Prosiding Seminar Penyelidikan Pendidikan IPBA 2007

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF REWARD MOTIVATION IN GETTING STUDENTS TO READ ENGLISH FICTION BOOKS

YAP POH CHAN KSPK TESL 2007

ABSTRACT This paper presents findings from a study examining the effectiveness of reward motivation in getting students to read English language fiction books. A questionnaire and a semi-structured interview schedule were used as the instruments of data collection. Thirty-three students in a primary school participated in the study. The findings showed that using reward motivation is effective in getting students to read English language fiction books. The students also indicated that using rewards are added motivation for them.

INTRODUCTION Reading is an important skill to develop. We need to read to develop our proficiency in the language. Reading is a rare occurrence in some students, especially in the primary school. This study was carried out to look at the response of the students towards reward motivation in getting them to read English fiction books.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM In view of the lack of reading among pupils in the primary school, there are signs showing the decline of reading habit among our young learners, especially in the target language. Some of them do not see a need to read. Therefore it is vital for us, teacher to support and help them develop as successful, life-long readers. One way to help in cultivate the reading habit is through the use of reward motivation. This study was undertaken to determine if the students are motivated by rewards to read more fiction in the target language.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS This study hopes to answer the following questions: 1) How frequently do the students read fiction books in English?

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2) Do the students show positive response towards reward motivation?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The results of this study are significant because it will reflect the effectiveness of reward motivation in getting the students to read English fiction books. By having such information, teachers can be better informed and take steps to help the students to inculcate reading habit. Moreover, the findings from this study can add to the existing body of knowledge. Without sufficient reward motivation, even individual with the best ability cannot accomplish long-term goals.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY This study was limited to students of Year 5 in a primary school at Kuala Lumpur. The findings may not be generalised to student in other classes or schools in Malaysia.

DEFINITION OF TERMS Motivation and Rewards Motivation is a behaviour that you can influence but not create. Even highly motivated individuals can get frustrated, discouraged, or tired on a project. Team members need to know they are valued, their efforts are noticed, and their good work is appreciated. Each student is different and motivated or rewarded by different things. The key is to be timely, creative, and authentic and that the motivation or reward matches the interests and goals of the students, whenever possible. http:// www.wikipedia.org. Retrieved on 11 Jun 2007 Rewards The performance review process usually adds information about rewarding the employee(s) if performance met or exceeded standards. Rewards can take many forms, e.g. merit increases, promotions, certificates of appreciation, letters of commendation, etc. Extrinsic rewards Work-related rewards that have value measurable in monetary terms, as opposed to intrinsic rewards, such as satisfaction in a job well done.

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Intrinsic rewards Rewards are associated with the job itself, such as the opportunity to perform meaningful work, complete cycles of work, see finished products, experience variety, and receive feedback on work results. A positive reinforcement in which the consequences of a particular action has an incentive value to a person (e.g. a student) so that the action is more likely to be repeated. http://websternewdictionary.com. Retrieved on 11 Jun 2007

METHODOLOGY Sample The sample for the study consisted of 33 students from Year 5 of a primary school in Kuala Lumpur. Instrument A questionnaire was used to all the students to collect data for this study. To elicit further information from the respondents, a semi- structured interview had also been conducted. Data Collection Procedures The questionnaire used for the students of Year 5 Dinamik in a primary school in Kuala Lumpur (Refer to Appendix A). Students was given instructions on the forms to ensure that the questionnaire was responded to correctly. The responses to the questionnaire were then be analyzed. Based on the analysis, a semi-structured interview was conducted to seek answers to the decline of the number of books read by some of the students and to gather information on students attitude towards rewards as motivation to read. Four students from the sample were selected to be interviewed. The responses of the interview were then analyzed and used to explain the findings from the questionnaire. Intervention The intervention was administered to the students for two weeks with rewards given. During the third week, students continued reading without rewards. The intervention action was carried out as below:

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Step 1: Teacher selected about fifty English fiction books. Students were instructed to read for an hour on Wednesdays and Thursdays in the classroom. Students selected books according to their own interest and completed the reading record forms. Students selected one of the five activities suggested by the teacher. If the students could not finish reading the book in class, they were allowed to take it home. Step 2: Teacher collected the reading record forms and recorded the numbers of books read. The fiction books were displayed in the classroom for two consecutive weeks. Students read the books and completed the record after reading. Step 3: After one week, rewards were given to the students who read more than five books in a week. Students were informed of the types of rewards that would be given in the second week. The reading programme continued for two weeks. Step 4: For the third week, students continued reading without rewards for one week as a control to check the responses of the students towards reward motivation. Step 5: The names of the winners were recorded and rewards were given to five students who had read the most numbers of fiction books during the three weeks. Two types of rewards given were stationeries and bookmarks with words of wisdom prepared by the teacher.

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Flow Chart of Data Collection Procedure

2nd Week 1. Questionnaire before intervention 2. Analysis of the questionnaire 3. Intervention and action innovations

3rd Week 1. Give rewards after 1st intervention 2. Gather data and analyse data

4th Week 1. Gather data and analyse data 2. Write report (draft version) 3. Give rewards after 2nd intervention

5th Week 1. Questionnaire after intervention 2. Analyse data 3. Write report and update portfolio

6th Week 1. Write conclusion, recommendation and reflection. 2. Prepare for presentation

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DATA ANALYSIS Table 1 and Figure 1 show the reading interest for students of Year 5 Dinamik before intervention. There were 20 students who read less than 5 English fiction books intervention in a week while13 students read more than 5 English fiction books in a week. The results indicated that 39.4% of the students in the sample read more than 5 books, while 60.6% of them read more than 5 books in a week.

Table 1: Distribution of English fiction books read in a week by Students in Year 5 Dinamik Before Intervention
Category of Students Frequency Percentage

Read less than 5 English fiction books Read more than 5 English fiction books

20 13

60.6 39.4

Figure 1: Distribution of English fiction books read in a week by Students in Year 5 Dinamik before Intervention

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Table 2: Reading Record of Year 5 Dinamik according to Gender after Intervention

Number of books/ Gender Less than 5 books More than 5 books More than 10 books

With rewards Male Female 6 4 2 2 7 12

Without rewards Male Female 12 0 0 19 2 0

Figure 2 : Reading Record of Year 5 Dinamik according to Gender After intervention

Table 2 and Figure 2 show that the reading record of students in Year 5 Dinamik according to gender with intervention and without intervention. There were 2 female students and 6 male students who read less than 5 books. In terms of proportions, it can be seen that there is a higher proportion of male students who read less than 5 books after intervention. On the other hand, there were 19 female students and 12 male students who were reluctant to read without rewards. In term of proportion, it shows that there is a higher proportion of female students who have read less than 5 books without rewards. The above findings are further supported by the record of 12 female students and 2 male students who read more than 10 books with reward motivation. The result indicated clearly that students are motivated to read because of reward motivation.

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Apart from the questionnaire, a semi-structured interview was conducted with 4 of the respondents to gain more information and to reaffirm my findings. The questions asked included those relating to the reason of the decline in the number English fiction books read among some of the students and how effective rewards were in getting students to read more English fiction books. The feedback I had gained from the interviews had indeed served to support my assumption that rewards are effective in getting students to read when all the interviewees reflected that they read mainly because of rewards given. However, two of the students had read fewer books due to sports practice.

CONCLUSION From the data obtained through my study, I was convinced that reward motivation is essential in getting the students to read more English fiction books. This means most of the students in Year 5 Dinamik read more English fiction books when rewards are given. However, it would be better if the students can internalize intrinsically and self-motivated to read more in the future.

IMPLICATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS From the study, the findings showed that students of Year 5 Dinamik are motivated to read more English fiction books with rewards given. Besides that, the findings also showed that the students have shown favorable interest towards the type of rewards given. Therefore, it is recommended that the school should continue to inculcate good reading habits by giving rewards, for example bookmarks printed with words of wisdom, stationeries and notebooks printed with school logo which are useful and meaningful to the students. It is also recommended that English teachers who can motivate more students to read should be given rewards too for their effort showed in inculcating good reading habit. The names of the winner should be recorded and published in the school bulletin. Parents should be informed and invited to the prize-giving ceremony.

Reflection on SBR According to Chitravelu (2005), early reading involves motivation. It would be impossible to teach a child to read when he himself is not interested. A teacher can encourage the students to read stories and provides books with interesting pictures about things children would naturally be interested in. Through my previous experience of carried out program NILAM in my school, I noticed that most of my students showed very little interest in reading, especially English books. When we were first assigned the school-based research, the idea of carrying out my research on the above topic had struck my mind. I was not sure at the beginning stage

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whether I need to find out what the students like to read or how to get them to read more. After some discussion with some of the teachers and my supervisor, I decided to set my goal at the effectiveness of reward motivation in getting the students to read more of English fiction books. During the first week, I managed to seek the opinion of a few English teachers in that school; the respective teachers had showed interest in the above topics. After two interactions with the target class, which is the best streamed class in Year 5, I found that the students felt reluctant to read at first after I sought their opinions and held some discussion with them; I was reaffirmed that rewards would certainly motivate the students to read more. After I carried out a questionnaire, I realised that I had to prepare some English fiction books to the class so as to save time for the students to read more in the classroom. A reading committee had been chosen to help to make the reading programme a success. The students were told that they would receive stationeries and bookmarks as the reward. Students showed positive response for two weeks and they completed the reading record as the proof of reading. My supervisor had advised me to carry on with the study without reward as a control to check what the responses of the students were after the social visit. I took the challenge to proceed with my findings. When the students were told no reward would be given for the second round, the numbers of fiction books read decreased obviously. I was convinced that reward motivation really proved in getting the students to read, but deep in my heart I refused to believe the fact that students really wanted reward for reading. A semi-structured interview had been carried out with 4 students, all of them showed positive responses for reward motivation, though there were other reasons for the decline in numbers of fiction books read for the second week. I had shared my data analysis with the English teacher of the respective class; she was convinced and would try to consider reward motivation in future. I had recommended to the school to continue to give reward. I faced some problem when I tried to put my analysis in the form of tables and graphs, with the help of my course mate; I had got them straightened up finally. I learned a lot after carrying out the research and had gained confidence in carrying out more research in the future. I will certainly have to read up more and try to seek guidance from IPBA researchers particularly for their help in my future undertaking.

REFERENCES Bill, G. (1990). Developing a questionnaire continuum, Real world research. Heinemann: London & New York. Geoffrey E. Mills, (2006). Action Research, A Guide for the teacher researcher 2nd Edition. Pearson Education Inc: Boston.

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Oxford, R. L. (1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. Heinle & Heinle Publishers: Boston Chitravelu,N., Sithamparam,S.,and Teh Soo Choon (2005). ELT Methodology: Principles and Practice 2nd Edition. Penerbitan Fajar Bakti: Selangor. Beers, K. (2003). When kids cant read. Heinemann: U.S.A. http:// www.wikipedia.org. Retrieved on 11 Jun 2007 http://websternewdictionary.com. Retrieved on 11 Jun 2007 http://www.answers.com/topic/reward?cat=biz-fin. Retrieved on 1 July 2007 http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/goalsmethods/gmindex.htm. Retrieved on 4 July 2007 http://www.nclrc.org/index.html. Retrieved on 7 July 2007 http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/reading/reindex.htm. Retrieved on 7 July 2007 http://www.managementhelp.org/perf_mng/terms.htm. Retrieved on 9 July 2007

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