1.

0 Introduction
1.1 Reflection on Past Teaching Experience/Theoretical Framework
I have been teaching in Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai Petai, Sarikei for 4 years, a rural
primary school located 25 km from the Sarikei Town. My school is just a small
community school as we have 76 pupils from Preschool until Standard 6 and comprises
12 teachers. ost of the pupils are children from the nearby long houses. As it is a small
school, we do not really have well-equipped facilities like most of the urban schools.
We only have basic facilities like chairs and tables, blackboards, a small library and for
modern facilities we have a small room that we put four computers for the pupils in the
school but unfortunately we hardly have the internet access.
I am teaching English together with my other three colleagues. This year I am teaching
Year 1, 5 and 6 with average of 7 to 15 pupils in one class. Most of them are Iban
children from the nearby longhouses. Since they are not exposed to English language,
therefore most of the pupils level of proficiency is poor. Based on my observation, out
of 15 pupils in my Year 5 class only 5 pupils are above average. Despite their low
proficiency, they show positive attitude towards learning English in classrooms. Prior to
this, I always feel motivated and enthusiastic teaching my pupils in SK Sungai Petai.
However, when it comes to teach writing to my Year 5 class it can be very discouraging
and demotivate me. I am having problem with 5 pupils who are still struggling with
writing due to their lack of vocabulary level. Unlike other classmates, these 5 pupils still
unable to write because they seemed to be lack of ideas and words to use in writing.
The teaching approach that I use to enhance vocabulary acquisitions among the pupils
is using the vocabulary instruction. The researcher indicates that textbooks that are
used strongly emphasized traditional approaches to vocabulary instruction (Harmon,
Hedrick & Fox, 2000) which includes activities such as matching words to the definitions
and fill in the blank can be disadvantages to slow learners because it relies upon
memorization and very monotonous for them.
The second teaching approach that I normally use is called the dictionary definitions
where I usually ask the pupils to read and then find the difficult words by using the
dictionary. However, now I found that, dictionary definitions are not necessarily effective
for providing meaningful connections to words because they are out of context, are very
condensed, and are abstract (Carlisle,1993). Many dictionary definitions refer to other
words, such as synonyms or antonyms, because of constraints in space, making it
difficult for pupils to achieve the explicit meaning of a word. Also, many pupils are not
successful when using context in order to infer meaning and have difficulty deciding
which meaning is, appropriate when confronting multiple meaning words.

There are few reasons I employ these two approaches. First, during my training, I was
exposed with these two approaches therefore I am very familiar with these approaches
and I feel more confident using them in my lesson. Moreover, I have used these
approaches although they were quite a traditional way but it was successful as many
pupils were able to use varieties of vocabulary during their writing. Sometimes, I used
the traditional word translations method especially in teacher the poor pupils. I read the
word in English and then translate the term into their mother tongue; Iban. Sometimes I
have to use this method as these five pupils only can understand Iban language. So,
they can comprehend and decode the words faster if I translate into Iban.
However, all the three approaches are not effective. The five pupils are still unable to
use the vocabulary effectively in the lesson such as through speaking and writing.

The teaching approach that I use in teaching vocabulary to these pupils is through
games. Pupils are more inclined to game like activities which cater to a certain goal and
not specifically for language use. Games are generally perceived as fun and enjoyable
activities. Language games can be used as a tool to achieve the goal. Through games,
the affective filter is lower compared to a normal traditional vocabulary class that is
chalk and talk where only teacher play the most roles during the teaching and learning
process in the classroom.

A research done by Uberman (1998) showed that language games could play and
important role in enhancing students vocabulary acquisitions either by presenting new
words, or by helping them to recall (Shirley, 2004). Pupils ability to recall or present
new words influence the way they form sentences and this affects the fluency and
sometimes even accuracy of their speech. A pupil who also finds it hard to recall or
present new vocabulary terms could affect the assessment of their proficiency level.