WEEK 1

Reflective Journal

I have begun my first phase of practicum session in SK Permatang Pasir,

which is located in a rural area. I was assigned to teach English which is my major
subject. On the very first day, I went to meet the headmistress to get introduce
myself to him. My practicum partners and I were explained clearly regarding the
school practice and rules. She had demanded us to conduct effective class for the
weak and smart pupils to improve their communicating skills. This week I have found
out an issue in enhancing speaking ability among the pupils.

I had realized that there were some problems in pupils speaking ability. First
of all, the Year 4 pupils could not understand spoken English because of some
prominent factors. The problem is mainly due to the mother tongue influence. A
recent study about Mother Tongue Influence In English Communication shows that
when we begin speaking in the second language, we initially use sounds from our
mother tongue. Many students from different native cannot pronounce many words
correctly. (Sriprabha 2015) Few example of words are measure, pleasure,
treasure, support, develop, college, bus. Other than that, the pupils were
hesitate to speak in English because they could not express their ideas and feelings
fluently. Many students feel shy to communicate with others. They endeavor to
speak very rarely hence mother tongue influences. (Berliner 2006)

There are few solutions I have discovered after the interaction with the pupils.
Nunan (1991) wrote, "Success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a
conversation in the target language. This means that the pupils should be given
more opportunity to speak in the classroom language. The failure to do will make
them get demotivated and lose interest in learning. Furthermore, if the right activities
are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun. It will make the
English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be. Thus, I will provide the
pupils sample questions to ask during the classroom interaction. I will add some
simple dialogues to enhance speaking among their friends.
 Reinforcement Theory by Skinner (1974) explains that children learn to speak
like adults because they are taught to do so by being praised and otherwise
rewarded for doing things right. By following this theory, I have given some simple
rewards such as Colourful Stickers and Oscar Awards to pupils who made an
attempt to speak in English. Eventhough, the stickers are just a piece of paper but
the impact is very obvious. Positive reinforcement is a technique to elicit and to
strengthen new behaviors by adding rewards and incentives instead of eliminating
benefits. (D.Elloy 2012)

Most of the pupils made a great attempt to converse in English in order to get
praised and rewarded. Another type of positive reinforcement is intrinsic reward. It
can be praise and acknowledgement, but it has an impact on pupils performance in
a positive way. Thus, I will always praise my pupils for speaking in English. The
praise should be followed by correction on pupils pronunciation and intonation. This
can be done using a proper modulation from the teacher. This can be done
especially when the pupils are presenting something during listening and speaking
lesson especially in the following weeks (13February-17February 2017). I will
provide a grammatical guidance to help pupils speak meaningfully.

As a conclusion, I have determined that I will learn something from my

mistakes. These are just some of the problems that teachers with large classes face
when teaching speaking activities in the classroom. These problems are not new nor
are the solutions offered above. This is my first phase practicum which is the
learning platform for me to begin my teaching journey. Thus, I will strive to achieve
success in helping my pupils to converse in English with atleast at satisfactory level.

Prepared by: Checked & Verified by: Checked & Verified by:

(Sattiyan Nayar S/O Sagar) (Pn Salina Binti Shariff) (Dr Tarsame Singh S/O Masa
Singh)