Proposal Outline
Title: How focusing on English Literature components can improve English learning in Secondary school
Summary:
This research is about looking into the issues of learning outcomes from English Literature component in secondary schools in Malaysia. I proposed that by having a better understanding of the purpose of learning English Literature component will help students to understand and have good knowledge of the usage of English language especially for the tertiary level of education. This research will also look into teachers’ method of handing down the lessons to the students and how the students perceive them. Apart from that, this research will also conduct an experiment if students are more incline to learn by a different teaching method.
Introduction:
Students in Malaysia have been learning the language from their first day of school in Standard 1 until the end of their secondary in school in Form 5 but yet most of them are still having trouble understanding or have a better grasp of the usage of the language in outside school context. This will lead to problem that the students will face with especially in their tertiary level of education. I believed that the lack of understanding the English Literature Component in secondary school contributes a lot in this issue. Literature Component in secondary school is supposed to equip the students with the ability to do critical thinking and help them with their fluency with the language as well.
Statement of problem:
This study will focus on the methodology of teaching English literature component in secondary school. Since critical thinking and the ability to articulate their opinion is crucial in the higher education system and professional system, it is important that this study is conducted in order to find the root of this issue and find ways to solve it. The aim of this study is to unravel of why the purpose of teaching English Literature component in secondary school fails to reach its purpose.
Literature Review:
1- What is literature
2- How literature impact on students ability to improve English
3- Experimental example where literature have improved students proficiency in learning English
Research questions:
i- What type of methodology is being used by the teachers in secondary school to teach English literature component in the classroom?
ii- How are the students responding to the current methodology of English literature lesson?
iii- If given a different approach to the lesson, will it increase the student’s interest in learning literature and help them achieve the purpose of learning the components?
Methods:
For this research I will use a case study to find the findings. One class of secondary students will be chosen and I will observe the way that the teacher hands down the lessons and the students’ reaction to it. I will use the Critical Incident Technique (ICT) to collect data from personal experience of the subjects such as questionnaires that will be distributed to find more about the students’ personal opinion about the English Literature Component in class. To find solutions to the issue, an experiment will be conducted by teaching the English Literature Component using a different method and see how they perceive the lesson.
Hypothesis:
By using a different method that is more interactive and go into depth of purpose of learning English Literature Component, students will have more positive intake and interest in learning the lesson. This because the lessons that are being taught in school is too textbook orientated that it doesn’t deliver the purpose of learning the English Literature Component.
Limitations:
The limitations that this study will face is the assumptions that students that will be participating have a basic knowledge of English grammar and are able to read and write in that language. This study also focuses on the students of the urban areas and not the rural counterparts where the knowledge of English of the students will be slightly on a higher level.
"This proposal has been revised and changes are necessary as it is quite vague and confusing. The research should be more focused on the aspect of literature and I should plan on what I really want to focus on"
The Second Outline
Investigating the effectiveness of teachers approaches on teaching English Literature component in secondary school
Name: Siti Sarah Abdur Rani
Student ID: 2010989413
Statement of problem
There have been findings that teachers’ approaches to teaching English Literature component in school are exam-orientated and too teacher orientated. These phenomena caused the students to be passive in class and are not able to respond critically about the lesson (Hwang and Embi, 2007).
If this issue continue, secondary schools in Malaysia will continue producing graduates that have trouble to do critical thinking and are not able to analyse facts that are necessary for tertiary education and the employment field.
Purpose of research
} To investigate whether teachers approaches of teaching English Literature component in secondary school are effective in developing students ability to read through the critical lenses
} To find out if the teachers accommodate to the students language proficiency level
} To find out if the students ability to critical think and express their thoughts being harvest through the exercise given in class
Research question
} What are the teaching strategies used to accommodate to Malaysian secondary students level of English language?
} What type of activities is used to teach English Literature component?
} How are the students responding to the lesson of English Literature component in school?
} What is the students level of understanding of the lesson of English Literature component?
Sample data
} The targeted group is a small group of English teachers in secondary schools that teach English Literature component. The students from their class will be subjected to give their opinion of how they feel towards the lesson.
} Methodology
Case Study : Mixed method
Qualitative and Quantitative
As primary instruments, the data and information collected through questionnaires that will be filled by the teachers (background of study, their views of teaching literature, their teaching strategies)
Secondary instruments, class observation will be conducted to see how the lesson is being taught and questionnaires to be filled by the students to see whether or not they understand the lesson
Analyse
} This study will require qualitative and quantitative data analyses. The data from the questionnaires will be done by using Descriptive statistical analysis (SPSS).
} The classroom observation notes will be compiled and categorized into main points that are required for this study. Each observation will be summarized and compared to gain conclusions and interpretations that are related to the purpose of this study.
This research outline was still unclear and needed a lot of improvement. It was still too vague and can caused confusion to the readers
