interesting books; and, as much as possible, allowing children choice in their reading

and writing (Pressley, 2002). This is in contrast with Khalid (2013) who noted that

the greatest challenge is in contributing towards reading culture and also towards the

appreciation of books.

The United Nation in 2013 states that Malaysia had one of the lowest literacy rates

(93.1%) compared to her other Southeast Asian neighbours, like Singapore (95.9%),

Thailand (93.5%), and the Philippines (95.4%), respectively.

To increase fluency, this study will shed into lights a useful strategy of word phonic

game. According to Lightbown and Spada (1999), “The principal way that teachers

can influence learners’ motivation is by making the classroom a supportive

environment in which students are stimulated, (and) engaged in (the) activities”

(p.163). Teachers should choose games that suitable to the students’ level and

interests so that the students will success to complete the task given to them. These

phonemes are based on the classroom observations and instructional interactions

with the participants. These phonemes are /a/ and /u/. This study will also attempt to

investigate the effect of phoneme blending strategy among a group of Year 2 pupils

of SK LKTP Ulu Penggeli in improving their reading fluency.

1.1 Reflection on Past Teaching Experience

In my 10 years of teaching, I have dealt with students with different range of learning

proficiency and interests. I have been using many techniques and approaches as

suggested to me by my friends and colleagues in order to tackle the low proficiency

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students in my class. I am teaching the year 2 Bestari.. My concern is for the low

proficiencies. They have problems in acquiring all the four skills.

I have been observing the progress of the students during the teaching and learning

process and also out of the classroom. I found out that they rarely read and are not

interested in reading. They had low motivation to follow activities that involved

texts. They tend to mime while reading and parrot out words that they heard from

their friends. When I carry out reading activities, they showed less interest to the

reading passage and liked to play with things and sometimes disturbing their friends

during the reading session. I am aware that it is due to their difficulties in

pronouncing the words correctly and identifying the sounds produced according to

the phonemes. It has come to my attention that if I did not do something to help these

pupils, they will continue being left behind their friends. With that concern, I decided

to carry out my action research.

When asked to read, the pupils easily mispronounce the words with the associated

phonemes. For example, they mispronounce the phoneme /u/ in the word ‘sun’ as |

suːn | although the correct pronunciation is | sʌn |. Concerning the phoneme /a/, they

mispronounce the word ‘cat’ as | cət | instead of | kæt |. Here are more examples of

words that were mispronounce by the pupils.

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Word Correct pronunciation Pupils’ pronunciation

can | cən | | cæn |.

man | mən | | mæn |.

hat | hət | | hæt |.

sand | sənd | | sænd |.

bug | buːg | | bʌg |

hut | huːt | | hʌt |

cut | cuːt | | kʌt |

run | ruːn | | rʌn |

Table 1 : list of words mispronounced by the Year 2 pupils

Based on the problems I have identified, I tried a few approach to help the pupils

pronounce the phonemes correctly but the problem seemed to be repeated by the

pupils. Later, I decided to try using games I called Phonic Race because I believe that

I have to improve the pupils’ foundation using phonic approach. I believe when I

integrate phonic approach and game as a teaching strategy, it will bring better impact

towards the pupils’ acquisition.

1.2 Theoritical Framework

Bottom-up teaching strategies help pupils learn letter recognition while developing

print awareness. As they begin to recognize and identify letters, teachers begin

developing pupils' phonetic awareness. Pupils then learn to pronounce common letter

combinations, such as “th” or “st.” They learn to recognize similar words with

differing pronunciations, such as "baked" and "naked,” and words with multiple

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spellings or exceptions to common phonetic rules, according to Dr. Jon Reyhner of

Northern Arizona University. Bottom-up theories hypothesize that learning to read

progresses from children learning the parts of language (letters) to understanding

whole text (meaning). Much like solving a jigsaw puzzle, bottom-up models of the

reading process say that the reading puzzle is solved by beginning with an

examination of each piece of the puzzle and then putting pieces together to make a

picture. Two bottom-up theories of the reading process remain popular even today:

One Second of Reading by Gough (1972) and A Theory of Automatic Information

Processing by LaBerge and Samuels (1974). Gough’s (1972) One Second of Reading

model described reading as a sequential or serial mental process. Readers, according

to Gough, begin by translating the parts of written language (letters) into speech

sounds, then piece the sounds together to form individual words, then piece the

words together to arrive at an understanding of the author’s written message.

According to Nunan (1991), reading is basically a matter of decoding a series of

written symbols into their aural equivalents in the quest for making sense of the text.

According to this theory, pupils should master the basic skills of phonics and

phonemic awareness when learning to read. This means pupils first learn letter names

and sounds and then are taught to decode simple words by sounding them out one

letter at a time. Beginning reading books include many words pupils are able to

sound out. For example, Pat sat on the mat. Instructional time is devoted to practicing

individual skills which build on each other.

Reading at the first-grade level encourages phonemic awareness, or the

understanding of the sounds and syllables that make up words. A child will also

develop phonological awareness, or the knowledge of how syllables sound when put

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together into words. Using these skills together, a first-grader can sound out words

using individual syllables and break words down into their component syllables. He

will apply this knowledge to identifying new words.

Anderson, N. J. (2008), Beginning-level readers should be exposed to a

strong bottom-up component. This is perhaps the greatest weakness in the

development of many reading syllabi. Little or no attention is given to the explicit

instruction of bottom-up reading. A guideline that you could follow in preparing a

syllabus for beginning level readers is allocating 50 percent of your syllabus to

teaching bottom-up skills, 30 percent to top-down skills, and 20 percent to interactive

skills. With a strong foundation in bottom-up skills, beginning-level readers will

become more-proficient readers more quickly.

According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically

inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based. To

Piaget, cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of mental processes

as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience. Children construct

an understanding of the world around them, then experience discrepancies between

what they already know and what they discover in their environment.

Bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence entails the potential of using one’s whole body or

parts of the body to solve problems. It is the ability to use mental abilities to

coordinate bodily movements. Howard Gardner sees mental and physical activity as

related.

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Playing games is the nature of children. Playing activities are part of a child's world,

teaching and learning is more effective if the child's education curriculum is based on

playing. Through play games, children learn and understand the issues that are

happening around them in a happy and meaningful ways to them. Interactive

activities in playing games will give the students the opportunity to interact with

others. According to Erikson (1950) and Piaget (1980), experts in the field of child

development believed that playing games activities can stimulate brain function that

can foster the development of cognitive, social, emotional and physical development

of children. When they play, children interact with peers or adults through discussion

and question and answer. Children learn to communicate, interact and adapt to the

environment through playing games.

Wilson and Colmar (2008), pointed out that “ the overwhelming findings indicate

that direct and systematic instructions in phonics contributes more significantly to

children’s initial an ongoing literacy development than any alternate approach of

either unsystematic or no phonics.” In other words, proficient reading instruction

should consists of phonemic awareness, phonics, guided oral fluency, vocabulary and

reading comprehension.

Australian researcher Wright et al. (2011) early phonological skills particularly the

ability to recognise the phonemic structure of spoken words help children develop

knowledge of grapheme-phoneme conversion rules. Moreover literary research in the

United States has found that, phonemic awareness and letter knowledge were the two

best predictors of reading ability in the first two years of instruction. Therefore.

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Phonemic and phonic awareness build foundation skills that are predictive of future

reading success (Wilson & Colmar,2008)

In reference to prominent researches on pronunciation and strategies, this study aims

to investigate how phonic race strategy can be used to improve pronunciation among

Year 2 pupils of SK LKTP Ulu Penggeli.

2.0 FOCUS OF INVESTIGATION

The following is the discussion of the underlying problem that leads to the study. The

problem is identified among Year 2 pupils of SK LKTP Ulu Penggeli pertaining to

developing their blending skills.

2.1 Problem Statement

When I observed my pupils during the teaching and learning process, I discovered a

number of factors that contributed to the lack of reading ability among the pupils.

The pupils cannot produce the sound of words although they are able to identify the

sound of the phonemes correctly. Based on the bottom up and kinaesthetic theory, I

want to create a joyful and meaningful leaning session for the low proficiency

students. At the end of the research, it is hope that the game will be a useful tool to

improve the students’ fluency.

From my observation, I have identified that the problem faced by the pupils were

with the pronunciation of words associated with the phoneme /a/ and /u/. When

asked to read, the pupils tend to pronounce both the phonemes according to the

Malay pronunciation. They mistakenly pronounce the phoneme /a/ as | ə | and the

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phoneme /u/ as | uː |. I can see that this happened because of the influence of their

mother tongue. This study will hopefully help the pupils to improve on their

pronunciation of both phonemes thus improving the level of their reading

confidence.

2.2 Preliminary Investigation

The preliminary investigation of this study started in June 2014. I noticed that all of

the pupils in Year 2 Bestari have difficulty in reading fluently, especially those with

low proficiency in the language skills.

Usually, whenever reading are conducted every Monday, they can participate but still

show confusion over the pronunciation of some words between English and Malay

pronunciation.

2.3 Analysis of Preliminary Investigation

Based on the preliminary investigation, my focus is to help them improving their

reading skill especially in the blending of phoneme /a/ and /uː/. When I conducted a

reading lesson, I noticed that the students have problems in pronouncing the words

with phoneme /a/ and /u/ accurately. This is due to the confusion of the sounds of the

phonemes in English and Malay pronunciation.

When in reading lessons, I noticed that when they read single syllable words from

the passage, some of the pupils managed to pronounce them correctly however some

of them especially the slow learners were still confused with the pronunciation. Thus,

when the pupils read the whole passage, the errors can still be heard clearly. There

were also cases in which the same pupils could read with correct pronunciation once,

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but when asked to read again, still making errors on the concerned phonemes. My

diagnosis revealed that in the while-reading stage, I noticed that their pronunciation

is influenced by their pronunciation in Malay.

2.4 Criteria of Selection

The phonic race is designed based on the same theory as to promote interest among

the pupils. The pupils are expected to engage more with the games so that I can

identify and address their weaknesses. This strategy can help the pupils to pronounce

the words better thus improving their fluency. This is supported by Gough (1972) in

the bottom up theories who suggested that learning to read progresses from children

learning the parts of language (letters) to understanding whole text (meaning).

I also chose phonic race strategy because of its interesting features and motivational

purpose. This blending strategy can be conducted during the lessons and does not

require a lengthy amount of time to be administered. Other than sustaining their

reading motivation, the use of in lesson will help to gain their attention and

motivation to learn.

Using phonic race strategy in the classroom can help the pupils to progress and will

eventually boost their interest to read. It will help them to sustain their reading

motivation and allows them to read with less pauses. Therefore, I believed that

phonic race is the best strategy to expose the target group towards discriminating

both phonemes thus improving their pronunciation.

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2.5 Definition of Terms

The definition specified here is the definition that has been manipulated for this

study. The operational functions of important terminologies are explained as below.

Phonic race

A reading strategy that aim to help improving the pupils’ pronunciation by

integrating the phoneme blending strategy and the use of game. It is expected to help

the pupils in pronouncing words by identifying the sound of the phonemes

individually and to boost the pupils’ motivation towards learning the language by

providing a fun learning environment as they learn.

Phonemes

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2011) defines the meaning of

phoneme is any one of the set of smallest units of speech in a language that

distinguish on word from another.

Phoneme Blending

Phoneme blending refers to the ability to identify a word when hearing parts of the

word (phonemes or syllables) in isolation. This is a very important step in the

development of literacy, as well as general language development. 

3.0 OBJECTIVES/RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The research objectives and the research questions of this study are as follow;

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3.1 Research Objectives

This study aims to:

1. Identify the most problematic phonemes among the Year 2 pupils of SK LKTP

Ulu Penggeli.

2. Examine the effectiveness of phonic race in developing phonetic awareness.

3. Examine the effectiveness of phonic race in improving pronunciation.

3.2 Research Questions

1. Which of the focus phoneme is the most problematic among Year 2 pupils?

2. Can phonic race develop phonetic awareness?

3. Can phonic race help to improve pronunciation?

4.0 TARGET GROUP/PARTICIPANTS

The target group of this study were 12 pupils of Year 2 Bestari in SK LKTP Ulu

Penggeli, Kluang. The class is of mix abilities students with different level of English

proficiencies. There is a total of twelve students in the class. Some are very bright

and some are very poor in their proficiency. There were 7 male pupils (58.33 %) and

5 female pupils (41.67%). All of these pupils were from FELDA community. All of

these pupils have been exposed to phonics method and were able to sound each

phonic correctly. There were 3 upper intermediate pupils and also 3 low intermediate

pupils in this classroom. The rest of the pupils were on average. This class was

chosen to be the target group because of their ability to recognize phonics but still

having pauses in their pronunciation. They tend to stop reading words they are not

confident with and wait for teacher’s or their friends’ assistant or interference. Others

simply pronounce the words as they like. They always have problems pronouncing

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words with the /a/ and /u/ sound. They got mixed up with the Malay pronunciation

when they read the passages used in the lesson. When corrected a few times, the

pupils became intimidated to read and some read with high cautions. These affect

their motivation and interest to read hence developing obstacles in their reading

fluency. Therefore, by introducing the phonic race it is hoped that their pronunciation

can be improved.

In their school based assessments for Year 2, 2 pupils achieved Band 5 (16.67 %), 8

pupil achieved Band 4 (66.67 %), 2 pupils achieved Band 3 (16.67%) For their mid-

term examination results, 4 pupils scored B (33.33 %), 6 pupils scored C (50 %) and

2 pupils scored D (16.67 %). Table 2 below describes the participants’ profiles

clearly.

No Profile Description Num.of

Participants

Percentage

1 Gender Male 7 58.33

Female 5 41.67

2 Assessment Band 5 2 16.67

Band 4 8 66.67

Band 3 2 16.67

3 Mid-term Examination B 4 33.33

C 6 50

D 2 16.67

Table 2: Participants’ Profiles

5.0 ACTION

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This action research was based on Lewin (1946) and Kemmis and McTaggart (1988)

research models. There are five steps in this model. Below is the illustration of the

research model.

Figure 1: A Conceptualization of the action research cycle.

Procedure of Action

As stated above, this study was based on an adaptation of Lewin (1946) and Kemmis

and McTaggart (1988) research models. According to Goh (2012), this model is

especially suited to integrating action with the classroom teacher’s practice. The

study was carried for one research cycle and focussed on reading skill. This research

model was selected because it consists of steps that clearly illustrate the study

framework in terms of justifying how word chunking strategy can be used to increase

reading fluency in the classroom. Figure 2 below is the research model that was used

in this study

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Step 5: Reflection on the effectiveness of

action

Step 1: Determine research focus

Step 3: Implement the

action

Step 2: Plan of action

Step 4: Data collection and

analysis

Step 2:

Plan of action:

1. Phonic Method – to refresh the pupils.

2. Exposure to phonic race for about 30 minutes in pre-reading and while reading stages.

Figure 2: The Adaptation of the Research Model

Step 1 of this study was derived based on the observation by the teacher on the

pronunciation of pupils’ of words with /a/ and /u/. As soon as the problem had been

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Step 2:

Plan of action:

1. Phonic Method – to refresh the pupils.

2. Exposure to phonic race for about 30 minutes in pre-reading and while reading stages.

identified, a strategy of how to help them increasing their pronunciation was adapted

so that the suitability and focus would match that of the pupils’ current

pronunciation.

In step 2, the pupils’ phonic skills were refreshed to show the differences between

the phonemes and how to play the phonemes race game. When the pupils were able

to differentiate these two phonemes, they can blend the sounds of the words

correctly, thus improving their pronunciation. In this step, the pupils were exposed to

the words in with /a/ and /u/ sound in their reading passage. Different reading

passages have been used for every interaction so that they can have more practice on

blending the phonemes. In every passage used, the focus words have been

highlighted and pupils practiced sounding the words in isolation. After 10-15

minutes of practice, then only they read the passage. At this point, I observed their

progress through checklists and audio records.

The implementation of the process involved in Step 2 was carried in Step 3. The

study was conducted in two days’ time involving 2 hours of interactions. The

intervention processes were carried during English language period daily. Lesson

plans were prepared according to the Year 2 KSSR syllabus.

In Step 4, the data collected were analysed to evaluate the effectiveness of word

phonic race strategy in helping the pupils to pronounce the phonemes. The data

collection methods are explained in Figure 2 above. Here, the discussion was to

answer the research questions to find out whether the word phonic race strategy

achieved the research objectives that have been set earlier.

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Step 5 was the reflection of the study. Based on the data analysis, I had suggested

improvement for further research and what improvement should be given more

thoughts to ensure the effective of the phonic race strategy in improving the pupils’

pronunciation.

5.1 Intervention

The focus of intervention was to improve pronunciation through word phonic

strategy. As this strategy was using bottom-up reading theory, the process of

intervention started from the lowest unit, which is the phonics level that makes the

pronunciation of a word. The participants in this study have already been exposed to

reading through phonics method since Year 1 but at some point during reading, they

would come up with errors in pronunciation of words when it comes to blending the

phonemes together. The purpose of the intervention was to teach them blending by

focusing on the phoneme /a/ and /u/.

The intervention had been given during the pre-reading stage for about 10 – 15

minutes of some words contained in the reading text. At this stage, the pupils were

taught on how to play the games using the phonic race game. The board will have

few steps where every turn will give different phoneme card. The reason why I chose

games is because game is a helpful tool to boost pupils’ motivation. Games introduce

an element of competition into language-building activities. This provides valuable

impetus to a purposeful use of language (Prasad 2003) this is supported by Huyen

and Nga (2003), students said that they liked the relaxed atmosphere, the

competitiveness, and the motivation that games brought to the classroom

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Each pupil will take turns in their group to draw the dice. The respective pupil will

pick a card and blend the phonemes on the card. The game will help the pupils to

remember the pronunciation of the word thus enable them to pronounce faster

through phoneme blending.

Before the pre-reading stage, the pupils are divided into teams. The teacher then

paste the board game on the board. The teacher will asks the pupils to draw the dice

and each member of the group who can blend the phonemes and pronounce the word

correctly will gain one point for his or her team. If the member fail to do so, the

group will not only get zero point, but they will also remain in the same spot.

Before moving to the while-reading stage, the teacher flashes a few word cards

containing words with the targeted phonemes. The teacher will asks the pupils to say

aloud the words thus allowing the teacher to observe their pronunciation of the

words. After having pronunciation game for about 10 minutes, the pupils then given

a reading text. The teacher will carefully select texts with frequent use of words with

the targeted phonemes. During the reading process, the teacher will pay attention to

the pupils’ pronunciation of the targeted phonemes. The teacher will give them the

chance to read the passage on their own to see how well they can pronounce the

words. Then, the teacher will read aloud the passage to the pupils.

Before the program started, I have given the pupils checklist for reading. I have listed

a number of words with the targeted phonemes and asked them to pronounce them.

During the reading process, the teacher will use a checklist to check on their

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pronunciation. The teacher can use the checklist to monitor the pupils’ performance

throughout the research. By the end of the study, I observed the pupils’ progress with

a checklist. Using the same words in the test, I can identified how far they had

progress.

The words and the passage that were used in this study were based on their textbook.

The research was conducted in 2 days. There are 2 passages used in the research.

Each one was based on the Topic 2; Do the Right Thing. In every passage, the focus

words were highlighted. These words contain /a/ and / u/. I used the passages for

reading (Day 1) and also for writing (Day 1).

5.2 Data Gathering Methods

According to Rouse (2007), data collection is a systematic approach to gathering

information from a variety of sources to get a complete and accurate picture of an

area of interest. A formal data collection process is necessary as it ensures that data

gathered are both defined and accurate and that subsequent decisions based on

arguments embodied in the findings are valid. In this study, there were two methods

involved in collecting the data. The first method was observation notes and checklist.

The second method was semi-structured interview session. The process provides

both a baseline from which to measure and in certain cases a target on what to

improve.

The first method used in the study was observation. There were two instruments used

in this method. They were observation notes and checklist; see appendix 2 for

observation notes and appendix 3 for checklist. In this study, the observations were

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conducted during interactions especially during pre-reading and while reading stages.

In pre-reading stage, the observations were carried out during the intervention

process, where the pupils play the phonics race. The pupils were tested individually

on how to blend phonemes together to make word so that they can keep practising in

the next reading classes. This step is in line with Bilash (2009) who noted that

observation provide a chance to re-evaluate the classroom from a different

perspective.

During the while reading stage, the observation notes were made to evaluate the

effectiveness of the phonics race. If they fail to blend the phonemes correctly, the

pupils will cost their team to lose some points. They became more alert to the

formation of words as to make sure their team won the race. This step is also in line

with Bilash (2009) who viewed observation as the creation of a professional learning

community with the best interests of the students in mind.

Checklists were used together with the observations in the while reading stage to

evaluate the pupils’ pronunciation of the focus words. A different checklist was used

for every passage so that pupils can practice blending as many words as possible.

The highlighted words from the phoneme race were listed in the checklists. When the

pupils managed to pronounce the words correctly, the column in the checklist table

will be ticked. At the end, their score were counted respectively so that analysis of

the phoneme race can be carried. Marino (2013) states that using checklist in the

classroom can help pupils to keep on task. It helped me to keep the objectives

without losing focus. This is further supported by Rowlands’ study (as cited in

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Marino, 2013) who noted that checklist is an accurate method of assessing

performance.

Audio recordings were also used in the interventions. Audio recordings were used to

record the pupils’ reading both individually and by group. The recordings were used

to assist my observation should I missed any important key points in the pupils’

reading progress. According to Sapsford and Jupp (2003), audio recording provides

more complete and accurate record and can be used to supplement or check data

records produced by the researcher. It is also noted that audio recording provides a

more systematic data gathering as it helps the researcher to add more fields to the

observation notes made in the classroom.

The second method that was used in this study is the semi-structured interview.

There were two instruments used in this method. They were the interview questions

and audio recordings; see appendix 4 for interview questions. The interview sessions

were carried at the end of each week. Four pupils were interviewed to assess their

opinions and what do they think about the strategy. One low intermediate pupil and

one upper intermediate pupil were interviewed by the end of each week to assess

their opinion and to evaluate the effectiveness of phonic race strategy. These four

pupils were chosen to represent the whole participants of this study. The semi-

structured interview was chosen because it helped me to understand the pupils’

opinion better and more relevant questions pertaining to the effectiveness of phonic

race strategy can be asked without a rigid scheme. This statement is supported by

Mason (2013) who states that semi-structured interview is flexible and has fluid

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structure. Their responses form the interview sessions were then transcribed to assist

analysis in answering the research questions.

Audio recordings were also used in this method to record the participants’ responses.

The advantages of using audio recordings are that I can play the interview sessions

repeatedly to get clarity from their responses and also to use them for quotes to

support my findings. This is supported by Kalpesh (2013) who noted that audio

recording gives an accurate summary and provides reference for the researcher.

6.0 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

As this study used observation notes checklists and interview, qualitative method is

used to elaborate on the findings. This is supported by Mc Roy (n.d) who noted

qualitative research is concerned with non-statistical methods of inquiry and analysis

of social phenomena.

This statement above is further supported by Carolyn Nicholls (2011) noted that

qualitative research can convey a richness and intensity of detail in a way that

quantitative research cannot. She also added that qualitative research methods allow

for much more detailed investigation of issues - answering questions of meaning,

who is affected (by the issue) why, what factors are involved, do individuals react or

respond differently to each other.

6.1 Observation

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Fot the research purpose, I have conducted two observation methods. The first one

was done with observation notes. The second method was the checklists. The pupils’

changes in behaviour and atttitude towards the lesson were recorded in my notes.

The notes were used to reveal the improvement of the pupils after the intervention

has been conducted. The distinct results showed that the pupils’ pronounciation have

been enhanced by the phonic race. The observation also showed that the pupils were

highly motivated during the lessons.

From the observation notes and the checklists results, I found out that the participants

enjoyed the phonic race very much. They actively participated in the activity

conducted during the lesson. What suprised me was that the pupils were able to give

suitable response regardless their differences in proficiency level. However, P3, P4

and P6 still unable to pronounce all the words in the list correctly after the first

intervention.

On further analysis, the improvement was seen. 6 participants was identified to have

problems in pronouncing words with phoneme /a/ and /u/. By the second

intervention, the number decrease to 4 participants. The number continue to decrease

by the third intervention where there were only 2 participants left with the problem.

At the end of the research, there was only 1 participant who cannot pronounce the

words in the list correctly.

Nevertheless, the pupils picked up during the practice stage. By the third observation,

the result showed that P3, P4 and P6 were still unable to blend the phonemes

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correctly. However, by the last intervention, P3 and P4 were able to blend the

phonemes correctly thus enable them to pronounce the words in the list correctly.

Based on the observation, P3, P4 and P6 have improved their pronunciation.

However, P6 still did not managed to blend the phonemes correctly till the end of the

research. This is due to his limited attention to the lesson and also because he was

easily distracted during the lesson.

6.2 Interview

The interview was done on the final day of the observation. It involved 5 pupils of

different proficiency levels. Among the 5 pupils, 2 are of excellent, 2 are of average

and 1 of low proficiency learner. The interview was conducted by me myself. The

purpose of the interview was to get in depth understanding of the participants’

perception of the phonic race as used in the intervention.

There were 5 items used in the interview (refer to appendix xxx). There were 3

themes used in designing the items. Two of the items were used to find out the pupils

perception towards the phonic race whether it is interesting and able to create fun

learning environment as it was aimed for. Another two items were used to find out if

the phonic race could boost the pupils’ motivation to learn the English language. The

last item was to look at the effectiveness of using phonic race to improve their

pronunciation.

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The first theme was on the pupils’ interest. When asked the question 1, P2

responded, “I like phonic race. It is fun”. P6 responded “Best” when asked the same

question. When asked the second question, P12 said “I want to play phonic race

again”. P5 replied “I want to play again”. The answers indicated that the participants

enjoyed the phonic race strategy and would like to have the phonic race again in the

future.

The second theme was motivation. Two questions were asked for the purpose. P2

responded to question 3 saying “Yes. I can read easier now”. P7 said “Yes. It is

easy”. P6 however responded “I can read a little”. Question 4 got positive responds

from the participants. P7 responded “Yes. I can read the words easily”. P5 replied

“Reading is easier now”. P6 only replied “Yes, easy”. Based on their answers, it can

be concluded that phonic race helped to boost the pupils’ motivation to learn English.

The final question was to find out whether the phonic race help to improve the

pupils’ reading. P7 answered “Yes”. When asked to clarify his answer, he said “I can

read faster now”. P12 also agree with P7. She responded “I can read faster”. P6

however responded “Yes, a little”. I could say that the responses were off positive so

they indicate that the pupils agreed that phonic race helped them to read better.

7.0 FINDINGS

The findings of this action research explained the relationship between the research

objectives, research questions and the data collection methods. The findings are

discussed according to the research questions.

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7.1 Which of the focus phoneme is the most problematic among Year 2 pupils?

As MacKay (1967) pointed out, a pronunciation error may be due to a transfer from

the native language; an analogy with something correctly learned in the foreign

language; a wild guess, vagueness in remembering the right form; or general lack of

accuracy and language skill. Of all these, transfer from the native language or

interference is the most common one. Most of the errors made are due to the

difference in sound systems and due to the misinterpretation of spelling symbols.

This is the main factor that contributed to the mispronunciation of the phoneme /a/

and /u/. Based on the observation, both phonemes contributed equally to their

pronunciation problem thus influence their reading. According to the checklist, P3,

P4 and P6 fail to pronounce the words in the list correctly up until observation 3 and

P6 remain with the same result until the final observation. (refer to Appendix xxx).

Based on the observation checklists, the most problematic phoneme for Year 2 pupils

is the phoneme /u/. Observation 1 showed that P1, P3, P4, P6, P8 and P11

mispronounce the words ‘lamp’, ‘can’, ‘bun’, ‘hut’ and ‘cut’. Up until observation

3, P4 and P6 still have problems to pronounce all the words in the checklist correctly

and the result shows that P4 and P6 could not pronounce the words ‘camp’, ‘shut’,

‘hung’ and ‘jump’ correctly. Another factor that could possibly contributed to the

result was the use of digraph ‘sh’, ‘ng’ and ‘mp’. They may add difficulty to the

pupils to pronounce the words correctly.

7.2 Can phonic race develop phonetic awareness?

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual

sounds-phonemes--in spoken words. Before children learn to read print, they need to

become more aware of how the sounds in words work. They must understand that

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words are made up of speech sounds, or phonemes (the smallest parts of sound in a

spoken word that make a difference in a word's meaning).

Based on the observation notes and checklist, the pupils showed positive

improvement in their pronunciation of words associated with the phoneme /a/ and

/u/. The final observation showed that 11 out of 12 pupils were able to pronounce the

words in the list correctly. The positive improvement signified a raise in the pupils’

awareness towards the respective phonemes. Based on that, the phoneme race is

proven to help develop phonetic awareness among the Year 2 pupils because pupils

can identify the phonemes thus enabled them to pronounce the words correctly.

7.3 Can phonic race help to improve pronunciation?

The use of phonic race helped the pupils to improve their pronunciation. The pupils

were able to pronounce the words correctly as they can discriminate the sound of

each phoneme. This helped them to blend the sound of phonemes in the words in

order to say the words. This is supported by Colmar, 2008 who stated that phonemic

and phonic awareness build foundation skills that are predictive of future reading

success.

Concluding paragraph

Based on the discussions above, the phonic race strategy has been proven as an

effective reading strategy that can improve the pupils’ pronunciation. Based on the 5

items used in the interview, all 5 pupils stated that the use of phonic race was

something fun and interesting. They also showed interest in the phonic race by their

active participation during the intervention and during the lesson. There were

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positive signs that proved that the phonic race has increased their motivation for

learning. Compared to the previous approach, this time, every pupil involved

themselves actively in the learning activity. Pupils became more active and

motivated to learn as they always love game and competition. So, when the teacher

integrated the play element in the lesson, he opened the door for the pupils to learn in

a meaningful way. Piaget (1980), experts in the field of child development believed

that playing games activities can stimulate brain function that can foster the

development of cognitive, social, emotional and physical development of children.

When they play, children interact with peers or adults through discussion and

question and answer. Children learn to communicate, interact and adapt to the

environment through playing games.

8.0 SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

The phonic race that was conducted has brought difference to the reading fluency of

the pupils of Year 2 Bestari as they were able to pronounce the phonemes correctly.

This has improved their level of confidence in reading words especially words with

single syllable as they are now able to blend the phonemes into words. Despite the

fact that it provides fun learning that help engaging them in learning, there were still

some obvious weaknesses that I have discovered in the intervention. The first

weakness was the lack of classroom control during the intervention. Since the game

was played in groups, some pupils got too excited and forgot to follow the rules of

playing the game. This has caused the class to be noisy during the intervention and

could deliver bad impression from the other teachers. The activity during the

intervention was monopolised by high proficiency pupils and the low proficiency

pupils got less chances to participate. Another problem that I could see was the low

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proficiency pupils tend to be shy and became intimidated to fully participate in the

game. I would suggest that in future, teacher could explain the rules and remind the

pupils the rules along the activity so the teacher could avoid the pupils from showing

misbehaviour conduct. It is also to allow active participation from every pupil

especially the low ability who are usually got left behind due to their in confidence.

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