UNRWA

Education Department
Education Development Centre/ Jordan
Action Research entitled:

"The Effect of Using Functional Songs to Teach Short Adjectives

Comparative and Superlative "
Submitted by:
Safa' Mahmoud Jamil Obeid
E. NO. : 10513973
Marka Preparatory Girls 1 School / Zarqa' Area

Supervised by::
Eyad Abu Assi
Submitted in partial requirement of EP (UU) training course
School year: 2015-2016

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 Contents
Subject Page
- Dedication 3
- Introduction 4
- The objectives of the study 5
-CHAPTER ONE : Statement of the problem
- A. Feeling the problem 6
- B. Narrowing the problem 6
-C. significance of the problem 7
- D. Identifying the problem 7
- E. Defining the problem 8
-CHAPTER TWO : The hypothesis of the research
-A. Review of literature 9
-B. Stating the hypothesis 10
-C. Criteria of success 11
- D. Operational terms 11
- CHAPTER THREE: Methodology of the research
-A. Sample of the study 12
-B. Research tools 12
- C. The procedures of the action plan 13
-D. Data analysis 14
- CHAPTER FOUR: Results and findings
-Appendices
- Bibliography
2
 Dedication

This research is dedicated to my supportive father who is my

greatest model in life, to my loving mother who always
stood by my side, to my caring brother who shows me that
consistency is the key to success and to my precious sisters
without whom none of my success would be possible.

I also dedicate it to my school's principal Mrs Rula Saleh and

Mrs Maryam Jaradat to all my colleagues at school and
during the EP course, to the course supervisor Dr. Kawathar
Marashdah, to the distinguished teacher mrs Lamia Dawud
and the English supervisors Mr. Sa'ad Odeh & Mr. Eyad
Assi.

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Introduction

The main purpose for teaching a language is to enable students to use the language
effectively in real life situations, and to produce meaningful verbal interaction with
ease regardless of any possible obstacles.
Accordingly, structures must be taught along with other language skills in
meaningful contexts so that students can reflect what they learnt in their real life
(TOL).
Proficiency of structural skills can assure both accuracy and fluency when
incorporated with other skills, these skills vary in difficulty but not in importance.
One of the essential skills for fourth graders to acuire is comparative and superlative
where they must determine the adjective, the number of syllables it consist of and
the number of people or things it's describing. Such skill is very important and can
be built on for further learning and using this descriptive language add important
information
As an English teacher at UNRWA's schools where English is taught as a foreign
language it's very important to keep in mind that students rely mainly on the teacher
for their learning, so the teacher must be careful while choosing the suitable
teaching strategy to ensure achieving the desired objectives.
The strategy to be followed must be enthusiastic to students baring in mind their
level, age, social and economic level.
I , as an English language teacher , notice that there are too many students who
suffer from a serious weakness in forming comparative and superlative sentences.
Therefore , I decided to make this study to find out the causes of that point of
weakness and set a remedial plan to help my students overcome that problem

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The study consists of four chapters:
I. CHAPTER ONE : Statement of the Problem
II. II. CHAPTER TWO : Hypotheses of the Research
III. CHAPTER THREE : Methodology
IV. IV. CHAPTER FOUR : Discussion & conclusion

The Objectives of the Study

1. To enable the Fourth graders in section (A) to form complete sentences

using comparative and superlative.
2. To help students distinguish between comparative and superlative.
3. To enable the fourth graders to recognize some two syllable adjectives (tall,
dark …..).
4. To help teachers whose students suffer from the same problem.

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 CHAPTER ONE

Statement of the problem

A: Feeling the problem
As an English teacher at Marka Prep G.1 school I noticed that my students were
facing difficulty in forming short adjectives comparative and superlative. For
example they hesitate to participate and they would rather get out of the class for
any purpose on staying and practicing the structure, they make mistakes that I
always see when checking their activity books and notebooks. I asked my
colleagues at school about this problem .They said they suffered from the same
thing.
Furthermore, this observation was supported by the following evidences:
1- Random observation: I found that my students ignore doing homework
and pretend to be sick or tired when asked to participate because they
can’t form comparative and superlative sentences.
2- The first periodic test results: it was designed depending on the table of
specification and the content analysis (see appendix 1), the results
analysis show that students get the lowest marks in the questions that
require forming comparative and superlative. (see appendix 2)
3- Personal interviews with students

B. Narrowing the problem:

In order to find out the reasons lurking behind the problem, I asked my
colleagues at school about the causes of this point of weakness. Their answers
were:
1. Students are not familiar with the adjectives meaning so they don't feel
confident when using them in comparisons.
2. Teachers don't dedicate enough time for students to practice the form because
there are other activities they have to do in the same lesson.

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 As well as I held personal interviews with my students in which I asked them to
determine the causes of their weak performance, their answers were ranked as
follows:
Table (1): frequency and percentage of the personal interview answers.

Reasons Results Percentage

1. Curriculum difficulty 10 27.8%
2. Insufficient time 5 13.8%
3. Methods of teaching 15 41.6%
4. Misunderstanding 6 16.6%

I also gave my students a pre-test in which I asked them to form simple

comparative and superlative sentences. The pre-test's results showed that only
14 students ( 38.8% of the tested group ) passed the test .( see Appendix 4 )

C. Significance of the problem

The above table and the feedback I get from interviewing the students indicate
clearly that the method of teaching is the main cause of the problem with a
percentage of 41.6%. So the method of teaching used with this skill is not
effective and won't be helpful to achieve the desired objectives and this was
supported by the observation of my colleagues and some parents.

D. Identifying the problem

Through analyzing the results of the second periodic test I found that my
students get the lowest marks in the writing section- question number two- in
which they have to complete comparative and superlative sentences.
Table (2) the percentage of success was:
Skill Item Percent (pre)
Reading 1 83%
Speaking 2 69%
Writing 3 55%
Listening 4 86%
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The above table shows that the lowest items are (2 and 3) and the careful analysis of
the results shows that students fail to form and complete comparative and
superlative sentences as the expected percentage was 75% while the actual
percentage was
Based on the aforementioned, I arrived at these conclusions:
1. My students don't distinguish between the cases of using comparative (-er+than)
and the cases of using superlative (the+ -est).
2. They need to be taught that comparative and superlative are comparisons of
similarities and differences between two or more things.
3. Some students are not aware of the fact that adjectives are descriptive words and
can't stand alone without nouns.
Since most of the answers and the collected data concentrated on the importance of
teaching the structure in realistic way, I decided to set a remedial plan based on
using functional songs and worksheets to enable my students to overcome their
weakness in forming comparative and superlative sentences.

E. Defining the problem:

After all what has been mentioned, I can define the problem as follows:

How could I improve fourth grade (A) students' level in short

adjectives comparative and superlative.

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 CHAPTER TWO

Hypothesis of the research

A. Review of literature (gathering information):

To face this problem, I asked my colleagues in Marka Prep.Gs.1 School

and in other schools. They advised me to give my students some extra time
to practice the structure and to vary my methodology; some of them
recommended exposing students to the structure using technology. They
believed that those activities it offers would be more interesting to students
and would urge them to work cooperatively. When I research the value of
using technology I found that Sandholtz and Judith Haymore stated that
"Teaching with Technology Creats Student-Centered Classrooms.", but I
found it difficult because most of my students don’t have computers to play
related educational games at home. Yet I took them to the school's
computer lab, but the available number of computers and the time weren't
enough. Some teachers advised me to provide them with an enrichment
material accompanied with worksheets to do at home. However, Anna
Geiger said that "Worksheets do not teach, they check what kids know, but
Worksheets might also be a useful assessment tool." So I prepared
worksheets and I used them to check my students' progress. A teacher of
English at British Council was able to bridge over the problem by
providing and performing functional songs on comparative and superlative
for her students. She used songs for the following reasons:
1. Songs help with the smooth transitions or flow of the lesson.
2. They teach students not to rely on translation.
3. They can be used in all parts of the lesson: presentation-practice-
production (PPP), test-teach-test (TTT), task based learning (TBL).
4. They are easily adaptable; once you choose the rhyme you can fit words
into it.

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Rumley (1999) makes the case clear by arguing that "songs help children to
learn because they provide a safe, non-threatening context within which to
play with language. Songs provide excellent opportunities for repetition and
practice which would otherwise be tedious."
I surfed the net searching for some solutions to this problem. These are
some of the websites I visited:

1. http://www.ontesol.com
2. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk
3. http://www.oup.com/elt/teacher/everybodyup

Those websites equip teachers with a variety of functional songs on the

different skills of English. I read an interesting research written by Mustafa
Şevik (2011) about “using songs in teaching English to young learners.” In
this research, Mustafa presents and suggests that functional songs can
transform classrooms to pleasant and positive learning environments in
which children thrive emotionally, socially and academically. Exciting
musical opportunities and meaningful learning experiences can be
implemented to address the needs and to give support for diverse learners
through the incorporation of music and song.

B. Stating the hypothesis:

Based on what has been mentioned so far, I selected to apply the

methodology of using functionl songs accompanied with some worksheets
to bridge over the problem that my students suffer from. So, my hypothesis
for the research is:
"Using functional songs has no effect on improving fourth grade (A)
students' achievement at Marka Prep Gs.1 in forming short adjectives
comparative and superlative sentences."

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C. Criteria of success (success criteria)

The targeted performance level of the skill items must reach 75% as an
average.

D. Operational terms:

- T-test: is an analysis of two populations means through the use of

statistical examination; it looks at the t-statistic, the t-distribution
and degrees of freedom to determine the probability of difference between
populations.

-functional songs: are songs that teachers often use to teach children things
that might be difficult to learn. They are considered a great way to get
students excited, active and knowledgeable. These songs usually use
rhymes, dances and simple lines.

-Comparison: the act of looking at things to see how they are similar
or different

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 CHAPTER THREE

Methodology of the research

A. Sample of the study:

The study will be carried out on (36) Fourth Grade female students during
the second semester of the school year 2015/2016 from section A at Marka
Prep Gs.1. their ages range 9 and 10 years.

B. Research tools:

The teacher will use the following tools:

1. A pre-test: I prepared a pre-test in which I asked students to form

comparative sentence based on a picture. I gave this pre-test on
March 25, 2016. The results revealed that many students were unable
to form the sentences correctly. (see Appendix A )

2. Personal interviews: To narrow down the problem that my students

suffer from, I held personal interviews in which I asked them several
questions to determine the causes of their weak performance. The
results ascertained that my students’ weakness in was because the
teaching methodology used is too complicated for students. (see
Appendix C )

3. Functional songs: Numbers of songs related to comparative and

superlative were added to the lessons in which students listen to the
songs then join in singing making their own additions. Some of the
songs were already on YOUTUBE while others were created by me

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 in which I used a well-known rhyme and fitted words into it; for
example I used the rhyme of (the wheels on the bus)song with these
words:

Heba is taller than Rayan

than Rayan, than Rayan
Heba is taller than Rayan
She is the tallest.

The class is smaller than the lab

than the lab, than the lab
the class is smaller than the lab
it is the smallest……

Then students begin to improvise. (See appendix )

4. Worksheets: I gave my students 3 worksheets and I asked them to

work in groups to do one of them while the rest where done individually.
I collected those worksheets and checked them . At the beginning of the
following lesson, I discussed the answers with my students and any
points of difficulty were explained. (see Appendix E )

4. A post-test: A post- test was given to students on April 25, 2016. In

that test, I asked the target group to re-do the same test was given to
them in the pretest. (The results are shown in the progress chart in
Appendix A).

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C. Procedures:
I followed these steps:
1. Discussing the results of the first periodic summative test with my
colleagues.
2. Building the objectives of the Action Research.
3. Giving the pre-test and doing the personal interviews.
4. Analyzing the results of the pre-test and the personal interviews.
5. Consulting my colleagues and surfing the net to work out how to deal
with the problem.
6. Building and giving and a remedial plan that consisted of functional
songs with some worksheet.
7. Presenting the post-test and analyzing its results.

D. Data analysis:

The results of the pre-test and post-test are presented in a table in

Appendix ( B ) . The pre-test's results showed that only 14 students (
38.8% of the tested group ) passed the test , but the post-test’s results
revealed that 28 students ( 77.7% of the same group ) passed it when the
standard of success was 75% . The following table displays the results of
the T-test :
Pre test Post test
3.972222 6.305556 Average (Mean)
6.38 4.33 Variance
36 36 Observations
Pearson correlation
0 Hypothesized mean
Difference
35 Df
T stat
P(T<=t) one-tail
t Critical one-tail
P(T<=t) two-tail
t Critical two-tail
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 As shown in the previous table, the value of ( t ) is as follows :
T Critical = 1.683
T Stat = 6.996
Also the mean of the pre-test is ( 38.53 ) and the mean of the post-
test is ( 64.39 ) .

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 CHAPTER FOUR

Results and findings

Based on the results of the T-test , it is obvious that the value of the T
Stat ( 6.996 ) is higher than that of T Critical ( 1.683 ) . Furthermore ,
the mean of the post-test ( 64.39 ) is higher than that of the pre-test .
That means that there are obvious statistical differences between the
pre-test and the posttest .Consequently, the null hypotheses is rejected.

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 REFERENCES

1. Kelli R. Paqutee and Sue A. Rieg. (2008) Using Music to Support the
Literacy Development of Young English Language Learners. Collage
of Education and Educational Technology, Indiana University of
Pennsylvania.

2. Mustafa Şevik.(2011). Teacher views about using songs in teaching

English to young learners. Education Faculty, Mehmet Akif Ersoy
University, Burdur, Turkey.

3. http://www.ontesol.com
4. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk
5. http://www.oup.com/elt/teacher/everybodyup
6. http://www.academicjournals.org

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 Appendix (4)
The post- test
Marka Prep.Gs.1 Date : March 31 , 2016
4th Grade "A" Time : 30 min.
Name :………………………………
******************************************************** *********

Q1. Correct the underlined mistakes.

1- Nour is tallest than Amal.
……………………………………………….
2- Elephant is the bigger animal.
……………………………………………….
3- Tigers are strongest than cats.
………………………………………………..

Q2. Write the correct form of the words (hot & cold).
1- The sun is the……………….planet. (hot)
2- The forest is……………….than the desert. (cold)
3- The Computer Lab is …………….room in the school. (cold)
4- Milk is ………………juice. (hot)

Q3. Look at the picture then answer the following questions.

1- Which animal is the biggest?
…………………………………….

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 2- Which animal is the smallest?
……………………………………..
3- Complete: The cat is…………………..than the elephant.

Appendix (5)
The Results of the Pre-test & post-test
NO. Students’ Names Pre-test Post-test
1 Amal Ishaq 4 5
2 Ameera Omar 3 2
3 Aisha Ghassan 1 5
4 Batool Sulaiman 4 4
5 Diana Basel 1 5
6 Duha Omar 2 76
7 Eman Ibrahim 3 8
8 Eman Tayeh 2 8
9 Eman Mohammad 6 9
10 Hala Adel 7 5
11 Haneen Mawfaq 4 7
12 Haneen Haitham 1 6
13 Hadeel Mohammad 5 6
14 Hana' Taha 6 4
15 Heba Firas 3 10
16 Heba Mohammad 8 8
17 Juley Abdullah 7 5
18 Marwa Marwan 3 9
19 Nada Ahmad 6 5
20 Nisreen Ebrahim 2 9
21 Roa' Zeyad 1 5
22 Roa' Mohammad 3 4
23 Razan Raed 3 7
24 Rania Ahmad 4 6
25 Rania Jamal 1 3
26 Raghad Ahmad 5 7
27 Rayan Fathi 7 8
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28 Reham Mohammad 4 9
29 Sally Marwan 2 3
30 Sadeel Ja'afar 8 8
31 Sawsan Majdi 7 10
32 Sedra Murad 3 7
33 Saba Saleh 7 8
34 Tamara Khaled 6 7
35 Tbarak Hussein 6 8
36 We'am Masri 2 3

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Appendix (6)
List of the functional songs
1- Opposites song
2-

Name:…………..… Marka Prep G/1 worksheet #1

Aim: to match the opposites and recognize adjectives' meanings.

Q1. Sing the “Opposites Song” then match.

Remember…adjectives
heavy sad
are describing words.
hot young

old cold

light fast

slow dark

happy light

Q2. Write the adjective that best describes the following.

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 1- Reem is ……………., but Salma is………………….

2- The rabbit is ……….., but the turtle is …….…………

3- It’s …………………..at night and ……………..at daytime.

4- The ice cream is ………...,but the tea is………………….

5- The elephant is …………..,but the ant is………….

Name:…………..… Marka Prep G/1 worksheet #2

Aim: to recognize comparative and superlative and to use them correctly.

Remember… we form comparative by adding (er) + than to the

short adjectives when we compare between two things.

we form superlative by adding the + (est) to the short adjectives

when we compare between three things.

Q1. Underline the adjectives in each sentence.

1- The apple tree is taller than the orange tree.

2- Sara is the smartest girl in the class.
3- The giraffe is the tallest animal, but the elephant is biggest.
4- The stars are brighter at night.

Q2. Describe this picture in three sentences.

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 1- (adjective) ……………………………………………..
2- (comparative)……………………………………………..
3- (superlative) …………………………………………….

Q3. Use the following adjectives in meaningful sentences of your own.

1- Cold (comparative):……….………………………………………
2- Cold (superlative):……….…………………………………..……
3- Tall (comparative):……….………………………………….……
4- Tall (superlative):……….…………………………………………

Name:…………..… Marka Prep G/1 worksheet #3

Aim: to use comparative and superlative in realistic situations.

Study the following then answer.

1- What is the biggest Palestinian city?

……………………………………………

2- What is the smallest Palestinian city?

………………………………………………

3- Which is bigger Jaffa or Jinin?

……………………………………………...

4- Which is smaller Ramallah or Jerusalem?

………………………………………………

I’m Dana. I’m

I’m Deema. I am I’m Salma. I’m
seven .
twelve . ten.
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 a- Who is the oldest girl?
………………………………………………

b- Who is the youngest girl?

……………………………………………….

c- Who is younger Salma or Dana?

……………………………………………….

d- Who is older Salma or Deema?

…………………………………………………

If you could form comparative and

superlative make me happy.

Sad happy
Content Analysis

4th grade
Teacher:
Safa' Mahmoud Obeid Scholastic year 2015/2016 Marka .
prep Gs.1

Unit 10 Superlative adjectives: Function making bright, dark, day, The sounds sk
The Earth isn’t The planetarium is the comparisons, dry, light /sk/, sm /sm/
the biggest darkest room in the talking about the solar (adj), moon, and sn /sn/: sky,
planet museum. This is the system, morning, small, snow
hottest planet. talking about cities in night, planet,
The Earth isn’t the Jordan, planetarium,
biggest planet acquiring appreciation of star, sun, the
Jordanian Earth,
culture, interpreting a pie the moon, the
chart sun, turn around,
Listening sequence of wet
sentences
in a story about visiting a
planetarium, a text about
planets,
words with a cluster of
sounds with
Speaking describing
cities, asking
and answering about the
museum
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 Reading sentences in a
story
sequence about visiting a
planetarium.
Writing answers to
questions
about museums, tracing
and
copying letters and words

Unit 11 The verb to be in the Function talking about the between, The sounds sp /
Our city past simple: In the past, past, different, sp/, st /st/ and sw
wasn’t the Roman Theatre was comparing past and fountain, mosaic, /sw/: sports,
called Amman bigger. Our city wasn’t present, past, pool, the street,
called talking about towns and same, stage, swimming
Amman. Was the stage cities, statue, stone, Song: This is my
here? comparing pictures, street, weekend town
Yes, it was. These trees acquiring
were smaller when I was appreciation of Jordanian
young culture,
. adapting to the changing
world,
showing appreciation of
listening
to and singing a song
Listening sequence of
sentences
forming a story about
Amman,
a text describing a street,
words
with a cluster of sounds
with s, a
song
Speaking describing a
street,
pronouncing words with a
cluster
of sp, st and sw sounds,
talking
about oneself, singing a
song
Reading sentences in a
story
sequence, a short
paragraph about
25
 Quraysh Street
Writing copying
sentences using
punctuation marks,
completing
sentences describing a
place

Unit 12 The past simple Function talking about the bake (v), camel, The sounds ll
We visited a (regular past, carry, clothes, /l/, nk /Nk/ and
museum affirmative forms): We putting pictures in a desert, drink (n), mb /m/: ball,
visited a museum. We sequence, evening, help (v), drink, climb
learned about Jordan forming simple opinions neck, prepare
. about (v), sew, ship,
characters, events and story, tent, wave
information, (v),
acquiring appreciation of yesterda
Jordanian
heritage, adapting to the
changing
world
Listening sequence of
sentences
forming a story about
visiting a
museum, a text about the
visit of
family members,
pronouncing words
with clusters of letters
Speaking talking about
oneself,
pronouncing words with
ba, dr and
co sounds, describing
what Omar
did with reference to time
Reading sentences in a
story
sequence about visiting a
museum, a paragraph
about the desert
Writing sentences
describing past

26
 events, copying words,
completing
sentences

Unit 13 The verb to be in the Function talking about the Revision of: Revision of the
Review past: past, between, bright, sounds sk /sk/,
We were in the old city in talking about towns and camel, carry, sm /sm/, sn
Amman. The Children’s cities, clothes, dark, /sn/, sp /sp/, st
Museum wasn’t there making comparisons, day, /st/, sw /sw/, ll
when comparing desert, different, /l/, nk /Nk/ and
Mum and Dad were past and present, asking drink (n), mb /m/
young. and evening, dry,
Comparative and answering questions, fountain, help (v),
superlative adjectives: interpreting light (adj), moon,
Ali charts, adapting to the morning, neck,
is taller than Hassan. Ali changing night,
is world, gathering past, planet,
the tallest pupil. information about planetarium,
what they can do pool, same, sew,
Listening a diary, a ship, stage, star,
conversation stone, story,
between friends street, sun, tent,
Speaking asking and the
answering Earth, the moon,
about people, describing the sun, turn
what around, wave
Hisham did (v),weekend,
Reading a diary, wet, yesterday
paragraphs about
what people did, a short
story
Writing answers about
pictures,
completing sentences

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