CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM

Introduction
Levine (2002) stated that “Writing is one of the largest orchestras a kid’s mind

has to conduct”. There are about half a million words in the English language. Even

though 26 letters for about 44 sounds, many of its words not spelt the way they sound.

Research into spelling proficiency has resulted in the development of various

popular models that propose two cognitive routes or mental processes for accessing

and retrieving words from memory. The Lexical Route: The lexical route relies on

retrieving words from the memory, and can account for the accurate spelling of all the

words contained in one’s vocabulary. However, it does not provide an explanation of

how we make reasonable attempts at spelling new words or pseudo-words. The Sub-

Lexical Route: The second model is called the non-lexical or sub-lexical route. It relies

only on letter/sound rule associations to form spelling memories. This phonologically-

based process enables the speller to pull together unfamiliar letter on his memory of

which letters represent specific language sounds. The second route emphasizes the

importance of phonological awareness or skill of the pupil in order to spell.

Phonological awareness refers to metalinguistic knowledge of the sound

structure of language that is, conscious awareness of the phonological structure of

sentences, phrases, and words. Phonetic spelling (spelling by sounds rather than by the

correct letters) is a desirable but brief stage of early spelling development. If a student

has good phoneme awareness, that is, can segment all the sounds in a simple word,

the student is much more likely to remember the “true” letters combinations in the word.
We cannot deny that this phonetic awareness or skill can be enriched through the

Medias that pupils are now embracing nowadays. It means that media is of great value

in enhancing the spelling ability of the pupils.

The effect of media can be considered as the most controversial issue to

education nowadays primarily because we are now facing information age. Many

theories of media in connection to education were introduced to give concepts about

how advantageous or dis-advantageous the media to education is.

Most of the conducted research nowadays focused only on the electronic media,

mobile phone, if how does texting interfere with the spelling ability of the child but this

study allows the other media to intervene and to be taken into consideration its effect to

pupils’ spelling ability. This study aims to provide an updated data on the prevalence of

media technology among Grade 6 pupils and on the relationship of their media

exposure to spelling ability.

Conceptual Framework

This study assessed two variables which are the media exposure and

spelling ability. The pupils’ media exposure is deemed to have significant effects to its

spelling ability and is therefore made as the independent variable and the spelling ability

as the dependent variable.

This study was anchored on the uses and gratification theory of Elihu Katz

(1999). This theory stated that an individual will choose the media or form of media that

will satisfy his/her desires most completely.

Statement of the Problem

This study aimed to determine the extent of media exposure and level of

spelling ability of the Grade 6 pupils of Buburay Elementary School during the SY 2016-

2017.

Specifically, it sought to answer the following questions:

1. To what extent is the media exposure of Grade 6 pupils of Buburay

Elementary School in the following indicators:

1.1 home;

1.2 school; and

1.3 community?

2. To what level is the spelling ability of Grade 6 pupils of Buburay Elementary

School in terms of:

2.1 oral presentation; and

2.2 written presentation?

3. Is there a significant relationship between the respondents’ extent of media

exposure and level of spelling Ability?

NULL Hypothesis

The null hypothesis stated below was tested using the 0.05 level of

significance.
 H0: There is no significant relationship between the respondents’ media

exposure and spelling ability.

Significance of the Study

Pupils. The result of this study encourages the pupils to pay more attention in

exposing themselves to educational media.

Parents. They see and realize the benefits of exposing their children to different

educational media that will develop their children’s spelling ability.

Teachers. The finding and recommendations enumerated in this study once

taken seriously by the researchers help the teachers to integrate different media

technology to aid the need of improving its pupils' spelling ability.

Other Researchers. The content of this study helps other researchers enrich their

investigation related to the subject of their research work.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

This study concentrated on the relationship between media exposure and

spelling ability of Grade 6 pupils in Buburay Elementary School.

This study assessed pupils’ spelling ability as affected by the extent of their

media exposure taking the whole population of the first section of Grade 6 pupils of

Buburay Elementary School during the school year 2016-2017 as respondents using

questionnaire checklist.

Definition of Terms

Pupils. They are the Grade six pupils that will be the respondents of this study.
 Media. Comes from medium, a way through which one can communicate with

others.

Media Exposure. This refers to the exposure and utilization of available media at

home, school, and community by pupils.

Spelling Ability. This refers to the ability of the pupil to spell words correctly.

Oral Presentation. This is a kind of oral test where the pupils’ spelling ability will

be tested.

Written Presentation. This is a kind of written test that will measure the pupils’

spelling ability.
 CHAPTER 2

RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents the relevant literature and students related to the present

studies that the researchers believed to be helpful for the readers’ understanding of the

topic.

Media Exposure

Media is an intermediary in order to transport information used to communicate

(like the press, radio, television). Medias let to disseminate information to a large

number of people without customization of the message. Some examples of media are

newspapers, radio, TV broadcasting video montages commented, Internet, cinemas

and mobile phone.

Many pupils are growing up in a digital age where they have constant exposure

to a variety of media that is impacting on the way they interact and use information.

Megee, Director of Media Education Laboratory in Rutgers University, Newark College

of Arts and Sciences in Newark, New Jersey, and Executive Director of On Television,

Ltd.,a non-profit educational organization in New York City, argues that the most urgent

issue of the time is systematic education reform that effectively prepares young people

for citizenship in the Information Age. She further comments that an effective effort of

this scope requires a sea-change in public understanding of the functions and impacts,

and educational potential of media. She clearly believed that media is of great value for

the systematic education reform.

Spelling Ability

Spelling, or orthography, is a neurologically demanding sub-skill of writing,

involving a range of linguistic skills. Spelling proficiency requires the acquisition of

phonological knowledge, morphological awareness, and orthographic rules. So in order

to spell, we need to have control over the sounds and the structure of a language and

its spelling system.

Moreover, strong letter-based impressions of word structures are formed by

linking discrete language sounds (phonemes) with their corresponding letters

(graphemes). This may sound straightforward, since the English alphabet has only 26

letters, however, more than 70 letters-combinations symbolizes a hundred or more.

English language sounds. Widespread spelling errors occur across all ages as a

consequence of irregularities between the many sounds and letters and letters

combinations, as well as the fact that certain language sounds can be represented by

numbers of letters, or strings of letters. Take for example, the sound /sh/. This can be

created through a variety of letter-combinations, as evidenced by these words; fashion,

inertia, fuchsia, election, mission, and nauseous.

This sounds very confusing especially to pupils who are more likely starting to

enrich their knowledge of new words they encounter. Many researchers believe in

media to be an aid to this problem and to have a significant effect in developing the

spelling ability of the pupils considering the different kinds of media.

A further factor with bearing on literacy attainment is that text messaging, in

whatever form, provides children with additional exposure to the written word.
Cipielewski and Stanovich (1992) demonstrated that children’s reading ability at around

the age of 10-11 years was predicted by a measure of text exposure after earlier

reading ability and orthographic decoding skill were accounted for. It is possible that text

messaging provides young children with an important increase in exposure to text, and

also improves their motivation to engage with written communication without the

constraints of school expectations.

In terms of spelling, although textisms may be orthographically unconventional in

one sense, they do demonstrate an awareness of alternative legitimate orthographic

spellings within English (e.g. ‘ite’ is pronounced the same as ‘ight’). Moreover, it is

important to acknowledge that exposure to misspellings does not necessarily have a

negative effect on the subsequent learning of correct spellings in children (Ehri, Gibbs

and Underwood, 1988). Although textisms are ‘misspellings’ in a conventional sense,

they are phonologically and orthographically ‘acceptable’ forms of written English, and

for children there is no evidence that knowledge or use of them would cause

interference with their learning of conventional written English.

In relation to that, in electronic media, Donley (2000) found out that English

movies and television programs offer an excellent opportunity for students to develop

fluency in English. She says the film-for-fluency technique was highly effective for her

students in Uzbekistan.

Parker (2002) also claims that the best way to improve pronunciation is through

constant use of and exposure to the language; to speak English and to listen to good

models daily from television and English radio situations.

 Ambrose (2002) endorses television commercials for vocabulary building. She

found out that the video tape of television commercials is well suited for students’

immediate needs. Every commercial has a lot of new vocabulary, including a few lines

of colloquial dialog and several cultural issues for discussion.

However, a study conducted by Ron Kaufman entitled The Impact of Television &

Video Entertainment on Student Achievement in Reading and Writing stated that “ if

children spend their watching TV and playing video games they are not spending a

great deal of time reading and writing”

In addition, a study released in November, 1999 revealed that most children

between 2 and 18 years old are exposed to an average of 6 ½ hours of daily media

exposure, of which television is the most dominant. The study, sponsored by the Kaiser

Family Foundation, shows that 88 percent of all U.S. households have two or more

television sets; 60 percent have three or more sets; and 53 percent of all children have

a TV set in their room. The report states that about 7 out of 10 households with children

under 18 own a computer and 45 percent of those have internet access. The Kaiser

Foundation report also notes that while the average child spends 6 ½ hours each day

with some type of electronic media, exposure to print is extremely low. On the average,

2-4 year olds and 8-13 year olds spend around 50 minutes a day reading; the 14-18

year olds spend only 13 minutes a day with print; and 5-7 year olds spend 10 minutes a

day reading. The 7th through 12th graders sampled for this survey only reported 22

minutes of daily leisure reading and 25 minutes of reading to complete homework

assignments.
 Watching television is a passive experience. The viewer simply sits on the couch

and stares at the screen. There is little thought and little physical movement (besides

clicking the channel change remote). When discussions of how television affects

children arise, it often centers on what is being watched. The effect televised violence

and sex has on a child has been documented by many research teams through the

years. However, what is being watched is not nearly as important as the simple act of

watching. Whether a child is watching Sesame Street, Nickelodeon, or ABC News, the

process is the same. “Again and again parents describe…the trancelike nature of their

children’s television watching. The child’s facial expression is transformed. The jaw is

relaxed and hangs open slightly; the tongue rests on the front teeth. The eyes have a

glazed, vacuous look…There is certainly little indication that the child is active and alert

mentally”, states (Marie Winn, 2002).

When a child learns to read and write, he must access the schema developed in

his brain. As he reads, the child creates pictures in his mind and uses imagination and

points of reference to put the story together. “Television images do not go through a

complex symbolic transformation. The mind does not have to decode and manipulate

during the television experience”, says Winn. “ It may be that television-bred child’s

reduced opportunities to indulge in this ‘inner picture-making’ account for the curious

inability of so many children today to adjust to nonvisual experience. “Watching

television (and playing video games) does not develop a child’s skills in word

recognition, decoding, vocabulary, spelling or high-level thinking.

 “Educational television should be absolutely forbidden. It can only lead to

unreasonable disappointment when your child discovers that the letters of the alphabet

do not leap up and dance around with royal-blue chickens.”

(FranLebowitz, 1978)

The study, conducted by Joan Lee (2011), revealed that those who texted more

were less accepting of new words. On the other hand, those who read more traditional

print media such as books, magazines, and newspapers were more accepting of the

same words.

The study asked university students about their reading habits, including text

messaging, and presented them with a range of words both real and fictitious.

“Our assumption about text messaging is that it encourages unconstrained

language. But the study found this to be myth”, says Lee.

“The people who accepted more words did so because they were better able to

interpret the meaning of the word, or tolerate the word, even if they didn’t recognize the

word. Students who reported texting more rejected more words instead of

acknowledging them as possible words.”

Lee suggests that reading traditional print media exposes people to variety and

creativity and language that is not found in the colloquial peer- to-peer text messaging

use among youth or ‘ generation text’. She says reading encourages flexibility in

language use and tolerance of different words. It helps readers to develop skills that

allow them to generate interpretable readings of new or unusual words.

 “In contrast, texting is associated with rigid linguistic constraints which caused

students to reject many of the words in the study”, says Lee.” This was surprising

because there are many unusual spellings or “textisms” such as “LOL” in text

messaging language. ”Lee says that for texters, word frequency is an important factor in

the acceptability of words.

“Textisms represent real words which are commonly known among people who

text,” Many of the words presented in the study are not commonly known and were not

acceptable to the participants in the study who texted more or read less traditional print

media.”

Bushnell et.al. (2007), in his study, Text-messaging practices and links to general

spelling skill; A study of Australian children, found out that the proportion of textisms that

children produced was significantly and positively related their general spelling ability,

even after controlling for the number of months that children had been text-messaging,

and even though the words to be translated formed a list rather a naturalistic message.

These result also provide additional evidence that reasonable measures of text-

messaging behavior can be gained by asking participants to hand-write their responses,

when mobile phone access is not allowed De Jonge and Kimp (2010). Finally, we found

that the more months of experience that children had with texting, the more text

messages they sent and receive, and the more textisms they produce it seems that it is

length of time, rather than frequency of text messaging that encourages the use of

textisms, as the numbers of messages sent and receive did not correlate significantly

with textisms use. This evidence between textisms use and literacy skills against media

claims that text messaging has a detrimental effect on spelling, and may help to
reassure teachers and parents that allowing 10-12 year old children to engage to mobile

phone texting is likely to be associated the greater, rather than lesser, spelling abilities.

As discussed in his work, there are several explanation for this positive

relationship between the use of textisms and spelling ability. The fun text-messaging

one’s friends, and relative freedom of spelling allowed in text-messages, may increase

children’s over all enjoyment of reading and writing, leading to greater engagement and

achievement in traditional literacy activities. Even if this enjoyment does not translate

directly into conventional literacy task, engagement with texting is likely to increase

exposure to the written world, which has been shown to be a positive predictor of

reading ability (Cipielewski and Stanovich, 1992). Many textisms have a highly

phonological basis (Thurlow and Brown 2003), and the freedom to play with word

sounds and spellings may help children to master the grapheme-phoneme corresponds

rules necessary for conventional spelling proficiency ( Plester and Wood,2009). This

idea forms the basis of crystal (2008) theory of literacy enhancement, which proposes

that using textisms can assist children to improve their traditional spelling ability.

Alternatively, being good at spelling (and possessing the phonological skills that come

with this) may help children to distinguish the sound components of words, enabling

them to create a large variety of textisms.

He concluded, ‘’This study provides further evidence that childrens use of

textisms is associated not with declining standards of literacy, but with better spelling

skills. Parents and teachers who become aware of this positive relationship will be

better placed to enhance children’s literacy development, by supporting their interest in

all aspects of traditional and new forms of writing, while also providing guidance on the
differences between formal and informal spelling styles. It looks as though digital

communication is here to stay, and so rather than deploring children’s use of textisms,

parents and teachers can play a role in helping this new form of written communication

to encourage children’s interest and skills in language and literacy”.

Moreover, a study of Plester, B, et al, (2000), conducted two studies. In the first

study, he was interested in exploring whether high and low text users differ in their

academic outcomes on standardized tests of academic potential used by schools to

predict Key Stage test performance. He was also interested in the extent of the

children’s knowledge of textisms and how this may relate to their performance on the

academic tests. Because of the mixed results from the first study, he conducted a

further study, with the aim of looking more specifically at the association between

textisms use and children’s performance on spelling and writing tasks. In this study we

used a standard measure of spelling ability (British Ability Scales II) along with the

children’s KS2 English writing scores. We also recruited children slightly younger than

those who participated in the first study, as the 10-11-year olds group has been

identified as the fastest in the fastest growing market with respect to mobile telephone

use Hale and Scanion (1999).

After the study was conducted, he stated that “it can be seen that there was a

significant positive correlation between spelling ability and the ratio of textism to real

words. There was also a significant association between spelling ability and the number

of interpretation errors made in the textisms to English translation, indicating that as the

children’s spelling score increased, so that number of interpretation errors made

decreased.”
 Furthermore, he stated that in the second study, there was no association

between the age that the children first acquired their mobile phone and spelling

attainment. But in the first study, the children who used the highest ratio of textisms to

words in their text composition also scored the highest the literacy measure, and in the

second study, that relationship was also strongly found with spelling and writing

measures. These seemingly conflicting results underscore the need to recognize the

distinction between use of mobile phones, frequency of texting behavior and knowledge

of textisms.

One feature of the children’s use of textisms in the translation exercise that was

fairly widespread is that there was little evidence of codified abbreviations. These

children were neophytes at texting, and were making up abbreviations using their

phonological awareness and their understanding of the expectation of texting (that

brevity was to be sought), rather than depending on standard or codified abbreviations

such as those found in text glossaries (Crystal, 2004;lhnatko, 1997). Some words

received a large variety of reductions, e.g. night was abbreviated nigt, nght, nyt, nyte,

nit, nt, ny, nite, sometimes two different ways in the same message. It would be

interesting to determine whether older texters, or those with greater experience,

become more conventional in their uses over time.

Study Two also showed clearly that pre-teen children can use metalinguistic

awareness to slip between one register of language and another, as they deem it

appropriate. Those with the higher spelling scores were more likely to adopt the casual

youth code language for texting, which entails using non-conventional spellings that are

related to pronunciation. Had the children not been aware of the boundary conditions for
the two codes of language and used similar language in their formal English

assessments, they were unlikely to have scored as highly in the KS2 English scores as

most of these participants did. It may be that experience with texting raises awareness

of the variety of language registers available to them.

While further investigation is in order with respect to all aspects of text message

literacy and standard school literacy, these early studies have shown no compelling

evidence that texting damages standard English in preteens, and considerable evidence

that facility with text language is associated with higher achievement in school literacy

measures.
 CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The chapter presents the research design, research respondents, research

instrument, data gathering procedure, scoring procedure and statistical treatment.

Research Design

This study used the descriptive type of research for the purpose of investigating

the possible relationship between the Pupil’s media exposure and spelling ability. This

kind of research design was most appropriate method to make inferences on the nature

of the situation or condition existing at the time the study was made.

The descriptive research involved the collection of data in order to answer the

question concerning the current status of the subjects of the study. It determines and

qualified the attitude and opinions of the group of persons that information needed for

the study. The main intention in using this method was to collect the data for the

problem-solving in hypothesis-testing which will determine the usefulness of the

research.

Research Respondents

The respondents of this study were the whole population of the first section of

Grade 6 pupils of Buburay Elementary School. They were officially enrolled pupils of the

mentioned school year 2017-2018.

Research Instruments

There were two instrument use. The first instrument was developed by the study

of Grengia (2003) to determine the extent of the respondent’s media exposure. It is a

questionnaire was personally constructed by the researchers to assess the level of the

spelling ability. The questionnaire is divided into two sections. Oral Presentation and

Written Presentation of which each has two types of test.

Data Gathering Procedure

The research secured permission from the principal of Buburay Elementary

School to conduct their study of the said school through a letter-request duly signed by

the researchers, thesis adviser, research instructor, and the College of Teacher

Education Dean. As the permission was sought, the researchers met the Grade 6

adviser to agree on the schedule of fielding the questionnaire. When the schedule was

arranged, the researchers went back to the said school and conducted their study and

the whole population of the first section of Grade 6 of the said school were taken as

respondents. The researchers then gave instructions to the respondents upon

answering the test and some clarification was entertained. The questionnaire on media

exposure and spelling ability base on the sets of questionnaire and, was analyzed and

interpreted by the researchers with the help of their statistic adviser.

Scoring Procedure

The researcher constructed and finalized an achievement test with 35 items

multiple choice. Each correct response of the students in each multiple choice item

corresponds to two points and the highest possible score is 70 points. The pupil’s
scores in spelling test were interpreted based from the NAT Achievement Level

Descriptive Equivalence which had been adopted and used by the school. It has been

considered as the primary barometer of student’s performance.

Percentage Range Mastery Level

96-100 Mastered

86-95 Closely Approximating Mastery

66-85 Moving Towards Mastery

35-65 Average Mastery

15-34 Low Mastery

5-14 Very Low Mastery

0-4 Absolutely No Mastery

Statistical Treatment

For the analysis and interpretation of the student’s performance, the data were

tested at 0.05 level of significance.

Descriptive tools were used to measure the extent of the pupil’s exposure to

media and their performance in spelling. Mean and standard Deviation were used in

these area. To determine the significant relationship of the pupil’s media exposure and

spelling ability, Pearson correlation is used.

1. Simple Mean. This descriptive tool was used in getting the central tendency of

the scores of the respondents. The formula is shown below:

Σ×
×=
𝑁

where:

Σ𝑥 = Summation of respondent’s score

N = total number of respondents

2. Standard Deviation. This tool was used to determine the homogeneity or the

heterogeneity of the respondents of identified elementary school.

The formula is derived below:

√Σ 𝑥−𝑥 2
SD=
𝑛−1
 where:

x = mean of respondents in each school

x = scores of respondents in each school

n = total number of respondents in each school

3. Pearson Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (PPMCC). This statistical

tool was used to determine the relationship of two tested variables.

The formula is illustrated below:

𝑛 (Σ𝑥𝑦)−(Σ𝑥)(Σ𝑦)
F=
√[𝑛 (Σ𝑥 2 )−(Σ𝑥)2 𝑁 (Σ𝑦 2 )−(Σ𝑦)2 ]

where:

r = Pearson Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation or Pearson

n = Number of respondents

x = mean scores of the respondents in independent variable

y = mean cores of the respondents in dependent variable

Σ𝑥𝑦 = the sum of products of x and y

Σ𝑥 2 = Sum of the squares of the mean (x) in GCES

Σ𝑦 2 = Sum of the squares of the mean (y) in SMCES

 Interpretation of Pearson “r” Correlation Value

1.0 Perfect

±0.91 to ±0.99 Very High Correlation

±0.71 to ±0.90 High Correlation

±0.41 to ±0.70 Moderate Correlation

±0.21 to ±0.40 Low or Slight Correlation

±0.00 to ±0.20 Negligible Correlation

8. t – test. This statistical tool was used after computing the Pearson r. this would

determine if the null hypothesis would be rejected or not.

The formula is presented below:

𝑛−2
𝑡 = 𝑟√
1−𝑟 2

where:

T = t-test value

R = Pearson “r” value

N = no. of respondents