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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supportive

parents Mr. Sathia Kumar and Mrs. Renuga and my husband Mr. Jeyendran for all

the moral support and encouragement throughout my journey of completing the

studies. I am very grateful to have a wonderful siblings, aunts, uncles and optimistic

cousin who have been huge pillar of support. Without them, the research project

could not be done.

Huge thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Leong Lai Mei for her patience, motivation,

enthusiasm and immense knowledge throughout the writing of this report. Her

continuous support and guidance helped me in all time to complete my research

project despite being busy with other tasks as well.

Not forgetting all the advice and guidance rendered by Professor Dr. Shaik

Abdul Malik despite his busy schedule. His guidance has kept me motivated when I

was lost. I also would like to thank my Headmaster, Mohd Faizal and my colleagues

who were considerate enough to understand my situation and never failed to cheer

and help me out.

Last but not least, full gratitude to my fellow classmates in Universiti Sains

Malaysia for the stimulating discussions, advices, encouragement and not to forget

the fun we have had during the discussions. In particular, I am grateful to Dr. Salmiza

as well for enlightening me the first glance of research.

Sintuja S Sathia Kumar

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TOC

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TOC

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TOC

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 LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 CEFR Descriptor for Oral Language Proficiency………………….. 4

Table 2.1 Stages of Concern (SoC)…………………………………………… 33

Table 3.1 Items of Each Stage of Concern…………………………………..... 46

Table 3.2 Cronbach’s Alpha for Each Domain……………………………….. 51

Table 3.3 Interpretation of Attitude…………………………………………... 54

Table 3.4 Correlation Coefficient…………………………………………….. 55

Table 3.5 Research Matrix…………………………………………………..... 56

Table 4.1 Demographic Profile of Respondents…………………………….... 60

Table 4.2 Result of Normality Test…………………………………………… 62

Table 4.3 Stages of Concern of Lower Primary English Teachers……………. 63

Table 4.4 Items of Stage 4 (Consequence)…………………………………..... 64

Table 4.5 Result of Correlation……………………………………………...... 67

Table 4.6 Teachers’ Attitude Towards CEFR-aligned SBA………………….. 69

Table 4.7 Themes and Categories to Identify Challenges faced by the Lower

Primary English Teachers…………………………………………... 71

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 ABC Model of Attitude…………………………………………….. 36

Figure 2.2 Theoretical Framework…………………………………………….. 37

Figure 2.3 Conceptual Framework………………………………...................... 39

Figure 4.1 Scatterplot of Relationship…………………………………………. 68

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 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CEFR Common European Framework of Reference

SBA School Based Assessment

CEFR-aligned SBA CEFR-aligned School Based Assessment

CBAM Concern Based Adoption Model

SoC Stages of Concern

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 ABSTRAK

Di samping pelbagai kursus pendedahan yang dikendalikan oleh Kementerian

Pendidikan mengenai Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), guru

masih menunjukan tahap kesedaran dan kurang keyakinan dalam pelaksanaan CEFR

dan penggunaan skala anatarabangsa untuk menilai murid dalam pentaksiran. Oleh itu,

kajian ini dijalankan untuk mengenal pasti tahap keprihatinan dan sikap guru Bahasa

Inggeris Tahap satu terhadap “CEFR-aligned School Based Assessment (SBA)”.

Disamping itu, turut dikaji perhubungan antara pengalaman mengajar Bahasa Inggeris

guru tahap satu dan tahap keprihatinannya. Data dikutip daripada 86 guru rendah

Tahap Satu yang mengajar Bahasa Inggeris dengan sampel secara rawak. Tahap

keprihatinan guru telah diukur dengan soal selidik Tahap keprihatinan yang dihasilkan

oleh Hall dan Hord (2014) manakala soal selidik oleh Khalid, Ahmad dan Hamdan

(2015) telah digunakan untuk mengukur sikap guru. Data telah dianalisis dengan

kaedah deskriptif untuk mengenal pasti tahap keprihatinan dan sikap guru Bahasa

Inggeris. Seterusnya, statistik inferensi digunakan untuk mengkaji perhubungan antara

pengalaman mengajar Bahasa Inggeris dan tahap keprihatinan. Dapatan kajian

menunjukkan bahawa guru Bahasa Inggeris Tahap Satu amat prihatin mengenai

CEFR-aligned SBA dan prihatin yang amat tinggi dikenalpasti pada Tahap empat.

Kajian dapati tiada hubungan korelasi antara pengalaman mengajar Bahasa Inggeris

dan tahap keprihatinan guru. Hasil kajian ini diharapkan dapat membantu pegawai

pendidikan di peringkat negeri dan daerah untuk merancang bengkel dan kursus untuk

membantu guru-guru menjalankan CEFR-aligned SBA dengan efektif.

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 ABSTRACT

Despite the CEFR familiarization workshop by Ministry of Education, teachers

showed poor awareness and poor confidence in implementing the CEFR syllabus and

international standard of proficiency in assessment. Therefore, a mixed method

research was carried out to identify lower primary English teachers’ stages of concern

and attitude towards CEFR-aligned SBA in Kulim district. In addition to that,

relationship between lower primary English teachers teaching experience in English

and stages of concern was investigated. The challenges faced by the teachers were

explored qualitatively. The data were collected from 86 lower primary English teacher

using simple random technique. Teachers’ concern was measured using the Stages of

Concern Questionnaire established by Hall and Hord (2014) whereas the teachers’

attitude was measured with Attitude Questionnaire by Khalid, Ahmad and Hamdan

(2015). The data were analysed descriptively to identify the lower primary English

teachers’ concern and attitude. Then, inferential statistics was used to investigate the

relationship between teacher’s teaching experience and stages of concern. The findings

revealed that, lower primary English teachers are concerned about CEFR-aligned SBA

with highest concern in stage 4 (Consequence). Moreover, there was no relationship

found between teachers’ teaching experience in English and stages of concern. The

findings also showcased that there was only moderate positive attitude among the

teachers in implementing the CEFR-aligned SBA. The findings of this study are hoped

to help the educational personnel at state level and district level to plan beneficial

workshops and training for lower primary teachers to assist effective implementation

of CEFR-aligned SBA.