Project ICSIIS (Improving Communication Skills thru Interactive Instruction Scheme)

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The Senior High School program envisions to develop not only communicative excellent individuals but globally competitive citizens as well. Part of it was the great role played by oral communication skills in an individual's success in any field, where the communicative competence of an individual is highly valued. Thus, in order to fully enhance and develop such skills, varied and appropriate materials are needed to be available. As such, this study intends to develop interactive localized intervention materials (IMs) that will help improve the communication skills of Senior High School learners.

METHODS

The researcher intended to assess the attainment of competencies and the availability of IMs in English as responded by secondary language teachers in the district of Mabini. Before this, an informal interview among learners was also conducted to determine the difficulties they encountered in speaking the language. A mixed method of research was employed and made use of checklist-questionnaire to determine the attainment of competencies in English, specifically Oral Communication, and also sought for the availability of IMs. The collected data were analyzed and interpreted using the coding system, and frequency, weighted mean, and ranking were applied to determine the results.

RESULTS

Learners found speaking in English difficult due to lack of confidence, afraid to commit mistakes, limited vocabulary, shyness, stage fright, fear of rejection and inability to construct sentences. Similarly, competencies in Oral Communication were determined to be averagely met. Competencies on the application of prosodic features of speech, basic grammar skills, principles of speech delivery, and communication strategies consisted of the lowest four in rank. Likewise, it found the teachers and modern IMs like the laptop as most often available IMs. On the other hand, worksheets and offline interactive presentations were found to be often available. From this, localized IMs were developed following stages; planning, design, and development. Localized IMs on listening, vocabulary, grammar, and disciplines specific oral communication activities were then developed.

DISCUSSIONS

The results depicted that the designing of IMs must not only be based on competencies but also be suited to the needs of learners, therefore, IMs must be localized using the available resources and community-related situations. It is expected that the proposed IMs would help augment the scantiness of appropriate instructional/intervention materials in developing the communication skills of students. Likewise, the utilization of IMs for independent learning to support classroom instruction in ensuring mastery of the basics, and further studies that would test the reliability and effectiveness of this study in developing the learners' oral communication skills, were highly recommended.