FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION

SEMESTER JANUARY 2015

ENGLISH FOR ORAL COMMUNICATION

OUMH1303

NAME

THERESA ANONG @ THERESA ANO

MATRIC NO

691221125522002

IDENTIFICATION NO

691221125522

MOBILE PHONE NO

0198615714

TUTORS NAME

E-MAIL

222777@oum.edu.my

LEARNING CENTRE

SANDAKAN LEARNING CENTRE

SPEECH OUTLINE
Title: Low Academic Achievement of Students and Suggestion of Problem Solution.
Name: Theresa Anong @ Theresa Ano
1. Introduction
General purpose: to inform
Specific purpose: to inform my audience about the low academic achievement of students
particularly in Science, Mathematics and English Language as well as suggesting some action
to be done in solving the problem.
A. Attention get-er :
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world
-Nelson Mandela
What brings us here ladies and gentlemen? How many of you are aware of your children
performance in school please raise your hand. Those who raised their hand can anyone of you
tell me the grades of your children in Science, Mathematics and English in the recent test?
B. Reasons to listen: Parents should listen to the speech because it is involve their
children achievement in school. It helps them to assist their children in study as well
as giving them the opportunity to understand their children better and guide them to
be supportive parent.
C. Thesis statement: Low quality of education affect the human capital development.
D. Credibility statement:
1. Before writing this speech, I have done some research through the Internet on the
impact we as an association can give to the children in school
2. Research and based on my personal experience form or suggests solution to help the
children as well as the school.
E. Preview of main points:

 First, I will speak about low achievement in academics of our children in school notably
in the subjects such as English Language, Mathematics and Science.
Second, I will talk about what actions which can be performed by the members of our
association to curb this problem
Finally, I would like to share some suggestion of solution in order to solve these
problem.

2. Body
State the problem faced by the school
The school now is facing the problem of low academic achievement by its students
mainly in critical subjects such as Mathematics, Science and English Language. This
problem is one of the main factor causing the performance of the school deteriorate
recently. As an organisation built to provide a structure through which the parents or
guardians of children attending this school can work together for the best possible
education and welfare of their children, it is our obligation to find the cause why the
students not doing well academically as well as suggesting resolution to prevail over this
matter.
Reason of the problem
Deficits in specific capabilities
Learning disabilities are neurologically- based processing problems. These processing
problems can interfere with learning basic skills such as reading, writing or mathematics.
They can also interfere with higher level skills such as organisation, time planning, abstract
reasoning, long and short term memory as well as attention. Children with specific learning
disabilities such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Auditory Processing
Disorder (APD), Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, Dyslexia and Perceptual/ Visual Motor Deficit
frequently found to have the most severely deviant childhood behavioural adjustments. Since
difficulties with reading, writing and mathematics are recognisable problems during school
years, the signs and symptoms of learning disabilities are most often diagnosed during that
time. However , individuals with learning disabilities may never receive an evaluation and go

through life as normal schoolchildren due to cultural restriction. Perception of local

community might make the family feel doubtful to seek helps from the professional for their
children. Furthermore, parents with specific learning disability kids feel ashamed and think
they are lack of parenting skills and they do not know how to teach their children, these
situation makes them feel alienated and insecure , then they decide to create a gap between
them and the school community.
Parental socioeconomic status
Low socioeconomic status of a parent presents a chronic stress for children and families that
may interfere with successful adjustment to developmental tasks, including school
achievement. Children raised by low income families are at risk for academic problem, which
can in turn undermine educational achievement. Poverty cause children to skip kindergarten
and pre-school education because parent cannot afford the fees, these can have long-lasting
consequences. For example, readiness for school on entry to kindergarten sets the trajectory
for future success. Developmental or school readiness is important to later academic
achievement because differences on school entry have long-term consequences. According to
Lee and Burkam(2003), most American students who start school significantly behind their
peers can never close the readiness gap. Rather, the gap tends to widen as they move through
school. School readiness has been shown to be predictive of virtually every educational
benchmark such as achievement test scores, grade retention, special education placement and
dropout. Lack of developmental readiness are increased likelihood of truancy, dropout, and
unhealthy or delinquent behaviours. Direct effects of poverty on children are influenced by
families behaviour. For example, low-income families often have limited education, reducing
their ability to provide responsive stimulating environment for their children. They use
command and simple structure rather than by explanations and elaboration with an increased
use of negative comments made.
Lack of emotional freedom to learn
Boigon in her recent research hypothesized that children with too high anxiety level are
unable to attend to the learning process. She cites a number of case studies where emotional
attitudes blocked the entire learning process. Three attitudes common among poor achievers
were that other individuals have more innate ability to learn; that they are not required to
struggle for knowledge and that they are not responsible for their inability to learn; they are

also belittling for them to demonstrate ignorance. Nicoladou and Philippou (2003) showed
that negative attitudes are the result of frequent and repeated failures or problems when
dealing with the subject particularly in Mathematics and these negative attitudes may become
relatively permanent. Factors which can explain the low attitudes of student towards
Mathematics such as the pressure to perform well, over demanding tasks and uninteresting
lesson. Moreover, Akeys (2006) work showed that several aspects of school context such as
teacher support, student-to-student interaction, and the academic and behaviour expectations
of the teacher were significantly related to student attitudes and behaviours, when the
learning environment of learning Mathematics with supportive teacher, student will have
positive attitudes towards mathematics.
Lack of motivation
A highly motivated person puts in the maximum effort in his or her job. Demotivated
students always cause lateness to school and absenteeism. As an effect from this, the material
taught in school become difficult if studied on ones own. Regularly missing class will
resulted to poor academic achievement. These problem might because of the student did not
enjoy the lesson in their classroom
Actions to be done by PTA members to help out
Organise fund raising
PTA members can organise fund raising event such as carnivals and carnivals to contributes
for academic enrichment and extracurricular support such as to buy more books or literacy
camp with experienced teachers to help the students with poor performances in academic.
Volunteering
PTA members can volunteer to help teachers in school. For example, cooking food and drinks
for the students during extra class at school to ease the burden of parents with low economic
status so that they do not have to give extra money for their children if they have to stay back
late at school.
Tutoring
PTA members who are interested and have free time can get involve by tutoring the subject
which they are expert in. For example, an engineer can help by doing tutoring in Science

subject of his or her expertise, so that the students can learn in new environment and it can
make the students feel excited and eager to learn more.

Regular meetings and gatherings among the PTA members should be organised within
the Parent Teacher Association to inform parents about the value of education to children.
This would be a way to let them active in the PTA as well as the activities in school.
Parent involvement would make them aware of the problems and issues affecting the
students, these also strengthen the parent and teacher rapport . The good relationship of
teachers and parents can lead to a successful students and better academic achievement.
Parents play an important role in helping to make sure their children and all children get
the education they need and deserve. Students need support in learning, not only they
need support in terms of money, they also need attention from their parents. Parents
should involved in their children educational activities which focusing in students
learning improvisation. Activities where their parents can join such as family nights on
mathematic or english literacy subject or family workshops on planning for college.
Programmes which involves the parent in school is believed to improve students
achievement because students are motivated doing the activities with their parents
around.

School communities such as the administrators and teachers must support parent
involvement in their children development academically as well as non-academically
activities in school. It can be done by making parent involvement a priority, for example
during schools sports day, parents can be invited to become a jury or participate as a
volunteer in order to make the programmes run well. Barriers of parent involvement such
as school policies should be recognised and revised so that parent can help to make their
children be more motivated in school and supervise their children regularly. In addition,
school administration can share decision-making power with parents and community
member to make sure the decision made will ensure the parent to understand better of
school policy and they will be less problem of miscommunication in the future between
teachers and parents. It is also to help school communities to understand class and
cultural differences.
Speaking

up

for

children

protects

and

promotes

their

success.

Children whose parents are advocates for them at school are more confident at school
and take on and achieve more. The more families advocate for their children and support

their childrens progress, the longer their children stay in school and the better their
children do. Families should

Become knowledgeable about the operations of schools and the laws that govern
those operations.

Be confident about their ability to work with schools.

Expect only the best from their children and for their children.

All

families

can

contribute

to

their

childrens

success.

Family involvement improves student success, regardless of race/ethnicity, class, or parents

level of education. For involvement to happen, however, principals, teachers, and parents
themselves must believe that all parents can contribute to their childrens success in school.
Parents can promote their childrens academic success by

Teaching their children the importance of education.

Finding out what their children are expected to know and to be able to do and
reinforcing lessons at home.

Sending their children to school ready to learn every day.

Community

organizing

gets

results.

Engaging community members, businesses, and organizations as partners in

childrens education can improve the learning community in many ways. For
example, community partners may be able to

Provide expanded learning opportunities.

Build broad-based support for increased school funding.

Provide quality after-school programs.

Conclusion

As a conclusion, poor achievement in academic of one students can be cause by factors inside
and outside school such as parenting involvement, school environment, peer pressure and
teaching-learning obstacle such as lack of material use for teaching and learning programs.
The school administration should take steps which is more useful and make the students need
meet the requirement needed by the school. Parent needs to play their role firmly by
supporting their children and motivate them by giving them attention they need and be with
them as much as possible if we have time. Since lack of students motivation and engagement
in academic works is an issue of concern amongst teachers. We believe that developing
strategies in educational contexts, to improve teacher support and student involvement could
be the most important in improving not only attitudes but also language, science and
mathematical performances among the students in this school.

(2002 words)

References
Ball, D. (2000). Bridging practices: Intertwining content and pedagogy in teaching
and learning how to teach. Journal of Teacher Education, 51(3), 214-247.
Darling-Hammond, L. (2000). Teacher quality and student achievement. A review
of State policy evidence. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 8(1).
Retrieved February 28, 2015, from http:/Iepaa.asu.edu/epaa/v8nl
Kagan, D. M. (1992). Professional growth among pre-service and beginning
teachers. Review of Educational Research, 62(2), 129-169.
Krippendorff, K. (2004). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology (2nd
ed.). CA: Sage.
Lee, P. Y. (Ed.) (2007). Teaching primary school mathematics: A resource book.
Singapore: McGraw-Hill.
Lim-Teo, S. K. (2002). Pre-service preparation of mathematics teachers in the
Singapore education system. International Journal of Educational Research,
37(2), 131-143.
Lim-Teo, S. K., Chua, K. G., Cheang, W. K., & Yeo, J. K. K. (2007). The
development of Diploma in education student teachers' mathematics
pedagogical content knowledge. International Journal of Science and
Mathematics Education, 5(2), 237-261.