INCREASING STUDENTS' ABILITY TO SPEAK ENGLISH THROUGH

'NEXT STEP: DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH' (NS:DYSE)

By:
MARK WEE SIN TAT
Member of English Language Panel
SMK Bukit Besar
20050 Kuala Terengganu
ABSTRACT
Being to communicate in English has been a hot topic since the late
1980's. This matter has been brought up concerning the jobless graduates
who had passed in this subject in SPM but were not able to speak in this
language when matters means the most that is when attending job
interviews. This matter has been highlighted so many times but there has
not been any effective methods that has been used to remedy this ailing
disease.
Recently, this matter had been highlighted once more in the news.
Quote: KAPIT: A report presented in parliament recently revealed that
some 72,000 graduates throughout the country were unemployed due to
a poor command in English.
Even though they have the qualification, they were unable to speak well
in English during interviews as most of the interviews conducted by mega
companies are in English, said the state Manpower and Labour
Department director August Buma when met at the Job Placement
programme for Kapit held at the civic centre here on Saturday.
then again in another news:
Sathesh Raj, Astro Awani on the 10th October 2014 reports, 'Malaysian
graduates: relevant yet irrelevant?'
The Statistics Department reported Malaysia unemployment rate for March was at 3 per cent,
compared to 3.3 per cent in 2013, a positive indication that most universities graduates have
joined the workforce upon their graduation.
Unemployment, is still however evident among university graduates.
A member of the Core Organizing Committee for TEDxYouth@KL, Gwen Yi said, The
most tangible reason for the lack of job force participation is the lack of English proficiency
among university graduates.
"Fresh graduates in Malaysia have an unbelievably low grasp of the language," said Yi.
Yi, who is a huge proponent of youth entrepreneurship and education reform, added that

regardless of the various decisions made by the Ministry of Education in implementing

teaching Mathematics and Science in English (PPSMI), some students are still uncomfortable
conversing in the language.
Being adept in English language is essential particularly among school leavers in order to
equip them to advance in universities and gradually when they enter the workforce.
Yi, who has represented Malaysia in over 10 international conferences, cited a Jobstreet
survey by that showed poor grasp of English has contributed to 55 per cent of fresh
graduates unemployment in the country.
So, there is no doubt that action must be taken here and now to solve this matter right from
the start. We should at least try to find ways to solve this problem like the saying, "If not now,
when? If not here, where?. If not us, who?"
1.0

REFLECTION ON PREVIOUS TEACHING AND LEARNING

A huge majority of students from class 1 Ibnu Katsir (the weakest class of form 1
SMK Bukit Besar) do not at all attempt to speak in English. Many of them still have the
mind-set that English is a secondary language therefore it is unimportant to learn to speak the
language. Moreover, in Kuala Terengganu, this language is hardly used as a language for
daily communication. Since the Science and Mathematics had been reverted back to Malay,
the students tend to take it more lightly to study this language. Plus, the postponement to
make compulsory to pass in English Language in order to pass SPM (Sijil Pelajaran
Malaysia) had made them more relaxed in learning this language.
Through my observation of fourteen years of teaching English, I noticed that many
students have the attitude that: Studying English is hard (because I do not understand
English), I have to get out of my comfort zone (because I have to study something entirely
new) and I am afraid to make mistakes cause I don't want to be scolded and I don't want my
friends to laugh at me.
The feeling is reasonable in a certain extend. This is because in my three years
studying counselling (I have studied psychology), I have learned that especially at this age,
teenagers want to build a reputation, guard their dignity, want autonomy whish sometimes
even cause them to rebel. They want to have fun and not at all to be bored or confined.
Even for myself in those years as a student, I found learning grammar alone as a
subject to be boring. While myself to be cooped up with so many rules, now I have to learn
and remember some more sets of rules. It is high time that a method of learning grammar
should be made fun.
So in handling this matter, a strategy has to be formulated and carried out immediately
to handle this matter from the root itself. It is high time this subject should be made fun,
practical and easy so that more students will learn to love this subject.

2.0

THE RESEARCH FOCUS

In both public examinations PT3 and SPM, students are required to sit for oral exams.
Students are required to speak English fluently in order to pass this exam. Moreover, in the
future the students may even have to go for job interviews which are conducted in English.

These are done nowadays itself especially in the private sector. Since the main problem at this
stage is the students' confidence, limited vocabulary, grammar and the mood towards this
subject itself, the focus of actions will target on these matter.
Firstly, breaking the ice and overcoming the students' fear to speak in English is proposed.
Building a language environment were the students are required to speak in English is
strongly encouraged as in this analogy:
'The Chinese who started trading in the Straits of Melaka were forced to learn to speak in
Malay in order to trade here', 'The Bangladeshis were forced to learn Malay to make a living
in Malaysia. 'The students who are studying in foreign lands such as England have to
communicate in English.'
So, it is high time that the students to learn to speak in English and get out of their 'comfort
zone' to be able to get out form their 'coconut shell' in order to compete in global market, to
keep in touch with what's going on and to keep updated with the internet.
3.0

OBJECTIVES
3.1 General Objective

be
when they

To improve students' confidence and ability to speak in English that they will
able to speak in English fluently in their daily conversations moreover
sit for their oral exams.

3.2 Specific Objective

3.2.1

To increase the number of students who are able to use English in their
daily communication (A 'ready to be used - Anytime,

language.)
3.2.2` To increase the number of students who will pass in their English
Oral exams.
4.0

TARGET GROUP

During my first lesson in class I Ibnu Katsir noticed that only one (1) out of seventeen (17)
students were able or rather (more like not too shy) to speak in English. About ten of them
were totally silent and the rest of them had no confidence to even attempt to speak in English.
I felt compelled to try NS: DYSE on these students since I could see the progress of the
students learn from scratch.
5.0

IMPLEMENTATION
NS: DYSE consists five main elements which are:
5.1. Language Environment
5.2. Non-Threatening Environment
5.3. Building Blocks
5.4. Sentence Patterns and
5.5. Tokens

5.1

Language Environment

In order to create a conducive environment to speak English, students must be surrounded by

English speaking people. In other words to be surrounded by the language itself. This way,
they are compelled to speak English to be understood as well as to communicate. As how it
was mentioned in the analogy earlier in the Research Focus, when surrounded by English
speaking environment, the students will learn faster how to speak in English.
5.2.

Non-Threatening Environment

In implementing a non-threatening environment, the teacher acts as a facilitator. In other

words the teacher's job is to facilitate, to assist and to spur the students to speaking English.
Other than that, the teacher introduces the topics just as stated in the syllabus. This way the
teacher introduces the topics, the questions at hand, to organise the students and to put them
in order especially when it comes to presenting their work. The teacher only intervene when
necessary like when there is a dispute among the students or disorder. Corrections are done
only when it is really necessarily (but are avoided especially in the beginning to build the
confidence among the students).
5.3

Building Blocks

Analogy:

When making a building, we need materials (bricks). The

more materials, the bigger the building. The more suitable
the materials, the more beautiful the building becomes.

It is the same when it comes to making sentences. More vocabulary the students have, the
longer as well as better sentences they can make. In every chapter of OPS-English, a set of
vocabulary related to these topics are introduced. Then, as the chapter carries on, sub-topics
are introduced and more words are introduced. In the fourth chapter: Going Places. The
students were first introduced to five main words which are 'Destination','Transportation'
'Accomodation', 'Activities' and 'People' then, the students are introduced to more words
related to the topic such as: hotel, chalet, boat ride, sightseeing, swamp land and many more.
5.4
.Sentence Patterns
Sentence patterns are sets of words which had already been fixed grammatically to form
sentences which can be used to convey certain meanings, massages and information. Students
only have to fill in the sentence patterns with the required words or information. For example:
Chapter 1: Knowing Me, Knowing You i. My name is .
ii. I am from
iii. My father is
iv. My mother is ..
v. I like to
vi. I plan to go to . (*during the coming school holidays)
vii.I will go there by .. / I will use a/an.. for my
transport
vjjj. I will stay in (at is unloy used for specific places).
5.5

Tokens

Tokens are smaller form of rewards. They are given in forms of praise and
compliments. These are given verbally or written on their exercise books if these assignments
are given as homework. Words and praises such as 'good', 'well done', and wonderful are

used to encourage students to speak in English. Other rewards are forms of stickers. If the
students finish their work early, they are given tokens such as to watch funny video clips,
magic tricks or given funny riddles to answer.
6.0

PRE-INTERVENSION ANALYSIS

6.1. In my observation, before the implementation of NS: DYSE, (month of January), the
students hardly speak any English. I noticed that only one (1) out of seventeen (17) students
made an effort to speak in English. However, it was inconsistent and the words used in the
sentences are limited from five to six words. Most of the time the sentences spoken werevery
limited asking common questions. For example:
i.
ii.
iii.

"Please sir, may I go out?

Sorry sir. I dont understand dan
Sir, can you help me?

and complains such as:

Sir, he is disturbing me
The chart below indicates the number of words in a sentence spoken by the students before
NS: DYSE:
P/S: The number of words used indicated below does not include asking permission to go to
the rest room.
STUDENT
1

Number of words spoken in a sentence

1

5
6
7

9
10
11
12

13

14
15
16
17

2
4

>6

6.0 Action Taken/ Interventions

The actions taken are as it was written in 5.0 IMPLEMENTATION. However changes had
to be made from time to time baseing to the needs of the students and time available.
A 100% Language Environment could not be created since the response of most of the
students were poor. However a 90% non-threatening environment could be maintained
throughout the ten (10) weeks. As a result more and more students felt free to speak English.
Building blocks which are sets of vocabulary related to the topics that were studied
were constantly used. An Audio-Video DVD was played in the building block segments. The
students read the words listed, listen to the words as it was spoken in the Audio-Video DVD
and repeat the words loudly. The teacher facilitates the students to find the meaning of each
word. In every chapter of the Students Handbook a new set of words related to the topic
were introduced. My observation shows that about six to eight of the students of class 1 Ibnu
Katsir were able to use (apply) the words in constructing the sentences.
In every topic, there were secments of discussions between students and teacher and
among students themselves. From here, the students will apply their building blocks
(vocabulary) to form good sentences in sentence patterns revealeg to them. Different
sentence patterns are introduced and applied by students based on different situations.
Meanwhile, the students were encouraged to be creative in forming sentences and not stick
on to the patterns as a definite rule.
In continusation, students who managed to form good sentences, more so if they learn
to be flexable and creative in making their sentences (or at least attempt to do so), tokens are
given. Really good ones who could apply the sentence patterns or better still if they could be
creative in making better sentences, better tokens in forms of stickers are given.
The results improved gradually as more and more students were able to speak English
with exception of a few shy ones. Actions has to be done constantly for based on my
observation, the performance of the students had droped slightly during the schools sport
week as many students were involved in the activities either directly (as atheletes) or
indirectly (in helping out with the teachers, first-aid etc.)
These are the results of NS: DYSE
(End of) Week 1
STUDENT
1

Number of words spoken in a sentence

1

6
*

5
6
7
8

2
4

>6

9
10
11
12

13

14
15
16
17
*How do you do this, sir?
Week 2
STUDENT

Number of words spoken in a sentence

1

>6

3
4

5
6
7
8

9
10
11
12

13

14
15
16
17
Week 3
STUDENT
1

Number of words spoken in a sentence

1
Sir!

>6

3
4
5
6
7
8

9
10
11
12

13
14

15
16
17

Week 4 and 5
STUDENT

Number of words spoken in a sentence

1

6
7

9
10
11
13

>6

12

14

15
16
17
Week 6 and 7
STUDENT

Number of words spoken in a sentence

1

>6

6
7
8

9
10
11
12

13
14

*Sir, he
spoke in
B,M

15

16

17

Week 8
STUDENT

Number of words spoken in a sentence

1

1
2

>6

6
7

9
10

11
12

13
14

15

16

17

Week 9 and 10
STUDENT

Number of words spoken in a sentence

1

1
2

6
7

9
10

11
12

13
14

15
16
17

>6

Summary
From my observation action research on Next Step: Do You Speak English? (NS:DYSE)
has proven that a student centred approach is most appropriate in teaching the weaker classes.
Students should be the centre of the whole teaching process and should be spurred to do the
speaking when learning a language. A non-threatening environment should be set to
overcome the fear of the students to speak. Teachers can give a certain amount of autonomy
to the students to steer the situation in certain topics in order to make them brave enough to
speak in English. A certain amount of enforcements in means of what they had learnt and
encouragement in forms of praise and small rewards are encourage participation. However,
all of this must be done continuously so that their performance do net drop.

Bibliografi

Kurt Lewin,
1944
Action Research
Wikipedia 3, 4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_research#External_links

Mike Shelby
2014
Methods for Mastering English Conversation and Vocabulary
http://esl.about.com/od/speakingintermediate/a/Methods-For-MasteringEnglish-Conversation-And-Vocabulary.htm

Web site: https://www.sayangsabah.com/lemah-bahasa-inggeris-punca-graduan-gagaldapat-kerja/