Improving Grade 10 students’

Grammatical Skills in Using

Subject-Verb Agreement

Through Proofreading

An Action Research Presented To

The Faculty of Basic Education Department

PHINMA Araullo University

Cabanatuan City

Group 5

Patrique Berber

Anjanette De Belen

Marylou Madalogdog

Yvana Robledo

Marvie Taguinod

Adrian Vicencio
 CHAPTER 1

I. Area of Focus

The area of focus is the “Improving Grade 10 students’

Grammatical Skills in Subject-Verb Agreement.”

II. Rationale

Grammar is the system of a language, without grammar a

language wouldn’t work, because people couldn’t communicate

effectively. Grammar names the types of words and word group

that make up sentences not only in English, but in any

language. And knowing about grammar offers a window into the

human mind and into our amazingly complex mental capacity.

Knowing about grammar also helps us understand what makes

sentences and paragraphs clear and interesting and precise.

In the very vast world of English grammar, one of the

important skills that we need to learn is subject and verb

agreement because of the common lack of understanding in

this area. And it is something that a grade 10 student

should already know. Based on our observation, we can easily

see that not a lot of students have mastered this in the

internet and in schools here locally, and so, for the

betterment of their English grammar skill, confidence,

socialization and self-esteem upon which has been proven by

many authors.

Not only that but in the process of learning this, the

students may also actually learn more grammatical skills and

correct their errors. Students would also actually be more

inclined to use the English language more as they know they

are good enough to use it to communicate especially with

other students who are not very good themselves. This will

ensure a lower amount of confidence being lowered or their

lack of skill within the English language be frowned upon.

Not only that but in preparation of college learners will be

able to thoroughly use this skill in college and in senior

high school to improve and get used to speaking English.

Subject-Verb Agreement is a great tool on constructing

a correct grammar and to avoid errors on writing literary

piece. Subject-Verb Agreement is very important because

without it the readers can be confused. English grammar as

well as subject and verb agreement really cannot be learned

properly. In addition, since most of us are not travelling

abroad or meeting a foreigner and stay within our own

country we would not want to improve our grammar for, a lot

are not very well-versed or gifted with the ability of

understanding English very well.

 As the English language is something that isn’t native

to us nor we use daily, more so in provinces. But even so,

in job interviews you will and must use this to display

intelligence, prowess and whatnot to the interviewers.

Create stunning essays or stories within your time in school

or even at story time with your kids. This research papers

aims to prove that learning this peculiar skill will aid

grade 10 students more than the others.

III. LITERATURE REVIEW

I.GRAMMAR

According to Richard C. Trench(1867), the use of

grammar is very important in depicting the value of the

language and the judgment towards the ideas. The use of

grammar also reflects the author’s writing skill and it will

give the reader an indication of the content in the written

production will be like. By using grammar correctly,

somebody will tend to write and speak English well. It is

supported by Harmer who states that if grammar rules are too

carelessly violated, communication may suffer (Harmer,

2007). Thus, without grammar, the meaning in a written or

spoken can lose or cannot be submitted.

 In the process of language learning, there are four

basic skills that must be mastered. They are listening,

speaking, reading, and writing. Besides the major skills,

there are three elements of English; they are phonology,

vocabulary, and grammar (Louder, 2008). By mastering those

skills and elements of English, the students are supposed to

be able to explore themselves in accessing many kinds of

information source in English such as article, novel,

magazine, etc. Furthermore, one element that students must

master in learning English is grammar. Grammar is the

central component of language (Greenbourn, 2002). Grammar is

rules for forming words and making sentences. It means that

grammar is the central component of language, which is

consists of rules of grammatical structure.

II.SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT

There are many materials in English grammar. One of

the materials is about subject-verb agreement. Eastwood

states that subject-verb agreement means choosing the

correct singular or plural verb after the subject. In

addition, Pyle and Page state that the subject and verb in a

sentence must agree in person and number (Pyle and page,

2002). It means that if the subject is singular, so the verb

is singular; if the subject is plural, so the verb is

plural.

According to the explanations above, the concept of

subject-verb agreement is simple. Unfortunately, although

making subject-verb agreement seems easy, but it is the one

of the most common mistakes in standard written English

(Dubib, 2013). It is proved by Marzuki, Zainal et.al., and

al-Dubib in al-Dubib’s thesis found that the most frequent

error was subject-verb agreement.The study of Karim,

Fathemaz and Hakim (2015) showed that the EFL learners from

the tertiary level make the errors of subject-verb agreement

mostly in their written work. In addition, these errors may

lead to miscommunication. They have also added that analysis

of subject- verb agreement rules may help the students to

develop their sentence structure and arraying skills in

sentence construction.

IV. PURPOSE

This study aims to determine that using correct Subject-Verb

Agreement is essential for enhancing the grammatical skills

of Grade 10 students. The intentions of the researchers are

to improve the students' mind and analytical thinking skills

when they are writing their own literary piece and having a

conversation using English language.

V. SIGNIFICANCE

STUDENTS:

The significance of the study is to improve students'

grammatical skills that are more effective when writing and

communicating with others, being able to express themselves

by using English language. It is important to be more

comfortable on using Subject-Verb Agreement to avoid

producing pompous grammar when writing literary piece.

TEACHERS:

The significance of the study is to help the teachers to

express themselves and to let them teach students in a clear

way. This helps them to know if their teaching style is

effective on the improvement of students’ grammatical

skills.

VI. VARIABLES
The independent variable "Improving Grade 10 students'

grammatical skills in using correct Subject-Verb Agreement"

is to enrich the grammar skills of Grade 10 students. The

dependent variable "Improving grammatical skills" is to

understand English and to know about correct grammar.

VII. RESEARCH QUESTION

This paper will be exploring and finding the answers to

these questions:

1. Why are the students finding difficulty in learning

Subject-Verb Agreement?

2. What are the effects of having good grammatical skills?

3. How grammar helps students to express themselves more in

English language?

VIII. SITUATION

Grade 10 students of PHINMA-Araullo University still have

difficulties in using correct Subject-Verb Agreement when

they are writing literary piece and communicating to others.

IX. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The problem that is being studied within this paper is the

unreasonable low dexterity in basic grammar found within

Grade 10 students that causes many undesirable

characteristics and effects. The researchers are proposing

this study that using correct Subject-Verb Agreement will

enrich students' capability on writing literary piece and

communication skills.

X. HYPOTHESIS

1. There is significant effect between using correct

Subject-Verb Agreement and improving grammatical skills.

2. There is an improvement in the grammatical skills on

subject-verb agreement after fill in the blank activity.

3. There is significant in the grammatical skills on

subject-verb agreement in writing essay.

4. There is an improvement in the grammar that narrowed down

to the subject-verb agreement as the most significant

errors.

5. There is significant in grammatical skills for students’

understanding and improved teaching methods.

 CHAPTER 2

I.REASEARCH METHOLOGY

PARTICIPANTS

The respondents in this study are Grade 10-Fleming of Basic

Education PHINMA-Araullo University which has 49 students in

total; there are 24 girls and 25 boys.

Participants in Number of participants

Grade 10-Fleming

Boys 25

Girls 24

Total: 49

SETTINGS

This study was conducted in the classroom of Grade 10-

Fleming at Basic Education PHINMA-Araullo University.

INTERVENTION