Example of Theoretical Framework

Theoretical framework
by Ginaaa

My final project product is designed for young learners aged 10-14. Actually, this product is for 4th grade students in elementary school until 2nd grade students in junior high school. My final project will be entitled “Developing Grammar Exercises into Interactive CD for Young Learners”, I will only focus on exercises and explanations. The explanation is in English and is easy to understand. Then, I will make simple, clear, and easy exercises and I will make the answer keys in my grammar exercises. This application is designed for those who want to be independent in learning grammar. Here are some theories that can support me in making the product, such as grammar definition, parts of speech, parts of speech’s exercises, kinds of tests, multimedia definition, and macromedia Flash 8.

Grammar definition
On the whole, Shertzer says that grammar may be defined as a system of rules for the use of language, or as the study of what is preferred and what is to be avoided in effective speech and writing (Shertzer, 1986, p.1). Besides, Griffith explains that grammar is the consideration of the principles that determine the parts of language, their use and arrangement. (Griffith, 1849, p. 7). A further explanation is from Nordquist. He says that grammar is the science which treats of the principles of language; the study of forms of speech, and their relations to one another; the art concerned with the right use and application of the rules of a language, in speaking or writing (Nordquist, 2010, par. 1)
From these explanations about grammar definition, it can be understood that grammar is one of the language’s principles. Grammar is a vital part in language. When we speak or write, we have to use good grammar unless cannot communicate with other people properly.
The definition about grammar is important for me in making a grammar application for young learners. Firstly, the readers of my final project product have to understand what grammar is, so they can get the idea of grammar before they learn the grammar itself. Besides, if they understand the meaning of grammar, they can accomplish my parts of speech’s exercises in my application and can understand the explanations easily.

Parts of speech
Erichsen explains that parts of speech is a classification of words according to how they are used in a sentence and the types of ideas they convey. Traditionally, the parts of speech are the noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection (Erichsen, 2010, par. 1). Furthermore, Griffith gives the explanation of each parts of speech that
Nouns are words that are the names of things, adjectives are those that express qualities of things, pronouns are those that are used to remind of things, without repeating their names, verbs are those that express or imply actions, adverbs are those that qualify notions intimated by adjectives, verbs, words of their own sort or sentences, prepositions are those that help to show the relations of things, conjunctions are those that connect facts in the mind or simple sentences, and interjections are those that are mere sounds, suddenly uttered, not expressive of distinct notions (Griffith, 1849, p. 10, 11).

Another explanation comes from Mukherjee in her book entitled My Book of English Workbook. She says that a sentence is made up of words. Words are divided into different kinds or classes, called parts of speech.
From the explanations about parts of speech above, I think that parts of speech are a group of words in a language that may take place in similar positions or fulfil similar functions in a sentence. The main parts of speech in English are noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb, verb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.
Those explanations are helpful in making a simple explanation of each part of speech in my product. I will make it simpler because my targets are young learners, so I would like to make my product be useful for them. Moreover, I hope they can learn something from each explanation and can catch the meaning easily.

Parts of speech exercises
McKay states that the techniques described in the text involve using such things as simple drawing, objects, and dialogues to encourage your students to use English (McKay, 1987, p. xiv). Then, she explains again that when you introduce a new grammar point, select your model sentences carefully. In general, try to introduce only one new grammar point in a set of model sentences so that your students can be better focus on the point you wish to emphasize (McKay, 1987, p. xv). Actually, there are also some ways in designing parts of speech exercises for children that explain by Sandra L. McKay:
- Using grids
Grids can also be used to demonstrate the typical sequencing of adjective modifiers in English. Begin this lesson by putting a grid, such as the following on the board.
OPINION SIZE SHAPE CONDITION AGE COLOR ORIGIN NOUN

Bring several objects ... and begin by showing ... one of the objects and having them tell you as many things as they can about it. [Then], fill in the grid in the following manner.
OPINION SIZE SHAPE CONDITION AGE COLOR ORIGIN NOUN
Colorful Small Round Worn-out Old Gold Japanese Doll
(p. 13).
Grids could be used to introduce and practice various grammar points. [This] exercise asks you to use this approach in designing a lesson.
- Using descriptive (with descriptive adjective).
In order to practice the placement of adjective modifiers with people, you might have each student complete a questionnare such as the following.
1. How old are you?
2. What is your nationality?
3. What is your typical characteristic of yours? (Are you shy, out-going, carefree, etc? ) (p. 14).
- Introducing statement (with the verb to be with adjective and adverbial phrases)
In order to introduce statements with the verb to be and adjective and adverbial phrases, you might use simple and readily available objects such as books, coins, pencils, etc. Show the students one of the objects, making statements with adjective modifiers such as those shown below which describe a coin. Initially, as you model the sentences, point to each rod.
BLUE WORDS GREEN WORDS PINK WORDS
It is round
It is shiny
Then show the students several others objects, cuing them with appropriate adjectives, so they can describe the object. (E.g., flat ... It is flat, silver ... it is silver) (p. 31).
- (With prepositional phrases of location)
In addition to serving as symbols for grammatical structures, you could use blocks or rods to illustrate the relative position of objects and thus introduce expressions of place. You might begin by placing two blocks as shown below and then model the following sentences
RED
YELLOW
The red block is on top of the yellow block.
The yellow block is / underneath / on the bottom of / the red block.
Next, take two rods of different colors, placing one on top of the other and ask a student to tell you where each one is located (p. 42). McKay says that gather together a set of objects that you could use to represent various grammatical structures. These objects could be cuisiniere rods, building blocks or similar objects which differ in size and color (p. 51).
If we look the types of exercises above, the writer makes simple exercises because her targets is children, so she makes interesting exercises for them. I think that her theories about exercises are useful and helpful. However, her ways in teaching students about grammar almost the same as other writers.

Kinds of tests
According to J.B. Heaton in his book entitled Writing English Language Tests, he said “ Tests may be constructed primarily as devices to reinforce learning and to motivate the student or primarily as a means of assessing the student’s performance in the language” ( p. 5). Actually, there are some the most common types of objective items used to tests awareness of the grammatical features of the language. The types of tests are as follows:
- Multiple-choice items
- Error-recognition items
- Rearrangement items
- Completion items
- Transformation items
- Items involving the changing of words
- ‘Broken sentence’ items
- Pairing and matching items
- Combination items
- Addition items
In this section, I only focus on multiple-choice items, error-recognition items, and
pairing and mathing items because those items are the types of my grammar exercises. Here are the simple explanations and the sample of the tests of each item:
- Multiple-choice
The type of multiple-choice item favoured by many constructors of grammar tests is the incomplete type, with a choice of four or five options. This item may be written in any of the following ways:
Type 1. Tom ought not to ... (A. tell B. having told C. be telling D. have told) me your secret, but not did.
Type 2. Tom ought not to ... me your secret, but not did.
A. tell
B. having told
C. be telling
D. have told



A. tell
Type 3. Tom ought not to ... B. having told me your secret, but no did.
C. be telling
D. have told
- Error-recognition
The type of constructing error recognition multiple choice items. Each
sentence contains four words or phrases underlined, marked A, B, C, and
D. Select the underlined word or phrase which is incorrect or unacceptable.
1. I do hope you wouldn’t mind waiting for such a long time (p. 40).
A B C D
- Pairing and matching
This type of item usually consists of a short conversation. It is used to test the ability to select appropriate responses to stimuli which would be presented orally in normal everyday situation. This item is more useful for testing students’ sensitivity to appropriacy and their awareness of the functions of language rather than their knowledge of grammar (p. 49).
Sample
Colomn 1 Letter Colomn 2
Going to see a film tonight F A. No, I didn’t
How was the film ......... B. Most are, I
think
I can’t stand war films, can you? ......... C. It’s one of
the reason
So you went to the cinema. ........ D. I had a lot
of work to do
Don’t you kind war films too violent? ........ E. Actually, I
quite like them
Have you ever seen a japanese war film? ........ F. Yes, I
probably will
I like war films. ........ G. No, I
haven’t
Is everyone going to see the film? ........ H. What a
good idea
What about going to see a cowboy film
instead? ........ I. So I do
Why didn’t you come with us to see the
film? ........ J. All right,
nothing special
These kinds of tests are different from the previous exercises by McKay. The writer of these tests makes a lists of several coomon types of tests that usually used by some teacher to teach their students. In my opinion, I will choose some of these kinds of tests when I am writing grammar exercises for young learners. Actually, I will use multiple choice as my techniques to write grammar exercises.


Multimedia definition
Generally, according to Peck in his book entitled Multimedia A Hands-On Introduction, he says that multimedia is the combination of two or more media types, to effectively create a sequence of events that will communicate an idea usually with both sound and visual support. Typically, multimedia productions are developed and controlled by computer (Peck, 1998, p. 3). Moreover, Moreno and Mayer state that:
Multimedia is the integration of multiple forms of media. This includes text, graphics, audio, video, etc. For example, a presentation involving audio and video clips would be considered a "multimedia presentation." Educational software that involves animations, sound, and text is called "multimedia software." CDs and DVDs are often considered to be "multimedia formats" since they can store a lot of data and most forms of multimedia require a lot of disk space (Moreno and Mayer, 1999, p. 358).
Essentially, these theories can open my mind that I can insert exercises using multimedia. In multimedia, my application can be supported by audio and visual, so it can attract children to learn more about parts of speech.
Macromedia Flash 8
As stated by Joey Lott and Robert Reinhardt, with macromedia Flash 8, we can build atremendous variety of projects from games to commerce applications to prototypes and beyond. Regardless of the type of project, there are some common threads when building Flash application (2006, p.3). Another important of macromedia Flash 8 as Joey Lott and Robert Reinhardt (2006, p.6) say that Flash 8 is a powerful tool for working on a vast array of projects from animation to rich internet applications. Flash 8 has many capabilities, and understanding those can help you plan the scope of each project. Flash 8 has many new AutoScript features that you can learn and utilize to build new types of applications.
Furthermore, those explanations about macromedia Flash 8 are very useful for making my final project product. Macromedia Flash 8 is one of the multimedia applications that give us a simple way to make games, animation, and so on. We can use macromedia Flash 8 as a tool to build up our creativity to make something new that is interesting and beneficial for other people.
Moreover, I will use this program to help me in inserting exercises, pictures, and sound effects. Actually, this kinds of computer program is the appropriate one for me to develop a product that is designed for young learners. In macromedia Flash 8, I can create interactive games exercises easily.