Weekly Journal

Week 1 (15 February 2016-19 February 2016)

Issue : Classroom Management
This was the first week I entered the class assigned for me. There were 40 pupils in Year 5
class where a majority of them were boys. The level of profieciency of pupils in the class
were low to average. They have difficulty in understanding instructions in English. Since this
was the starting point I interacted to them, I have discovered issue of classroom
management which requires teachers attention.
I realised that pupils in this class were not trained to greet the teacher in English. The pupils
in this class were very active especially boys. They like to disturb and talk with their friends
when the teacher was teaching in front the classroom. There are one boy and one girl who
like to chat during instructional time about things that are unrelated to the lesson. Apart from
that, there was one hyperactive boy in the class who cannot sit still when the lesson was
going on. This resulted in disruptions throughout the lesson.
In addition, I realised that pupils were not listening to my instructions if I distributed the
materials earlier. When the pupils were doing worksheet, they tend to walk around and
discuss with their friends.
Analysis of Issue : Root Cause of the Issue
Many conditions promote or cause pupils misbehaviors in classroom. By identifying the
root causes of of classroom management problems, we can significantly reduce
inappropriate behaviour in classroom. Then, we can clearly see that we can take steps
proactively to limit or even eliminat most of these conditions.
Firstly, the pupils in this class do not greet their teacher in English is most probably because
they are not exposed to this culture before. They communicate in Bahasa Malaysia all the
time and it subsequently becomes a habit for them to greet every teacher in English
language.
Pupils were not listening to instructions after the materials are distributed earlier is mainly die
to their inability to control their temptation. Pupils regularly encounter objects, people or
situations that they find powerfully attractive. This phenomenon is evident especially if the
pupils are exposed to something new such as puzzles, games, songs, etc. They are full of

life and very eager to learn at this age. Pupils at this age do not like to sit still for long in
fatc it is hardly to make them sit still especially if we are dealing with hyperactive pupils.

Ways to Improve
After identifying the root causes of issue regarding classroom management, I have
considered some ways of improvements. First, I have to trained the pupils in this class to
greet the teacher in English. This is the very first step to get them to speak English. If they
continue to greet me in Bahasa Malaysia, I will repeat my greetings until they get it correctly.
Every time before I started my lesson, I will instruct pupils to turn their seats facing the
whiteboard. This is ensure all of them focused on the content on whiteboard and it helps to
gain pupils attention during the lesson. I also make sure all of them put their hands on their
laps to preventing them from playing the stuff on their table. Besides, I have to change the
seats of few pupils who were always disturbing their friends to prevent future misbehaviors. I
instructs the hyperactive boy to sit in front of me every lesson so that he will pay attention
ans it appear to be easier for me to keep an eye on him.
For future improvements, I found out that I have to give my instructions first before I
distribute the materials. I have to make sure all of them listen and understand my
instructions before they start their work. I will always count 1,2,3 to make sure all of them
start at the same time.

Apart from that, I realised I need to be alert at all times. It is important to display a constant
awareness of what pupils were doing in the classroom by monitoring and interacting with
pupils doing independent work even while I am presenting lessons to smaller groups.

Weekly Journal
Week 1 (22 February 2016-26 February 2016)
Issue : Low English Proficiency
This was the second week I entered the class assigned for me. After conducting several
classes with the pupils, I realised that the level of proficiency among them were low. One of
the contributing factors was because this is a rural schoolwhere many of the teaching
infrastruture were still lagging behind. Furthermore, there was no official English teacher for
this class since January because the teacher was taking maternity leave. Basically, the
pupils in this class were not exposed to proper teaching and learning of English.
The issue of low English proficiency has caused several problems in this class. Firstly, pupils
have difficulty in understanding English language as well as instructions. This issue was
significant when I gave worksheet to them as they could not understand what to do in the
worksheet although I have already explained to them. Apart from that, the mechanics of
writing such as punctuation, capital letter, small letter, etc were underdeveloped among the
pupils in this class. When I was teaching writing skill, I realised most of them could not write
neatly and legibly on the spaces provided. Even copying sentences appeared to be
something difficult for them as they also face difficulty in differentiaiting letter b, p and d.
Analysis of Issue : Root Cause of the Issue
I have identified a few contributing factors to the low level of English proficiency among the
pupils of this class. First, the pupils in this class were not exposed to proper learning of
English since their English teacher was under maternity leave. Apart from that, the teachers
tend to use Bahasa Malaysia in English lesson so they cannot perform well to attract the
interest of the pupils. Thirdly, pupils lack of English foundation background. As a result, they
lack of confidence to use English because they are afraid of mistakes and shy feeling.
Fourth, the curriculum is inappropriate for helping students to improve their English
proficiency. Last but not least, English language is difficult to learn due to pupils are not wellmotivated, encouraged and gained learning strategy. Furthermore, pupils do not practice
speaking English with English native speakers, and class environment is crowded and noisy
that is not fulfilled with teaching pedagogy.
Ways to Improve
I took the initiative to use body gestures, facial expressions, demonstrations as well as
pictures in conveying my instructions or explaining English words. I tried not to use Malay
Language in my lesson to prevent the pupils in this class from becoming dependent on

Malay translation. It was important to bear in mind that it was only during English class that
the pupils have the opportunity to listen and speak English so it is our responsibilty as
English teacher to immerse them in English environement as much as possible. When I
found that pupils have difficulty to understand English instructions especially the instructions
written on the worksheet given, I will demonstrate to them what they should do. For example,
I will draw circle on whiteboard if they are required to circle the correct answer. Sometimes, I
use body gestures to explain a new vocabulary and I will always get the pupils to do the
gestures with me so that they can remember better. I will repeat the word in the next lesson
to test their understanding from time to time.
Realising that the pupils in this class did not have a good foundation in the mechanics of
writing, I have to designed worksheet specially for them to develop penmanship. I have
downloaded the dotted fonts with lines to guide the pupils to write legibly on the spaces
provided. All they have to do is just tracing the words on the dotted lines. I have to go back to
the basics of writing by training pupils to form letters and words based on the dotted lines.
Although it takes time to train their writing skills from the very beginning, I believe that the
outcome will be good.
In order to get the pupils to be interested in upholding the level of English proficiency, I need
to vary class activities to make lessons interesting and fun. For example, use games,
puzzles, TV, videos, films, cartoons, documentaries, and stories. Since a majority of pupils
in this class are of low English proficiency, I have to deal with weak pupils by introducing
remedial classes for poor performers in this class.

Weekly Journal
Week 3 (29 February 2016- 4 March 2016)
Issue : Pronunciation Problems
Pronunciation is the most important skill of spoken English. Not surprisingly, pronunciation
instruction plays a significant role in the teaching of English as a second language. I realised
that a majority of pupils in my class have pronunciation problems. As a result, it was
sometimes difficult for me to achieve my objectives especially when the focused skill is
reading skill. The th is one of the hardest consonant sounds to pronounce. It can be
pronounced in three different ways: as a d (//) as in this, that, these, those, they or them;
as the voiceless // in three, thing, thought; or as a /t/ as in Thai or Thames.
Analysis of Issue : Root Cause of the Issue
There are several factors influencing the pronunciation of pupils in this class. That is, the first
language interference of mother language and the lack of exposure to English Language. I
greatly think that the pupils first language influences the pronunciation of the target
language and is a significant factor in accounting for foreign accents. So called interference
or interference from the first language is likely to cause errors in aspiration, stress, and
intonation in the target language. Since most of the pupils in this class were Dusun, they
tend to have difficulty with English sounds because they are deeply influenced by similar
Malay sounds. However, they are very different from each other. A particular sound which
does not exist in the native language can therefore pose a difficulty for the second language
learners to produce or some times to try to substitute those sounds with similar ones in their
mother tongue. This problem was most significant when pupils were pronouncing c. Due to
their first language influence, they could not differentiate the difference between the sound
c and ch.
Another factor contributed to the pronunciation problems among pupils was the lack of
exposure to English Language. Pupils did not have much opportunity to listen to and speak
English Language. Therefore, pupils in this class have trouble in perceiving new sounds, and
consequently try to find the nearest equivalents to substitute those new sounds.
Ways to Improve
One of the ways to improve pupils pronunication problems was drilling. Whenever a
mispronounced word is noticed, a teacher need to immediately correct the mistakes and
lead the pupils to repeat the words for a few times so that they can realised the mistakes and

remember the correct pronunciation. Teacher can also take the initiative to write the sounds
on whiteboard so that pupils can assiociate the spoken sounds with the written words.
Even with more spontaneous and good-humored students, it is also important for teachers to
avoid making fun of a mispronunciation or allowing other students to mock the person who
made the error. In all cases, teachers should avoid making fun of student errors, even if the
student seems to have a self-deprecating sense of humor. Teachers can make notes of
common pronunciation errors made by multiple students for the whole class to work on
together. They can also jot errors on note cards and hand the note cards to individual
students. In many cases, providing students with a checklist of common mispronunciations,
particularly before a presentation, can help them to prepare beforehand and to avoid making
pronunciation errors.
To recapitulate, a teacher have to balance the joy of learning language with the necessity of
correcting mistakes. By respecting students and providing specific learning strategies for
errors, they can make learning fun while also fostering excellence.