Understanding Learners’ Difficulties in Narrative Writing among Malaysian Primary Learners
Nur Amalina Jaafar Siddek1*, Hanita Hanim Ismail2
1Sekolah Kebangsaan Taman Melawati, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected]
Accepted: 15 July 2021 | Published: 1 August 2021
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Abstract: English is perceived as a second language (L2) after the national language, Bahasa Malaysia (BM). In Malaysia, English classes are encompassed the four language skills, which are receptive skills (listening and reading) and productive skills (speaking and writing).
Nevertheless, most English as Second Language (ESL) learners were having difficulties in writing, as well as narrative writing. Since English is widely used internationally, and plays a vital role in employment prospects in Malaysia, there is a need to discover and investigate predicament faced by the primary students in learning English. Hence, this research investigated factors influencing Malaysian primary school learners' difficulties particularly on L2 narrative writing and how their first language (L1) interferes with their L2 narrative writing skills. A purposive sampling strategy was used to collect quantitative data from 38 participants coming from the first-class Year 5 students from one national school in Gombak district, Selangor through the questionnaire. To qualitatively analyze the data, document analysis was performed on the students' final year assessment writing scripts. Findings from this research showed that learners’ L1 had an immense effect on their L2. There were other factors such as learners’ prior experiences, effective and constructive feedback on pieces of writing that could have influenced their difficulties in narrative writing.
Keywords: L1 Interference in L2 learning; narrative writing; Malaysian ESL learners _________________________________________________________________________
1. Introduction
English is regarded as an L2 after Bahasa Malaysia (BM). The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations both use the English language as their official languages. The majority of native and non-native English speakers communicate in English in their daily conversations and business dealings, as English is a global lingua franca. At in the university level, books and reading which are used in most curriculums are written in English (Nishanthi, 2018). If students are not able to acquire English language skills, they will probably face difficulties in learning other subjects in the fields of engineering, science information technology, and medicine. Good command of English would enable learners to cope with their studies and acquire necessary knowledge with ease.
There are mainly four skills in English: receptive (listening and reading) and productive (speaking and writing). ESL students are required to work toward A2 under the standards of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) at the primary level for listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Based on the English Language Curriculum Framework for Primary School (Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah), these ESL students should be able to comprehend meaning and details by listening to and recognising individual sounds, interact
with others or communicate alone to a group, and read independently for aesthetic purposes, last but not least, to write by using appropriate mechanical features of writing throughout their six years of primary school English language learning.
However, based on a performance report by the Ministry of Education (MOE) on English Paper 2 (014) for the School Certificate Examination (UPSR) 2019, 23% out of 332,648 candidates failed their writing paper while 35% of the figure has scored D-grade. This is half of the candidates with failure to achieve the expected performance. This inquiry on performance has led to many studies on understanding poor writing skills among L2 learners. Writing is difficult for ESL learners because it is complicated, challenging and it required organisation skills, writing mechanics, accuracy in choosing the right words, and sufficient knowledge of syntax and grammar (Thulasi et al., 2015; Yunus & Chan, 2016; AlTameemy, Alrefaee & Alalwi, 2020).
Most ESL learners have problems in constructing compound and complex sentences which involve dependent and independent clauses because they fail to construct simple sentences (Miin et al., 2019). Also, the language use (grammar), the word choices (vocabulary), spelling as well as the L1 interference are the dominant challenges faced by the ESL learners (Fareed et al. 2016; Afrin, 2016; Misbah et al., 2017). However, past researchers mostly focus on understanding learning problems at the secondary and tertiary level of learners. There is only some research conducted for primary level learners. For ESL learners at the primary level, they faced similar challenges in writing such as vocabulary, spelling, grammar and the L1 interference (Harun, & Abdullah, 2020; Ghulamuddin et al., 2021).
Due to the scarcity of data on primary level learners in ESL learning, this study investigated factors that influence students' challenges in L2 writing skills in Malaysian primary schools.
Therefore, two research questions guided the study, which are:
a) How does L1 among the Malaysian primary school students affect their L2
narrative writing abilities?
b) What factors contribute to Malaysian primary school students' difficulties with
narrative writing in a second language?
These objectives provided a focal point for the researchers in directing the study, particularly in terms of defining the research design and methodology to be used. English also plays an important role in employment prospects in Malaysia. Ting, et al. (2017) revealed that English is a pivotal language for jobs involving customer services, marketing, frontline service and in globally-positioned companies since it is a common language spoken and used universally.
Hence, there is a need for the researchers to discover and investigate the primary pupils’
predicaments to learn English.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Malaysian Students' ESL and Writing Abilities
By the twenty-first century, English has established a global reputation. It has developed into a necessity in a number of countries, where it is now taught as a second or foreign language.
The significance of teaching and learning English in a second language context, particularly in the writing area, is not overstated. Writing, which is a critical learning tool, can assist students in comprehending ideas and concepts (Chow, 2007). One of the most frequently encountered difficulties encountered by ESL language learners is with writing abilities. Because writing is a tool for expressing ideas, weaknesses and problems in fundamental language rules and
regulations may make the writing process more difficult for learners. Numerous factors can impact writing in English. According to Ghabol et al. (2012), the primary cause of many difficulties encountered by ESL learners in their writing tasks is the lack of English proficiency.
Apart from that, ESL students encountered more complex issues, which could be cultural or linguistic in nature (Musa et al., 2012).
According to the studies, ESL learners were experiencing various forms of writing skills challenges owing to a range of causes, usually at the primary level. According to Fazdilah (2013), low-level target language learners struggle with grammar, punctuation, spelling, word form, and usage. Darus and Subramaniam (2009) identified six common writing errors made by students in their research, all of which are related to grammar: singular or plural form, verb tense, word choice, preposition, subject-verb agreement, and word order. According to Lim (1976), learners made a variety of recurrent errors, including spelling errors, improper use of prepositions, and improper use of structural verbs, concord, and tenses. In another study, conducted by Vahdatinejad (2008), discovered that students frequently struggle with tenses, word selection, and prepositions. According to Ghabol et al. (2012), individuals who struggle with grammar, conventions, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling, as well as other fundamental aspects of writing, may struggle with the proper use of grammar, conventions, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling, as well as other essential aspects of writing. As a result, numerous studies have produced inconsistent findings regarding writing difficulties among ESL learners.
The writing difficulties faced by Malaysian students were comparable to those faced by other ESL students. Ghabol et al. (2012) identified common difficulties encountered by Malaysian ESL learners when completing writing tasks, the majority of which were related to language usage (grammar) and punctuation. Another point made was the effect of mother tongue on writing abilities. As previously stated, Malaysian students faced similar difficulties with English writing, but the rule of the first language was slightly more apparent among them. Abu Bakar et al. (2006) asserted that the syntactical distinction between Malay and English was the primary impediment to learners achieving a strong command of the language. This perception amply demonstrated the influence of the first language on second language acquisition. Such situations occurred when the configurations of the first and target languages were fundamentally different. As a result, the target language's writing process was influenced and complicated by the first language, resulting in the production of writing errors such as punctuation and subject-verb agreement. Maros et al. (2005) discovered that students made the majority of errors in the 'subject-verb agreement' (SVA) and 'be' forms. These errors occurred as a result of the Malay language's existence.
A narrative was a type of writing which told readers a story or told readers an event or a process in a certain time. Writers should have an introduction, a plot, settings and characters in their writing. At the primary level, writing was one of the most critical language skills. In addition, throughout these six years, primary school students should be able to describe people or things or to communicate information (English Language Curriculum Framework, 2018). To make sure students produce good pieces of writing, teachers might encourage students to use the language in their daily activities, teach vocabulary, and plan more writing activities which were interesting and attractive.
2.2 L1 interference in L2 learning and L2 writing
Within the European countries, there was a diversity of students studying in the same classroom, and hence, the language instructed in the classroom might not their first language.
Undeniably, the L1 of learners had an immense effect on their L2, resulting in making errors in their speaking and writing and affecting the English syntax and lexis (Islam, 2020). The findings of Aliyar (2020) that involved 93 Italian university students revealed that these students’ L1 greatly influenced their L2 (English language); thus, they made mistakes in grammar, spelling, word order and lexis.
In Malaysian schools, multilingualism was practised by students, with it being mandatory for them to learn the two main languages, which were the Malay language and the English language. The interference of the mother tongue (L1) in the second language (L2), on the other hand, could be referred to as "language transfer" or "crosslinguistic influence" when it came to writing in English (Halliwell & Jones, 1991). Language transfer, according to Hussein and Fawzi (2008), is defined as the interference of L1 in L2 in which the speaker applies the knowledge from their native language to the target language when speaking in the target language. Manan et al. (2017) identified three major types of L1 interference in L2, which she classified as follows: transfer of rules, reduction of redundancy, and overgeneralization. In order to emphasize the importance of these three areas, they were identified as the focal points of this investigation when conducting the document analysis.
There have also been several investigations into the effects of writing in L1 and translating it into L2 where majority of the studies found that lower proficiency learners tended to compose in their first language and then translate into their second language. Hussein and Fawzi (2008), Woodall (2002), and Wang (2003), for example, found that lower proficiency learners would divert to their L1 during L2 writing tasks when the task required them to write in their L2.
According to Cummings (1994), students' L1 writing skills had an impact on their development of writing skills in L2.
2.3 Factors affecting the writing skills among the L2 learners
There are three reasons for poor writing skills, which are discussed in this section. To begin, while many people attribute failure in writing to the students' inability to perform, it is possible that the approaches used by teachers have an impact on the students' ability to produce high- quality piece writing. Using data from a study of 25 high school students, Herdi (2015) discovered that the approach taken by their teacher in the classroom had an impact on the students' writing ability. The purpose of writing, he argued, will be more meaningful if the topic chosen by the teacher has a connection to the learners' prior knowledge; which is echoed Hussein (2008) who explained that because the learners are already familiar with the subject matter, they will be able to formulate and guess the appropriate lexicon to describe more about the subject more easily. As a result, the approach taken by the teachers in selecting the topic had an impact on the writing skills of the students in the study.
Another factor that contributes to students' lack of writing skills is teachers' instruction in assisting students' writing process that has an effect on the latter's writing outcome. El-Dhakhs (2017) conducted a study with a group of 19-year-old learners and discovered that they made numerous errors in their writing because the teacher did not provide clear instructions.
However, when the researcher conducted the intervention using formulaic sequences, positive effects were observed. Baig (2012) proposed a similar idea about how students can produce poor writing when the teacher is unable to encourage students' writing ability through the use of a five-step writing process module that includes pre-writing, first draught composition,
feedback, second draught composition, and proofreading. Cook (2016), on the other hand, asserted that the effectiveness of the second language classroom was dependent on the instructions given by the teachers. This claim led to most teachers overlooking the importance of providing effective instruction; in fact, they placed all of the criticism on learners as a result of their poor performance in the second language's written output. As a result, it became clear that in order for writing activities to be successful, clear and well-organized instructions were incredibly important.
Finally, learners' lack of knowledge regarding the post-writing process. Vasu (2016) discovered that second language learners tended to have poor writing skills due to a lack of feedback. According to her, teachers constantly expected students to master numerous aspects of writing in a short period of time while failing to provide adequate feedback on the students' writing work. During the writing process, Husin and Ariffin (2008) suggested that the evaluation conducted allowed students to identify errors made by their peers, particularly in the issue of code-switching, which was typically associated with the interference of the learners' first language into their writing in a L2. Consequently, the following discussion provided additional information on how first language interference could influence the outcome of a learner's writing in the second language.
3. Methodology 3.1 Research Design
The data for this qualitative study were gathered through the use of a survey and document analysis. The quantitative approach enabled basic statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and variance to be used to characterize the research.
3.2 Research Participants
To figure out, discover and answer the research questions stated above, a purposive sampling method was used in this study. The purposive sampling method is a sampling strategy in which the researcher chooses samples from the population to participate in the study based on his own judgement and expertise (Sharma, 2017). In this research, the population was Year 5 students from one national school in Gombak district, Selangor. Before conducting the study in the school, a permission letter to collect the data was sent to the school’s headmaster and it was approved within two days; hence, permission to administer this research was obtained. The participants in this study were 38 Year 5 students from one of the national schools in the Gombak district of Selangor. These participants were primarily from the first of seven classes in which the school used a streaming system to categorize students based on their abilities in the learning process. The students were all Malays with a mother tongue in Bahasa Malaysia.
In total, there were 22 female students and 16 male students who participated in this study.
Although the participants received the same amount of English instruction since pre-schooling, their L2 proficiency varied. English was formally practised in school.
3.3 Research Instruments
This research gathered data from two instruments: a questionnaire and selected documents.
i. Questionnaire
A questionnaire is a compilation of questions used for gathering information, opinions of the targeted participants or a specific group of people, depending on the researcher’s interest. To answer the research questions, a questionnaire consisting 10 closed-ended questions was distributed to the samples to answer. This questionnaire was created to gain students’ feedback
and it was given to the students at the end of the writing classes. They were asked to answer the questionnaire individually and reminded not to discuss their responses with their classmates. This was to ensure the given answers and responses were honest and based on their own experiences. The designed questionnaire basically adapted Mathers and Hunn’s (2007) questionnaire, which used three Likert scales. A Likert scale was used because it was easier for the samples to express their views as they could choose yes, no or if they had no opinion. The ten items in the questionnaire allowed for an understanding of the students' perspectives on their participation in a narrative writing class. The questionnaire consists of two parts: Items 7–10 were used to answer the first research question, while Items 1–6 were utilised to answer the second research question. The questions were written both in English and Bahasa Malaysia to ease pupils’ understanding. It was checked and validated with one expert in Bahasa Malaysia, who is also the Head of the Bahasa Malaysia panel in the school. This questionnaire was chosen as the instrument for this research because it enabled the researchers to obtain quick responses from the students. Also, the data collected were internally consistent and coherent for analysis as it was collected in a standardized way.
ii. Document analysis
Document analysis was a type of qualitative research where the researcher needed to review, analyse, interpret and evaluate a document or documents according to themes (Bowen, 2009;
Frey, 2018). To address the second research question, the researchers performed a document analysis on the students’ final examination writing scripts. The scripts were analysed on errors associated with "rule transfer," "overgeneralization," and "redundancy reduction" (Manan, 2017). Transfer or rules happened when these writers applied their knowledge of their L1 to the L2. Similarly, if these writers applied their L1 knowledge and did not consider the exceptions to some of the general rules, overgeneralisation would happen. In addition,
‘redundancy reduction’ errors occurred when they added or removed something either necessary or unnecessary. Thus, in this research, students’ scripts were analysed based on these three errors in order to answer the second research question. The process of evaluating the scripts was done according to the researchers’ planned time frame. The data were then entered into a table and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0 software.
4. Findings and Discussion
4.1 First language interference in the ESL narrative writing abilities
Based on the questionnaire analysis, Items 1–6 were created to study how the first language of Malaysian primary school students affects their narrative writing abilities in the second language.
Table 1: The Analysis of Questionnaire Data (Frequency and Percentage)
Items Yes No No Opinion
Do you plan your idea first in your mother tongue before you start writing English sentences?
29 (76%)
8 (21%)
1 (3%)
2 Do you get affected by your mother tongue language when constructing the sentences?
21 (55%)
16 (42%)
1 (3%)
3 Do you normally use English words that sound similar to your mother tongue language?
32 (84%)
6 (16%)
0 (0%)
4 Do you think that English sentences can be translated similarly to your mother tongue language structure?
7 (18%)
31 (82%)
0 (0%)
5 Are you normally aware of the use of articles (a/an/the) in your English sentence writing?
12 (32%)
26 (68%)
0 (0%)
6 Is diction your main problem in writing English sentences?
36 (95%)
2 (5%)
0 (0%) 7 Does your teacher use English
when giving instructions during the lesson?
35 (92%)
3 (8%)
0 (0%)
8 Are you clear about your teacher’s explanation in the English class?
32 (84%)
6 (16%)
0 (0%)
9 Do you prefer to ask for help from your peers to check your English writing work?
3 (8%)
33 (87%)
2 (5%)
10 Do you prefer your teacher to use both mother tongue and English language in the lesson?
36 (95%)
2 (5%)
0 (0%)
According to the findings from Items 1 to 6 (as presented in Table 1), the participants' difficulties with L2 narrative writing skills were due to L1 interference. For instance, Item 2 indicated that 55% of participants were influenced by their mother tongue's structure when constructing sentences in L2. The result of this research was similar to the findings by Miin, et. al (2019), Islam (2020) and Aliyar (2020), stating that there was an interference of the first language in learners’ L2. This interference occurred when these learners or writers did not have sufficient knowledge of their L2; and hence, they would apply syntax rules, morphological patterns of their L1 to their L2. It was common mistakes that bilingual or multilingual pupils
would make, especially when they were at primary level or below because they had not acquired their code-switching skills well yet.
Item 3 and 6 demonstrated that L2 learners' limited vocabulary would impede effective writing.
As indicated in Item 3, 32 participants agreed that they would normally use dictionaries that were phonetically similar to their mother tongue. The findings for Item 5 (Are you usually aware of the use of articles (a/an/the) in your English sentence writing?) provided the strongest evidence that L1 was interfering with the participants' narrative writing abilities. This is because 68% indicated that they were unaware of the proper use of articles (a/an/the) when writing the sentences. This was consistent with the previous claim that L1 interference could be detected in L2 learners through instances of "transfer of rules" (TOR) during writing. The omission of these articles could be an example of how the learners' mother tongue was interfering with their ability to communicate effectively. This was due to the fact that in L1, the use of articles was not emphasised as much in the writing process. As a result, when writing the sentences in L2, the learners tended to use a structure that was similar to the one they used when writing the sentences in L1. These findings coincided with previous literature, claiming that the language use (grammar), the appropriateness of the use of words, spelling as well as L1 interferences were the main challenges for learners to acquire good English writing skills (Fareed, Ashraf. & Bilal, 2016; Afrin., 2016; Misbah et al., 2017; Harun & Abdullah, 2020;
Ghulamuddin et al., 2021).
The results of the document analysis performed on the examination scripts obtained from students during their final year assessment are shown in Table 2. Transfer of Rules (TOR) was used to represent L1's interference in L2's written essay in the table. The abbreviations RR and OV stood for Redundancy Reduction and Overgeneralisation respectively. The standard deviation value can be used to determine how far the members of that group deviated from the group's mean value based on the data. A proper reading should generate a value between 0 and 1. On the other hand, the standard deviation reading for TOR indicated that it exceeded the value. This indicated that, based on the researchers' document analysis, the majority of learners made rule transfer errors, TOR, as opposed to the other two types, RR and OV. According to the mode and mean readings, TOR established that the learners made the most errors. This study established unequivocally that interference from the first language negatively affected second language learners' ability to write narratives.
4.2 Factors contributed to the students' difficulties in ESL narrative writing
Item 7 to 10 were designed based on the questionnaire analysis in order to study the elements that contributed to the problems encountered by second language learners when composing narratives. The findings for Item 7 (as shown in Table 1) indicated that the learners agreed that the teacher used English as a medium of teaching during the writing class, which was corroborated by Item 8, where 84% of learners stated that they understood the teacher's instructions. Only 3 of them did not concur that their English teacher used English as a medium of communication in the class. These data from the two items could be a contradict idea on previous literature, stated that the teacher’s approach to teaching English writing or to giving instructions in the writing lesson could impact the learners’ performance in the narrative writing (Hussein, 2008; Baig, 2012; Herdi, 2015; Cook, 2016; El-Dhakhs, 2017). This proved that instructions given by teachers did not contribute to the learners’ difficulties in producing narrative writing, indicating that there might be other factors affecting pupils’ narrative writing skills negatively.
However, Item 9 indicated 87% of participants did not prefer their peers checking their writing work during the post-writing. The quality of pieces of writing would be affected if writers did
not read and identify errors that they had made in their writing. If they had no sufficient knowledge about the morphology, syntax, semantic and pragmatic of their L2, they might not be able to correct their errors. This was in line with the research conducted by Vasu (2016) and Husin and Ariffin (2008), claiming that L2 learners tended to have poor writing due to a scarcity of feedbacks. The findings also showed that even though these learners were clear and could fathom their English teachers’ lesson in the classrooms; almost all of them (36 participants) preferred their English teacher to use both mother tongue and English language in the lesson. Nevertheless, it indirectly proved the low level of readiness among L2 learners in accepting the language during a writing lesson. To a certain extent, an English classroom which was conducted in bilingual might affect the mastery of the target language among learners as according to the study done by Snorradóttir (2014), 54% of the participants agreed that there was an improvement in their vocabulary when their English teachers used only English to teach in the classroom. Hence, using students’ mother tongue to teach the target language (the English language) may affect L2 narrative writing of Malaysian primary school learners.
5. Conclusion
The most critical part of language learning and acquisition is writing. However, it is occasionally difficult, if not impossible, for language learners to write coherently, particularly when the language is not the learner's native tongue, as attested by Ariyanti and Fitriana (2017).
It occasionally varies in terms of individuals' specific language learning and acquisition techniques. This means that some L2 language learners struggle to construct logical and short phrases. However, there are other factors that influence the process of writing skill acquisition, such as the first language spoken, the writing training methods used, and the materials used in the classroom. The influence of the mother tongue has been identified as one of the most important factors influencing the writing abilities of L2 learners.
L2 learners use their L1 as a tool for composing sentences or paragraphs in their L2, but only to a certain extent. Learners with a lower level of proficiency in their L2 writing skills, on the other hand, are more attentive to their surroundings. As a result, L2 learners will occasionally switch to their native language when writing in their second language. However, there is a debate about whether teachers should allow students to write in their mother tongue language or not at all. This demonstrates that the sentence structures of L1 can be negatively translated to L2 in some cases. In conclusion, when learners write in their second language, their first language has a significant impact on their writing abilities.
Apart from the influence of L1 use during L2 learning, there are several other elements that affect L2 writing abilities. Improper writing topic, for example, one that is unrelated to the learners' experiences, may impair their ability to write well in L2. Additionally, educational or teaching approaches might have an effect on learners' L2 writing. According to studies, ineffective teacher teaching approach during the writing activity has a negative effect on the learners' writing performance. Another element affecting learners' L2 writing abilities is a lack of post-writing feedback. Learners who do not receive constructive criticism on their writing from teachers or peers may develop erroneous concepts. Without sufficient feedback from other parties, the errors will not be corrected.
In conclusion, findings show that a variety of factors can influence L2 writing skills as seen by the participants' writing outcomes. While some research has been done on primary level learners, the vast majority of the studies described above have focused on secondary and tertiary levels of learners. As such, this study may serve as an eye-opener to the field of study
that can be conducted hereinafter, with a particular emphasis on the factors influencing the learners' writing skill in the second language, primarily intended for young language learners or primary level learners who are still at the beginning stage of language learning, so that the issues of L1 interference in writing skills can be addressed sooner rather than later.
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