The Impact of New English Writing Programme on Primary School Students in SK

Tualang, Pokok Sena, Kedah

1.1

Background of the Study

Learning to write is critical to a childs success in school and later in life. One
of the best predictors of whether a child will function competently in school and go on
to contribute actively in our increasingly literate society is the level to which the child
progresses in writing. Although writing abilities continue to develop throughout the
life span, the early childhood yearsfrom birth through age eightare the most
important period for literacy development.
The statement consists of a set of principles and recommendations for teaching
practices and public policy. So working with children to help them develop this skill
while they are young will be a great benefit to them in the long run. Though many
people are intimidated by the process of writing, it does not have to be drudgery.
Making writing activities fun will keep children mentally invested and help them stick
with it. Effective teaching is structured and focused on the learning needs of each
student in the class.
In some programs and designs that focus on early literacy, each lesson is
scripted and planned in detail in advance. In this way, the teachers are able to ensure
that lessons are highly purposeful and structured. Some teachers indeed claim that this
enables them to ensure that their programs are almost fail-proof, meaning that any
teacher regardless of their previous level of training and expertise can successfully
implement them. But in situations where there are competent, well-trained teachers,
this approach denies them important opportunities to exercise their professional
ability and judgement in responding to the individual needs of students.

To focus on successful teaching on the learning needs of all students in the

classroom is by no means an easy task. It constitutes one of the greatest challenges
faced by teachers, particularly given the wide range of abilities within the typical
classroom. So, to understand and effectively teach developing writers from a range of
diverse backgrounds, the teachers must understand the difference between written
word and spoken language.
In spoken language, the speakers rely heavily on shared or contextual
understandings. Spoken language also makes use of body language, which supports
and adds meaning to the spoken word. Spoken language also allows the listener to ask
questions of the speaker in order to clarify anything that is not understood. In written
language, however, writers must make the meaning clear to the reader without a
shared, face-to-face or immediate context. Sentences must include a higher proportion
of content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives and so on). The words used must be far
more specific; details of the setting, events, and objects must be clearly described.
Generally speaking, readers are unable to query writers when something is unclear.
This study describes an action research project which involved the
implementation of a new English writing programme for primary level involving five
children (aged between 10 and 11) in Tualang, Pokok Sena, Kedah, designed to
enhance students motivation and engagement by taking more account of the young
learners own socio-cultural context through a three-stage programme, focusing on
topics ranging from personal to social concerns and moving in terms of purpose from
self-reflection to writing designed for publication to a wider audience.

1.2

Statement of Problem
As a teacher in a primary school, the researcher finds herself having problems
in inspiring and motivating her students to write especially during English lessons
Writing is an important skill to have that is essential to todays educational system.
The researcher believes that writing is so important because it is a prerequisite to be
an effective writer in the job market today.
Starting early during primary years will provide the students ample
opportunities to perfected their writing skills in due time. The researcher also believes
that it is her job to make her students good writers, to get and keep them motivated
about writing, and use all the tools available to do so. Therefore, the introduction of
the new English programme is viewed as an answer to a prayer.
The new English writing programme was named in comparison with the
traditional English writing programme which has been practiced since the review of
the Primary School Integrated Curriculum in 1998.
The traditional lessons followed the typical pattern used by teachers in the
school, with a teacherled introduction to the topic including work on vocabulary and
grammatical structures needed to complete the task.

Students then wrote their

compositions within a time limit and passed them to the teacher for correction and
comments. One main problem existed using this approach is that many of the
students compositions produced from these outputs were extremely similar to one
another.
The new English writing programme aimed at making the writing tasks more
relevant to students by introducing topics related to their lives and social world and by

providing real audience and a real purpose for writing. The topics started with the
students concrete experiences and moved towards more abstract concepts. The
programme also introduced the concept of writing for real audience, with the audience
being gradually widened from the students classmates, to their friends and family,
and finally to the general public.
The research is meant to know whether the students are eager to write essays
in English lesson writing and we tried to implement the new program to know
whether the students can suit themselves with the new program in learning writing
effectively and thus, the new program can be widely used at school to teach young
learners to write effectively
.
1.3

Objective of the Study

The central objective of the study is to examine the new English writing
programme and look at its impact on writing engagement, motivation, and interest in
writing as well as on the overall development of the students writing skills. This
study is developed in order to fulfil the researchers objectives, which is:

a) to explore the experiences of Standard Five students with the instalment of the
new English writing programme.
b) to examine the impact of the new English writing programme on the overall
development of the students writing skills.

1.4

Research Questions
This study is also made in order to answer two research questions:
i)

What experiences the Standard Five students face with the instalment of the
new English writing programme?

ii)

In what way(s) do the new English writing programme inspires the students
motivation and engagement toward writing?

1.5

Limitations of the Study

Due to the limitations of time available, the sample collected in this study was
limited to five Standard Five students in SK Tualang, Pokok Sena, Kedah only and
does not represent other primary school students from the surrounding areas. Thus,
the result of the findings may or may not be relevant to other institutions regardless of
their similarities in background profile of the respondents. Therefore, summarization
of this study should be made with caution.