Example of Literature Review

Literature review
by Ginaaa

Recently, I have found that some students have similar difficulties in learning English as a foreign language. Generally, they have a difficulty in learning grammar, vocabulary, structures, and so on. To solve the problems, I would like to develop grammar exercises for young learners and make it into interactive CD, but some researchers have different solutions to help students in learning English properly. Actually, the aims of this literature review are to give more detail explanation about the materials, to define the gaps, and to fill in the gaps. In this review, I will examine what source that related to my topic. For example, I must focusing on the strengths and the weaknesses from some books about grammar, final projects, and some articles from the internet. Then, it follows with each description of each book or source.
Lately, most of English books for elementary school students discuss the basic of grammar. English book for elementary school students also contains vocabulary, greeting, grammar, reading, writing, and oral skills. I have an English book for 4th grade students that is written by Yunita (2009). The title of the book is My English Workbook. This book is designed to lead students to learn by doing. Games, paired and individual activities, puzzles, and worksheets are included. For example, Yunita as the writer of the book made some exercises that have simple topics and funny illustration to stimulate student’s imaginations. However, the book only contains two kinds of parts of speech and one kind of tenses, such as pronoun, preposition, and present continuous.
Moreover, I have taken a book that was published in India and it contains many exercises for learning grammar. The title of the book is My Book of English Workbook and Nita Mukherjee writes it. This book is designed for young learners. The writer uses simple vocabulary in explaining each part of the grammar. The book also contains many kinds of grammar exercises. For example, she makes questions for students to write sentences, underline the nouns, and circle verbs in every sentence. In this book, I find many parts of speech with clear explanations. However, the weaknesses in this book is that she mentions some places in India which is unfamiliar for Indonesian students in each exercise and then the writer does not give the answer key, so students cannot know whether their answer right or not. Moreover, the writer only focuses on parts of speech and just a little explanation about tenses.
Nevertheless, research from the internet that I have taken is different from elementary books that I have seen. The title is “Teaching Young Learners”. The difference is the explanation of the research is unclear and too complex, but there are many interesting exercises. For example, the writer ask to students to fill in blanks with is, am or are. In every question, a picture describes the question. Klein (2010) also made some steps before students learn about something.
I think those steps are useful for students so that they can ready to receive a lesson from their teacher. Actually, I am going to use the interesting exercises that was made by Klein as my model when I am creating grammar exercises.
Next, in the book entitled Bahasa Inggris Sistem 52 M which is written by Herpinus Simanjuntak (2009). The writer uses Indonesian language to explain everything about the basic of grammar. One of the basic of grammars that he had explained is about the eight parts of speech. He explains them one by one with one example and a simple description, so the readers can get the meaning easily. For example, Simanjuntak wrote about the definition about conjunction in Indonesian language like,” Conjunction adalah kata sambung, yaitu kata yang menghubungkan kata-kata atau kalimat” (p. 71). In my opinion, for Indonesian people it is very useful. On the other hand, for students who learn English, the explanations with English can give more benefits for them.
Additionally, some research focus only on the descriptions of grammar and how it becomes the barrier for young learners in learning English. Marieta (2009) had analyzed how grammar makes anxiety to students when they are learning English. In her final project entitled Affective Strategies to Overcome Anxiety in Learning English, she made some strategies and tips to overcome these kinds of problems. Other research is about vocabulary. Pringadi (2010) makes a final project product and the title is The Making of Vocabulary Test for Beginners Using Macromedia Flash 8. He creates an alternative way for children who want to test their vocabulary in the front of computer. The aim is to set up their attention in studying English vocabulary with the interesting way that is using multimedia as his media to attract young learners. In his project, he put some theories, such as the definition of vocabulary, definition of beginners and beginner’s objectives in learning vocabulary, types of vocabulary, etc. The data that he collects include references, making questions, and collecting pictures. In my opinion, Pringadi has made a good pruduct. He uses simple vocabulary and makes simple questions for children. Actually, why I will use Marieta’s final project as my resouces because I need the reason why grammar becomes the barrier fo young learners in learning English. Then, Pringadi’s final project is really helpful for me in developing grammar exercises because he uses the similar technique with me that is macromedia Flash 8.
However, although Marieta (2009) has conducted good research about grammar and make some tips to surmount the problem, she does not make the alternative solution or make a product to attract students learn more about grammar. She just analyze why students felt anxiety when they learnt English, but she describes and explains the problems very clearly and very useful. Pringadi (2010) make an application about vocabulary for helping students in learning English. He makes the alternative and interactive application, so it can attract students to learn more about vocabulary. While it is important on the one hand; however, it cannot overcome to learn about grammar. It is just for learning vocabulary with an alternative way.
Then, Rakhimahullah and Spalanzany (2010) make another final project product entitled The Making of Electronic Dictionary for Young Learners (Dictionary of Places and Occupations). Both of them make the electronic dictionary for young learners. It contains 292 words related to places and occupations. They made an attractive dictionary in order to give enthusiasm to young learners in learning English and vocabulary. Then, the theories are English for young learners, vocabulary, technology, computer, and dictionary. I think their solutions to surmount the problems in learning English are different from me. I would like to develop grammar exercises for young learners, aged 10-14.
To sum up, although some researchers give more explanations and exercises with simple vocabulary in their book, some of them did not give the details of the basic of grammar. They give lots of knowledge about vocabulary, but a little bit about parts of speech. In every book, I only find one until two kind’s parts of speech that are explained in details. Then for tenses, there are so many explanations about that and the exercises, but the problem is the questions in English books for elementary school students are too complex. I think my project is useful for students that have difficulty in grammar. My project is developing grammar exercises on tenses and parts of speech and it involves more interactive exercises with simple explanations. Moreover, I only focus on parts of speech and tenses. Actually, for tenses it would be explained more by my partner. These kinds of grammar are the basic parts of grammar. The application contains many exercises, pictures, sound effects, and full colours. How young learners become expert in their English if they cannot learn the basic of the grammar.