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CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

English has four skills and some linguistics components that must be

mastered in teaching learning process. Grammar is one of the English

components that must be mastered in order to be able to construct English

sentences. Traditionally, grammar is subdivided into two different but inter-

related areas of study. The elements of grammar are the building blocks of

writing and speaking the English language (Stanford, 1998).

Hetrakul (1995) stated that English is an international language. Even

technology and working world use English. It is believed that the students want to

be the winner in working world competition that is getting tight day by day. One of

the conditions that the students must require is having ability to speak English

fluently. This skill will be their plus point in facing the working world. From now

on, the students have to try hard to overcome their difficulties to speak English

fluently.

There is absolutely no doubt that English is the international language in

the world today, it is a second language here in the Philippines and it is currently

the primary language used on the World Wide Web, in the political and business

arenas. It has even become the language of today's pop culture. One cannot

deny the importance of English Language. Behlol (2009) contended that English

is the language in which man can communicate with his fellowmen in a small

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crowded and independent world. It is the language of international politics, law,

science, technology, business, literature, arts, sports, music and aviation. English

proficiency is a gateway to opportunity outside the country; the ticket to conquer

the intellectual world. It is an instrument for social and economic mobility.

In our country, English is the second language for Filipinos. It is used as a

medium of instruction in most subjects. The 1987 Philippine Constitution

particularly provides under Article XIV, Section 7 that ‘’for purposes of

communication and instruction, the official languages of the Philippines are

Filipino and unless, otherwise provided by the law, English’’ De Leon (2002).

Fernandez (2010) also cited that through it, Filipinos, can find fulfillment

on their dreams, their aspirations as individuals and their role in their immediate

and wider community. The extent to which they have fully developed the English

language skills determines the degree by which they can maintain their social

standing.

In addition, the Department of Education (DepEd) Order No. 36, Series of

2006 provides that English language shall be used as the primary medium of

instruction in all public and private schools in secondary level, including those

established as laboratory and/or experimental schools and vocational/ technical

institution.

The role of English in the holistic formation of every learner is vital.

Therefore, it is important for students to develop their potentials and capabilities

in English to the fullest in all possible means.

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Methods of learning English are highly variable depending on the

students’ level of English proficiency and the manner and setting in which they

are taught, which can range from required classes in school to self-directed study

at home. In some programs, educational programs (including spoken lectures

and written assignments) are provided in mixtures of English and the student’s

native language. In other programs, educational materials are always in English,

but the vocabulary, grammar, and context clues may be modified to be more

easily understood by the students with varying levels of comprehension (Wright,

2010)

Harklau (1995) posits that for many residents second language students,

the journey from secondary school to postsecondary school is often met with

awkward or inconsistent transitions. Secondary students are always prompted

with a lot of writing and speaking activities.

Writing and speaking would not be easy. Another author, Ramies (2002),

clearly expressed that being an intricate course, writing is a disorganized process

and reproduction of ideas that includes multifarious tasks such a; pre-writing

activities, outlining, drafting, revising, editing, proofreading, rewriting through the

draft down to its finest until the writer gets contented with his output.

Pecorari (2009) agrees with this contention when he posited that

consideration of the writer’s purpose, role, audience, type of writing, good

command of the language, and schemata are also vital. In addition, richness of

vocabulary, mechanics (e.g. spelling, punctuation), style, organization and

coherence, content complexity, and accuracy are also of the same importance.

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Error free use of language is important. If it all that was important was to

make oneself understood, it would be easier to decide which mistakes mattered.

However, writers are judged by grammatical correctness.

As regards grammar, one of the most common errors that students incur

is the error in applying the rules of subject verb agreement. Many still find

problems concerning this particular part of grammar. Nayan (2009) states that as

a general rule, the subject must agree with the verb, thus a singular subject must

take a singular verb and a plural subject must take a plural verb. However, this

very easy rule is not followed because of the students’ common confusion on the

singular subject and singular verb because both do not have the same forms

when either singular or plural. For instance, in the sentence “The girl dances

gracefully.”, the subject is the boy (which is singular and no –s/-es added) and

the verb is jumps (which is singular but with –s/-es added). This mere example

alone would confuse the learners as to how they will take the right forms of their

verbs according to the number of subject because the subject and the verb in

singular or plural forms are not the same.

Murcia & Freeman (1983) as cited by Nor Arfah (1988), stated that in spite

of early introduction and the superficially simple rules of the subject-verb

agreement, they still pose problems for the ESL learners at all levels or

proficiency. Some examples from an advanced level Malay ESL learner are as

follows: ‘’It really make me unhappy. Fortunately, my family especially my father

need me to help his business. Recently, my father want to expand his business

by selling LPG gas. It is really tedious to get a license.’’ As the example shows,

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the learner failed to employ the correct rule of subject-verb agreement where a

singular subject requires a singular verb. The learners writing should be: ‘’ It

really makes me unhappy. Fortunately, my family especially my father needs me

to help his business. Recently, my father wants to expand his business by selling

LPG gas. It is really tedious to get a license.’’

Writing involves constructing sentence correctly. Therefore, in English for

students to effectively communicate their ideas well in writing, they must

construct meaningful sentences that have correct grammar. Dorn (2000) states

that the sentences created by word and phrases are essential blocks of meaning

that allow us to communicate thoughts. If they are not constructed carefully, they

can make reading difficult. He further states that the major basic usage of and

grammar slips in written English are those associated with verbs. Across different

levels, whether a young one or adult, the problem of subject-verb agreement has

become prevalent among English as a second language speakers and writers.

The lack of agreement between subjects and verbs in speaking or writing is one

of the most worrisome mistakes a language user commits. When a fluent

speaker speaks with accuracy in this particular type of grammar, she is deemed

respected as a good user of the English language.

Based on the fact that the subject –verb agreement area is very important

to express ideas especially in writing, where non-verbal communication is

absent, the students really need to master the rules in order to write effectively.as

a result, they can convey their message clearly and effectively. By writing a piece

of work that is error free, it shows that the learners have mastered the English

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grammar rules. Many interventions were proposed and carried out to improve the

learners’ skills in applying the rules of subject verb agreement in grammar test

and written and oral compositions.

The above-mentioned premises inspired and motivated the researcher to

investigate the grammar skills on subject-verb agreement among the Grade 10

students of Immaculate Conception Academy for the School year 2018-2019.

Inevitably, it is then with these predicaments that the researcher embarked on

the idea to help the Grade 10 students to minimize if not totally stop these errors

in subject-verb agreement through learning and applying the rules of subject-verb

agreement in independent sentence drills.

Conceptual Framework

For clarity and emphasis, this study is anchored on the Theory of McCray

Hill Grammar Dictionary, The Master level in using subject-verb agreement is the

rule of grammar that states that singular subjects must agree with singular verb

and plural compound subjects must agree with plural verbs. The verb in the

sentence must agree with the subjects and not with any other word that is placed

between them.

Subject-verb agreement is very vital in language and consequently, in

communication and depicts the extent to which a user of the language in both

speaking and writing media has internalized the rule. Anyone who speaks or

writes English language without errors in subject-verb agreement among others

is considered a good and experienced speaker. However, the present day usage

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of English language by learners at various levels of education is bedeviled by

errors in agreement between subject and verb, among others Tafida & Okunade

(2016)

Errors committed by the learners revealed the true state of the second

language learners’ proficiency of the new language they are learning at a

particular point of time. Apart from that they also revealed what the second

language learner do not know and what have internalized of the new language

system. Stapa & Izahar (2010 n.d.)

On the other hand, SV agreement errors during speech production are

more likely when a local noun and head noun mismatch in number (i.e. ‘’the key

to the cabinets were’’). Moreover, a number of studies have found little or no

effect of semantic or phonological factors on agreement in English, suggesting

that it is a primarily grammatical phenomenon.

There are factors that influence subject-verb agreement in English: (1)

More errors when local and head nouns mismatch in number (Bock & Miller

1991); (2) Syntactic factors affect agreement errors (Bock & Cutting, 1992); (3) In

English, semantic factors (i.e. animacy, concreteness) may not (Bock & Miller,

1992) although semantic and plausibility effects have obtained in other

languages (Hupet, Fayola ns Schelstraete, 1998; Viglicco, Butterworth, &

Semenza, 1995).

Arends (1997) mentions that direct instruction is conventional teaching

that assist the students to learn basic skill and acquire information that can teach

in step by step. Direct instruction mainly focuses on teacher-centered,

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emphasizes the use of small group, face to face instruction by the teacher and

provides learners with practically useful knowledge of language. Daly & Miller

(1975) coined the term writing apprehension is meaning writing-specific anxiety.

According to Magno (2008), writing apprehension can be conceptualized as a

significant predictor to determine the success rate of acquiring English Language

proficiency among ESL learners. Hettich (1994) defines that writing apprehension

as the abnormally high level of an anxious, nervous, agitated or stressful feeling

in a writing strategy related situation, regardless of blocking and evaluation.

Grammar skills level in learning subject-verb agreement is the product of

certain factors, which this study tried to identify. It is seen in figure 1, the

independent variables which constitute the profile of the Grade 10 students in

terms of gender, academic performance in English, dialect and writing ability

level are perceived to affect the dependent variable which constitute the

respondents’ grammar skills.

The Conceptual Paradigm below shows the relationship of the different

variables.

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE
Profile Variables
DEPENDENT VARIABLE
 Mother tongue;
 School graduated from;
 English Academic Level of Grammatical Skills in
Performance; and Subject-Verb Agreement
 Writing Proficiency Level

Fig1. Paradigm illustrating the relationship of the different variables.

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The first box in the conceptual paradigm is the independent variable

containing the profile of the respondents in terms of mother tongue, school

graduated from, English academic performance and the writing proficiency level.

The second box includes the dependent variable which is the level of the

grammatical skills in subject-verb agreement of the respondents.

Statement of the Problem

This researcher aimed to study the level of the grammatical skills in

subject-verb agreement among Grade 10 students of Immaculate Conception

Academy, Bone South, Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya during the School Year of 2018-

2019.

Specifically, the researcher sought answers to the following problem:

1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of:

a. Mother tongue;

b. School graduated from;

c. English Academic Performance; and

d. Writing Proficiency Level?

2. What is the respondents’ level of the grammatical skills in subject-verb

agreement?

3. Is there significant relationship on the level of the grammatical skills in

subject verb agreement when grouped according to the profile variables?

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Null Hypothesis

There is no significant difference on the level of the grammatical skills in

subject-verb agreement when grouped according to the profile variables.

Significance of the Study

The findings of study will be beneficial to the following:

The School Administrators. It might be aided to guide and supervise

their teaching staff, specifically in the English subject area as they propose

solutions and programs relevant to grammar instruction, and strengthen or

encourage effective English instruction which equally includes ‘grammar

awareness as one of the nine domains of the language and arts curriculum. The

result of this study will also enable them to recommend trainings to the teachers

in order to enhance the master of using Subject-Verb agreement.

Language Teachers. It will help them determine the master of using

subject-verb agreement by the students. They would also be made aware of their

crucial roles as language teachers in writing instruction as they adopt appropriate

intervention and remediation activities in their language classes, and thus

particularly improve the L2 learners.

The students. It might find this study advantageous as they are able to

know how to recognize their strengths and weaknesses in grammar or know the

level of their grammatical accuracy; consider the relative importance of written

corrective feedback provided by their language teachers.

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Future Researchers. The result of this study could be used as a

reference for their future research in relation to their study. This will also give

them inspiration to start another study to assess the level of the grammatical

skills and it will serve as a related literature for future studies. This will drive them

to conduct a study in a broader scope and will give them an idea to create

another problem that can improve the quality education.

Scope and Delimitations

The foremost concern of the study will be limited to the determination of

the difference between the level of the grammatical skills in subject-verb

agreement when grouped according to the profile variables among the Grade 10

students of Immaculate Conception Academy, Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya.

Moreover, the respondents will be the Grade 10 students of Immaculate

Conception Academy, Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya. The total number of respondents is

33.

A survey questionnaire containing two parts was used. Part I elicited the

profile of the respondents in terms of mother tongue, school graduated from,

English academic performance and writing proficiency level. Part II measures the

level of grammatical skills in subject-verb agreement which was adopted from the

study of Bernardo (2015). It consists of 85 items covering the 17 rules in subject

verb agreement with five items in each rule.

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Definition of Terms

For a better understanding on the study and to enlighten the readers, the

following terms are defined through conceptual and operation definition.

Subject-verb agreement. Tt refers to the fact that the subject and the

verb in a sentence must agree in number. In other words, they both must be in

singular or they both must be plural. The tricky part is in knowing the singular and

plural forms of the subject and verbs.

Mother tongue. This refers to the first language learned and spoken at

home by the participants.

English Academic Performance. This pertains to the average grade in

English of the participants for the first to third grading.

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