USING SMART TABLE IN IMPROVING YEAR 3 PARTICIPANTS ACQUISITION OF

SUBJECT-VERB-AGREEMENT IN WRITING SVO SENTENCES IN THE PRESENT TENSE.

ABDUL WAFI BIN ABD. HALIM

SUHARTINA BINTI MD. YUSOP

INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU KAMPUS DARULAMAN

wafihalim@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
This research assesses the use of Smart Table in improving year 3 participants acquisition of subject-verb-
agreement in writing SVO sentences in the present tense. Some of the pupils are having difficulty in
constructing simple sentences. These pupils are selected as the research participant based on the result
of the preliminary data collection. Throughout the research, data from pre-test and post-test, non-participant
observation and document analysis are collected and analysed. The result of this research will indicate the
impact of the use of Smart Table in improving year 3 participants acquisition of subject-verb-agreement in
writing SVO sentences in the present tense. The results will also show that year 3 pupils enjoy learning
prepositions by games. Other than that, the pupils are able to grasp the concept of the simple sentences
through colours code and picture cards. In summary, findings indicate that the use of Smart Table is able
to improve year 3 participants acquisition of subject-verb-agreement in writing SVO sentences in the
present tense.

ABSTRAK
Kajian ini menilai penggunaan Smart Table dalam meningkatkan perolehan tahun 3 peserta mengenai
subjek-kata kerja-perjanjian secara bertulis ayat SVO dalam kala kini. Sebahagian daripada murid-murid
menghadapi kesukaran dalam membina ayat mudah. Murid-murid yang dipilih sebagai peserta kajian
berdasarkan hasil pengumpulan data awal. Sepanjang penyelidikan, data daripada ujian pra dan ujian
pos, pemerhatian bukan peserta dan analisis dokumen dikumpul dan dianalisis. Hasil kajian ini akan
menunjukkan kesan penggunaan Smart Table dalam meningkatkan perolehan tahun 3 peserta mengenai
subjek-kata kerja-perjanjian secara bertulis ayat SVO dalam kala kini. Keputusan itu juga akan
menunjukkan tahun i 3 murid menikmati preposisi pembelajaran dengan permainan. Selain daripada itu,
murid-murid dapat memahami konsep ayat mudah melalui warna kod dan gambar kad. Ringkasnya,
penemuan menunjukkan bahawa penggunaan Smart Table mampu meningkatkan perolehan tahun 3
peserta mengenai subjek-kata kerja-perjanjian secara bertulis ayat SVO dalam kala kini.

INTRODUCTION

In this modern age, English language is regarded as the language of communication for
modern world. In Malaysia, English language is a second language and is a compulsory subject
that need to be taken and learnt by participants and students in primary, secondary and higher
education level. Thus, it is very important for the participants and students to understand and
know the fundamentals and basic rule of English grammar in learning English language. During
3 months practicum period, the researcher was posted in SK Y and the problem among the
participants in teaching and learning has been identified that is grammar. This Action Research
proposal is about Using Smart Table in improving Year 3 pupils acquisition of Subject-Verb-
Agreement in writing SVO sentences in the Present Tense. Grammar, regardless of the country
or the language, is the foundation for communication of the language involved. The better and
accurate the use of grammar, the clearer the message will be and intended meaning of the
message will be able to be understand clearly by the recipients.

There are two methods in how the preliminary data is collected. They are diagnostic test
and observation. The researcher confirmed that issue of the pupils are weak in applying the SVA
rules. Hence, they are taken as the researchs participants. The researcher also thought that the
learning of SVA are crucial for the pupils. They had to build a good foundation of SVA before
moving on to other parts of the English language. This is because SVA rules are applied in every
part of the English language. Thus, researcher thought of an intervention which is Smart Table.

RESEARCH FOCUS

This research is focusing on the grammar component of the English language. Grammar
is defined as the rules of language, governing the way in which words are put together to convey
meaning in different context (Nesamalar Chitravelu, et. al., 2005). Grammar can be divided into
many word classes and tenses. However for this study, the researcher focused mainly in subject
verb agreement (SVA). Eastwood (2010) defined subject verb agreement as the verb that agrees
with the subject. It is also called concord. Seaton (2009) added that in a sentence, the information
is important because if the subject is singular, you will need a singular verb and if the subject is
plural, you will need a plural verb. The reason the researcher chose this issue was because SVA
was basic knowledge in grammar. It was vastly applied throughout the language. Any grammatical
errors might lead to misinterpretation of the ideas the pupils wanted to convey.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The objective of this action research is:

To determine if the Smart Table enable pupils acquisition of Subject-Verb-Agreement to write

SVO sentences in the Present Tense.

The research question is:

To what extent can the Smart Table enable pupils to acquire the use of Subject-Verb-Agreement
to write SVO sentences in the Present Tense?

RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS

The researcher is a part of participants. He is the final year student from Institut Pendidikan
Guru Kampus Darulaman. He has undergone three phases of practicum and internship. He
played many roles in the action research. Firstly, he acted as the participants observer where he
observed the problem faced by the participants and tried to think of a better solution. Next, he
played his role as intervention innovator. He invented the Smart Table with a hope that this
intervention would help him to improve the participants learning of subject verb agreement. The
third role is as facilitator. He facilitated the participants from the beginning of the intervention until
the end of the intervention. Lastly, he played his role as data analyser. He gathered data by using
various methods and instruments. Then he analysed each data to see the result of the
intervention. Next, he triangulated all the methods and data to check whether the data if the data
is corroborating with each other.

Research participants of this research consist of 5 participants of Year 3C participants of

SK Y. Three of them are females and the other two are male students. The participants of the
research are generally those who are weak in applying the SVA rules. The selection of the
participants are done during the three-month practicum period in the school.

IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTION

The implementation of the action research intervention will be conducted during usual
Teaching and Learning session in the classroom during English language period. The lesson will
take place in the classroom of the participants using whiteboard in the classroom. The lesson
planned is design for 60 minutes lesson or two period English language session.

The Smart Table will be made of manila card-sized thick card. Window panes will be
created so that the pane can be pasted with different word card during the lesson. During
presentation stage, the teacher will present to participants the examples of complete simple
sentence of Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) category such as The boy kicks the ball.

After drilling session, teacher present to participants each picture card of subject, verbs
and object and their corresponding word card. Teacher than paste each of the picture card and
place them under category that they belong, for example subject under subject category and verb
under verb category using the Smart Table. After participants had able to identify each of the word
card and their corresponding category, teacher may ask participants to practice using the Smart
Table to paste word card of the subject, verb and object to create a sentence of their own.

After each session of lesson, reflection of lesson will be written to state participants
improvement and problems that might come out during the lesson.

In addition, in this research, the researcher will use action research design by the Kurt
Lewin (1946) model. The social psychologist Kurt Lewin was most interested in studying social
issues in organisations. He felt that the best way for an organisation to progress is for its people
to engage in improving their own practice. He stressed the importance of the researcher to work
collaboratively with others. He described action research as being a spiral of steps: Planning,
Acting, Observing and Reflecting.

RESEARCH FINDING

Pre-test and post-test were carried out to check the participants progress and
performance before and after conducting the intervention. Both of the tests contained 10
questions. The participants scores were collected and calculated into percentage.

The result of pre-test and post-test for each participant in percentage and the increased
scores of pre-test and post-test. The differences indicated how much improvement had been
made by all participants. The table showed that one of the participants improved drastically from
low level to advance level of achievement. He was Participant B. The other four participants were
also improved. The data showed that the intervention carried out to the participants really helped
them in learning the SVA rules. The comparison between pre-test and post-test scores is clearly
displayed in a graph form in Figure 5 below..

Participants scores for pre-test and post-test

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
A B C D E

Pre-test Post-test Increase of scores

Figure 5. Participants scores for pre-test and post-test

Linking to the pre-test and post-test data, the data obtained from the observation indicated
that the participants were able to use the Smart Table and construct the sentences. The
participants were interested to the game and they enjoyed playing it. They had fun pointing others
mistakes. While having fun, the participants showed that they were able to identify the mistakes
made in the SVA. This proved that the learning process were taking place. It also showed that
the participants understood the SVA rules for them to be able to point out the mistakes made. If
they could point out others mistakes, they surely would realise their own mistakes. The
researcher believed that learning through fun was the best way to remember what we were
learning (Nordlund, 2003).

The last data, document analysis, showed the increase of scores for all of the participants.
Even the participants who was not interested in English managed to produce a gradually
increasing scores. This showed that the Smart Table could trigger his interest to learn English.
Especially the so called boring module, Grammar. It also proved that the Smart Table was able
to improve the participants learning of SVA to construct sentences.

Conclusively these data showed that the use of Smart Table in the lessons was able to
positively impact the participants in improving their learning of the subject verb agreement. The
researcher concluded that the researchs question was answered and the researchs objective
was achieved.
REFLECTION

Before conducting this research, the researcher believed that learning through fun was an
effective way to learn. This came from the researchers experience of teaching during the
practicum. The researcher had been teaching various level of proficiency pupils and different ages
pupils such as eight, nine and eleven years old. These pupils had one thing in common which
was learning through songs, games and jazz chants. These were the fun activities that could be
implemented into the teaching and learning sessions. In addition, the pupils remember better
when they enjoyed the lesson. Same goes with these participants. They enjoyed the use of Smart
Table and they learned through it. The input came from the teacher and the pupils came to
understand it on their own. After conducted this research, the researchers belief was proved that
learning through fun activities was an effective way to learn.

In addition, this intervention had some strengths. The first strength was the usage of colour
code helped the participants to identify the Subject, Verb and Object. Initially, the participants
might be confused of what were Subject, Verb and Object. The usage of colour codes guide the
participants about what were Subject, Verb and Object. It also guided the participants about where
to place the card. The green square represents subjects, the yellow square represents verbs, and
the pink square represents objects.

The next strength was repetition of the game could help the participants remember the
SVA rule. The games were played for several rounds and as the round goes, the participants
became adept of the rules. They would know what was the mistakes and what would it takes to
construct a correct sentence.

Apart from the strengths, there were also weaknesses of the Smart Table. The first
weakness was the participants had to remember the meaning of the colour codes. They had to
memorize what each colour represented. For example, green for Subject, yellow for Verbs and
pink for Object. If they did not memorize this, they would not know where to place the cards and
they would constantly make mistakes. The second weakness was there were tendency for
irrelevant sentences. For example, Mary visits a loaf of bread. The sentence was correct in
terms of the placement of subject, verb and object. However, there was no meaning to the
sentence.

In conclusive, the findings showed that the Smart Table was able to improve the
participants learning of SVA to construct sentences.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER ACTION

After the reflection was done, the researcher finds out that some suggestions can be done
to the intervention. The first suggestion is adding more sentences to increase the level of difficulty
of the game. This means more cards are added into the game. By adding more cards, there will
be more variations and more sentences can be constructed. Simultaneously, the pupils will get
more experiences and will learn more about SVA rules.

The next suggestion is to categorize the subject into one type of nouns only. According to
Eastwood (2010), there are many types of nouns such as collective nouns, common nouns,
proper nouns, pronouns and compound nouns. If the teacher decides to teach pronouns, all of
the subject should be pronouns. This way, the teacher can increase the usage of the Smart Table.
It also helps to avoid confusion among the pupils about the different types of nouns. Instead of
nouns, the Smart Table can also be used to teach verbs, constructing sentences, subject and
predicate, and many more. Linking to this, the intervention can be used to teach other Years too.
For example Year 4 and Year 5 pupils.

The last suggestion is the Smart Table can be used to teach a whole class pupil instead
of a small group of five. The teacher can enlarge the Wall or even use a real wall in the class and
enlarge the cards. These are useful when the teacher wants to use the intervention for teaching
purpose. However, if the teacher wants to use the Smart Table for practice purpose, he can
increase the number of the cards from 30 to 50 cards. The number of players can be increased
up to six pupils in a group. Hence, if the teacher is planning to use the Smart Table in a class of
30 pupils, the number of the game sets need is 6 as there are 5 players for each set.

To conclude, it is the teachers creativity on how to exploit and improve the Smart Table.
The door for improvements are always wide open.
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