Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Background of the Study

Communicative competence refers to the ability to use language appropriately in social situations;
knowing how to begin and end conversations, when and how to be polite, how to address people, and
how to use the target language effectively (Trask, 1997) cited by (Gladday, 2011). In addition, Bachman
(2010), stated that Communicative competence encompasses a language user's grammatical knowledge
of syntax, morphology, phonology and the like, but reconceives this knowledge as a functional, social
understanding of how and when to use utterances appropriately. Mastery of spoken English is becoming
ever more necessary, as in other countries around the world during these decades of the twenty second
century. However, speaking English remains a demanding task for many (Abu-Ghararah, 2012). This is
not a new problem; for more than three decades it has been noted that students spend at least ten
years learning English; yet, they generally achieve unsatisfactory levels of communicative competence in
the language (Al-Twaijri, 2010).

Park (2010) cited that Korean considered their lack of oral proficiency in English as one of the biggest
difficulties in applying a communicative approach in their classroom. Students also become
communicatively incompetent because they are given much opportunity to listen to teachers’ lecture,
but not to speaking and expressing their ideas and opinions.

According to the People Management Association of the Philippines (2012) highlighted during job fair in
Makati, being incompetent in communication is one of the factors that affect why four of ten fresh
graduates and young jobseekers are not hired. Alcasid, PMAP director for academe-industry linkages
said that the study showed that 40 percent of fresh graduates do not immediately get hired because of
the deficiencies in this competency.

According to Palmes (2014), few of the BSED students can speak fluently and spontaneously using
English language but sad to say, majority of the population cannot. She added that the students have
problems in speaking specifically in reporting. They cannot express their ideas using the target language;
they have poor knowledge on vocabularies, pronunciation, and grammar in both oral and written. She
mentioned that she does correction like encircling their mistakes in writings such as wrong spelling,
grammar, and etc. for them to know that it is wrong.

Alnatheer (2013), studied The Role of Motivation and Motivational Strategies in Saudi Students’
Communicative Competence in English. However, this study focused on the communicative competence
of the students in Saudi Arabia. Also the motivational strategies presented were only two which make it
different from ours. His study revealed that motivational strategy of teachers showed significant
relationship towards communicative competence of students. Thus, the researchers found the need to
conduct the study on motivational strategy of teachers to know if it really affects the students’
communicative competence.