Chapter 1

Introduction

Background of the Study

This study involves the difficulties of the students speaking fluently in English in this

research we should be able to gather data to provide the conclusion to the study.

Since English is a foreign language in our country, some of the student especially junior

high school students are having difficulties with it. According to Kavin Hetrakul they use

English more frequent only inside the class and less frequent outside class. This case brings a

problem that make junior high school students have difficulties to communicate in English. One

of the causes of this problem is with the grammar. Moreover, there are singular and plural forms

that the students have to distinguish and still many forms that have to be learned. Most students

are very easy to get confused with English grammar, while grammar is very needed to form a

right sentence.

Now, English is an international language even technology and the working world use

English. One of the conditions that the students must require is that have to speak English

fluently. This skill will be their plus point in facing the working world from now on, the student

have to try hard to overcome their difficulties to speak English fluently.

There are ways to encourage students to overcome their problems. One of this is a way for

teachers to force the students to speak English all the time in their school and during classes. The

teachers must be able to convince the students to be brave to speak English, it does not matter if

they have very bad grammar and convince the students that making errors is a normal thing in

learning.

Statement of the Problem/Objectives

The main purpose of our study was to investigate the level of difficulty of speaking

English fluently in John B. Lacson Colleges Foundation Bacolod (JBLCF) from first year to

fourth year high school.

1. We would like to know what are the reasons or problems of the students why they

are not fluently speaking English.

2. Who has the problem why those students not fluently speaking in English?

3. What will be the solution to the problem?

Framework

English is now considered as an important language, not only in the learning institutions

but also within the society. Most students hard to speak English students that have more

knowledge is that who can communicate competently in English. Unfortunately the standard of

English among today and apos:s graduates is disappointing. One may argue that emphasize

should be put on the skill needed to do a particular study and focusing on being able to speak

English well. However, in certain fields the ability to converse well in English is mandatory. It is

especially important to graduates or students of the maritime institution because of the

competitive of the other country.

 In teaching, we observe that some of the students kept silent all the time during the

teaching and learning session. And the main reason for this situation taking place is the fact that

they do not want to speak English. Most of the time during classroom teaching, only few

students is explaining and trying to get the student and apos;s to speak. Even when they know the

answer to a simple question, they still hesitate to open their mouths, and to volunteer in

answering the question orally. They are indifferent to conversing in English. Although some of

the students know clearly that they should be competent in the language so as to qualify

themselves for the current competitive career seeking opportunities that they will face in the

future. Besides, the ability to speak in English is required in the society and in our community

since we are in a third country. With this demographic background, one common language that

we share besides Tagalog is English. Therefore, having confidence to speak the language is

considered necessary.

English is an international language, spoken in many countries both as a native and as a

second or foreign language. In almost every country on the earth, English is taught in the

schools. English is spoken as a native language by about 375 million people and as a second

language by another 375 million. But us as a student’s we learn about English language but it’s

hard to have a good pronunciation.

For engineering students whose mother tongue is not English, mastering English is even

more important, not only for their academic life but also for their prospective career. In order to

master the engineering knowledge and skills better, engineering students should own the English

language competence. Most of the scientific papers or journals in the world are published in

English. Most of the engineering graphs are also marked in English. Moreover, most engineering

professors in various universities are also conducting their lectures in Speaking English. Hence,
engineering students should at least master the Basic English ability to deal with the countless

English lectures, tutorials, laboratory, projects and papers. Finally, they have to submit their

important theses, still in English. Today’s engineer has to communicate with more number of his

/her counter parts across the globe and has to travel to many continents and work, away from

their home country. Engineers usually work in groups. In order to understand and co-operate

with their colleagues and accomplish their projects fluently, engineers have to speak good

English. Text materials relating to the subjects of engineering and technology are available only

in English. Considering the above facts, learning English, the universal language, as a second

language becomes inseparable and unavoidable in engineering curriculum.

Every student’s want a teacher who can motivate them to speak more and more in the

classroom and teach them how to use language outside the classroom. They want their teacher to

be good at English and capable of correcting their mistakes without hurting their ego or without

accusing them of not having knowledge of English. They want their teacher to create an informal

environment in the class where they can learn with fun and learn good speaking skills.

Significance of the Study

JBLCF-B INC. the result of this study may be a guide to help them in the improvement of

the English curriculum to be more efficient and effective in aiming for Communicative

Competence.

School Administrators. The academic school administrator of JBLCF-B may benefit from

the result of this study such that they will adapt the concept of Communicative Competence in

their language curriculum. They can also encourage their teachers to use strategies in their

lessons to better facilities the acquisition of Communicative Competence in their students.

 Teachers. The result of the study may serve as a guide for them to better understand the

concept of Communicative Competence and it’s four components and apply their knowledge in

the preparation of the lessons and activities for their students .

Students. The result of the study could encourage them to improve their Communicative

Competence in the English language. It may also serve as a guide on how they can improve in its

four components.

Researcher. The result of the study shall serve as a guide in the development of

instructional materials and strategies that aim for Communicative Competence. It also serves as a

motivation for future studies on the topic.

Future Researcher. The result of the study may motivate them to conduct their own

researcher on Communicative Competence. It may also serve as a framework for their studies on

the matter.

Scope and limitations

The present investigation aimed to learn level of students speaking English fluently and

limits it's respondents to the junior high school students of John B. Lacson Colleges Foundation-

B in the year of 2017-2018.

Definition of Terms

For clearer understanding the following terms were defined herein conceptually and as

they were operationally used in the study.

Communicative Competence. Refers to a learner’s ability to use language to

communicate successfully ( Canale and Swain, 1980).

 In this study, the term operatively refers to the competence of the Junior High School

students of JBLCF-B.

The following are the four components of Communicative Competence following the

model of Canale and Swain (1980).

Grammatical – Linguistic Competence. The term refers to sentence level grammatical

forms, the ability to recognize the lexical, morphological, syntactic, and phonological features of

a language and to make use of these features to interpret and form words and sentence ( Celce-

Murcia, 2006).

As used in this study, the term operatively refers to the capacity of the Junior High

School to use the rules of English grammar correctly.

Discourse Competence. The ability to combine language structures into different types

of cohesive and coherent text ( D. Hymes, 1972).

In this study, it refers to capacity of the Junior High School to have cohesion and

coherences in expressing their own words using written English language.

Strategic Competence. Conceptually, the term refers to a coping strategies that we use

in unfamiliar context, with constrains due to imperfect knowledge of rulers or limiting factors in

their application such as fatigue or distraction ( Celce-Murcia, 2006).

In this study, it operatively refers ot the skills of the Junior High School to cope with

difficulties in the communicative process and address these barriers successfully.

Chapter 2
 Methodology

This chapter presents the research design used in this study, the research environment, the

respondents of the study, the research instrument to be used to gather data, the data gathering

procedure and the statistical tools to be utilized to analyze and interpret the data.

Research Design

This study employed the descriptive research design. The aim of this study was to

determine the current status of Junior High School students of John B. Lacson Colleges

Foundation Bacolod (JBLCF-B) from grade 7 up to grade 9. The reason of this population was

chosen because the title of the study requires “The Level of Difficulty of Speaking English

Fluently”. The result of this study also determined differences in the level of difficulty of

speaking English fluently among the Junior High School students of JBLCF-B.

Respondents

The respondents of the study are the sixty (60) junior high school students of John B.

Lacson Colleges Foundation Bacolod. There are twenty-four (24) students in grade 7, thirteen

(13) in grade 8, and Twenty-three in grade nine.

Tabel 1. Respondents of the Study Group According to Grade Level.

Year Level Population Percentage (%)

Grade 7 24 40
Grade 8 13 21.67
Grade 9 23 38.33
TOTAL 60 100
Instrument

The research instrument is a written question to aimed at measuring the level of difficulty

of students speaking English fluently in different part to separate the students who speaks good

and other students who is not good when it comes in speaking English. 1st part is students who

percentage of speaking is under 25%, 2nd 25% to 50%, 3rd 50% to 75% and last 75% above.

The question on how difficult to speak English was taken while we sees that every

students not sure with their answer because they get hard to speak English. So we did a survey

question a (15) points question in dealing English language.

The question on how necessary it is necessary in their taking course was conduct in our

survey for both BSMT and BSMAR-E students to measure their capacity in speaking English

while onboard (15) questions taken by every student.

An interview with a set of 8 questions was conducted to gathered data of students who

was good and not good to speak English and to score the test we conducted the scoring rubric of

all interviewer the total score for this task is (20) points.

Validity and Reliability

Validity

For validity, the research instruments for all competencies were subjected to face and

content validity utilizing the level difficulties of students speaking English fluently. Five (5)
teachers were requested to validate the tools and yielded a validity score of 65% which is

interpreted as valid.

Reliability

For reliability,15 BSEd teachers from a local university were ask to respond to self-made

test to determine the reliability of the instruments to measure the level of difficulties of students

speaking English fluently. data were analyzed and interpreted and resulted to a reliability score

of 60% interpreted reliable.

GATHERING PROCEDURE

Our researcher gathered a list of students taking up BSMT and BSMAR-E from grade 11

batch 2017-2018 students of John B Lacson Colleges Foundation Bacolod.

Our respondent students answered our question. How difficult to speak English and how

it is necessary in their taking course was given in all classroom of Junior High School. All

students of Junior High School were given the same question and they took for only 20 minutes

or more than 20 minutes to answer our question. It is easy to them to answer because of they are

all familiar of these situation. Some students answered the same in the second question that they

were challenge to speak English fluently but there are students that are competitive and they our

good when speaking English. The interview was done in such a manner and every question was

answered honestly and truthfulness. This done by orientating the interviews that would specifies

by their acknowledgement.

After the question has been given they categorize in their level of difficulty in English

language measure through their speaking skills.

STATISTICAL TREATMENT

For problem 1, which it intendeds to determine the level of difficulties of students

speaking English fluently.

Interpretations and descriptors for the level of difficulty were taken from the students.

( 2018 ) rating schedule for scoring.

The level of difficulty of students speaking English fluently of JBLCF-B Junior High

School was known using the following guide.

TABLE 2. The level of difficulty of students speaking English fluently.

SCALE INTERPRETATION DESCRIPTORS

0.00 24.031 GOOD Knows the basic speaking

skills with few errors.

24.00 18.01 COMPETENT Knows basic grammar with

occasional errors Knows the

knowledge and only

occasional

errors.

18.00 12.01 MODERATE Knows basic speaking skills

with considerate errors

Can get more

knowledge with only

occasional

misunderstanding.

12.00 6.01 LIMETED Knows little of speaking

English with has many errors.

6.00 0.00 INTERMITTENT They don’t know of grammar

Barely, knows and uses

expressions.

As the level of difficulty of students speaking English fluently of the JBLCF-B Junior

High School, the interpretation guide on the subsequent page was utilize.

TABLE 3. Interpretation guide to determine the level of students speaking English fluently.

SCALE INTERPRETATION DESCRIPTORS

50.00.40.01 GOOD Can speak clearly know the

proper way of speaking

English can speak

with proper grammar.

40.00.30.01 COMPETENT Can speak clearly knows the

proper grammar.

30.00.20.01 MODERATE Can speak clearly with few

differently.
20.00.10.01 LIMETED Can speak with some clearly

but with much difficulty.

10.00.000 INTERMINENT Can hardly speak at all has

much difficulty.

Meanwhile, the overall level of students speaking English fluently of JBLCF-B Junior

high was interpreted using the following interpretation guide.

TABLE 4. Interpretation guide to determine the level of difficulty.

SCALE INTERPRETATION DESCRIPTION

40.00.01 GOOD Have knowledge of the basic

grammar rules have good

speaking skills can

clearly speak.

32.00.24.01 COMPETENT Have basic speaking skills

with

common expression have limited

methods to deliver the

message.

24.00.16.01 MODERATE Knows basic grammar but

with considerable errors can

speak clearly but may

have some

misunderstanding.

16.00.8.01 LIMITED Knows little basic grammar

but with more difficulty.

8.00.000 INTERMINENT Has knowledge of speaking

has knowledge of grammar

can hardly speak.

For problem 2 which hopes to determine the significant difference in the level of

difficulty when the respondents are grouped according to year level one-way ANOVA Analysis

of Variance will be utilized and post has test was done using the Schefft’s test. The SPSS

(Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was the computer program utilized to get the

statistic result of this study.