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CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

INTRODUCTION

Rationale

Writing is not just a passive activity that can be acquired easily like

other physical skills. Hence, it requires almost every single ability of the

writer to do it (Park, 2013). One of the essential skills where learners can be

developed individually in the area of their level of intelligence, especially in

language learning, is through writing. It is also evidently true that to learn

how to write with fluency is the most difficult among other macro skills

(Belal, 2014).

In accordance with the World TEFL Accrediting Commission (2018),

writing is probably the difficult skill to master when learning foreign

languages. It is because grammar and the need of vocabulary is a must.

A report from the National Center for Education Statistics in the

United States (2015), states that the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) and

ACT writing scores showed a continued decline (Schaeffer, 2015).

Friedlander, a teacher, and a writer, supported this report saying that this
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decline is due to the addiction to texting, tweeting and social networking of

many students (Friedlander, 2015).

Another report stating the extravagant use of social media in the

Philippines saying, an average Filipinos spent 3 hours and 57 minutes a day

in social media, especially on Facebook. There are 67 million accounts on

Facebook in the country and 10 million on Instagram. This data made the

Philippines no. 1 in the entire world regarding social media usage (Camus,

2018). This data was backed-up by the report from Philippine Star stating

that social media has some harmful effect; encouraging poor grammar,

usage, and spelling, allowing information that may be perceived as fact even

if the idea is not that solid (Torrevillas, 2017).

With regards to the information presented above, the researchers

conducted an initial test to measure the writing skills of the selected first-

year BSED- English students if it is declining or not. The question asked

was, “How important is Social Media?” The responses were checked and

revealed that there are problems in their writing skills. Most of the errors

were spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, abbreviation, and

organization of ideas. The details mentioned above prompted the researchers

to seek whether social media has something to do with this decline.

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Aside from the low results obtained in the initial test, the researchers

chose the first year BSED-English students as their suitable respondents

because they are the first batch who graduated from Senior High School and

their education program is added with two years. They are chosen to see

whether they mastered one of the basic skills which is writing.

These reasons prompted the researchers to conduct the study on the

effects of social media on the writing skills of the first-year BSED- English

students. The results of this research will be the bases for a proposed Writing

Seminar Workshop.
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Theoretical Background

This study is anchored on Linda Flower’s Social Cognitive Theory of

writing. This theory emphasizes the influence of society on the product of

the cognitive process which is writing. She argues that social expectations,

discourse conventions, and the writer himself can be voices and forces that

affect writing. This theory emphasizes the idea that these forces (society and

self) create the hidden logic behind student writing.

Social cognitive theory of writing projects the idea that writing is a

constructive process that is influenced in a complex environment not only by

the personality and attitude of a writer but also the society and people

surrounding him or her. Flower believes society and cognitive processes are

influential to writing and its development (Costello et al., 2015).

Lev Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory supported the theory

above. This theory states that social interaction plays a fundamental role in

the development of cognition. Hence, it is very essential for an individual to

be careful of his or her environment. For Vygotsky, progress appears twice.

It first happens between people and within the child. Aside from that, this

theory emphasizes that cognitive development is dependent on the zone of

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proximal development of a child. If children are engaged on social

interaction, the said development can be attained. (Culatta, 2018).

Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory argued that cognitive

development is the result of a complex interaction between environment and

heredity. The theory is projecting the role of social interaction in the

cognitive process’ development such as problem-solving, self-regulation,

and memory (Bohlin et al., 2012).

Another theory that supports the anchored theory is Albert Bandura’s

Social Learning theory. Learning can be a product of watching someone

perform some actions from the environment through the process of

observational learning. It is also acquired through direct observations and

experiences which include imitation and modeling (Bee, H. and Boyd, D.

2015).

Social Learning Theory emphasizes the idea that we learn from our

interactions with others in a social context. Bandura believes that imitation

involves a product which is an observable motor activity. The theory points

out the concept that by carefully selecting the environment, we can influence

what we become (Nabavi, 2012).

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These theories proposed the idea that society plays a role in the

development of any person. Social media is part of the environment that

most people are living in. Therefore, it also may influence them in many

ways as well. If society can be a factor that affects the cognitive

development of a child, therefore, even his writing skills can also be

affected. Since writing is also a product of social interaction, his or her

writing ability is dependent on how and where he interacts.

Writing is becoming an increasingly important skill in today’s world.

The need for mastery of this skill is a must, especially in the progressing

world. According to Wax (2018), to improve the writing ability is also to

enhance the thinking skills in constructing arguments and framing issues in

compelling ways. Therefore, being able to write gives improvement to

students, regardless of the field they find themselves. Most importantly, to

write well gives an opportunity for an individual to put a mark on the world.

Though the fluency of an individual in writing is a must, the mastery of the

said skill is difficult to attain due to the following considerations.

First, grammar. Grammar is one of the broadest topics to learn and to

master in the field of writing. For some students, grammar covers a broad

range of rules as well as injunctions such as: never start a sentence with

because, never end your sentence with a preposition, don’t use first person,
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don’t use passive voice, avoid fragments, use I instead of me and who

instead of whom, and so on (Denham, K. and Lobeck, A., 2014). These

details proves that grammar is a complex topic to master and the mastery of

it takes a lot of effort. Despite the prevalence of writing in our daily lives,

proper grammar is neglected.

Next is mechanics. The mechanics of writing includes capitalization,

correct spelling and proper use of punctuations. According to Scaros (2016),

incorrect spelling and the improper use of punctuation can be the source of

confusion. The readers you have maybe left guessing what you are trying to

convey. For Nicole Frederick (2015), writing would not be writing without

the rules that shape words and string together sentences into a fluent

paragraph and comprehensive arguments. We use these rules by sending text

messages, writing essays, producing business reports or whenever we update

Facebook status.

Additionally, these following mechanics are essential in organizing

and putting the main points together to form a good composition. Therefore,

in providing well-composed written material, the need for proper use of such

tools is needed (Nordquist, 2017).

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Lastly, the structure of writing. According to Arnaudet and Barrett

(2018), well-written paragraphs flow logically from one idea to the other.

Most essays have three parts. These are the introduction, the body, and the

conclusion. The first part includes the topic sentence and other supporting

sentences. After the introduction, the body of the paragraph follows. It

discusses the controlling idea which uses facts, arguments, analysis, and

examples. Lastly, the conclusion is the final part that summarizes the

information written in the body. These parts should have a logical

connection between the main idea and its supporting details.

Apart from the considerations mentioned above, the researchers seek

for several factors affecting the writing skills of an individual. One of which

is Age. According to the statement from World Education News Reviews

(WENR), the required age range of Senior High School students are from 16

to 18 (Macha et al., 2018). In accordance to the age requirement, it is clear

that the ideal age to be in college is from 18 to 19. Knowing that the students

from the Senior High School already experienced the two additional years, it

is expected that by the age of 18 or 19, they have mastered one of the macro

skills which is writing.

Another factor is gender. Gender differences and self-perceptions help

an individual shape their competency. There are various competency

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perceptions in male and female. In general, males prefer more in enhancing

their physical ability, appearance and math ability. They strive for

stereotypically masculine areas and usually enroll themselves in programs

like science, engineering, mechanics, and athletics. On the other hand,

females engage themselves more in reading, verbal skills, and social

relationships. This is why they are more interested to enroll in programs

such as nursing, library science, education, and law (Daniels, D. and Meece,

J., 2008). Therefore, gender can be a factor that influences the academic skill

of a student, especially in writing.

The number of social networking sites joined and the number of hours

spent on those sites are also the factors. A report from CNN News (February

2018), states the data from the 2018 Global Digital Report that there are

more than 67 million Filipinos who spent almost four hours on social media

every day in 2017 up until January 2018. Among all social media, Facebook

stayed as the most social media platform in the world with more than 2

billion users. In regards to the data mentioned, if an individual spent most of

their time in social media, then, this may affect his writing skills.

A study conducted by Tessa Strain-Moritz (2016) in St. Cloud

University entitled, “The Perceptions of Technology Use and Its Effects on

Student Writing,” sought to explore the effects of specific types of

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technology use on students’ writing and achievement in secondary level. The

different perceptions coming from the teachers and as well from the students

are gathered in this study. These perceptions were about the effects of

technology use in writing. It concluded that a great deal about technology’s

effect on writing concerns in the area of plagiarism, effort and writing skills.

Even though technology has some good effects in developing writing skills,

it is still a must that the proper use of technology should be taught

comprehensively to help students write appropriately.

Another study conducted by Marwa and Sabrina (2017) in Algeria

seeks the impact of social media on student’s academic writing in the

Department of English at Tlemcen University. To make the study valid, 20

male and 20 female respondents were given questionnaires. The results

obtained were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. It revealed that

texting impacts their writing proficiency.

A study conducted in Bangladesh entitled, “Influence of Social Media

in Writing and Speaking of Tertiary Level Student,” by Anika Belal (2014),

showed that digital social media has positive and negative effects in the

writing and speaking of tertiary level. This study includes a sample of 16

teachers and 160 students from 5 Universities and 3 Public Universities. A

survey questionnaire was used to collect data from the students while a
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semi-structured interview questionnaire was for collecting data from

teachers. The analyzed results from the gathered data showed that even

though social media has positive effects in writing and speaking of students,

it is also has negative influences. Students tend to use a short form of words,

incorrect grammar and sentence structure of their formal writing and

speaking.

Jose Cristina M. Parina and Kristine de Leon (2013) conducted a

study entitled, “The Significance of Language Exposure with Writing Self-

Efficacy and Writing Apprehension of Filipino ESL Writers” which

investigates the relationship of English Language exposure, writing

apprehension and writing self-efficacy of 64 college students from De La

Salle University of Manila. The study uses three sets of Likert Scale type of

questionnaires namely: language exposure questionnaire, writing

apprehension test and writing self-efficacy in writing scale to 64 students (24

males and 40 females). These questionnaires were administered inside a

classroom during their English Communication class. The data were

gathered and analyzed using Pearson R. The results revealed that language

exposure plays a role in the writing self-efficacy and writing apprehension of

students. Hence, the writing skills of the students will be negatively affected

if they are exposed to poor language environment.

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Thus, several studies revealed that social media negatively affects the

writing skills of the students. These effects include poor grammar, spelling,

and inappropriate use of words. The bane of social media to writing unable

the students to write proficiently. Therefore, too much involvement of social

media leads to the decline of good writing.

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THE PROBLEM

Statement of the Problem

The main purpose of this study is to determine the effects of Social

media on the writing skills of the First year BSED English major students of

the University of Cebu- Banilad. The findings of which will be used as the

bases for the proposed writing seminar workshop: Enhancing Writing Skills

through Social Media.

Specifically, the study seeks to answer the following questions:

1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of:

1.1 age;

1.2 gender;

1.3 number of social networking sites joined; and

1.4 number of hours spent on those sites in a week?

2. What is the respondents’ level of writing skills in terms of:

2.1 structure;

2.2 grammar; and

2.3 mechanics?

3. Is there a significant relationship between the respondents’ profile and

the level of the writing skills?

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4. Based on the findings, what writing seminar workshop may be

proposed?

Statement of the Null Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of

significance:

Ho1: There is no significant relationship between the age of the respondents

and their writing skills.

Ho2: There is no significant relationship between the gender of the

respondents and their writing skills.

Ho3: There is no significant relationship between the number of social

networking sites joined and the respondents’ writing skills.

Ho4: There is no significant relationship between the number of hours spent

on those sites in a week and the respondents’ writing skills.

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Significance of the Study

The outcome of the study will be beneficial to the following

stakeholders:

BSED English Major Students

The BSED English Major Students of the University of Cebu-Banilad

are the main beneficiaries of this study. They will be able to know and

enhance their ability in writing as one of the macro skills. With that, they

will be able to build their learning with the use of the advancing technology.

College of Teacher Education

The College of Teacher Education at the University of Cebu-Banilad

will be able to see the need of the students regarding their writing skills. In

that way, the department will be able to construct a more functional method

to be used in the teaching-learning process.

The Faculty

Through this study, the teachers will be able to enhance their teaching

pedagogies in improving writing proficiency of the students.

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School Administrators

The School Administrators will be aware of the students’ needs in

enhancing their writing skills. The results will serve as the bases for possible

modifications and interventions of the curriculum that is geared towards the

progress of the students’ competence in writing.

The Academic Institution

The University of Cebu-Banilad will be able to create avenues to

improve students to be more competent in their skills in the area of writing.

Future Researchers

The results of this study will serve as their bases for conducting

further studies that will help in the improvement of the writing skills of the

BSED-English students.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
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Research Design

This study utilized the descriptive-correlational research design in

determining the English writing skills of the first year BSED English

students with the use of the researchers’ made questionnaire in writing.

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

 Descriptive-

Correlational
 Respondents’
Research
Profile
Design
 English Writing
 Data
Writing Skills Seminar
Gathering
of the Workshop
 Data
Respondents
Processing

 Analysis and

Interpretation

of the Data

Figure 1: Research Flow

Research Environment
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This study was conducted at the University of Cebu-Banilad. The said

school is located at Governor Cuenco, Avenue Banilad, Cebu City. One of

the programs offered in this school is Education. There are 222 first-year

students enrolled in College of Teacher Education in the first semester SY

2018-2019.

Research Respondents

The respondents of this study were first-year students of the

University of Cebu-Banilad who are taking Bachelor of Secondary

Education major in English. The said program has 81 students. For selecting

the respondents, cluster-random sampling was used. Thirty-seven from the

total population were chosen randomly. Thirty-six of them were female, and

there was only one male.

Research Instrument

The researchers used their own formulated writing-questionnaire to

determine the writing skills of the respondents. This questionnaire consists

of two parts. The first part is the profiling wherein the respondents filled up

a form that includes their age, gender, the number of social networking sites

joined, and the number of hours spent on those sites. For the second part, a

writing test is included. In this part, the necessary instruction and the
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question to be answered was in written form. There was only one essay

question to be answered. It is about the reason behind choosing teaching

among all professions. They were given 1 hour and 30 minutes to answer it.

The responses were rated individually in the areas of structure, mechanics,

and grammar. In the area of structure, the connection between the main idea

and the supporting details in each paragraph was checked. Another area

checked was in mechanics in which capitalization, punctuation, and correct

spelling is measured. Lastly is in grammar. The correct subject-verb

agreement, pronoun-antecedent and proper use of verb tenses were checked.

Five points are given as the highest rate in these three areas and one as the

least.

Dry Run Procedures

For the reliability of the instrument, the researchers conducted a dry run

to the first-year BEED students of University of Cebu- Banilad Campus. The

venue was in room 409 last September 11, 2018. A whole class of 17

students participated in the said dry run. The respondents were chosen not

only by the researchers but also by their adviser.

Seven researchers administered the dry run. They carefully explained the

questionnaire to the respondents. The said questionnaire is composed of two

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parts. The first part was the profiling and the second part was the writing

test. The respondents were given necessary instructions. They had 1 hour

and 30 minutes to answer. The researchers gathered the answered

questionnaires from the respondents. The response of the respondents on

their writing test was checked by two reliable teachers to have an accurate

result. The researchers tallied the results for both parts and their statistician

treated it.

Inter-rater Reliability Coefficient was used to determine the reliability of

the instrument. This reliability instrument requires two reliable raters

wherein they should have homogeneity in their rates given. The inter-rater

reliability coefficient had the result of 0.67. According to Cohen’s Kappa,

the result is under the range of good agreement which means that the

instrument proposed is acceptable.

Research Procedures

Gathering of Data
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The researchers sought approval and permission from the University

Campus Director, Dean of the College of Teacher Education and to the

respondents’ teacher in conducting this study. The researchers provided the

respondents a letter that explains their intent of the study.

The respondents were requested to fill up the necessary information

in the respondents’ profile. After that, the researchers proceeded in

administering the writing test to the respondents. A reliable teacher checked

and analyzed the response. It was guided with researcher-made criteria. The

results were tabulated and interpreted with the help of a statistician.

Statistical Treatment

Four statistical tools were used to treat the data. The first and second

tools were simple percentage and ranking. These tools were utilized to

determine the profile of the respondents as to age, gender, the number of

social networking sites joined and the number of hours spent on those sites.

The third statistical tool used was weighted mean which computed the level

of respondents’ writing skills. Lastly, Chi-square was utilized to determine

the significant relationship between the respondents’ profile and their

writing skills.
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DEFINITION OF TERMS

This paper provided a clear definition of some technical terms to

avoid ambiguity thereby unfolding a more definite description. Hence, the

following were operationally defined:

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Effects of Social Media

This term refers to the impact of social media to first-year BSED-

English students’ writing skills.

Profile

Profile refers to the personal background of the respondents in this

study as to age, gender, the number of social networking sites joined and the

number of hours spent on those sites.

Social Media

Social media refers to any form of online communication such as

websites for social networking wherein students create online communities

to share and express their ideas.

Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites refer to the type of media that the students

have.

Writing Skills

Writing skills refers to the proficiency in the areas of structure,

grammar, and mechanics.

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