The Unspoken Adversities of ESL Learners in Public School

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Various survey on the English Proficiency Index conducted in 2017 has revealed that the Philippines' rank has descended and the rates have gone lower. Despite the high proficiency level garnered in the EF EPI, Philippine Educational agencies have been alarmed by the present rate that they have seen as mediocre compared to the target passing score of other Asian countries' EP rates. With that in mind, parts and parcels of these agencies are taking steps to better the communicative skills and competencies of the students most especially in using the English language. Accordingly, this requires a look into where the very reason for the descent lies -the challenges encountered by the students. This study focused on the speaking challenges experienced by Senior High School ESL learners (N=231) in Tagaytay City National High School in using the English language in various communication contexts generally categorized by Richards (2006) as the threefold Types of Talk: Talk as Performance, Talk as Interactional, and Talk as Transactional.

METHODS

The data were gathered through a triangulation of survey with actual participation of 173 students as respondents (N=231), observation and interview with 70 students who are randomly and purposively sampled.

RESULTS

The study revealed the challenges that hinder the ESL learners in using the English language in communicating in various contexts include being shy to use the language when speaking, being afraid of committing grammatical errors and being comfortable using their first language when expressing their selves. The furthered inquiry revealed that these difficulties are based on the following: poor vocabulary, lack of self-confidence, and time pressure. Further, it was also found that student tends to encounter more challenges in a performance type of communicative set up than in a transactional or interactional one.

DISCUSSIONS

It has to lead to a more significant finding that the challenges encountered by the students are dependent on the size and type of audience and the kind of relationship that exists between and among them. This study hopes to devise programs and activities that will further improve the speaking skills in English of the students based on the difficulties identified in the study.