Hand-Shape Coding to Improve Subject-Verb Agreement in Writing for Year Four Pupils

Abstract

This study was carried out to examine the use of Hand-Shape Coding (HSC) as a teaching and learning strategy to improve subject-verb agreement (SVA) in writing sentences. Thirty- nine Year 4 pupils from a primary school in Johor, Malaysia were the participants of the study. This study utilised action research as the research method. In this research, pre-writing and post-writing tests, pupils’ worksheets and the teacher’s reflective journals were used as research instruments. There was improvement based on the data obtained where pupils were able to improve their scores in the post-writing test. The pupils’ work also showed they made fewer errors in the worksheets which indicate that they had improved their use of SVA using the HSC technique. Moreover, the teacher’s reflective journal showed that the HSC technique had increased the pupils’ attention and participation as well as promoted co-operative learning in the classroom. The results indicated that HSC gave positive impact to writing sentences with correct SVA. It is recommended to teach other grammar items in the implementation of the HSC technique to further this research.