ACTION RESEARCH REPORT

ENGLISH PANEL
SMK ALMA BUKIT MERTAJAM

MASTERY LEARNING A REWARD FOR BETTER

COMPREHENSION IN LITERATURE COMPONENT
OF FORM 1 POEMS FOR PMR CANDIDATES

By:
Puvaneswari Vadivelloo
Guru Cemerlang
Form 3 English Teacher
SMK Alma, BM
2011

MASTERY LEARNING A REWARD FOR BETTER COMPREHENSION IN

LITERATURE COMPONENT
OF FORM 1 POEMS FOR PMR CANDIDATES
By:
Puvaneswari Vadivelloo
Guru Cemerlang
Form 3 English Teacher
SMK Alma, BM
2011

ABSTRACT
Language teachers are entrusted with a huge responsibility of developing
language and communication skills among their students. For maximum input, the best
teaching approach is the learner-centered teaching approach. However, the potential to
explore the learner-centered teaching approach is rather challenging in our Malaysian
classrooms. The nature of our students with attributes such as limited language proficiency,
lack of confidence, negative attitude and motivation, towards learning English language and
literature and the culturally oriented norm with a long tradition of unconditional obedience to
the authority hinder the learner-centered teaching approach. Because of these circumstances,
the move to make students to become independent learners is somehow hampered. Ideally, it
is best to employ the learner-centered teaching approach in the classrooms. But the culture
inherent in us and the nature of our students only permit us to use the teacher-centered
teaching approach or a mixture of both learner centered and teacher-centered approaches
when necessary. Thus ,a complete departure from the traditional teacher-centered and
text-book driven teaching, to that of a learner-centered teaching to create independent
learners do not seem encouraging in our second language setting. Based on these factors, I
have carried out a study on mastery learning ( learner centered) as the teaching approach in
producing better results in literature component of Form 1 Poems for PMR candidates this
year in SMK Alma, Bukit Mertajam. This study consists of 39 students of 3A2 who will be
sitting for their PMR examination this year. The research was conducted in the month of June
to July 2011 during their class English lesson, mainly two periods in a week. With the less
motivation and confidence towards literature component, mainly poems, these students seem
to have very low confidence in answering the form one poem questions. Putting this in my
mind, I came out with the mastery strategy approach in order to make my students to master
these section in the PMR Paper 1(questions 35 to 37). In order to know what exactly I
did.please read the report till the end.

Introduction
Teachers immediate concern when discussing the choice of teaching method focuses on
who the learners are, what their current level of language proficiency is, what sort of
communicative needs they have, and the circumstances in which they will be using
English in the future (Richards & Rodgers, 1986). Yeah.., I agree with the above statement.
Once when the teachers receive their timetable at the beginning of the semester, the first
sight definitely will be; Which Class? So do I. For this year, I was given two Form Three
classes, 3A2 and 3A5 respectively. Well, to tell the truth, I was impressed with 3A2 and a
little bit unimpressed with 3A5. Hence, I have to pacify myself because I have the title of
Guru Cemerlang. So..no complaints and comments. Do your job well, this is what I told to
myself. Moreover, my great principle, Pn Manisah has placed a high hope on me as an
educator.
The needs, goals and abilities of each learners vary and must be determined before decisions
about method can be made (Richards & Rodgers, 1986). The teachers normally decide the
choice of teaching activities, teaching methods, teaching materials and learning activities
after observing the actual needs of the students. Teaching methods and instructional strategies
used are the teachers means and ways to help students clarify and understand the texts. To
that, I applied mastery learning approach in teaching the techniques of answering questions
35 to 37 in PMR English paper one.
Mastery Learning

Mastery learning refers to the idea that teaching should organize learning through
ordered steps. In order to move to the next step, students have to master the
prerequisite step. Mastery learning engages the learner in multiple instructional
methods, learning levels and multiple cognitive thinking types.

According to Davis & Sorrel (1995): The mastery learning method divides subject matter
into units that have predetermined objectives or unit expectations. Students, alone or in
groups, work through each unit in an organized fashion. Students must demonstrate mastery
on unit exams, typically 80%, before moving on to new material. Students who do not
achieve mastery receive remediation through tutoring, peer monitoring, small group
discussions, or additional homework. Additional time for learning is prescribed for those
requiring remediation. Students continue the cycle of studying and testing until mastery is
met. Block (1971) states that students with minimal prior knowledge of material have higher
achievement through mastery learning than with traditional methods of instruction.
Cited from Davis & Sorrel (1995): In summary, mastery learning is not a new method of
instruction. It is based on the concept that all students can learn when provided with
conditions appropriate to their situation. The student must reach a predetermined level of
mastery on one unit before they are allowed to progress to the next.
In a mastery learning setting, students are given specific feedback about their learning
progress at regular intervals throughout the instructional period. This feedback, helps students
identify what they have learned well and what they have not learned well. Areas that were not
learned well are allotted more time to achieve mastery. Traditional instruction holds time
constant and allows mastery to vary while mastery learning or systematic instruction holds
mastery constant and allows time to vary (Robinson, 1992).

Background of 3A2
Comprising of 39 students (boys 19 and girls 20), this class holds only Malay students. With
various background they are actually motivated but lack of confidence. They seem to be
motivated during the time present and later tend to portray the attitude of no interest. During
my English lessons, they usually sit quietly and pay attentive attention throughout the lesson.
They usually say : yes, understand , can , no problem whenever I pose questions after each
session or class. To my record, questions raised by this class can be counted. The beauty of
this class lies in the hands of the girls mainly and a few boys (maybe seven out of nineteen).
These bunch of students tend to listen, follow and do what I say, leaving the rest less
hardworking. It is usually this is what I say, well if anyone tend to give any excuse for not
doing or handing in your work you will face the concequencies. Due to this magic words of
mine, 3A2 is always up to date in sending in their task, even though there are times I face
jokers on and of. The main language used in class is none other than Bahasa Malaysia. There
are times where, I myself utilize this language during my teaching in order to give the clear
meaning of the activity conducted in class. Yet, not forgetting English as the main
communication tool, I always make sure the instructions are said twice; in Malay and
English. Somehow, as time passes by, majority of my students has the tendency speaking in
English ( even with broken or Manglish).
So, let me touch about poems with 3A2. Gosh! They are lost! They have forgotten all the
poems that they covered in Form One. They remembered the title but forgotten the poet or
vice versa. And the main problem was they did not know what was the poem about
(message), the meanings and of course the theme.. According to the syllabus of form one
literature component, students are exposed with these three poems, that are:
1. The Dead Crow by A. Samad Said
2. Lifes a Brief Candle by William Shakespeare
3. The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William B. Yeats

Poerty in literature
Literature is a product of culture. Literature is created from human activities and it is
born of mans timeless desire to understand, express, and finally share experiences. Literary
works reflect about parts of human lives such as values, morals, experiences, feelings,
thoughts, cultures and interests. As product of culture, the literary works are a medium of the
writers to communicate and share about their lives, knowledge, experiences, and problems to
the readers. A literary work, like prose, poetry, and drama, may give a certain impression and
contribution to the readers such as giving the readers about awareness of the truth of life as in
The Dead Crow, giving personal pleasure to the readers (Lake Isle of Innisfree), feeding heart
of the readers (Lifes a Brief Candle), and helping the readers to be cultured man. Therefore,
it is important for the students to read and study literary works, because literary works not
only provide certain styles of language use but also they can increase and enrich students
knowledge, experiences about human problems.
In English language teaching settings, many literary texts are used as additional
passages. The use of literature in language teaching gives many contributions to increase
students achievement such as creative thinking, motivation, and enjoyment. One of the
genres of literature that is taught in language teaching is poetry. The teaching of poetry
should address the students to prepare them in visualizing, searching for main ideas and

understanding the poems. The students must be addressed on comprehension of poems both
the structure and the contents. In comprehension process, the students read and identify
important points or information of poems in which the information are useful for the students
in improving their achievement and their literary competence of poems.
The Problem
The problems of teaching poetry commonly place on the use of materials, the use of teaching
technique, and students comprehension of poems.The first problem is the students have low
ability in comprehending poems both its structure and its content. A short test was conducted
as my early step in this research. I distributed a sheet of questions comprising only the three
poems stated above (appendix 1). Well, the breaking news was none of my 39 students
manage to obtain all correct answer. Worst, most of them scored less than six over fifteen.
Accordingly, the students comprehension of poems is not satisfactory. The current data on
the result of students test reveal that the students average score was 59.7 (fifty nine point
seven). Therefore, it indicates that most of the students still have low comprehension of
poems.
Considering the facts above, there is an urgent need to implement a strategy or
technique that can help solve these problems. In this case, the dynamic strategy of teaching
poetry should be considered. It can guide and facilitate learning process in order to enable the
students learn and create a better atmosphere of learning. The strategy also may attract the
students attention toward comprehension of poems and increase their motivation by actively
involving in learning. In addition, the use of appropriate strategy in teaching poetry can solve
the problems occuring in poetry lesson. Mastery learning was the best choice.

Research Method
The research design of the study is action research. The action research is classroom
action research since the problems are found in the classroom. This study is designed to apply
a strategy to solve the problems in poetry lesson especially improving students
comprehension of poems. The design of this classroom action research is a cyclical process
adapted from the model proposed by Kemmis and Taggart (1988). It comprises four main
steps, namely planning, implementation of action, observation, and reflection. Before
implementing the four steps, I conducted a preliminary study to know the real problems in
poetry lessons. Preliminary study aims at identifying the students problem in comprehending
English poems and how the problems should be overcome. The subjects of the study are 3A2
students of 2011. The numbers of the students are 39 students. All students have the same
treatments in the teaching and learning process. Let me state how each step was done during
my research.
Step 1 : Planning
In this phase, I planned the action by dividing the students to groups of five. Each
group is asked to search questions related to the poems. They are assigned to give at least 10
questions for each poem. Then, they sit in groups and divide the task among themselves.

Step 2 : Implementation of action

Collected questions of the stated poems are pasted in A4 papers according to the titles.
At this stage, students are placed in three groups, according to the three poems. Mainly there
will be a group of :
1. The Dead Crow
2. Lifes a Brief Candle
3. The Lake Isle of Innisfree
Step 3 : Observation
At this phase, students observe the questions ( students centred). Then, they discuss within
their group and answer the questions. They might answer similar questions over and over
(mastery). This will improve the cognitive thinking levels of students and they tend to get
familiar.
Step 4 : Reflection
This will be more on class discussion to determine the correct answer. At this point, I only
facilitate and comments. Students run the whole task.
Research Findings
The research findings are presented on the analysis of the collected data deriving from
the implementation of the strategy in improving students comprehension of poems. The data
and findings of the study were presented based on the result of students understanding. The
implementation of this strategy is used to increase students achievement in scoring correct
answers for poem questions. They also have positive attitudes towards group work in order to
complete the purpose of learning. The outcome from this strategy was extra ordinary.
Students managed to score correct answers for the questions on poems. Through this method,
they are exposed to the same and similar questions over and over. They seem to obtain the
correct answer even though they have not finished reading the question. Well, I succeeded in
implementing this mastery learning, as the saying goes ; practice makes perfect. Now, my
students are really good in questions 35 to 37, so to say three points are already in their
hands. The real outcome was during the Trail PMR, the number of students scored correct
answer for this section was higher compared to other sections. In conclusion, all findings
showed that mastery learning strategy especially in poems was successful in improving
students and promoting students to be involved actively.
Further Suggestions
Based on the conclusion above, these suggestions are addressed to English teachers
and the future researchers. The teachers of literature are recommended that they use mastery
strategy to improve the students comprehension of poems or short stories. Teachers from
other fields are also recommended to use this strategy for their subject such as history or
mathematics. The strategy provides some procedures that should be followed by the teachers
and the teachers should give more attention how to control students discussion in groups or
with other groups. The future researchers are suggested that they can use this research as a

reference for conducting further research in the same field or other literature subjects by
following its procedures.
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