Practicum Week : 1

Date : 30.07.2018 – 03.08.2018

Journal Title : Lack Of Understanding The English Language

1. Focused Issue
I am doing my practicum in the Year 5 class of Sk Dato Klana Maamor School. I found out that
the students find it hard to understand the instructions given during the class. Some of them even
ask for clarification of the instructions in Malay language which is not advisable to be done during
the class as we want them to get used of using English only in class so that they can learn English
and speak more fluently without thinking in their own mother tongue and taking the time to
translate in their head before speaking in the targeted language.

2. Analysis of focused issue (Cause and effect of issue)

The reason why my students are not able to converse in English because they do not fully utilize
the language itself in their daily life. They do not see the importance of English in their daily life or
in the future. This is the reason why they cannot talk or listen in English because they abandon
the language because it is not important to them now. They feel comfortable speaking in their
mother tongue even though it is English class because they simply do not want to put any effort
to speak in English.

3. Literature review on the issue

According to Barry McLaughlin (2012) English learning can be difficult and the instructions in the
class can be given in the first language of the students.
Barry, McLaughlin. (2012). Second-language Acquisition in Childhood. Volume 2. School-Age
Children Second Edition

4. Suggestion and ideas to solve the problem

The most suitable way to make the students learn is by giving them English materials such as
movies, cartoons, music, and any other media to capture their interest in learning new English
words every day. By doing this they also get to learn the word structure in English and get used
to being natural in speaking the language itself. The need of translating the language from Malay
to English will be reduced and the flow of the language will become more natural.

5. Duration of problem solving

1 Week
 6. Follow-up Actions
As the teacher, I want to monitor their growth in learning English by asking what songs do they
know, what movies that they have watched or maybe by asking what new words do they learn in
that particular week. Students usually will feel the need to learn something new as they will be
asked what new things that they have learnt. If they did not learn anything while the friends are
doing something as an effort in learning the language. Sure they will learn it slowly day by day.