English Grammar and Usage

Running Head: ENGLISH 1
grammar and usage
Author's Name
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ENGLISH 2
Introduction
Schools in Malaysia follow the Malay language as the main language of instruction. The
Malaysia Ministry of Education emphasizes on increasing bilingual proficiency and motivates all
Schools to use the English language as it is an international language of communication (Lim,
2013). As a textbook writer for Primary / Secondary students in educational institutions in
Malaysia, one should keep in mind the procedural, factual, descriptive and expository texts that
can be useful for the students and help them in their English language subject. The focus should
be on creating a grammar-rich text that employs a variety of grammar features. The English
language textbook should work as a useful tool for the Malaysian school teachers to raise the
proficiency level of the students in English. Primary / Secondary level textbooks should be
proficiency and grade-level-appropriate.
The purpose of writing an original text for the English textbooks for the primary level
students in Malaysia, aged seven to twelve is to make to raise their grammar level. The teachers
should be able to integrate their reading and to write instructions when using the text. The
content of the textbook should be interesting and appropriate for the learners. As the target
audience of the text is aged seven to twelve years old, the content of the text can be an exciting
story.
The objective is to raise the vocabulary level of the students and introduce them to the
grammatical structures. Vocabulary plays an integral part in learning to read and to understand
what is read. The primary level students should be aware of different types of verbs and how to
use the tenses appropriately (Wawasan Open University, 2016a). Along with the verbs, the
students should be aware of the basic sentence types and the categories in the English language,
such as noun, verb, preposition, and adjective (Wawasan Open University, 2016b). The
expansion of vocabulary improves reading comprehension and helps the child to understand the
text better.
Past research gives clear indications that most non-native speakers of English need to
know the majority of the words in a text to gain adequate comprehension. The learners rather
than learning to read will focus more on reading to learn (Stoffelsma, 2019). The only way to

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prepare them well is by helping them acquire a sufficient level of English vocabulary and
grammar. According to Khan, Majoka & Ashfaq (2013), students who are learning to read in the
second language should have an expanded vocabulary.
Interesting and animated stories can be an effective way to teach English to young
learners. The teachers can use audiovisual input with the story narration when teaching as a
Foreign Language. As asserted by Yildirim & Torun (2014), the students maintain a positive
attitude and their motivation towards learning English. The teachers get plenty of opportunities
to present and recycle vocabulary and grammar of the target language.
An interesting short story would be written for the English textbooks for the primary
level students in Malaysia. The objective would be to raise their vocabulary level and introduce
them to grammar structure followed in the language. It is essential to keep the length of the story
in mind as younger children tend to get bored with lengthy stories. The language should be easy
to follow and incorporate different grammatical aspects like verbs, different forms of verbs and
sentence types in English. The idea is to make the students aware of simple and complex
sentences and expose them to different notion of tense. Any new story introduces new words and
thus is an effective way of introducing the students to new words and thus expand their
vocabulary.
Genre- short story (500 words)
The Strange Charmed Life of a Bad Boy
Once there was a little boy whose name was Tim. He was like any other boy but bad and
wicked in his ways. And his life was strange indeed.
Once Tim stole the key of the pantry and helped himself to some plum jam. He loved
plums and could not resist the freshly made jam by his mother. Now that the jam was almost
finished by him 10, he filled up the bottle with tar so that his mother would not be able to know 5
the difference. No inner voice whispered to him, - Say sorry to your mother. This is wrong 2.
Not once did Tim kneel down and promise himself not to repeat such a thing. The thought did
not occur to him that he could simply go to his mother, tell her about his deed and ask for
forgiveness. When his mother came across 1 tar in the jam bottle, she asked Tim about the jam.