Proposed English Language Activities for Grade 8 Students in Lipa City Division

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

English has been used by different people all around the world. Based on the Philippine Informal Inventory, a student could be differentiated as poor, average or fluent English speaker. There are many students who cannot speak the English language. Some consider the limited time in learning second language (L2). When a student is asked to answer a question using L2, they are hesitant to speak. This became a dilemma to the English language teachers. This study described the socio-economic and socio-cultural background of grade 8 students in public schools in the Lipa City Division. It also assessed the performance of the students in the different language aspects and the assessment of teachers on students' performance on the aspects of language. As an output, an English language activity were proposed.

METHODS

The study used the descriptive type of research with the use of survey questionnaires and a teacher-made test. Respondents of the study were 374 students and 35 teachers from the Division of Lipa City. Slovin's formula and random sampling was used in determining student and teacher respondents. The statistical tools used were frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, ranking and t-test.

RESULTS

Results of the study showed that some of the scores for students' performance in the 52-item test were significantly different from the teachers' assessment scores and are thus not related to each other. Among the five different language areas, more significant relationships were observed for Grammar, followed by Sentence formation, Vocabulary, Comprehension and Pronunciation respectively for the per item teachers' score. Meanwhile, on a per total teachers' score, the sequence of more significant relationship shows the following order: Grammar, Vocabulary, Sentence formation and Pronunciation, and Comprehension. The proposed English language activities are based on the low performance of the students on the aspects of language. These are the following; Grammar: Adjective Arrangement, Parenthetical Expression, Connectors; Vocabulary: Cline, Antonyms; Pronunciation: Stress, Intonation; Sentence formation: Wordy Sentences, Faulty Parallelism; and Comprehension: Identifying Main Idea.

DISCUSSIONS

Among the performance areas being evaluated, Grammar, and Vocabulary showed the most consistent number of significant relationships in both per item and per total teachers' scores and suggest a strong predictive value of the teachers' assessment to the students' performance in the aspect of language.