I SPY 5 STARFLOWERS: INNOVATING TEACHING & FACILITATING LEARNING OF SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENTAND PLURAL NOUNS

Abstract

Subject-verb agreement (SVA) is one grammatical element that second language
learners often find challenging because they need to be aware of the subject in a
sentence and it has to agree with the verb that comes after it. Countable nouns, on
the other hand, have a plural form and they are generally formed by adding 's‘,
'es‘ and 'ies‘ to the singular. However, some nouns have no singular number and
others are plural in form but singular in use and meaning. Students find these
formations difficult and often get confused, leading to mistakes and errors
especially in their writing. In the interest of increasing awareness on the use
correct SVA and plural forms, an action research was conducted at a state sports
school. A total of 264 students from 9 classes were involved in a pre-test and posttest to measure the effectiveness of I SPY 5 Starflowers. The first phase was on
SVA which saw 35.15% increase in scores while the second phase, focusing on
plural nouns, showed an increase of 77.32% in scores. Hence, this action
research suggests the use of I SPY 5 Starflowers as an additional tool in
promoting the mastery of SVA and plural forms.
Keywords: Nouns, I SPY 5 Stars, Labuan, school, effectiveness