FACULTY OF EDUCATION RESEARCH METHODOLOGY (EDU 702)

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
TITLE:

USING VISUAL AIDS IN TEACHING LITERATURE IN ESL CLASSROOM

PREPARED BY: NURAIN FADLINA BINTI MOHAMMAD ZAWAWI 2012183143

PREPARED FOR: DR. TEOH SIAN HOON

CONTENT SECTION CHAPTER 1 1. INTRODUCTION 2. STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM 3. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS 5. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 6. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY CHAPTER 2 1. THE DISCUSSION ON THE SUB TOPICS RELEVANT TO THE STUDY 2. THE DISCUSSION ON THE PREVIOUS RESEARCH CHAPTER 3 1. THE RESEARCH DESIGN 2. THE METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION 3. THE METHOD(S) OF DATAPROCESSING/ ANALYSIS REFERENCE THE APPENDIX PAGE

CHAPTER ONE 1.0 INTRODUCTION Literature is one of the important components in learning English as a second language (ESL) classroom. To be excellent in English language, one must learn to master the literature of the language too. Literature has always been viewed as difficult by the learners and teachers sometimes find it difficult to be taught too. This is due to the fact that learning literature in ESL class always poses many language and cultural obstacles (Melor Md Yunus, Salehi, H., John, D. n.d). There are several reasons why literature has become so difficult to be taught and learned. These reasons can be viewed from both the learners and teachers perspectives. The literature component itself can also be the reason of this problem as the components are sometimes too complicated to comprehend. As some of the components are literary works from different era , the language used in the works is a little bit different from what we used now. This will cause the learners to be unfamiliar with the language that they read and find it difficult to understand. Even some of the teachers will take their time to understand the difficult text especially dramas and poetry. Difficulty in understanding the text itself might lead the learners to be demotivated and not interested in learning it (Melor et al, n.d). This is why some of them refuse to participate in the literature class. When the learners are not interested in learning literature in the first place, it will make it hard for the teacher to teach too. It will require a lot of work and energy of the teacher in making sure the lesson is delivered accordingly. Teachers need to grasp the learners interest, motivated them and deliver the lesson effectively. Approaches in teaching literature are also important in effort to overcome the difficulty. Not using the right approach in teaching is also one of the reason why teaching and learning in literature classroom was not conducted smoothly. Teachers need to know what kind of approach suits the learners best as teaching literature might require a different approach than teaching the English language itself.

1.1 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

Several studies have been conducted on using visual aids in teaching literature such as using film (Muller, 2006), using visual aids to motivate students (Md Yunus, M., Salehi, H., John, D. 2006), using visual aids in teaching drama (Al-azzawii, 2006), using visual aids in teaching English (Gupta,n.d). all of this studies highlighted that it is important to seek the help of visual aids in teaching and learning process of literature in ESL classroom. Todays literature classroom are taught with the help of the textbook and the text only. According to Melor, Hadi and John (2006), this is one of the reasons why students feel demotivated in learning literature. They find the text complicated to comprehend and without any help from the teacher, they are driven to not like the learning process itself. According to Al-azzawii (2006), visual aids is needed in order for the students to be familiar with the text, hence, help them in understanding the text better. He also stated that students might understand the idea differently if its not explained to them clearly. Gupta (n.d) also mentioned that using visual aids can helps the teacher a lot in conducting the lesson. He also said that visual aids can help trigger the students imagination and let it expand with no limitation. After all, that is what learning literature is all about, imagine. Most of these studies only stated why and how the visual aids are used in the classroom. There is no study that has proven that this method will actually help the students in ESL literature classroom. Therefore, the present study will focus on seeing this method to actually work in todays classroom.

1.2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The objectives of this research are: 1) To examine the students perception about using visual aids in learning literature in ESL classroom. 2) To examine the teachers perception about using visual aids in teaching literature in ESL classroom. 3) To evaluate whether visual aids will help improve the students understanding of the literature text.

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

In order to achieve all these objectives, this study will attempt to answer the following questions: 1) How do the students react in using visual aids in learning literature in ESL classroom? 2) How do the teachers feel about using visual aids in teaching literature in ESL classroom? 3) How does visual aids help in understand the literature text better?

1.4 LIMITATIONS OF STUDY This research will focus on the students in the pre-university level who are taking Literature in ESL as one of their subject in the curriculum. These students vary from the age of 17-19 years old and studying in pre-degree program. The content of this study will be about using visual aids in teaching literature in the classroom.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH This research will prove how much usage visual aids in teaching literature in ESL classroom will actually help the students understands the literary text. This will also helps the teachers to frame their teaching lesson in literature using visual aids. Other than that, it will help arouse the motivation in the students to learn literature and understand it better than before. In future, teachers can use visual aids as the major tools in teaching literature. The curriculum of teaching literature can be based on using visual aids in every literature lesson.