LEVEL OF PROFICIENCY IN ENGLISH SPELLING

OF BA ENGLISH LANGUAGE-FRESHMEN OF DON MARIANO

JOY T. ANDAYA
NAZZER JOHN S. FLORENDO

SUBMITTED TO MA'AM VENUS LUBRIN JUCUTAN

BACHELOR OF ART IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

November 4, 2019
 Chapter 1

Background of the study

English language, West Germanic language of the Indo-European

language family that is closely related to Frisian, German, and Dutch (in

Belgium called Flemish) languages. English originated in England and is

the dominant language of the United States, the United

Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and various island

nations in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It is also an official

language of India, the Philippines, Singapore, and many countries in

sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa. English is the first choice of

foreign language in most other countries of the world, and it is that

status that has given it the position of a global lingua franca. It is

estimated that about a third of the world’s population, some two billion

persons, now use English.

English belongs to the Indo-European family of languages and is

therefore related to most other languages spoken in Europe and

western Asia from Iceland to India. The parent tongue, called Proto-Indo-

European, was spoken about 5,000 years ago by nomads believed to

have roamed the southeast European plains. Germanic, one of the

language groups descended from this ancestral speech, is usually divided

and Gothic, all extinct), North

(Icelandic, Faroese, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish),

and West (German, Dutch [and Flemish], Frisian, and English). Though

closely related to English, German remains far more conservative than

English in its retention of a fairly elaborate system of inflections. Frisian,

spoken by the inhabitants of the Dutch province of Friesland and the

islands off the west coast of Schleswig, is the language most nearly

related to Modern English. Icelandic, which has changed little over the

last thousand years, is the living language most nearly resembling Old

English in grammatical structure.

Modern English is analytic (i.e., relatively uninflected), whereas

Proto-Indo-European, the ancestral tongue of most of the modern

European languages (e.g., German, French, Russian, Greek),

was synthetic, or inflected. During the course of thousands of years,

English words have been slowly simplified from the inflected variable

forms found in Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Russian, and German, toward

invariable forms, as in Chinese and Vietnamese. The German and

Chinese words for the noun man are exemplary. German has five

forms: Mann, Mannes, Manne, Männer, Männern. Chinese has one

form: ren. English stands in between, with four forms: man, man’s, men,

men’s. In English, only nouns, pronouns (as in he, him, his), adjectives
(as in big, bigger, biggest), and verbs are inflected. English is the only

European language to employ uninflected adjectives; e.g., the tall man,

the tall woman, compared to Spanish el hombre alto and la

mujeralta. As for verbs, if the Modern English word ride is

compared with the corresponding words in Old English and Modern

German, it will be found that English now has only 5 forms (ride, rides,

rode, riding, ridden), whereas Old English ridan had 13, and Modern

German reiten has 16.

The Philippines is recognized globally as one of the largest English-

speaking nations with majority of its population having at least some

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

official languages of the Philippines and is spoken by more than

14million Filipinos. It is the language of commerce and law, as well as

the primary medium of instruction in education.

Proficiency in the language is also one of the country’s strengths

that has helped drive the economy and even made the Philippines the top

voice outsourcing destination in the world, surpassing India in 2012. The

influx of foreign learners of English is also on the rise due to the

relatively more affordable but quality English as a Second Language

(ESL) programs being offered locally.

British Council, key stakeholders from the government, academe,

private, and non-government sectors acknowledged that even if the

Philippines is doing fine in terms of English competency, concerns on

how much of a competitive advantage it still is for the country were

raised. The stakeholders agreed that the country needs to step up its

efforts in improving the teaching and learning of English, developing it as

a vital skill of the workforce. This is an initiative that could potentially

strengthen the Philippines' distinct advantage in this part of the world,

particularly with the upcoming ASEAN economic integration.

Based on the gathered information, the researchers chose to study

the level of proficiency in the English spelling of HUMSS 11 Students of

La Union National High School because of the following: First, the

researchers want to know the level of proficiency in spelling of the

respondents. Second, to know if the proficiency level of the respondents

affect their academic performance. Third, to help the respondents

improve their spelling proficiency level on the said language.Lastly, to

present ways on how to improve the level of proficiency in spelling in the

English language of the students.

This study aims to determine the proficiency level in English

spelling of HUMSS 11 students of La Union National High School.

Specifically, it sought answers for the following questions:

1. What is the profile of the respondents based on:

a. GPA in English last school year,

b. gender and,

c. first learned language;

2. What is the level of proficiency in English spelling of the

respondents;

3. What informative material can be recommended based on the

results of the study;

4. Is there a significant relationship between the profile and the

proficiency level in English spelling of the respondents?

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

In this study, the researchers aimed to investigate and focus on

the level of proficiency of english spelling of HUMSS 11 students of La

Union National High School. The study considers the respondent’s

personal information such as their name (optional), gender and age,

section, and their interest.

students enrolled at La Union National High School. The students

selected came from six different sections to prevent bias. Each of the

respondents will be given a questionnaire to answer.

Significance of the study

This study aims to help the following group of people:

To the students. This study will give enlightenment to the

students about their level of proficiency in English spelling and how they

can improve their knowledge about it.

To the parents. For them to know about the level of proficiency of

their children in English spelling and how they can help to improve it.

To the teachers. For them to know about the level of proficiency of

their students in students in English spelling and how they can improve

it.

To the school. To help them learn new ways on how to improve

the level of proficiency in English spelling of the students.

Future researchers. This study serves as their reference for future

researchers in relation with the level of proficiency in English spelling.

1. Proficiency – advancement in knowledge or skill

2. Spelling – forming of words from letters

3. Vocabulary – list or collection of words or of words and phrases

usually

4. Native Tongue – also known as “mother tongue”, is a language

that a person learned as a child at home.

5. Orthography - the way in which the words of a language are

spelled
 Chapter 2

METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the methodology that the researcher used in

conducting this study. Specially, the research design, sources of data,

instrumentation and data collection as well as the tools for data analysis

are the contents of this chapter.

Research Design

The descriptive-survey method of research was used in this study.

This method is designed to gather information about present conditions

and since this study dealt with the level of proficiency in English spelling

of HUMSS 11 students of La Union National High School, thus, this

method is appropriate because it tackles a present condition.

Kowalczyk states that: “Descriptive research is a study designed to

depict the participants in an accurate way. More simply put, descriptive

research is all about describing people who take part in the study.”

Population and Locale of the Study

This study was conducted in the Senior High School of La Union

National High School. The respondents of this study were the Grade 11

HUMSS students during the school year 2018-2019.

The questionnaire was employed as the main data gathering tool

for this study. The questionnaire was divided into two parts: Part 1

tackles about the profile of the student-respondents in terms of the

following: GPA in English last school year; gender; and first language

learned. Part II focuses on answering the questionnaire on the level of

proficiency of the respondents on English spelling.

Statistical Treatment of Data

Responses to the questionnaire by Grade 11 HUMSS students

were statistically analyzed with the data requirements of the study.

Descriptive statistics such as frequency count, percent and rank are

considered.