Oral English Language Skills of Grade 6 of St. Theresa’s College Quezon City

Abstract

The study investigated on the oral English language proficiency of the
Grade 6 pupils of St. Theresa’s College, Quezon City for the A.Y 2011-2012. It
applied both the quantitative and qualitative approaches. Self-Assessment
Questionnaire, Oral test, interview questions, rubric for the Oral Proficiency
Test and checklists were employed as research instruments. There are two
groups of participants in the study, namely: the eighty-three (83) pupils who
were taken from each of the seven sections through random sampling and
the three (3) teachers at the Grade 6 level, including the researcher herself,
who served as raters or evaluators. Frequency and percentages as well as
the thematic analysis were used for data analysis. Results unveiled that the
pupils’ assessment of their oral English language proficiency level is within
the “established” level while on teachers’ assessment of their pupils’ oral
English language proficiency level is within the “proficiency level 3” notably
that pupils “commit few errors in the pronunciation of the critical sounds,”
“speak with few errors in syllable stress and does not clearly emphasize
content words in a sentence,” “does not blend some English sounds,” makes
few errors in phrasing” and “slightly confused with the use of the intonation
patterns.” This implies a call for reinforcement and enhancement in the
higher level. This, therefore, poses a challenge to the high school teachers
as they teach speech to these students. The study further assessed that the
pupils’ difficulty in expressing themselves in English is an indication of their
non-mastery of the skills in English regarding accent, fluency, confidence,
phonological and grammar structures. All these bring about ineffective
communication since listeners do not master the oral English language
skills. Therefore, enhancement of these skills is deemed necessary to make
themselves competent and confident speakers of the English language.