SEKOLAH PENDIDIKAN DAN PEMBANGUNAN SOSIAL

UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SABAH

PROGRAM PPG/UMS/KPM KOHORT 2
(PROGRAM PENGAJIAN BAHASA INGGERIS)
SEMESTER 2 SESI 2014/2015

TW40303

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
EMPLOYING SUBSTITUTION DRILLS TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE
WRITING SKILLS TO A GROUP OF LOW PROFICIENCY PRIMARY
STUDENTS

GROUP MEMBERS
NAME
NO. MY KAD
SHANTY TEO
790926-125528

NO. MATRIK
CT
11210246

LECTURES NAME
?
SUBMISSION DATE
1

16 JUNE 2015

Research Proposal
Employing Substitution Drills
Technique To Improve Writing Skills To A Group Of Rural Malaysian
Students
Abstract
Observations show that many teachers still use a conventional technique in
teaching writing sentences to the upper primary students with limited proficiency
and their level are very poor whereby they cannot write even in using the
simplest of English. This group of students find some difficulties in constructing
even simple sentences. The objectives of this study are to find out to what extent
do substitution drills contributed to the development of their writing skills and to
find out to what extent do substitution drills contributed to the development of
the positive attitude in learning English among low proficiency students. It is
hoped that incorporating this technique in the classroom can help to improve
students writing especially for the descriptive writing part, which make the time
and effort in carrying out this study and using this technique worthwhile.
Keywords: second language writing, drilling, limited proficiency
Introduction
Many students of English consider writing the most difficult language skills to
master. The Students have been taught certain ways to answer the questions but
all efforts prove to no avail as reports came out suggest that pupils compositions
for Paper 2 in School Certificate Examination (UPSR), are weak and they have yet
to master the writing skills. The fact that pupils failed to produce a short
paragraph of intelligible writing comes by no surprise as pupils are often being
spoon-fed with the information they hardly digest on their own.
Teachers too, face difficulties in developing their students capability in writing.
Teacher normally set aside a class of two or three periods for writing task
because it took some time to produce essays. Normally a topic is written on the
whiteboard, and the teacher spends a few minutes telling the students he or she
2

wants them to write concerning the topic. The teacher then instructs the
students to start writing and to hand in the finished product at the end of the
lesson or the following day. The composition is then marked, and the teacher
corrects errors. He or she then returns the books, makes a few remarks to the
students concerning their performance, instructs them to do corrections and
proceed to give them a new written assignment (Raimes, 1987: 1-6).
There

are

many

language

learning

strategies

or

techniques

that

can

accommodated in the classrooms teaching and learning sessions. In this

research, the researcher has focused on the use of drilling technique or
repetition drill (Freeman, 2000: 48) in a mixed gender classrooms for both control
and treatment group. Besides that, it was used among limited proficiency
students and their level are very poor whereby they cannot write even in using
the simplest of English. It is a technique that allows and helped the students in
writing because they are exposed to the technique. Researcher, (Gomez, Parker
& Alecio, 1996: 211-212) have considered structured writing traditionally
referred to drill and practice, involving copying sentences, paragraph, or essays,
and correcting without actually writing. Lessons are drill-and-practice based on
hierarchical skill sequence with few extended writing opportunities. This
approach has been noted in extended classroom observations.

The Identification of the Problem

Many problems may be identified as follow:
1. The students are less interested in English lesson. This is cause by their
view that English is so difficult.
2. Most of English teacher are less creative and capable of using methods,
such us using teaching aid they are accustomed to using text box method.
3. The English teachers are less interested in using teaching aid.

The Study
This present study contributes to the relatively limited research concerning
the low ESL proficiency among Malaysian students. The study outlined the
following research questions:

1. Does the use of drilling technique in teaching writing have positive effects
on students writing ability?

2. Does the drilling technique help the students increase their level of
confidence in their writing?

3. What is the learners perception on the use of drilling technique in

continuous writing?

Subjects
The subjects for the study are 20 students from SK Babagon and 20 students
from .. The subjects are limited proficiency students and their level
are very poor whereby they cannot write even in using
the simplest English.
+ teachers ( will be interview )

Research Design
Research can be classified as a classroom action research which will be
conducted in two cycles. Action research is any systematic inquiry conducted by
teacher researchers, principals, school counsellors, or other stakeholders in the
teaching/learning environment, to gather information about the ways that their
particular schools operate, how they teach, and how well their students learn
(Mills 2000: 7). Furthermore, Nunan (1990: 64) states that action research
contributes to professional development, particularly in encouraging self-directed
teachers, who are capable, through action research, of furthering their own
professional self-development. According to Kemmis (1990) cited in Mills (2000:
17), action research consists of cycles. Every cycle consists of four steps;
planning, acting, observing, and reflecting.
The data in this study will be collected through 3 stages of writing test. Data
analysis will be done by using quantitative and qualitative description. The
purpose of mixed methods research is to build on the synergy and strengths that
exists between quantitative and qualitative research methods in order to
understand a phenomenon more fully than is possible using either quantitative
or qualitative alone (Gay, 2003: 183-186).

Conclusion