DIFFICULTIES OF GRADE 8 LEARNERS IN BASIC WRITING SKILLS

JENNY ANN A. BOROT

A RESEARCHER PAPER SUBMITTED TO

PROF. HAMORA (di ko knows and name)
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR [COURSE TITLE]

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
WESTERN PHILIPPINES UNIVERSITY

JUNE 2022

i
 ABSTRACT
BOROT, JENNY ANN AVANCEÑA, College of Education, Western Philippines
University, Aborlan, Palawan, June 2020. DIFFICULTIES OF GRADE 8
LEARNERS IN BASIC WRITING SKILLS

Adviser: [insert name]

Writing is an important life skill that a person must be able to master, that is why
it purposely taught in schools and enhanced throughout the time of a person’s studies.
However, there are reports of senior high school students who are still struggling to write
in English (Magsambol, 2020). Filipino students lag behind its neighbouring countries
from Southeast Asia when it comes to reading and writing skills (Balinbin, 2020).
Understanding the difficulties of students in writing at a level they are expected to, helps
in developing a proper approach to address the problem especially in the Philippine
context. This study was conducted to identify the difficulties of Grade 8 students of
Western Philippines University in Basic writing skills and to understand the correlation
of attitude towards writing and writing performance. The study was conducted through
an online assessment using google forms containing a survey for the assessment on
attitude towards writing and a 100-item writing test. The test highlights two indicators:
Grammar such as Subject Verb Agreement, Antecedent, Modifier and Prepositions, and
Mechanics such as Capitalization, Spelling and Punctuations. Results of the study
indicated a perceived importance of the basic writing skill in both academics and
possible career in the future. However, it also revealed a negative attitude towards
learning how to write which becomes evident on their writing performance. It shows that
low confidence in writing and the capacity to master this skill is results to poorer
performance in the actual writing process. Additionally, students who perceive writing to
be difficult even before the learning process begins tends to be less receptive of the
knowledge.

Keywords: Basic writing skills, writing Performance, attitude

ii
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Content Page

TITLE PAGE i
ABSTRACT ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

CHAPTER
I. Introduction 1
Background of the Study 2
Statement of the Problem 2
Objectives of the Study 2
Significance of the Study 3
Hypotheses of the Study 3
Scope and Delimitation 3
Scope and Limitation of the Study 3
Definition of Terms

II. Review of Related Literature 5

Conceptual Framework 8

III. Methodology 9
Locale of the Study 9
Research Design 9
Respondents of the Study 9
Sampling Procedure 9
Instrumentation 9
Data Collection Procedure 10
Treatment of Data 10

IV. Results and Discussion 11

Frequency distribution of student’s attitude towards 11
writing
Percentage Distribution of Students based on their Writing 13
Performance
Frequency of Errors Committed on Writing Test 14

V. Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations 16

Summary 16
Conclusion 17
Recommendation 17

iii
REFERENCES 18
APPENDICES

iv
 Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Writing is an important life skill that a person must be able to master, that is why

it purposely taught in schools and enhanced throughout the time of a person’s studies.

Aside from being a form of communication and an avenue to express oneself, it is often

used in assessing a person’s learning and depth of understanding. Thus, mastering basic

writing skill is a must to excel in other aspects of one’s academic endeavour. Reading and

writing are two closely linked skills that are imperative to be considered literate.

Regardless of the undeniable link between the two skills, there still instances where they

are necessarily treated separately.

Stotsky (1983) suggests that students who read well are not guaranteed to be

good writers, but almost all students who write well can read well. Writing requires more

mental energy than reading for it is dependent on how well a student understand a topic

and how fluent he/she in expressing his/her thoughts in a certain language. For this,

writing is an effective tool in measuring the acquired knowledge of a person.

Students entering higher education are expected to already possess necessary

skills in writing for them to excel academically at this level. Writing is an important skill

to achieve a successful language development. However, there are reports of senior high

school students who are still struggling to write in English (Magsambol, 2020). Filipino

students lag behind its neighbouring countries from Southeast Asia when it comes to

reading and writing skills (Balinbin, 2020). Understanding the difficulties of students in

writing at a level they are expected to, helps in developing a proper approach to address

the problem especially in the Philippine context.

1
Statement of the Problem

The study aims to identify the difficulties of Grade 8 students of Western

Philippines University in Basic writing skills. Specifically, the study aims to answer the

following questions:

1. What is the attitude of Grade 8 students of Western Philippines University

Agricultural Science High School towards writing?

2. What is the writing performance of Grade 8 students of Western Philippines

University Agricultural High School in terms of: Spelling, capitalization,

punctuation, and grammar?

3. Is there a significant relationship between the attitude of the students towards

writing and their writing performance?

Objectives of the Study

The study seeks to establish the importance of mastering basic writing skills for

high school student and to understand the correlation of attitude towards writing and

writing performance. Specifically, the study aims to:

1. Determine the attitude of Grade 8 students towards writing;

2. Assess the writing performance of grade 8 students in terms of spelling,

capitalization, punctuation and grammar and to;

3. Determine the relationship between attitude of students towards writing and

their writing performance.

2
Significance of the Study

This study gives more emphasis on the importance of mastering basic writing

skills especially for high school students. Furthermore, it highlights the status of

students’ writing performance and the difficulties experienced by students in terms of

acquiring basic writing skills. The findings of this study will give way to a deeper

understanding of the relationship between students’ attitude towards writing and their

performance to help teachers and educators in developing more appropriate teaching

strategies and materials.

Hypotheses of the Study

Attitudes towards school and learning are associated with academic achievement.

ABC model of attitudes explains that attitude towards school and learning is indicative of

the tendency to behave in accordance with favourable and unfavourable experiences with

school and learning. Hence, attitude of students towards writing reflects on their ability

or inability to perform at an expected level, in this case, exhibit difficulties in basic

writing skills which are expected set of skill in high school.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The study was conducted to Grade 8 students of Western Philippines University

Agricultural Science High School, Aborlan, Palawan on June 2022, through an online

assessment. The respondents of the study was subjected to an assessment that tested

their wiring skills specifically in spelling, punctuation, capitalization and grammar. The

test also contains a survey on the first part to understand their attitude towards writing.

Definition of Terms

Basic writing skills – Basic writing skills are the fundamental writing skills

needed to be able to write in a satisfactory level. The basic writing skills studied in this

paper are spelling, punctuation, capitalization and grammar.

3
 Writing Performance – The achievement level of students in writing studies. In

this study, it specifically refers to the knowledge of students regarding the proper use of

basic writing skills.

Attitude – It is defined as settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or

something, typically one that is reflected in a person's behavior. Specifically, this study

explores the way of thinking, or feeling of students about writing.

4
 Chapter II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

The correlation between students’ attitudes towards learning a language is deeply

related to their performance, Mathewson (1994) and Masgoret & Gardner (2003).

Karahan (2007) postulated that when students have positive attitudes towards a

language, the gain positive orientations towards that language and increases their

achievement or proficiency. Brown (2009) supported these findings when he mentioned

that such positive orientations increase learners’ self confidence and self-esteem.

According to Dornyei and Csizer (2002), having positive attitude results in

learning a foreign language easily; it facilitates the process while negative attitude

hinders learning and; consequently, acts as an obstacle against it. Therefore, attitudes,

negative, natural, and/or positive, decide, to a large extent, students’ success or failure in

their endeavors to learn not only a language but also other topics. This means that

positive attitude plays a vital role and determines the learners’ attitudes towards the

language being processed. In other words, maintaining positive or negative attitudes

towards a language is likely to result in difficulty or ease of learning.

The connection between students’ attitude and writing has gained little attention.

The attitude towards writing, as a whole, has a significant impact on achievement; it

either enhances it or hinders it. Graham et al. (2005) stated that writing attitude is an

affective disposition involving how the act of writing makes the author feels, ranging

from happy to unhappy. Yet, not all students incline to have positive attitudes towards

writing; they may show negative ones. Putting it another way, some students refrain

from writing and show unwillingness towards the skill. Daly and Miller (1975) defined

writing apprehension as "a general avoidance of writing and of situations perceived by

the individual to potentially require some amount of writing accompanied by the

5
potential for evaluation of that writing." Such apprehension results mainly from a writer

having low self-esteem.

Gungle and Taylor (1989) conducted a study to investigate the relationship

between writing apprehension and a focus on the form rather than on the content. They

also examined the relationship between writing attitudes and students’ willingness to

register in other advanced writing courses. They found negative attitudes towards

studying other advanced writing course, but the researchers did not find any relationship

between the students’ attitudes and content of their writing. Masny and Foxall (1992)

maintained that students’ attitudes to and performance in writing depend on their

academic achievement. They found that students with high academic achievement have

positive attitudes towards writing than those with low achievement. Furthermore, the

researchers found that students were interested in form rather than content, and that

students with writing apprehension were unlikely to take other advanced writing

courses.

Aikman (1985) argued that negative attitudes to writing are manifested in a

delaying completing written assignments or homework. It results from lack of

confidence, teaching practices, classroom atmosphere, and first language interference

mainly translation. The feedback that students normally get from instructors has a

significant role on their attitudes towards writing not only in their first language but also

in the second language (Silva and Brice, 2004; Hedgcock, 2005; Lee, 2008). Ferris

(1995) and Montgomery and Baker (2007) stated that learners get tremendous insights

about the feedback they receive from instructors; these learners are usually looked at, by

teachers, as active contributors according to Hyland and Hyland (2006) and Lantolf and

Pavlenko (2001). That is, of course, because they review their teachers’ notes about the

writing. These notes are mostly considered helpful and useful in identifying their

mistakes and points of weakness. The impact of such feedback depends greatly on its

6
forms and objectives, let alone its source. Students who give their peers feedback were

found to develop more in writing skills than those who receive it (Lundstrom and Baker,

2009).

Students' attitudes and their ability to read and write are inextricably linked

(Cunningham, 2008). A student with a positive attitude toward writing, on the other

hand, is more likely to organize writing activities, be more meticulous, persevere in the

face of problems, set demanding goals, and believe in his or her own abilities (Bandura &

Graham, 2006). Students with a positive perspective are pro to writing than students

who have a bad writing mindset. Furthermore, students with a positive attitude may

choose to write even if it is not required. Students with negative attitudes may avoid

writing assignments or write poorly (Graham et al., 2007).

Scholarly data recommends a few strategies that can help learners overcome their

fear of writing, according to Ali and Kassem (2017). Non-graded writing assignments, for

example, should be offered to students to assist them to overcome their fear of negative

criticism (Clark, 2005). Peer feedback and self-correction should be viewed as an

alternative to teacher feedback: the idea of writing as a process should be taken into

account, students' voices should be acknowledged, and individual variances should be

accepted (Rankin-Brown, 2006). According to Wang (2012), students with inferior

creative performance dislike writing and only write when asked. Ayachi (2017), stated

that writing is often overlooked because it is both productive and time-consuming. As a

result, bad grades on writing papers are frequently observed. Thus, writing, as a skill,

should be considered in various segments.

Conceptual Framework

7
 In the Philippines, literacy is the primary drive for education deliverd according

to the principle of Quality education that promotes Filipino citizens' acquired literacy,

specifically reading and writing literacy. High school students are already expected to

have mastered basic writing skills for this is a significant skill needed in this level.

According to Mosha (2014), the level of mastery in terms of attitudes, production and

comprehension is referred to as language performance. When predictor variables and

mediator variables were favorable, the higher the performance; otherwise, the

performance would suffer. These skills seem common among students as these are

fundamental skills that are to be enhanced as they go along. However, not all students

are able to deliver the expected learning outcome for some are still struggling to write in

English at an expected level. Teachers should ensure appropriate interventions to

address students’ difficulty in writing that help learners achieve high academic

performance on the educational ladder.

Writing attitude:
Perceived relevance
Perceived difficulty

Writing
Performance
Basic Writing Skills:
Grammar
Subject Verb Agreement
Modifiers
Antecedent
Prepositions
Mechanics
Spelling
Punctuation
Capitalization

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework

8
 Chapter III

METHODOLOGY
Locale of the Study

The study was conducted to students of Western Philippines University

Agricultural Science High School, San Juan, Aborlan, Palawan.

Research Design

A quantitative research design was utilized to assess the writing

performance of the learners and their attitude towards writing. The study dealt with the

descriptive method where the students underwent an objective writing test that contains

basic writing skills activity to gauge their knowledge about the proper use of each. A

survey questionnaire was also used to identify students’ attitudes towards writing.

Respondents of the Study

The study is conducted to Junior High School students of Western Philippines

University Agricultural Science High School. The participants were Grade 8 high school

students.

Sampling procedure

Using a 5% margin of error, 37 out of 40 Grade 8 students participated in this

study. Participants are randomly selected from the total population.

Instrumentation

9
 To gather the data for the study, a one hundred–item objective test, and a

checklist writing attitude were used. The outputs were assessed through a researcher-

made rubric. The Attitude Survey was drafted from the study of Jabali (2018) regarding

the attitude of students towards writing. Students estimated how they feel about writing

and writing activities using a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (Strongly agree) to 4 (Strongly

disagree).

Data Collection Procedure

The primary goal of this research was to evaluate the respondents' writing

performance. The test was administered through an online assessment using google

forms. The students underwent a 100-item writing test that are expected to be answered

in one and a half hours. The writing attitude survey questionnaires were also

administered to the respondents in first part of the google forms questionnaire. The

generated link for the assessment was sent through Facebook messenger app to the

randomly selected participants. Since google forms were used, the answers were

automatically checked upon the submission of the form. The scores were recorded and

the results of the survey were manually counted and tabulated.

Treatment of Data

Frequency counts, percentage scores, and the arithmetic mean, were used to

describe and analyze the study's data. A researcher-made rubric was used. The rubric

highlights two indicators: Grammar such as Subject Verb Agreement, Antecedent,

Modifier and prepositions and Mechanics such as Capitalization, Spelling and

Punctuations. Results from the survey were manually checked and counted. Afterwards

the data was used to make a graph for the analysis.

10
 Chapter IV
Results and Discussion

Item 1 2 3 4 5
1. I enjoy writing in 4 7 16 8 2
English.
2. I feel that I can be a 2 4 7 21 3
good writer if I
practice writing
regularly.
3. The English writing 1 29 7 0 0
class is useful for my
academic study.
4. Learning to write in 16 18 3 0 0
English is a very
important skill for
my academic study
in college.
5. I need to learn to 3 12 19 3 0
write in English
because it is a very
important skill for
my future job.
6. I would like to learn 0 0 2 21 14
all language skills
except writing
7. I do not enjoy 6 4 5 14 8
writing in English
because it is a very
difficult skill for me.
8. I do not feel 16 12 6 1 2
confident during a
writing activity.
9. I expect to do poorly 9 15 9 4 1
in composition
classes even before I

11
 enter them.
10. When I hand in a 11 18 1 5 2
composition, I know
I am going to do
poorly.
Table 1. Frequency distribution of student’s attitude towards writing
1-Strongly agree 3-Neutral
2-Agree 4- Disagree
5-Strongly disagree

The first part of the survey leans more on the positive attitudes towards writing

and learning how to write. 16 0ut of 4 respondents said they are not sure whether or not

they enjoy writing in English. In the next item, it was revealed that most of the students

are not confident about their capacity for improvement. Out of the 40 participants, 21

indicated that they disagree on feeling they can be good writers if they practice. On the

other hand, results from items 3 and 4, show that students acknowledge the importance

of Writing and Learning to write in their studies. This indicates awareness of the

importance of the skill. However, item 5 earned more neutral responses from students

showing that students are still not sure whether or not writing skills will help them in

their future careers. Item number 6 leans more on negative feeling about writing but

most of the respondents disagree on this. It is an indication of a positive attitude towards

learning to write. In the next item, number 7, most of the students disagree on admitting

that writing in English is difficult for me. Furthermore, it is alarming to note that more

than half of the participants are not confident with their writing skills. Similarly, item

numbers,

Overall, results indicate that even if students acknowledged the importance of

writing skills, it is undeniable that confidence for learning and learning capacity yield

low scores.

12
 Writing Performance Level f %

80-100 (Exellent) 7 18.9

61-79 (Satisfactory) 24 64.9

60-Below (Did not meet expectation) 6 16.2

Total 37 100

Overall Mean 67.3

(Instructional)
Table 2. Percentage Distribution of Students based on their Writing
Performance
Table 2 shows the percentage distribution of writing performance of students

based on the result of the online assessment conducted. Results revealed that most of the

students are on Instructional Level with scores 59-79 garnering a percentage of 70%.

Participants who scored 80-100 (advanced) got 17.5%, however, 12.5% of the

participants got very low scores 60 and below and did not meet expectation.

13
 Indicators f

Grammar

Subject-Verb Agreement 425

Preposition 237

Modifier 393

Antecedent 127

Mechanics

Spelling 248

Punctuation 21

Capitalization 17

Table 3. Frequency of Errors Committed on Writing Test

Results showed that students failed to retain the distinction between subject and

verb in terms of singularity and plurality. Most of them still do not understand how verbs

relate to topics. Grammar and structure, on the other hand, are critical in academic

writing. Therefore, it is to make sure that subjects and verbs always agree. In

grammatically accurate English writing, the relationship between subjects and verbs is

important.

14
 The Filipino context appears to have affected students’ use of redundant

modifiers. Afrin (2016) concluded that articles were sometimes used to over-correct

written outputs among students. The improper use of articles was also observed.

Students had confusion about the proper use of prepositions. They misused the function

of prepositions as linkers in writing compositions. The data further confirmed Lorincz's

(2012) claim that prepositions are barriers to L2 learners due to their vast number and

diversity. According to their study of learners' language output, substitution, addition,

and omission are the most prevalent syntactic errors. It is useless and incomplete

without the antecedent. In short, it intensifies the authors' writing style. Below are Like

other errors, capitalization should also be addressed. Siddiqui (2015) underlined that

new pedagogical strategies in capitalization instruction should be included in the English

curriculum to promote mastery of capitalization principles, norms, and comprehension

of the orthographic-linguistic-cultural conventions of the English language. Punctuation

Errors were mostly observed in writing complete addresses, appositives, apostrophes

and ending the sentences with a period. Aksoy (2014) stressed the need to maintain

clarity in our works and to avoid ambiguity in expression. A run-on sentence is a

structural defect that can affect even the shortest sentences, and it should be avoided in

all second-language writing.

Many students continue to make spelling mistakes in their written work. This

could be due to the students' insufficient exposure to the vocabulary terms. They make

omission, addition, and replacement errors. "Athlete," "complition," "bussiness,"

"intrepreneur," "desission," and "expirience" are some of the words. On the other hand,

Botley and Dillah (2007) emphasized that regular reading practice on the part of

language learners would be a highly effective way of exposing students to a large number

of examples of "correct" spellings, thereby assisting them in unconsciously avoiding

spelling errors. Among all the indicators, the study revealed that Subject-Verb

15
Agreement had the most errors committed in writing and it was followed by use of

modifiers. The proper use of preposition and spelling yield a result close to each other.

Least errors were observed from Punctuation and Capitalization.

The result of the study which focused mainly on grammar and mechanics,

concurs with the findings from the study conducted by Bui Thi Tram (2010). The study

revealed six types of common written errors of the students, namely, grammar, style,

general items (in particular, language style and expression), syntax, mechanics, and

lexical elements. Grammatical errors were the most prevalent errors found which was

surprising.

Chapter V
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary
The study entitled “Difficulties of Grade 8 Learners in Basic Writing

Skills” was conducted to Grade 8 students of Western Philippines University

Agricultural Science High School on June 2022. The study aims to identify the

difficulties of Grade 8 students of Western Philippines University in Basic writing skills

and to understand the correlation of attitude towards writing and writing performance.

Out of 40 total population of grade 8 students, 37 participated in the study having a 5%

margin of error.

The study was conducted through an online assessment using google forms

containing a survey for the assessment on attitude towards writing and a 100-item

writing test. The test highlights two indicators: Grammar such as Subject Verb

Agreement, Antecedent, Modifier and Prepositions, and Mechanics such as

Capitalization, Spelling and Punctuations.

16
 Results of the assessment on attitude towards writing indicate that students

acknowledge the importance or writing and learning to write on their academic endeavor

and their future career/jobs. However, it also revealed negative attitudes on their

perception of the process of learning to write especially in English. As a result, the

negative perception on writing reflected on their writing performance. Only 18.9% of the

respondents were able to reach the excellent level with scores 80 to 100 on the writing

test. Although majority of the respondents were able to reach satisfactory (61-79) with

64.9%, there is still a 16.2% of the respondents who did not meet the expected writing

performance.

Subject-Verb Agreement particularly yield the highest errors from the writing test

with total errors of 425. This revealed that grade 8 students are still struggling more on

this area, and are therefore, still lacking skills on grammar. The overall results revealed

that the common mistakes in the writing test are on the grammar area. On the third

highest errors, spelling came in with a total of 248 mistakes.

Conclusion

Results of the study indicated a perceived importance of the basic writing skill in

both academics and possible career in the future. However, it also revealed a negative

attitude towards learning how to write which becomes evident on their writing

performance. It shows that low confidence in writing and the capacity to master this skill

is results to poorer performance in the actual writing process. Additionally, students who

perceive writing to be difficult even before the learning process begins tends to be less

receptive of the knowledge. This conforms to the findings of Daly and Miller (1975),

learning apprehension results mainly from a writer having low self-esteem affecting the

general performance or output.

Recommendations

17
Based from the findings of the study the researcher recommends the following:

1. Developing teaching strategies that focuses more on learning motivations to

encourage students to take more advance lessons.

2. Incorporating simple writing tasks in parts of the lessons to practice students in

writing less intimidating tasks that are more receptive of student participation

3. Further study about other factors affecting the learning capacities of high school

particularly on English writing.

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APPENDIX

22