Chapter 1

The Problem And Its Setting

Introduction

Students have multiple intelligences. One of them is the verbal intelligence which is one
of the most important. Verbal intelligence includes the ability to express ones opinions, thoughts,
and idea through speaking. Being able to communicate using human voice which is known as
speaking. Being able to communicate verbally is one effective means of improving as a student.
One factor that is affecting the academic performance of students is her/his speaking
skills most especially when it requires using the English language. Most students are afraid using
it. They rather stay quiet than express opinion in class. They are afraid that their peers will
criticize the way he/she speak. This is one factor that controls them in participating in class.

Because of the significant role of speaking in action, Bailey (2005) and Goh (2007)
detailed how to enhance the development of speaking by means of syllabus design, principles of
teaching, types of tasks and materials, and speaking assessment.

Language learners who lack confidence in their ability to participate successfully in oral
interaction often listen in silence while others do the talking. One way to encourage such learners
to begin to participate is to help them build up a stock of minimal responses that they can use in
different types of exchanges.

Language learners are often too embarrassed or shy to say anything when they do not
understand another speaker or when they realize that a conversation partner has not understood
them. Instructors can help students overcome this reticence by assuring them that
misunderstanding and the need for clarification can occur in any type of interaction, whatever the
participants' language skill levels. Instructors can also give students strategies and phrases to use
for clarification and comprehension check.

Background of the study

 Listening is an important part of effective communication. We need to concentrate on
encouraging not only students, teachers, but ourselves, to exhibit good listening behaviors and
strategies. Listening is a process that involves actively hearing what another person is
communicating and attending to that communication. Listening is how we receive the verbal
portion of a person's message. By listening, we can show concern and interest in understanding
both the person and the situation.

It is quite common for non-native speakers of English to mispronounce English words.

However, it is not something we have to be ashamed of, but something we ought to understand.
We have to get to the root/s of the problems, in order for us to improve our pronunciation..
That’s one of the main reasons non-native speakers of English get confused in pronouncing
many English words, especially if their native tongue is phonetic.

The importance of spoken performance of a language is becoming more prominent over

the written performance capability. It is because the ability to speak a language reflects a
person’s personality, self-image, knowledge of the world, ability to reason, skill to express
thoughts in real-time (Luoma, 2004: ix). These days, due to the global trend of
internationalization, the ability to communicate in English is needed as an essential skill.
Whenever the international exchange happens, the use of spoken English entails. However, it is
not always an easy task for people who use English as a second language to be able to speak to
the level of a native speaker. They have to perfectly understand the sound system of English,
have almost instant access to proper vocabulary and be able to place words together intelligibly
without hesitation. Moreover, they also have to perceive what is being said to them and need to
be able to respond appropriately to acquire amiable relations or to accomplish their
communicative goals (Luoma, 2004: ix).
Theoretical framework

Action research:
 Task-based
learning
Speaking
Speaking
approach competence and
development
 Task Practice confidence
Feedback

A task-based pedagogical approach (Nunan, 2006), together with the course

description (Faculty of Arts, 2004) was employed to design the speaking activities, of
which the emphasis was on the following principles’ needs-based approach to content
selection, a provision of opportunities to use English, an enhancement of the learner’s
experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning, and the linking of
speaking situations to real world English

Grammar has a mediating role, rather than serving as an end in itself (Thornbury
1998:112). “The teacher and the learner have a remarkable degree of flexibility, for they are
presented with a set of general learning objectives and problem-solving tasks” (Kumaravadivelu
1991:99). As students carry out communicative tasks, the assumption is that they engage in the
process of negotiation of meaning, employing strategies such
as comprehension checks, confirmation checks, and clarification requests. These
are believed to lead to a gradual modification of learners’ language output,
which over time takes on more and more target-like forms.

Conceptual framework

Kuhl proposed three key concepts: preoccupation, volatility, and hesitation, which form
part of the base from which WTC in the second language is built.Other factors dealing with
willingness to communicate can be divided into individual differences in the linguistic and non-
linguistic outcomes of language learning, such as motivation, aptitude, language learning
strategies, language anxiety, and others ( Dörnyei, 2005). They have been a key focus of second
language research for over 50 years (Gardner, 2009).

Two different kinds of processes are involved in understanding spoken discourse.

These are often referred to as bottom-up and top-down processing.

Bottom-up processing refers to using the incoming input as the basis for
Understanding the message. Comprehension begins with the received data that
is analyzed as successive levels of organization – sounds, words, clauses, sentences,
texts – until meaning is derived. Comprehension is viewed as a process
of decoding. The listener’s lexical and grammatical competence in a language
provides the basis for bottom-up processing. The input is scanned for familiar
words, and grammatical knowledge is used to work out the relationship
between elements of sentences.

It is these units of meaning that we remember, and not the form in which we
initially heard them. Our knowledge of grammar helps us find the appropriate
chunks, and the speaker also assists us in this process through intonation and
pausing.
Learners need a large vocabulary and a good working knowledge of sentence
structure to process texts bottom-up.

Many traditional classroom listening activities focus primarily on bottom-up

processing, with exercises such as dictation, cloze listening, the use of multiple-choice
questions after a text, and similar activities that require close and detailed
recognition, and processing of the input. They assume that everything the
listener needs to understand is contained in the input.

Top-down processing, on the other hand, refers to the use of background

knowledge in understanding the meaning of a message. Whereas bottom-up
processing goes from language to meaning, top-down processing goes from
meaning to language. The background knowledge required for top-down processing
may be previous knowledge about the topic of discourse, situational or
contextual knowledge, or knowledge in the form of “schemata” or “scripts” –
plans about the overall structure of events and the relationships between them.

Research Paradigm

Independent Variables Dependent Variables

Students' Practices
Speaking Skills
a. Watching
foreign a. Pronunciation
movies b. Grammar
b. Language c. Vocabulary
used at home
c. Reading
materials

Statement of the problem

This study intends to determine the different practices affecting the speaking abilities of
selected Bsed students in Laguna University.

Sub problems

1. What are the different practices that affect the speaking abilities of the selected bsed
students?
2. What is the level of the speaking abilities of the selected bsed students in terms of :
a. pronunciation
b. grammar
c. vocabulary
3. Is there a significant relationship between the practices and the speaking abilities of the
students?

Hypothesis
 There is a significant relationship between student’s practices and their speaking abilities.

Significance of the study

This study is important to aid students about their practices that may hinder or enhance
their speaking abilities..this will help in diagnosing the possible effects of different practices that
students usually do but they do not know that this is affecting one of the important skills they
have which is the speaking.

The result of this study will help the students, parents ,as well as the teachers. The
outcome of this study can guide the teachers on how they can help and encourage students to
have good speaking skills by having good practices. The parents can also use the result of this
study to monitor the things that their children usually do that affects their speaking abilities and
advise them to change it if necessary. The students themselves can assess their practices if it
contributes to them to be good speakers of English language. They will have an idea on what
practices is appropriate to do.

Scope and limitations

The extent of this study is within the vicinity of Laguna University only. The respondents
of this study are the selected first year students who are taking up bachelor of secondary
education. The duration of this study is for one to two semesters only. This study will include
only the different practices of students and the effect of it to their speaking abilities. This study
will try to find out that some practices like watching foreign movies, reading materials in English
and the like really contributes to the speaking skills of a person.

Definition of terms

Students Practices. Refers to the things or habits of the selected bsed students of laguna
university do that affects their speaking abilities or skills.

Speaking Ability. It refers to the way or manner the selected bsed students of Laguna
University speaks or communicates orally inside and outside the classroom.

Language used at home. This refers to the dialect or language that the selected bsed
students of Laguna University are using in their home,
 Foreign movies. This refers to the movies that the selected bsed students in Laguna
University are watching.

Reading materials. This refers to the materials like books, magazines, journals, and others
that the selected bsed students of Laguna University are reading whether they are in Filipino or
foreign language.

Pronunciation. This refers to the way the selected bsed students of Laguna University speak
or utter words or sentences in English language.

Grammar. This refers to the way selected bsed students of Laguna University speaks or
communicates orally considering the rules in subject and verb agreement.

Vocabulary. This refers to the way the selected bsed students of Laguna University uses
words in speaking or communicating orally inside and outside the classroom.

1st year Bsed students. This refers to the students of laguna university who are currently
in their first year taking bachelors of secondary education.