INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU

KAMPUS TAWAU, SABAH

ACTION RESEARCH FIRST DRAFT:

IMPROVING YEAR FIVE ESL STUDENTS ABILITIES ON THE USE
OF INDEFINITE ARTICLES BY USING G.R.A.B

NAME : JE WEDNESDAY WELFRED

INDEX NUMBER : 2013051340038
I/C NUMBER : 931020-12-6678
COURSE : ACTION RESEARCH I TESL (METHODOLOGY)
COURSE CODE : TSL 3133
UNIT : PISMP TESL SJK(C) JAN 2013
LECTURER : MDM KHONG SEE MOI
1.0 INTRODUCTION
One of the most confusing parts of English grammar for many non-native speakers is the
use of articles. In English, articles are used to modify nouns in certain situations; they are not
used before every noun. There are two types of articles: indefinite (a, an) and definite (the).
Indefinite articles are used when the speaker or writer is talking about a non-specific
member of a group, while a definite article is used for a specific member(s) of a group. My
research was basically done to improve the students ability to examine the effects of using
my intervention, the Green-Red Article Book (G.R.A.B, thereafter) in improving students
performance on the use of indefinite articles and to identify the effectiveness of the
intervention in helping the students performance in using indefinite articles. There were eight
students involved in this research they had been selected from SK. Gratitude (a pseudonym)
and located somewhere in the South-East of the Land Below the Wind. The research was
done in three months time.

1.1 Background/Context of study

Being the focal figure in education, teachers must be competent and knowledgeable in order
to impart the knowledge they could give to their students. Good teaching is a very personal
manner while effective teaching concerns with the student as a person and with his general
development. As a teacher, one must recognize individual differences among their students.
It is always a fact that as educators, we play varied and vital roles in the classroom.
Teachers are considered the light in the classroom. We are entrusted with so many
responsibilities that range from the very simple to most complex and very challenging jobs.
Every day we encounter them as part of the work or mission that we are in. It is very
necessary that we need to understand the need to be motivated in doing our work well, so
as to have motivated learners in the classroom.

In general, grammar had always been treated as an insipid subject (Kamal, 2013).
He also said that we cannot avoid grammar as we cannot avoid rules of game while we play
any. Normally, while speaking or writing our sentences, we follow grammatical rules. Still at
times grammatical errors creep in and put us in an embarrassing situation. Kamal (2013)
also stated that one of the most difficult parts for the English Foreign Language (known as
EFL) learners are the English article system. Non-native learners often find it difficult to use
a, an, the, and the zero article () at the beginning of a noun phrase.

In almost any piece of writing submitted by Malaysian students, three things will often
indicate that the writer is working in a second language: the choice of tense and aspect, the
subject and verb agreements, and the use of articles a, an. While verb problems can
largely be overcome and the mistakes can be eliminated by careful proofreading, the
problems with articles frequently remain. Since articles rank among the five most common
words in the English language (Sinclair, 1991, cited in Master, 2002: p.332), errors in this
area are highly noticeable to native speakers. English articles, including a/an, the, and the
zero article (), are frequently used function words in English. Despite their high frequency
and early input, the acquisition of the highly complex article system remains one of the
biggest challenges for an English as a second language (ESL, thereafter) or English as a
foreign language (EFL, thereafter) learner (Wang, 2010). Sometimes, it is also difficult for
teachers to teach English articles effectively.

In addition, teachers will gradually reduce their attention to noticing whether students
were using English articles in a correct way. Most of the time, teachers will not correct the
errors of using incorrect articles in the students utterance or written work, because this kind
of errors is not believed to affect the meaning very much (Wang, 2010). All of these result in
that the Malaysian students can still not fully acquire the use of the English articles even if
they are advanced university students.

Furthermore, according to Folse (2009) there is a striking contrast in that there is no

article system in Malay while there is one in English. Therefore, the process of article
acquisition becomes one of the focuses of Second Language Acquisition (also known as
SLA) studies. There has been a considerable amount of research conducted by scholars on
the processes of acquisition of English articles by non-native learners of English in ESL
contexts (Hawkins et al. 2009; Huebner 1983; Ionin et al. 2004; Master 1994; Miller 2005;
Yamada & Matsuura 1982).

Most English speakers recognize three types of articles: the indefinite articles 'a' and
'an' and the definite articles 'the'. Articles are problematic because some languages have no
articles such as Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Thai, Vietnamese and Malay, some
have only the definite article such as Arab and others have the same articles as English but
their usage does not overlap exactly, for example French, German and Spanish (Folse,
2009). For non-native speakers, these little words can wreak havoc with their English.

Given that Malaysian schools are experiencing an influx of non-native speakers

students who speak English as a second or third language or even not used in their daily
conversation, it is imperative for academic advisors who are specialise in TESL to
understand the major language difficulties of these students. Folse (2009) says that
speakers of Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Thai, Vietnamese and Malay exhibit
persistent errors with articles and alongside with preposition, articles are the two of the last
grammatical areas that all non-native speakers acquire. He also said that some of the
languages he mentioned have a specific word to describe 'this' and or 'that' so the students
may overuse these two words in lieu of articles.

Based on my own teaching experiences for the past three phases of practicum which
were located in three different locations, with varied backgrounds, facilities and school
managements, I can conclude regardless of the differences in teaching and learning
equipments, the students were having one thing in common, in example, the problem of
using indefinite articles a and an. This research will focus mainly on my recent practicum.
For the recent phase of practicum, I went to a rural national-type primary school somewhere
in Tawau and the school is located approximately four kilometres from the town. The
students in the school took me to another level of experience because previously, I was so
focused to deal with mixed-ability students that I had to prepare lessons and activities which
were not biased and it took lots of effort. What made it so different compared to the previous
two phases of practicum is that I got a chance to teach the advanced students. They were
very advanced because of their background because I could observe the eagerness and
thirst to learn English from their responses. I did not have to repeat my instructions
frequently because the students could grab the meaning easily.

The facilities of the school were considered very poor. Despite its strategic location
which is near the town, there were no computer laboratory, no Liquid Crystal Display (also
known as LCD) systems and the building itself is quite 'fragile'. I myself had to wear
adequate court shoes or else the heels of my shoes would go between the wooden floor.
These affect the students' motivation and eagerness to learn. It was quite hard to use ICT
for each lesson because there was only one functional projector in the whole school and the
teachers had to 'fight' to use it. There were nine classrooms altogether, one classroom each
for year one to year three and two classroom for each year for the upper primary level
students.

As for the students, their background ranges from local to non-local: those with no
certified documents. Therefore, their proficiency levels were easy to distinguish and levelled.
It was quite easy to determine the level of the students based on their academic reports and
observations during teaching and learning process. Their levels were easy to put into words:
advanced students could understand instructions clearly while those with low proficiency
struggled with it. Since many of the students came from rural area, this means that their
most frequent language problem is in the area of articles (Wang, 2010). This study was
prompted by the desire to address the language needs of Malay speakers, who formed the
largest number of students in an ordinary ESL class. It is an exploratory study, which aim to
target a major language area that does not exist in Malay language, namely, the use of
articles, and to develop an appropriate teaching method, central to which is the notion of
accountability. It was anticipated that this paper would inform both my own teaching and that
of my centre, and would have implications for teachers of English to Malaysian students.
1.2 Reflection on Teaching Experience

Although I took Teaching English as a Second Language course, those theories and
applications in teaching I had learned offered me little in the way of keeping my students
engaged or gauging on how many of my lessons led to serious learning because at that time
I did not realize their meaning and importance in my future teaching. However, my attitude
changed when I have accumulated teaching experiences during my first, second and third
phase of practicum. I wanted to know more about the effective teaching and learning
process. This is the main reason for taking this course, but I still feel the need to apply my
learning to my teaching to test the usefulness of those theories. Action research provides an
opportunity to implement my learning into my teaching practice. In addition, action research
gives me a chance to reflect on my own practices and the proficiencies of my students with
an eye toward what works and what does not (Ferrance, 2000). Thus, action research
contributes to the development of my knowledge and skills about teaching and learning.

I often wish that I have more time to communicate with my students in their classes. I
could learn more about their background, interest and learning styles; share experiences
and information with them; and track and document their developing knowledge and abilities
(Peyton, 2000). From the first interaction with them until the final day, I remembered wistfully
that I will leave something meaningful to them. Three months with my participants in their
class made me realize about the marks I left in their lives. This involves the never-ending
developmental cycles of acquisition and renewal of knowledge, skills and experience in the
classrooms and the love and enjoyment in the sharing.

The need to ensure that the students learn effectively is the core responsibility of a
teacher (Goh, 2012). I am very concerned about the students' grammatical progress
especially for indefinite articles: a and an. As my regard for teaching grew, I began to
realize the responsibility and obligation to uphold the quality and professionalism in my
career. As an English teacher, I wanted to make my lessons interesting and I wanted them to
learn not only what they were supposed to learn but to be motivated to learn more. I told
myself that I could vary the ways I delivered my lesson.

For my action research topic, I decide to improve the Year five ESL students' learning
in the use of indefinite articles. My interest has been in the effective method of teaching the
indefinite articles because I am an English teacher. English deals with a wide range of
grammatical items which take important roles in getting a good composition. Non-native
speakers of English including Malaysian tend to have problems in accuracy and mistakes
which relate to their mother tongue. Mistakes in using function words are commonly
occurred in their productive skills. Setiawan et al. (2007:712) stated that, a foreign language
learner often makes mistakes in using function words. Whereas Ekiert (2004:2) stated that,
function words, , generally overlooked by learners when processing language primarily for
meaning. Malaysian speakers usually have less consideration in the use of function words
because these words intrinsically have a little or no meaning. Nevertheless, function words
have some vital roles when comes to expressions. Setiawan et al. (2007:712) stated that
despite having little intrinsic meaning, function words are vital in expressing grammatical
relationships among words within a sentence.

According to Chung and Pennebaker in Fiedler (2007:347), he stated that function

words are like the cement that holds the content words together. Moreover, they also stated
that, function words include pronouns, prepositions, articles, conjunctions, and auxiliary
verbs. These parts of function words: pronouns, prepositions, articles, conjunctions, and
auxiliary verbs, take important roles in getting a good composition. If one or two of the parts
is not used accurately, the aim to get a good composition is hardly achieved. As a part of
function words, articles also take an important role in the students' productive skills.
Therefore, the article system should be learned by the students. But on the other hand, the
use of articles has become the prime problems with most Malaysian students and obvious
mistakes within the article system are commonly done by them. Furthermore, Ekiert (2004:1)
stated that, the English article system, which includes the indefinite article a (n), the definite
article 'the', and the zero(or null) article is one of the most difficult structural elements for
ESL learners.

As stated by Miller (2005:80, for academic writing, however, , and the correct
article becomes an indication not only of mastery of the language but of exactness in thought
and expression. Moreover, according to Master (2002) as cited in Crompton (2011:5), the
article 'a' is the commonest words in English and ranked in the top five. From this statement,
it can be inferred that article system is important to be learned. When planning action
research, it is vital to review literature of professional researchers. The purpose of the review
is to set a research topic in a theoretical context and to lend credibility to a research design
(Johnson, 2007, p.75, 77). Finding and reading research articles that are relevant to my
research topic can bring a new perspective and experience into my work. While academic
research is seen as disconnected from our daily lives, it can be very helpful for teachers to
pick up ideas suggested in authentic journal articles, and incorporate them into our own
classroom (Ferrance, 2000).
 Throughout my humble experience for the past three phases of practicum, I can
conclude that the students were having problems with the use of articles especially the
indefinite articles: a and an especially during grammar class. For example, when I flipped
through their previous works before I switched position with the English teacher for my
teaching practice journey, I saw quite a number of mistakes regarding the use of indefinite
articles. As an example, the students were rather confused with the use of the indefinite
articles a and an to indicate singular nouns. They could not differentiate on how to use the
singular indefinite articles. One of the examples I can present is, instead of writing the
oranges the students wrote a orange. This shows the level of their knowledge in applying
the indefinite articles in their writing.

Another example is the omission of indefinite articles when they wrote their
sentences. Based on my observation through their work during grammar lesson and writing
class, the students tend to leave out the articles in their sentences. This shows that the
students really have problems with this particular grammar item. People tend to ignore the
importance of the indefinite articles especially the non-native speakers because, in my
context of research, the students first language is Malay and there is no articles system in
Malay (Bee&Soh, 2007).

Furthermore, most of my students are having problems with differentiating between

vowel and consonant sounds; therefore, they tend to misuse the correct articles in their
writing. When I asked the students, they will say they get confused when it comes to sounds
because there are twelve vowel sounds in English (Forel & Puskas, 2005) compared to the
six vowels sounds in Malay (Oshodi, 2013). Since English possess more vowel sound
compared to Malay, the students tend to assume that the sound of the letters is the same.
For example, students would write a hour instead of an hour because they are looking at
the letter rather than the sound itself.

According to Mukundan, Leong & Nimehchisalem (2012, p. 62) the use of article is
one of the most frequently used components of grammar along with some other common
grammatical facets of the English Language. As for the English language system, articles
are commonly used with nouns to provide more information about the nouns and to indicate
its grammatical definiteness. Kim (2006, p. 1) argues that in most cases, the L2 learners
often encounter pose learnability issues or better known as the difficulties to use the English
article system. Even worse Master (2002) stressed that the English articles are often
highlighted as significant elements in error analysis even among advanced L2 learners who
possess strong command in both spoken and written English.
 There are rules in using indefinite articles which should be followed by the students. I
think this has become a problem because they do not have enough practice and guidance in
using the correct articles. When asked, some of them know it when they should use a or
an before a countable noun as they are aware of it. I believe that this is a major problem
because, again, articles are one of the function words which should be mastered in English
Language. It is important to be taken into consideration especially in their productive skills.
An intervention should be carried out in order to increase the students awareness on the
correct use of the indefinite articles in English.

There were some research conducted related to the usage of articles in writing
through various ways and strategies in teaching and learning process. Studies done by Lok
(2011) indicated that Incorrect article usage is the most common mistake in my students'.
Even though the basic rules of the use of article are not difficult to learn, errors still occur.
The findings showed that the young learners tend to use incorrect article in because of the
confusing rules especially those involving the omission of the articles. This problem can
affect the students learning because it is hard for them to learn as mentioned by Swan
(1995), The correct use of articles (a, an, the) is one of the most difficult points in English
Grammar (p. 54).

The Malay language has no functional equivalents of the English article system and it
has been observed anecdotally that many Malay ESL learners have difficulty using English
articles accurately (Bee&Soh, 2007). According to Low & Hashim (2012:227) in their book
entitled English in Southeast Asia, an example in (6c) demonstrates non-occurrences of the
indefinite articles a which is required in standard varieties.

there is no over language acquisition but it can be analyzed as pidginisation

since the resulting form is simple than the standard under the substrate influence
of both Malay and of Chinese languages which do not have exact equivalents to
the complex English definite and indefinite article system. Low & Hashim
(2012)

Bee & Hashim also said that the (Chinese and Malay languages) do not have a
functional equivalent of the English article system. Correspondingly, observational evidence
has revealed that L1 Chinese and Malay ESL learners have difficulties with the article
system in English, which consists of indefinite article a and an the definite article 'the', and
the zero article, because of the absence of the grammatical items in their mother tongue.