“Translate me Activity' to Develop the English Sentence Constructions of Grade 9 Students of Agsam Integrated School”

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

English teachers have tried different strategies to address the poor English sentence constructions of their students; however, there seems to be a factor why students still write inadequate English sentences. Constructing correct English sentences is a great help to the students when applying for a job or in conversing with other people who speak in English. In this study, the researcher explored the different —causes of the students' poor English sentence constructions based on an interview transcript. Moreover, the researcher also gave an innovation to address hindering factors to students' poor English sentence constructions.

METHODS

Purposive sampling was used since students who need the intervention were selected. Analysis of who were the respondents to be selected was done based on the causes that emerged during the data triangulation. Twenty-two students in Grade 9 -Curie were identified to be the respondents. These students answered the same cause for writing English sentences poorly. An intervention " ̃Translate Me Activity' was employed. 2 sources of data were used to generate whether the said activity is sufficient; the nO. of correct answers of the students during the pre-test and during the post-test after the intervention activity.

RESULTS

Grade 9 -Curie students gave different reasons for writing poor English sentence constructions. According to the survey answered by these students, it was found out leading cause why they construct English sentences poorly is the Language Transfer. 22 Gr. 9 students answered that they find it challenging to transfer their first language to English, which was followed by other factors, namely lack of vocabulary, for just getting good grades, and no motivation to write, respectively. After the intervention, results showed that there was a significant difference between The students' pre-test and post-test scores. Based on the findings, there is an improvement in the students' sentence constructions. Being not able to transfer the students' first language correctly to English can hamper them in constructing even simple sentences.

DISCUSSIONS

In this case, students must be given practice regularly as to transferring their first language to the English language. It is better to give them sentences to be translated daily before formal class discussions start. Teachers should not translate English sentences to their first language (example: instructions/directions) during exams so that students will be practiced in understanding and writing correct English sentence constructions.