CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents the related literature and studies from foreign and local

sources. Those included in this chapter help familiarize information relevant and

similar to the present study.

Local

Communication is significant aspect of professional success. People who

have suitable stages of communication skills and high levels of interpersonal skills

are more likely to reach their career goal. He demanded that active oral

communication skills and social interaction could lead to professional achievement. It

is because communication skills would contribute to the process of acquiring new

skills; resulting in continuous learning and rapid solution to problems, Crosling &

Ward (2001) as cited by Chentez et al. (2019).

Asubiojo et al. (as cited by Palmero, 2019) state that oral communication is a

highly sought skill compared to writing and reading. It is because learning to speak is

an important goal itself. It equips students with skills they can use for the rest of their

lives. Oral communication is often used to express opinions, make arguments, offer

explanations, transmit information, and make impressions upon others.

According to Paltridge & Crandall (as cited by Palmero, 2019), students must

speak well in their personal lives, future workplaces, social interactions, and political

endeavors. Soon they will become professionals and workers, and they will have

meetings to attend, presentations to make, discussions and arguments to participate

in, and groups to work with. If basic instruction and opportunities to practice speaking
are available, students can position themselves to accomplish a wide range of goals

and be useful members of their communities.

Flores and Lopez (as cited by Ramirez, 2016) stress that possessing

excellent oral communication skills is advantageous to students and professionals in

all fields of endeavor because it will make them very articulate, convincing, credible,

educated, and professional.

Effective oral communication becomes essential to extend the knowledge of

the English language from its written form to share ideas and insights to address the

emerging concerns and challenges of today’s globalized setting. Effective

communication, along with collaboration, has been listed in the Framework for 21st

Century Skills as one of the learning and innovation skills. Similarly, in the recent

reform of the Philippine basic education system, the K to 12 Curriculum underscores

that one of the new learning goals is the development of effective communication

skills among Filipino students (Juan & Lasaten, 2016).

Brown (as cited by De Vera & De Vera, 2018) said that definitions of speaking

had been expanded. One trend has been to focus on communication activities that

reflect a variety of settings: one-to-many, small group, one-to-one, and mass media.

Another approach has been to use communication to achieve specific purposes: to

inform, persuade, and solve problems.

A third trend has been focusing on essential everyday life competencies.

Many of these broader views stress that oral communication is an interactive

process in which an individual alternately takes the roles of speaker and listener,

including both verbal and non-verbal components.

A lack of comfort in communicating with others can be an unfortunate inhibitor

to success. In most communicative activities, oral fluency is a prerequisite for

successful communication, as some students struggle to convey ideas clearly and

accurately in speech. Hence, addressing issues in oral communication is highly

significant to make students competent and skilled in their endeavors (Bastida &

Yapo, 2019).

The main factors affecting the pupils’ oral proficiency development in the

English language are motivation, vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. On

motivation, lack of interest, lack of vocabulary skills and training are the factors that

demotivate the pupils in learning English. The teaching strategies and curriculum are

also contributory factors that affect the pupils’ oral proficiency development. On

teaching strategies, teachers do not facilitate real practice in speaking since

appropriate strategies and activities are not carefully planned which resulted to

contradiction between class materials and the topics (Pangket, 2019).

Mitchell et al. (as cited by Palmero, 2019) stated that to help students

overcome problems in learning to speak; the teachers must figure out factors that

affect their speaking performance. Students’ speaking performance can be affected

by the factors that come from performance conditions, time pressure, planning, the

standard of performance, amount of support, affective factors such as motivation,

confidence and anxiety, listening ability, and feedback during speaking activities.

According to the study of Banawis (2019), all of us are really born with the

ability to speak, and we have the capacity to learn the language. However, people in

our society cannot function without communication. Society exists and grows with

every communication activity between and among persons within that society. We

are social beings who always interact all the time. In fact, most of our active time is

done in speaking Therefore, this study clears up the misconception.

 Communication, seemingly natural and therefore, need not be studied; it has

to be learned and mastered. Communication is an art, a science, a process, and a

technique. Studying communication involving learning about elements, discussions,

and principles, as Ramona S. Flores emphasized in her book in oral communication.

Students should be made to actively participate in the oral communication

aspects of the language to enhance their listening and speaking skills. The teacher

should give more activities or exercises requiring pronunciation, including segmental

features, vowels, and consonants and the stress and intonation patterns, vocabulary,

fluency, and comprehension.

Oral Communication teachers should provide opportunities for individual oral

presentations as part of a lesson to encourage the students to develop speech

habits that motivate the students to speak with the right pronunciation, intonation,

stress, and comprehension. Furthermore, they should bring their teaching to the

level of the students’ aptitude and make classroom interactions more interesting so

as to arouse the interest of the students. This would go a long way in solving the

problem of poor academic performance of students in Oral Communication subject

(Banawis, 2016).

Foreign

Academic success depends on solid communication skills, beginning with clear

oral communication. Students are often called upon in class to answer questions.

These questions may range from those with simple factual answers to questions that

involve putting thoughts together and making arguments. Answers to questions

need to be communicated effectively so teachers can assess a student’s knowledge.

Students with oral challenges may also become embarrassed if they are unable to

communicate on par with their peers. If a student stutters or mumbles they may

become fearful of speaking up in class, and this in turn can lead to lowered grades
and diminished self-esteem (The Importance of Communication Skills for Academic

Success, 2019).

Communication and oral presentation skills are becoming more important in

today's world. The importance of speaking is acknowledged in the daily life of

students. Students must have the necessary skills to compete in the global economy

and succeed in their professional careers. The skills needed to excel in English are

becoming more prevalent globally. The 21st century demands that graduates have

the necessary skills to effectively communicate with others and acquire effective oral

presentation skills (Belaman et al., 2022).

When a learner masters oral skills appropriately in the target language

he/she will develop communicative competence. According to Yule (2010) as

cited by Barasa, Kabellow, & Omulando (2020), communicative competence can

be defined as the general ability to use language accurately, appropriately and

flexibly. He further points out the components of communicative competence. The

first component is grammatical competence, which involves the accurate use of

words and structures.

Concentration on grammatical competence only, however, will provide the

learner with the ability to interpret or produce L2 expressions appropriately.

The ability to use appropriate language is the second component, called social

linguistic competence. The learner has to become familiar in the cultural context of

the L2 if the learner is to develop sociolinguistic competence.

People communicate using different methods, such as emailing, talking on the

phone, and placing print advertisements in specific places. Communication is

sending and receiving messages between two people, a person, and a group, or a

group to a group. Everyone must communicate their needs and ideas. Every
organization must communicate its products and services. Unfortunately, many

people need help in this area. Some do not have the professional impact they need

to get ahead in today’s corporate world (Prabavathi & Nagasubramani, 2018).

Communication is just as important as what we say because people judge us,

our companies, our products, our services, and our professionalism by the way we

write, act, dress, talk, and manages our responsibilities. In short, how well we

communicate with others. Successful people know how to communicate for results.

They know how to say what they mean and get what they want without hurting

the people they deal with. You deal daily with peers, outside groups, customers,

employees, and managers and you must have a good communication style.

Students interact massively daily; they exchange news, thoughts, feelings,

information, and point of view. The student’s ability to effectively carry out these

operations is called communication skills. Today, this ability seems to be the most

critical factor in student life to consider and maintain good relationships with one

another. Every student, therefore, needs these skills everywhere to avoid

misunderstandings (Hallabieh, Hussien, and Sabbah, 2020).

Dannels (2021) stated that students communicate every day — from the

moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep. Students communicate with

their roommates; they communicate with their faculty; they communicate with their

friends. But just because you do it every day doesn’t mean that you do it well. One of

the benefits of developing oral communication skills is that students can develop

competency in something that is very pervasive in their lives — to reflect on it, to

practice it, to get feedback on it so that they can become better at accomplishing

their goals.
 After graduation, in whatever pathway a student chooses, they’re going to

have to put a resume out, they’re going to have to inquire about opportunities, and all

of those things require oral communication. It may not be face-to-face, it may be

technologically mediated or driven, but still you’re using oral communication

competencies to find your pathway. Then being successful depends on your ability to

communicate well. It also depends on your ability to determine where things need to

change and how you can use your voice to make those changes.

Our world is rapidly becoming more interdisciplinary, more multi-modal and more

multi-contextual. In order to navigate those contexts, students need to be able to

show a proficiency in oral communication. Very few of our students will graduate and

sit in an office on their own without interacting with other people; it’s just not the way

the workplace is and it’s not the way our community is. A well-rounded person really

needs to be able to have those communication competencies in order to be a good

citizen, be a good professional, and be a good person in general (Dannels, 2021)

To achieve the purpose of communication, the parties in the communication

process must have interpersonal communication skills. Although the communication

process is essential in sharing information, ideas, attitudes, experiences, feelings,

and opinions, many university students need more interpersonal communication

skills, which prevents them from achieving communication goals and causes

problems (Hallabieh et al., 2020).

According to Pearson & Nelson (as cited by Hallabieh et al., 2020), students

with good communication skills can explain their ideas and thoughts and build

relationships without trouble or discrimination based on religion, race, and gender.

Moreover, experts in communication skills consider poor communication as the basis

of several problems, so communication is the solution to many obstacles.

 Ronald, Quiad, and Lindsay (as cited by Hallabieh et al., 2020) stated that

during their studying years at university, students are exposed to situations in

classes or on campus where they need to use their communication skills. Generally,

communication is dynamic for expressing ourselves and understanding others.

Academic achievements at university are always measured based on the level of

interpersonal communication skills of graduates.

Simon (2019) discusses that students may help learn a language more

effectively, particularly in honing their speaking skills. Also, HTU (Hospitality and

Tourism University) students can exchange ideas and opinions with one another

through brainstorming and peer collaboration, and those low-achieving students can

benefit from the assistance of their high-achieving peers.

Also, the recent study might offer current language teachers a more effective

instruction technique. It can aid language teachers in developing their students'

independence and critical thinking skills and improving their capacity for

communicative application, integration, and synthesis. Teachers can also create

custom teaching methods appropriate for different EFL (English as a Foreign

Language) student proficiency levels.

Kurniasai (2016) stated that one strategy for the teacher in the classroom to

encourage spoken communication among the students promoting the Zone of

Proximal Development is destroying (ZPD). To ensure that ZPD occurs in the

classroom, the teacher must use their knowledge of the kids' speaking abilities and a

few tactics. In addition, there were five more factors that the teacher did in class to

encourage spoken communication among the students using knowledge of skills and

the PYP Language Scope and Sequence; students displayed a variety of similar

patterns in their oral communication skills.

 Imran et al. (2016) revealed a perceived need for improving Saudi EFL

students' English-speaking abilities. Their capacity for oral communication

significantly improved due to their ability to identify their wants and interests and use

more creative strategies to meet those requirements. Open Discussion Sessions,

which offered a carefree learning environment and boosted learners' self-confidence

through active involvement in real communicative situations with other students and

instructors, revealed significant improvement in students' speaking abilities according

to post-test speaking results.

According to Adaba (2017) as cited by Barasa et al. (2020), in exploring the

practice of Teacher –Student classroom interaction to develop the learners’

speaking skills said that teachers reported that students experienced the

following problems during oral expression: shyness, anxiety, and stress, low

proficiency of the learners in the English language, teaching methodology;

majority of the teachers had limited experience about CLT and they had used

traditional type or teacher –centered English methodology, fear of making

mistakes, nothing to say about the topic, limited vocabulary knowledge, low

participation, mother tongue use, lack of background knowledge lack of or low

confidence, lack of enough time, lack of appropriate activities in the students’

text book, failures of the learners to use the language outside the class,

different learners’ learning styles and finally text lack of basis of certain

communication functions.

Alghail & Mahfoodh (2019) revealed that the major academic oral

communication difficulties encountered by these students are speaking accurately,

communicating ideas fluently, speaking with clear pronunciation, and communicating

ideas confidently. In the process of overcoming these difficulties, the students

reported that they employed some strategies such as joining English proficiency

courses and attending seminars, workshops, and conferences. Furthermore, the

study revealed a strong negative correlation between most areas of academic oral

communication difficulties and students' prior learning experience. Thus, it is

recommended that these students need to be involved in various academic oral

activities to survive in other similar contexts where they need oral skills for

successful academic performance and effective communication.