Utilization of Mass Media in Developing the Written Communication Competence of Grade 12 Students in Buhaynasapa National High School

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

It is apparent that mass media plays one of the greatest influencing factor in communication, both oral and in written forms. Likely, it could serve as avenue for individuals to enhance their communication skills. As the demand for technology-aided education increases, students nowadays rely on the use of mass media in getting information and data relative to their coursework. As such, this study focused on determining first the writing competencies of Grade 12 students, then on the frequency of utilizing various forms of mass media leading to its usefulness in developing their written communication competence.

METHODS

A descriptive method was used in this study with validated questionnaire and an aptitude test as research instruments. The study made use of 197 respondents out of 389 Grade 12 students of Buhaynasapa National High School, School Year 2017-2018, across different tracks and strands. It was obtained through random sampling using Slovin's Formula with 5% margin of error.

RESULTS

The study revealed that the respondents performed satisfactorily in patterns of development with the obtained mean score of 83.44. However, most of them performed fairly satisfactory in properties of a well-written text and academic writing. In general, Grade 12 students perform fairly satisfactory in various written competencies as indicated on the acquired average of 79.18. On the other hand, 50% of the respondents' population are using the internet as a major source of information. However, newspapers and magazines were least rated by the respondents comprising the 6% and 4% of their population, respectively. Despite of their low performance in the conducted aptitude tests, the respondents viewed that mass media is useful in enhancing and developing their written communication competence as evident on the generated composite mean of 3.24 interpreted as very useful.

DISCUSSIONS

Most of the respondents were not performing well in written communication especially in competencies relative to academic writing. However, they believed that mass media would help them in enhancing the said competencies due to the wide array information readily made available. As such, teachers must integrate mass media in developing written communication amongst learners. Moreover, it is also advisable to use the internet and online resources as instructional materials since many students are utilizing it.