Notre Dame of Midsayap College

Graduate School

LEVEL OF GRAMMAR COMPETENCE OF GRADE 8 AND 9 STUDENTS OF

ALEOSAN HIGH SCHOOLS

___________________________________________________________________

THESIS PROPOSAL

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE SCHOOL OF

NOTRE DAME OF MIDSAYAP COLLEGE, MIDSAYAP, COTABATO
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
OF THE DEGREE OF

_________________________________________________________

MASTER OF ARTS MAJOR IN EDUCATION

(MAED)

BY

ARLANE C. DELA PEÑA

MAY 2021
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The level of competence in grammar of students indicates the capability of the

students to communicate properly. Grammatical Competence is the mastery of the

linguistic code and exhibit the ability to recognize lexical, morphological, syntactical, and

phonological features of a language and to use these features effectively to interpret,

encode, and decode words and sentences. Dr. Richards emphasized that, grammatical

knowledge and grammatical competence refer to the same thing. Grammatical ability

refers to knowing how grammar is used in communication. Communicative competence

in the Canale and Swain model includes three dimensions namely: Grammatical

competence which is the knowledge of grammar, lexis, morphology, syntax, semantics

and morphology. The Sociolinguistic competence: the knowledge of the sociocultural

rules of language and rules of discourse and the Strategic competence which is the

knowledge of how to overcome problems when faced with difficulties in communication.

The level of Grammar competence of language learners as a semantic network of

concepts, categories, prototypes, frames, scripts, schemata acquired as knowledge and

grammar skills are considered in the Cognitive Models of Grammatical Competence of

Students. The students’ grammatical competence was examined in the light of cognitive

approach and presents the cognitive model of grammatical competence. The components
are needed for the students to know how an English sentence is grammatically organized

based on the model. This makes cognitive model of grammatical competence of students

a useful tool for students and teachers (National Research Tomsk State University, 2014).

The capacity of a learner to read and communicate depends upon factors which

are teacher related factor, reader related factor, text related factor, school environment

factor and home involvement, including student’s world knowledge, vocabulary and

memory skills. It is a fact that the skills that students acquire in communication is the

most critical one for future success in school as well as throughout life (The National

Reading Panel (2016).

In the Philippines, English has long been a part of the curricula of varied

academic programs. Curriculum has changed drastically but the learning of English

remains intact in the essentials of any curriculum. With K to 2 coming to fore, English is

offered in both the Junior and the Senior High School curricula. It is also the medium of

instruction in teaching other subjects such as Mathematics and Science, among others.

Filipinos are regarded to be among the more fluent speakers of the English language.

This is one of the reasons that fellow Asians from other ASEAN countries have chosen to

study here in the Philippines or resort to learning English from Filipino mentors.

In an article written by Cabigon (2015), the Philippines is recognized globally as

one of the largest Englishspeaking nations, with the majority of its population having at

least some degree of fluency in the language. English has always been one of the

country’s official languages and is spoken by more than 14 million Filipinos. It is the
language of commerce and law, as well as the primary medium of instruction in

education. Cabigon further noted that key stakeholders from the government, academe,

private, and non-government sectors acknowledged that even if Filipinos are generally

competent in English, concerns on how much of a competitive advantage have been

raised. The stakeholders agreed that the country needs to scale up with its efforts to

improve the teaching and learning of English, considering that these are vital skills of the

workforce. This is an initiative that can potentially strengthen the Philippines’ distinct

economic, political or educational advantage in this part of the world, particularly in the

ASEAN economic region.

Grammatical competence is a requirement included in the 21 st century education

where the development of communication skills is necessary to meet the standard of all

areas of learning. In the present K to 12 curriculum, the Grade 8 and 9 Junior High

School students are trained to become competent in all the skills developed among them

to prepare for their tertiary education.

Communication skills which include the grammar competence is a very important

skills to develop among the Grade 8 and 9 Junior High School Students. The basic query

is on the issue that if the students are capable of exhibiting the required grammatical

competence in their communication for them to express themselves, understood by their

listeners and meet the standard of quality education in the 21st century.

It is in this concept that the researcher is interested to determine the capability of

the Grade 8 and 9 students on the different areas of English grammar in order to identify

their level of grammar competence.

 Statement of the Problem

This study aims to determine the level of grammar competence of the grade 8 and

9 students of Aleosan High Schools.

Specifically, this seeks to answer the following question:

1.What is the demographic characteristics of the respondents in terms of:

a. age

b. sex

c. ethno-linguistic affiliation?

2.What is the level of grammatical competence capability of the grade 8 and 9

students of Aleosan High Schools in terms of:

a. S-V Agreement

b. Conjunction

c. Pronouns

d. Parallelism

3.What are the factors that affect the grammar competence capability of the

respondents in terms of
a. teacher related factor

b .reader related factor

c. text related factor

d. school environment factor

e. home involvement
 The results of this study will be beneficial to the following:
Principal. This study may provide baseline data on the level of grammar

competence exhibited by Grade 8 and 9 students to be the bases of determining the

strategies to adopt to improve the grammar competence of students and use for English

activities.
 Teachers. The result may provide information to the teachers information related

to the level of grammar competence of Grade 8 and 9 students to make strategies to

improve the deficient students and boost the ego of the competent ones by motivating

them to participate in activities exhibiting English competencies.

Parents. This study may provide information to parents about the status of their

children to encourage them to increase their involvement in school activities as well as to

follow up their children at home to improve the grammar competence.

Future Researchers. The result of this study may provide reference to the

future related studies.

Research Questions

This study aims to determine the level of grammar competence of the Grade 8

and 9 students of Aleosan High Schools .

Specifically, this seeks to answer the following questions:

1. What is the demographic characteristics of the respondents in terms of

a. Age

b. Sex

c. Ethno-linguistic affiliations?

2. What is the level of grammatical competence capability of the Grade 8 and 9

students of Aleosan High Schools in terms of

 a. S-V Agreement

b. Conjunctions

c. Pronouns

d. Parallelism

e. Sentence Parallelism

3. What are the factors that affect the grammar competence capability of the

respondents in terms of

a. teacher related factor,

b. reader related factor,

c. text related factor,

d. school environment factor

e. home involvement,

Review of Related Literature

Meaning of Grammatical competence

(Cook, 2008) defines grammatical competence as the knowledge of language

stored in a person's mind. The term was first used by Chomsky in the 1960s and refers to

the implicit knowledge of structural regularities of language in the mind and the ability to

recognize and produce these distinctive grammatical structures.

 Grammatical competence is described as the mastery of the linguistic code. It is

the ability to recognize lexical, morphological, syntactical, and phonological features of a

language and to use these features effectively to interpret, encode, and decode words and

sentences.

In addition, Osbome (2012) described Grammatical competence as 1) the ability

to understand and express meaning by producing and recognizing well-formed phrases

and sentences. 2.) Elements Processes classes morphs (descriptive)morphemes-

nominalization ,open roots and structures affixation word affixes categories suppletion

classes words number compound gradation cased and transposition , closed gender

complex transformation word classes words . 3.) Maintains limited control of uses some

consistent a few simple grammatical structures control of structures correctly complex

language uses , high degree reasonably of grammatical accurately and accuracy

repertoire of frequently used , good ‘routines’ grammatical shows a relatively control

high degree of grammatical control 4.) Deals with the internal organization of words

may be classified into classed as roots, or simple complex compound stems; words

affixes words(prefixes, containing root only root suffixes, infixes more than Six affixes,

one root, three unbrokenly for example :break sixes evening dress 5). irregular zero

vowel consonant forms alteration modification bring suppletion like sheep/shying/sang

lend/lent ought, go/went deep, catch cut/cut 6.) Categories, elements classes are used to

show the ability to organize sentences to convey, structures meaning is a central aspect,

processes and of communicative relations involved, competence often presented in the

form of a set of rules.

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework of the study is shown in Fig 1 where the box of the

demographic characteristics of the respondents is connected to the box containing the

level of competence of the students in terms of S-V Agreement , conjunctions, pronouns,

parallelisms and sentence parallelism. Another arrow is directed to the factors that affect

the grammar competence in terms of teacher related factor, reader related factor, text

related factor, school environment factor and home involvement.

Level of grammatical Factors that affect the

competence grammar competence
Demographic
Characteristics *S-V Agreement *teacher related factor,
* Conjunctions *reader related factor,
* Age *Pronouns * text related factor,
* Sex *Parallelism *school environment
* Sentence factor
* Ethno-
linguistic Parallelism *home involvement,
affiliations
Fig. 1. The schematic diagram of the study on the Level Of Grammar Competence of
Grade 8 and 9 Students Of Aleosan High Schools

Operational Definitions of Terms

The terms used in this study are defined operationally to give clarity of its

concepts.

Factors . This refers to the related cause that affect the grammar competence of the

Grade 8 and 9 students which include the teacher related factor, reader related factor, text

related factor, school environment and home involvement.

Grammar competence. This refers to the capability of Grade 8 and 9 students in

utilizing knowledge and skills in the use of grammar.

Level of Grammatical Competence. This refers to the degree of capability in the use of

grammar among the Grade 8 and 9 students in Aleosan High Schools.

Scope of Research

This study will focus on the level of grammar competence Grade 8 and 9

students in Aleosan High Schools in SY 2020-2021. This will also identify the level of
grammar competence of the Grade 8 and 9 students, and the factors that affect the

grammar competence of the students.

CHAPTER II
 METHODS

This chapter will use the research methodology which include the research

design, locale of the study, respondents of the study, research instrument, data

gathering procedure and data analysis

Research Design

This study will use the descriptive design using quantitative method. It is

descriptive due to the determination of the capability of the Grade 8 and 9 students

on the different areas of learning English grammar in Aleosan High Schools.

Locale of the Study

This study will be conducted to the Grade 8 and 9 students of Aleosan High

Schools, Aleosan, Cotabato.

Respondents of the Study

The respondents of the study will be the Grade 8 and 9 students of Aleosan High

Schools in SY year 2020-2021.

Instrumentation and Measures

This study will utilize researcher made survey questionnaire with three parts. Part

I will ask the demographic characteristics of the respondents in terms of age, sex, civil

status and ethno-linguistic affiliations. Part II will identify the level of grammatical

capability of the Grade 8 and 9 students of Aleosan High Schools: S-V agreement,

conjunctions, pronouns, parallelism and sentence parallelism. The level of grammatical

capability will be measured by options 4 for very much capable, 3 for much capable, 2

for fairly capable and 1 for least capable. Part III will ask the factors that affect the

grammar capability of the respondents in terms of teacher related factor, reader related

factor, text related factor, school environment factor and home involvement. The

options to choose will be 4 for always a factor, 3 is sometimes a factor, 2 for seldom a

factor and 1 as not a factor. The questionnaire will be submitted to validation and pilot

testing .

The data to be gathered will be applied with appropriate statistical tools. For the

demographic characteristics of the respondents the data will be applied with frequency

and percentage distribution. The level of grammatical capability of the Grade 8 and 9

students of Aleosan High Schools in terms of S-V agreement, conjunctions, pronouns,

parallelism and sentence parallelism will use the scale 3.4-4.0 for very much capable,

2.6-3.3 for much capable, 1.8-2.5 for fairly capable and 1.0-1.7 for least capable. Part

III will ask the factors that affect the grammar capability of the respondents in terms of

teacher related factor, reader related factor, text related factor, school environment factor
and home involvement. The scale to use will be 3.4-4.0 for always a factor, 2.6-3.3 is

sometimes a factor, 1.8-2.5 for seldom a factor and 1.0-1.7 as not a factor.

Data Gathering Procedure

Protocol will be observed. Permission to conduct the study will be sought from

the Division Superintendent of Cotabato Division . Upon approval a letter of approval

will be given to the principals of Aleosan High Schools . The Grade 8 and 9 students

will be informed about the research to be conducted where they will be the respondents

as well as their parents . Ethical consideration will be observed in data gathering.

References

Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Chomsky, N., & Lasnik, H. ,(1993).. Chomsky, N., & Lasnik, H. (1993). Principles and
Parameters Theory in Syntax. An International Handbook of Contemporary
Research, Berlin: de Gruyter. Fi
Cook (2008). Grammar Competence at https://www.google.com/search?
q=grammar+competence+meaning&oq=Gramar+Competence&aqs=chrome.2.6
9i57j0i13i457j0i13l2j0i22i30l4.14753j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Dr. Richards at https://www.professorjackrichards.com/grammatical-knowledge-vs-
grammatical-competence/

National Research Tomsk State University ( 2014).

National Reading Panel Teaching Children to Read An NICHD-NIH (2016) at

https://www.nih.gov>nrp.

Osborne, Y. (2017). Grammatical competence at

https://www.slideshare.net/sulmaupb/grammatical-competence-2.