IMPROVING THE TEACHING OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS THROUGH THE USE OF

JUM-P LANGUAGE GAME

MUHAMMAD AFIQ BIN ISMAIL

The objective of this study was to improve the practice and enhance the teaching
ofABSTRAK
grammar in schools. The approach via Jum-P (Jumping Pronouns) helps
pupils to learn personal pronouns. The research participants were Year 5 pupils
from Sekolah Kebangsaan Undang Jelebu. Their English language proficiency
was low. The focused language skill is grammar, where pupils will be exposed to
the use of personal pronouns he, she, it, you, I, we and they.
This research was based on Kemmis and Mc Taggart action research model.
The data analysis incorporates both qualitative and quantitative methods to
triangulate the research findings and to ensure that all of the key research
questions are addressed in a trustworthy manner. Jum-P approach is an
enjoyable and fun activity in the form of games. The thesis concludes with a
reflection addressing the objective of the study, the contribution to living
educational theory that conceptually frames the study and offers suggestions for
future research in this area.

Key words: Grammar, personal pronouns, Jum-p, games, fun

1.0

INTRODUCTION
1.1

Reflection on Past Teaching Experience

The experience that I gained throughout my teaching practices lean towards one
common problem pupils inability to use personal pronouns in writing sentences.
Writing was a hard skill to teach. Personal pronouns usage also seems to be directed
towards two personal pronouns, he and she. Based on the research conducted by
Lonracammile (2012) about Difficulties in making sentences due to lack of vocabulary,
all languages have their own grammar. People who speak the same languages are able
to communicate because they know the grammar system of that language which is the
rules of making meaning. To form correct sentences, the grammar structure must be
correct. Thus in schools, pupils must enhance their grammar skills in order to improve
their writing skills.

2.0 RESEARCH ISSUE / WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

2.1

Research issues

My focus of investigation as I stated above was the improvement of teaching personal

pronouns. Grammar is a core to any language especially English. It is not easy to learn
grammar but it is also not difficult. According to Willis(2002) understanding exactly what
gives us such a hard time learning grammar gives us a new perspective on how much
we are actually capable of doing. This difficulty made the pupils become uninterested in
the learning of grammar. As Morelli (2003:33-34) has observed, Grammar can be taught
traditionally or contextually, but student perception should be considered by teachers in
the decision-making process.
2.2

What have I learnt about my research issues?

Teaching grammar in schools can be difficult. Sometimes teacher would take long and
tedious session to teach only a part of grammar. This is mainly because; in English there
are many exceptions too many rules that can be implied. These exceptions make it hard
for the learners to understand each of the rules and exceptions. According to Widdowson
(1990: 86), " . . . grammar is not a constraining imposition but a liberating force: it frees
us from a dependency on context and a purely lexical categorization of reality.". Thus it is
important for teachers to ensure that the learning of grammar done correctly. Haudeck
has reported that many learners have difficulty in internalising grammar rules, although
these have been taught intensively (1996, cited in European Commission, 2006).These
difficulty made the pupils become uninterested in the learning of grammar. As Morelli
(2003:33-34) has observed, Grammar can be taught traditionally or contextually, but
student perception should be considered by teachers in the decision-making process.
3.0 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
My research questions are:
1.
2.

How can I teach my pupils personal pronouns using Jum-P?

How can the pupils understand the use of personal pronouns through Jum-P?

4.0 RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS

The research participants that I have chosen were from Sekolah Kebangsaan Undang
Jelebu, Negeri Sembilan. I have chosen to pick 5 pupils from the year 5 Cekap. The
pupils are aged 11 years old. The first condition that I have chosen is their learning
preferences. Other than that, I have also chosen the participants based on their active
participation in class. This will make the game fun and more active.
I have chosen 5 pupils because it will make it easier to analyse the data and also to
really focus on the problems faced. The selection of 5 participants helps in collecting
more qualitative data rather than quantitative. It can make the collection of data more
detailed and help in interpreting more form of information. Other than that, with a small
group of participants, it will be easier to handle the Jum-P. The pupils that were selected
consist of 3 boys and 2 girls. The reason for the selection of gender to be one sided is
because there are not many girl in the classroom as there are only 3 girls and 14 boys
and I feel that it will represent the class as a whole. The amount of 3 boys shows and
represents the majority of the class.
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5.0 ACTION AND DATA COLLECTION METHODS

5.1 Implementation of action
Jum-P is essentially a board game. The game is played as a team game. The team
primarily consists of three to four participants. The game will be played turn by turn. The
team needs to have a Jum-P mat. The questions that are given are shown or write on
the board. Each team is given 10 seconds to answer each question. In each of the
questions, an instruction is included. The instructions are for the team to follow on the
Jum-P. The instructions were done in quick successions and continuous. The questions
will have the instructions on how to jump on the Jum-P board. Each team would have to
pick a team member to be the jumper on the Jum-P. The other members would help in
answering the questions. There will be no restrictions on which team member can
answer the questions. The team would be evaluated based on which team will be the
fastest in getting 10 points. The team must jump or touch on the right pronouns to get a
point. If the teams jumps on the wrong pronouns it will be counted as wrong and the
game will still continue until one of the team gets 10 points.
5.2 Data collection method
Methods that I used to collect the data are through interviews and document analysis. I
chose interviews to be my first data collection method. Interviews can help in obtaining
rich data pertaining my first research question which is How can I teach my pupils
personal pronouns using Jum-P?. As stated by Wyse(2014), a face-to-face interview is
no doubt going to capture verbal and non-verbal ques, but this method also affords the
capture of non-verbal ques including body language, which can indicate a level of
discomfort with the questions. I have chosen document analysis to be the second data
collection method. With document analysis, a series of test which were pre-test and posttest we done. According to Dimitrov(2003), the usage of pre-test and post-test is to
measure the change resulting from experimental treatments. I also chose using pre-test
and post-test due to the focus on grammar. It is easier to measure the participants
understanding of grammar primarily personal pronouns based on their test scores.
6.0 ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Table 1
Pre-test result
PARTICIPANT
SCORE
Participant 1
3
Participant 2
4
Participant 3
5
Participant 4
4
Participant 5
5
Based on the above table only two participants were able to get 5 which is the lowest
passing score in the test out of 10 questions.

Table 2
Post-test result
PARTICIPANT
SCORE
Participant 1
7
Participant 2
8
Participant 3
9
Participant 4
7
Participant 5
6
Improvement after the implementation of Jum-P can be seen when the entire participant
were able to pass the post-test. One participant manages to get nine out of ten which is
an incredible achievement.
7.0 FINDINGS
Through interviewing the participants, I can see that the participants enjoyed learning
through games and fun activities. Their preferences towards learning were towards
games and physical activity. Three out of the participants agree to learning more through
game rather than the traditional way of learning. Participant one during the interview
stated that when the teacher teaches English using games, they were able to
concentrate more on the learning process. The participant also stated that if the teacher
uses traditional teaching, they would not be able to concentrate because it is not fun and
boring. Through the interview, I saw that the participants were inclined to learning
English using games thus the creation of Jum-P. Jum-P was created by knowing and
learning all the participant preferences in learning method. After implementing the JumP, the participants enjoyed the teaching and learning process and there were an
increase in the understanding of personal pronouns demonstrated by the test scores.
After the implementation of Jum-P, the participants were able to understand personal
pronouns. The participants were interested in the Jum-P as stated above thus creating
an environment where they were motivated to learn. After the implementation, the
participants look motivated in participating in the activities that were done. They enjoyed
the Jum-P games thus resulting in better score and grade in the post-test. The scores
from the post-test improved drastically after the implementation of Jum-P showing that
the participants enjoyed the games and also learnt from it. From the pre-test, only two
participants were able to pass the test but not excellent and more appalling three
participants failed the test. After implementation of Jum-P, the participants scores
become better. All the participants were able to pass the test thus showing the
effectiveness of using Jum-P in the teaching of personal pronouns.
8.0 SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
This action research in my opinion could be further enhancing in its usage. The Jum-P
could be utilise by other teachers in their classroom. Jum-P also can be helpful in
teaching low proficiency pupils learning personal pronouns.
Jum-P in the future can be used to teach other types of pronouns such as reflexive
pronouns. The Jum-P can help I teaching other pronouns because the game is
universal. The Jum-P also can be useful in the future by adding various elements in it
such as more challenging questions and also different shape of the board.
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Other than that, Jum-P can be used in teaching other parts of speech. Grammar item
like verb can be used in the Jum-P game. Through jum-P, teacher can be flexible in
teaching grammar. In this action research, in the future it can be used with more
participants as to gather more data. The data gathered can be richer without time
constraint.
9.0 REFERENCES
Cammille, L. (2013, April 5). Action Research. Retrieved from slideshare.net:
http://www.slideshare.net/lornacammille/action-research-2012
Case, A. (2008). Why Your Students Still Make Mistakes With Grammar They Know
Well. Using English, 4.
Dimitrov D.M.,Rumrill P.D. (2003) Pretest-posttest designs and measurement of
Change, 507 White Hall, College of Education, Kent State University, Kent
Morelli, J. A. (2003). Ninth Graders Attitudes toward Different Approaches to
Grammar Instruction. Unpublished Dissertation. The Graduate School of
Education, Fordham University, New York.
Widdowson, H. G. (1990). Grammar and nonsense and learning. In H. G.
Widdowson, Aspects of language teaching, pp. 79-98. Oxford: Oxford
University Press
Willis K. (2002) Why is Grammar So Hard
http://www.wou.edu/~hargred/hargreaves/willis.htm

To

Learn?

Retrieved

from

Wyse S.E. (2014) Advantages and Disadvantages of Face-to-Face Data Collection

retrieved from http://www.snapsurveys.com/blog/advantages-disadvantages-facetofacedata-collection/