Meeting 2 (Week 3 & 4)

Meeting 2: Steps in Research Methods

     This class started with everyone getting ready with their own laptops. I am unsure of what I need to do today, but I’m keeping an open mind as to what I’m learning today. Supposedly, we’re going to learn about literature review and the steps in doing the literature review. So, Dr. Teoh passed around her thumb drive containing an application of LiRAS (Literature Review Analysis System) and also the definition of Research Problem and Research Questions.

    Since some of the laptops are not functioning properly and cannot operate like how it should be, it took some time before some of us managed to use the application in the class. After we are given the data (folder to support in order for the application to be run). Dr. Teoh showed some examples on how to operate LiRAS and asked everyone to try it out with at least 3 articles. I tried with only 1 successful article, and the other one, I got blurred out. But just for a reminder, I might need to practise more at home.

Topic Area	Students interest in learning English
Research problems	An attempt to motivate students to maintain/ sustain interest in learning English
Purpose Statement/Objective	1)       To maintain students interest in learning English 2)       To learn on different types of motivation to keep them interested in class 3)       To find the effect of motivations towards the students
Research Questions	1)       Why is it important to sustain interest in the class? 2)       What are the factors effecting the kids’ motivation in ESL classroom? 3)       What are the theories of Motivation? 4)       How do the rewards/ punishments give effects to the kid’s motivation? 5)       How does the motivation correlated towards the kid’s achievement in the ESL classroom? 6)       What are the ways in order to increase interest in learning English in ESL classroom?

Table 1: My assigned Task 1

     I am very interested on how to actually sustain kid’s attention in the classroom, since I do have this kind of problems at work. Young learners might be fine for me (between age 5-10 years old) but upon reaching secondary school kids, I find it hard to actually motivate them and sustain their interest. So, by choosing this kind of topic, hopefully, it will help me in learning how to handle them, and optimize their time in learning rather than just coming for the sake of attending.