Evaluating English Module: Guidance to Help Develop Ideas for Writing

Abstract

This study focused on the evaluation of a module developed based on the current Form Three English textbooks. The module consists of different themes from the textbooks, developed to provide guidance for both teachers and students. The aim was to help generate ideas for English writing among the Malaysian secondary school students. The subjects involved were a total of 12000 students of Form Three and Form Four students from thirty schools in Kedah identified as the low performing schools in English subject in the PT3 exam 2014. The students were first identified and categorized into two groups of different English proficiency level known as stronger students and weaker students. The module came in two sets, Set 1 (red stripe) for the stronger groups of students and Set 2 (blue stripe) for the weaker groups. Each one contained 28 writing exercises of different themes based, other than samples of expressions, phrases, idioms and common transitional words to help get the students familiarize with English writing. These sets comprised of the same contents and activities but with different methods with closer guidance for the weaker groups and challenge for the stronger ones. The main reason was to eliminate stress and encourage students’ participation. Evaluation was made on the students’ performance based on their assessment results. Overall, Form Three students recorded significant increase in their results, while Form Four students’ performance was also encouraging with the graph showing progression from the initial TOV to Mid-year Test as well as in the final exam results.