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BASIC LANGUAGE SKILLS DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY THIRD YEAR AB ENGLISH STUDENTS
AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

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Chapter 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND
Introduction
Education has its great importance in all societies and in everyone's life.
College is more difficult than high school. Students commonly have to work
harder and stay more focused to understand course content and perform well
on assignments and tests.
In order to achieve a good result in learning English, first, students

must be proficient at all the four skills (listening, speaking, writing and reading).
Each skill has specific demands and difficulties. These difficulties may affect
the students’ academic performances in school, especially with their major
subjects.
This study eliminate the present gap in the concept related to the
relationship between the four basic language skills, the difficulties in it, how it
affects the students academic performances especially in their major subjects
and what are the coping mechanism that they did to reduce or overcome their
academic struggles.
Listening has long been recognized as a challenging skill for students

working within the English as a Second Language (ESL)/English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) context. Ferris (1998) further highlights the importance of
listening by claiming that students’ success in any academic setting seems to
be an impossible job without them being equipped with the appropriate
listening skills. Finally, Rost (2015) asserts that if learners fail to acquire the
listening skills needed to comprehend the input at the right level, they will
practically lose the chance to learn the language.
In the EFL context, speaking skill can be considered as a primary skill

that the students must have. Since people who know a language is usually
called the speaker of that language, then speaking skill is very important (Ur,
1996:43). Ur (1996) said that one of the most important factors causing
speaking difficulties is their psychology. They are afraid of making mistakes

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(low self-confidence). They sometimes do not have anything to say (low of

ideas) and this makes the students take no participation in the speaking
learning process. This, eventually, leads the students to the difficulty of
speaking in the real context. Linguistically, the students’ lack of knowledge
about the language system can make one faces with difficulties in speaking.
For the skills to develop, students must utilize the learning and material
sources available and not only relying on the textbook. Psychologically, the
students’ speaking difficulties can be emerged from the lack of ideas and self-
confidence. These two first categories lead to the third category which is the
students’ could not communicate optimally in the real social context.
Like all learning problems, difficulties in writing can be devastating to a

student’s education. Heaton (1975) stated that writing skill is complex and
sometimes it is difficult to teach. Requiring mastery is not only of grammatical
and rhetorical devices but also of conceptual and judgmental elements. As
students progress, they are increasingly expected to express what they know
about many different subjects through writing. If a student fails to develop
certain basic skills, he will be unable to write with the speed and fluency
required to excel as these demands increase. Indeed, for a student who is
struggling with writing, the writing process itself interferes with learning.
Students faced with such difficult odds have trouble in staying motivated. The
basic point that makes writing difficult is the use of language aspect or ability
in writing like punctuation, spelling, grammatical, vocabulary and so on.
According to Jordan (1997), writing is often confusing with the process of
putting words down on paper in the same structure as an outline prepared
with appropriate style and vocabulary the major ideas arranged in some often
on the correction of mechanical and grammatical errors.
Bryne (1988) divided the problems that make writing difficult into three
categories. The first is Linguistic Difficulty. Linguistics aspect like grammar,
vocabulary, language use and choice of sentence in writing must have fully
monitored. The second is Physiology Difficulty, which more focuses on the
writer’s difficulty because there is no direct interaction and feedback from the
reader when they are writing. This difficulty more focuses on difficulty in

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developing written material or content of composition. The third is cognitive

difficulty. Writing has to be thought through formal instruction like spelling,
punctuation, capitalization, and paragraphing.
Reading also plays a vital role in ones’ success in school. It is one of

the most important skills an individual learner must need to master. When
learners have difficulties in reading, they may also encounter difficulties in all
subject areas. As Claessen et al. (2020) coined, reading difficulties are
present in the world. The students may struggle with reading for a variety of
reasons, including limited experience with books, speech and hearing
problems, and phonemic awareness. Difficulties with reading comprehension
can stem from different underlying causes. Higher-level language skills,
including inferring and comprehension self-monitoring, are necessary for
successful reading comprehension.
Theoretical Framework
An individual cannot learn English Language properly without a strong

foundation in the four basic language skills. Similarly, the learners would not
become a well-rounded speaker of a language without building upon these
four foundations of language learning. As students who continue language
learning, there are some discoveries that they’re stronger in some areas than
others. Typically, they may have struggled most in these four basic language
skills.
This study is supported by the model of academic literacies (Lea &

Street, 1998, 2000, 2006) and sociocultural theory of learning (Vygotsky,
1978). The model of academic literacies, which has been originally developed
from the area of ‘new literacy studies’ (Baynham, 1995), is an attempt to
conceptualize students’ learning in higher education contexts. Study skills,
academic, socialization, and academic literacies have been identified as
interrelated in a complex network that may help researchers to understand
university students’ academic practices, such as listening, speaking, writing
and reading (Lea & Street, 1998, 2000). The model of academic literacies was

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considered suitable to be the theoretical framework of this study. Since this is

focused on academic difficulties of students, it is important to highlight how
this model is related to academic difficulties of the students. In fact, the
academic literacy model is considered essential for this study because
academic literacy is defined as the “ability to listen, speak, write and read the
various text assigned in college or universities” (Spack, 1997).
The sociocultural theory of learning is also considered essential for this

study for the following reasons. First, Zuengler and Miller (2006) emphasised
the relevance and the importance of the sociocultural theory of learning in
designing and carrying out studies in L2 contexts. Second, the university
context can be considered suitable for an inquiry on graduate students'
academic difficulties because it offers opportunities for using academic
language (such as reading tasks) in different academic and non-academic
activities (Zuengler & Miller, 2006). Third, this theory conceptualises learners
as social agents in active pursuit of linguistic competence and non-linguistic
outcomes (Gao, 2007). Fourth, reading skills used by graduate students in a
particular university context are not only seen as individual choices made by
the students themselves but are considered to be connected to the practices
of particular communities they belong to. Thus, the current study makes use
of the sociocultural theory of learning to understand a group of students'
experiences, difficulties, and strategies they use to overcome their academic
difficulties.
According to Goh (1999) the most common problems faced by

students in listening in the order of frequency are quickly forgetting what is
heard, not recognising the words they know, understanding the message but
not the intended message, neglecting next part while thinking about meaning,
and lacking to form a mental representation from words heard. Aside from that,
Goh also emphasizes the problem of concentrating and missing the beginning
of text. Goh also suggests do to more investigations about learners’ attitudes
to their listening problems and how they deal with these problems.
Underwood (1989) organizes the major problems as follows: (1) lack of
control over the speed of the speaker, (2) not being able to get things

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repeated, (3) the listener’s limited vocabulary, (4) failure to recognize the
“signals”, (5) problems of interpretation, and (6) inability to concentrate.
According to Bueno, Madrid, and Mclaren (2006), “Speaking is one of

the most difficult skills language learners have to face. Speaking is considered
the most important among the four language skills of English Language. Even
the learners who learn the language for so many years; they find it difficult to
speak in real time situations when it is demanded. There are many difficulties
involving speaking (1) unclear pronunciation, (2) intonation, (3) lack of
confidence, (4) lack of vocabulary, and (5) not being good at grammar.
According to Petersen (2015), writing difficulties can stem from

difficulties in punctuation, language use and also writing skills. Problems in
punctuation include problems in using full-stops, question marks, exclamation
marks, comma, colon, semi-colon, and many more. Problems in language
usage include problems in using appropriate type and style of language in
writing, use of synonyms/antonyms, proper tenses of verb, word order and
many more. Finally, problems in writing skills include problems in spelling,
summarizing, paraphrasing, using in-text citation, and many more.
Difficulties with fluent word reading can stem from different underlying
causes. Problems with automatic word recognition can contribute to difficulties
with fluency, and in turn, often cause problems with comprehension. Fluent
reading is necessary for comprehension because attention required for
effortful reading which draws resources away from comprehension (Perfetti,
1985). Problem with automaticity and fluency may appear as problem with
dysfluent word reading and/or with reading comprehension, including: (a) slow
and labored reading; frequent stopping at unknown words, (b) lacking
expression appropriate to the meaning in oral reading, (c) inefficient and
inaccurate decoding of unfamiliar words, (d) lack of memorization of words
that have been read and practiced previously, and (e) poor comprehension
even at a literal level.
Conceptual Framework

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The conceptual framework demonstrates the relationship between the

dependent and independent variables as well as the intervening variables.
The dependent variables that present in this study is the basic language skills
difficulties. On the other hand, the independent variables are the four basic
language skills which is the listening, speaking, writing and reading.
Furthermore, the intervening variables of the study are the difficulties in each
basic skill. Students that have difficulty in listening may encountered the lack
of control over the speed of the speaker, not being able to get things repeated,
the listener’s limited vocabulary, failure to recognize the “signals,” problems of
interpretation, and inability to concentrate. In the second skill, students have
difficulties in speaking because of their unclear pronunciation, intonation, lack
of confidence to face their classmates and teachers, lack of vocabulary or
they do not know what to say, because they are thinking the right words for it,
and not being good at grammar. Writing skills become difficult if they are
having a hard time in punctuation, capitalization, spelling and paragraphing,
language usage, limited in vocabulary, writing skills, and written exercises and
ideas. The last one the reading difficulties, students encountered problems
with automaticity and fluency in word reading, including slow and labored
reading, their frequent pause at unknown words, lacking expression
appropriate to the meaning in oral reading, inefficient and inaccurate decoding
of unfamiliar words, lack of memory of words that have been read and
practiced previously, and poor comprehension even at a literal level.
Students from tertiary level first need to be proficient at all the four
skills (listening, speaking, writing and reading). Each skill has specific
demands and difficulties. These difficulties may affect the students’ academic
performances in school, especially with their major subjects. Good thing about
learning is students can find suitable solutions and strategies to cope up with
these difficulties. Students may learn to enhance these skills through practice,
doing positive self-talk to themselves, staying present and focus at school,
and seeking social support.

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Statement of the Problem
This study aimed to determine the academic difficulties encountered by

Third Year AB English Students at Gapan City College. Specifically, it sought
to answer the following research problems:
1. What are the demographic profile of the respondents and how it affects
their basic language skills?
2. What are the academic difficulties encountered by third year AB
English students in learning English Language?
3. Which of the four basic skills (listening, speaking, writing, and reading)
do Third Year Students find the most difficult?
4. What major subject is most affected by these difficulties?
5. What are the coping mechanisms employed by third year students to
reduce their academic difficulties?
Scope and Delimitations of the Study
The study conducted on the first semester of the school year 2022-
2023 at Gapan City College. The data gathered for this research was limited
to the answers of participants through questionnaire. Using quantitative
descriptive approach, respondents answered the questions regarding their
experiences this semester. Answers of each participant were given weight.
Participants were Third Year AB English at Gapan City College. The findings
were limit mainly to the population used in the research.

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Significance of the Study
The study seeks to determine the academic difficulties of third year

student of AB English Language in Gapan City College. The researchers
provide significant knowledge and information about the experiences of the
said participants to the following people:
a) Students: The study may serve as their guide on how to overcome their
academic difficulties and help them regarding the development of the four
basic language skill.
b) Instructors: The study will help the instructors to identify the strengths and
weaknesses of the students in the four basic language skills and give them
information on how it is affect in students’ academic performances.
c) Parents and Guardians: the result of this study will serve as a motivation
and guidance to their college students as well as of other students
identified with these academic difficulties.
d) Administrators: The result of this research may serve as basis for
providing materials that will enhance the four basic language skills of the
students. Help them to determine which major subjects do students having
problems regarding these areas.
e) Researchers: The findings of the study may serve as a guide to the
researchers to strengthen their basic language skills with the coping
strategies stated.
f) Future Researchers: The result of the study can serve as a basis for
further study on academic difficulties of college and universities students.

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Definition of Terms
 Academic Difficulties - learning problems in a schoolchild who does not

acquire the necessary grade-level knowledge or cannot successfully
pursue the expected grade-level tasks and scholarly goals.
 Coping Mechanism - any conscious or nonconscious adjustment or
adaptation that decreases tension and anxiety in a stressful experience
or situation. Modifying maladaptive coping mechanisms is often the
focus of psychological interventions.
 Descriptive Approach - Descriptive research aims to accurately and
systematically describe a population, situation or phenomenon. It can
answer what, where, when and how questions, but not why questions.
A descriptive research design can use a wide variety of research
methods to investigate one or more variables.
 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) - is the term used to describe the
study of English by non-native speakers in countries where English is
not the dominant language.
 English as a Second Language - learning English in a country where
English is dominantly spoken or the official language.
 Four Basic Language Skills – language is a system that not only
includes words, but also written symbols, body language, and gestures.
It includes the four basic language skills of listening, speaking, reading,
and writing; these skills are usually learnt in that order by anyone who
wants to learn a new language.

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Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Foreign Literature
Listening Difficulties
Listening is a vital primary stage of language acquisition. If students do

not listen or learn to listen well, then the latter stages of the complex pattern of
language acquisition within a productive framework (in other words,
Speaking and Writing) in the communicative classroom will be difficult
(Rintaningrum, 2018a). As a learner, it is easier to learn rules and apply the
rules to listening comprehension. However, the more learning rules, the
harder it is to instantaneously apply the rules while listening. Inquiring into the
reason of difficulties in usage in the interview, subjects reported that it is
difficult to grasp and use the rules smoothly during listening exercise. (Books
on Google Play “Learning by Playing. Game-based Education System Design
and Development: 4th International Conference on E-learning, Edutainment
2009, Banff, Canada, August 9-11, 2009, Proceedings” Maiga Chang, Rita
Kuo, Kinshuk, Gwo-Dong Chen, Michitaka Hirose (2009))
Boyle [22] stated that there are four factors influencing listening
comprehension; the speaker, the listener, the environment, and factors in the
material and medium. Medium refers to the language features such as
reduced forms, tone, and stress. Henriches [23] examined how the presence
and absence of reduced forms influence ESL learners’ listening
comprehension process. Fan [17] mentioned reduced forms make it difficult
for students to distinguish individual words in a stream of speech. Field [7]
explicitly pointed out that reduced forms lead to difficulties for learners’
chunking of words and recognition. Assimilation and elision lead to a difficulty
in recognizing words; liaison leads to chunking of word problems.
Speaking difficulties
The ability to speak English as a second or foreign language well is an

important goal for many learners (Kawai 2008). Richards and Renandya
(2002) wrote that a large percentage of the world’s language learners study

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English in order to develop proficiency in speaking. However, developing the

ability to speak in a second or foreign language is widely considered a
daunting task for most language learners. Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (2000)
point out that in some ways speaking can be considered the most difficult skill
to acquire as it requires command of speech production sub-skills like
vocabulary retrieval and choice of grammatical patterns, and sociocultural
competence. The challenge is often further compounded in a situation in
which learners have rather limited access to the target language both inside
and outside the classroom (Pawlak, Waniek-Klimczak, and Majer
2011).Horwitz (2008) also maintains that speaking is the aspect of second or
foreign language learning most often associated with anxiety. Such language
anxiety is not limited to students. It is often reported in the English language
teaching literature that non-native teachers of English as a second language
(ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) may also be anxious about
speaking and may avoid conversational activities and communicative teaching
methods (Li 1998; Littlewood2007).
Writing difficulties
Writing is one of the skills among speaking, reading and listening skills
in English. Writing is a multiplex activity claimed by Ling (2016). Writing
activities need to be conducted among students since elementary school so
the students can generate good pieces of writing in the future. Even though
there are many subjects in elementary schools, writing is known as one of the
most vital academic subjects for students. The beating heart of English is
“story”. A “story” can take any form, be it a journalistic article, a research
documentary or a fantasy novel. It serves as a method of explaining and
passing information intended for a specific objective. Thus, all writing may be
taken in a form of story in a larger perspective. According to Muhammad
Fareed et al. (2016) students make mistakes in subject-verb agreement,
pronouns, tenses, articles, prepositions and basic sentence structures.
Grammar ability can be improved through reading activity and grammar
related activities.

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Lack of vocabulary has caused the students to face challenges in

acquiring writing skills claimed by Misbah et al. (2017). Vocabulary is the
fundamental element in constructing sentences which is the core of effective
writing skills, Asep (2014). Moreover, poor spelling is another cause of anxiety
for students in learning writing skill and this is supported by Nyang’au Benard
(2014). Having good ability in spelling will lead to positive learning of writing
skill. If the students are struggling with spellings, it will hold them back to
move forward. The students have the habit to spell according to their
pronunciation and this will lead to wrong spelling as mentioned by Afrin (2016).
The students will either add or leave letters of the words. For an example
“ballon” instead of “balloon.” According to Nyang’au Benard (2014),
memorization of the spelling will help the students to have good spelling.
Students’ readiness is another challenge in learning writing and this was
supported by Foster (2015).
Reading difficulties
Reading difficulties are often a component of academic difficulty; most

students do not seek academic skills assistance specifically because they
perceive themselves as poor readers. Some will acknowledge reading
difficulties during the assessment interview, while other students may not
consider reading as a source of difficulty (Books on Google Play “Helping
College Students Succeed: A Model for Effective Intervention” Routledge,
(2013). According to Stanovich (2011), in the literature of cognitive
developmental psychology, reading comprehension problems are typically
analyzed in terms of cognitive developmental work. Reading comprehension
problems might benefit from searching for explanations at a more distal level
than has been typical in our literature.
Wijayanti (2010), on his study about Descriptive study of teaching

reading comprehension using jigsaw to the second year students of SMP N 2
Simo Boyolali Academic year’s 2009-2010, stated that the conventional
method of English language teaching that is only transferring knowledge from
the teacher to the students or teacher-centred was felt ineffective any more.
Students will feel bored and have no chance to improve their skills. Therefore,

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the experts begin to look for a model of teaching learning process that can
meet the need of a meaningful teaching learning process that also dig the
student’s ability to master the knowledge.
Foreign Studies
Listening difficulties
Listening is a vital primary stage of language acquisition. If students do

not listen or learn to listen well, then the latter stages of the complex pattern of
language acquisition within a productive framework (in other words,
Speaking and Writing) in the communicative classroom will be difficult
(Rintaningrum, 2018a). Problems in listening emphasized by Field (2003) are
those: Learners know the word, but get the wrong sense. Phonetic variation of
a word mislead them. (reduction ,assimilation, elision, cliticization,
resyllabification). Learners know the word in written form but not the oral
version. Learners have difficulty to catch the word from a connected speech
such as a dialogue. Yiching (2005), however, thinks that some barriers cause
problems in listening such as belief barriers, material barriers, habitudinal
barriers, information processing barriers, English proficiency barriers, strategic
barriers, and affective barriers. He introduces forgetting to activate strategies,
regarding strategies as extra burdens to information processing, being
challenged by the complex nature of the strategy, having problems conducting
the proper strategies and even being unable to comprehend the text after
applying strategies.
Field (2008) also states that word boundaries in a listening text are not
as easily distinguishable as in a written text because the spaces between
words cannot be seen, thus it is highly challenging for learners, especially
beginning learners, to segment the stream of speech into individual words in
such a limited time span. He adds that, listening, being transient in nature,
makes learners anxious. As Call (1985) mentions, short-term memory, which
chunks utterances into manageable sizes according to syntactic rules, has a
significant role in construing the meaning from the oral input. Different stages

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of comprehension (perception, parsing, and utilization) can overlap. As a

result although the learners are trying to store what they have perceived, they
may have to attend to the incoming input. The short-term memory, therefore,
continuously gets cleared for new information, and unless some link with the
information in the long-term memory is formed, the new information will be
lost forever (Goh, 2000).
Among the four basic skills of the English language, speaking seems to
be difficult because the speakers have to produce sentences on the spur of
the moment. It is quite difficult for foreign or second language learners to
produce sentences without learning the grammatical structures and having
proper knowledge of adequate vocabulary. Therefore, the English language
learners of EFL/ESL face many problems in speaking grammatical
sentences in English. Since speaking skills play a dominant role in
communication, people try to learn these skills in order to communicate well
with the entire community all around the world. According to Bueno, Madrid,
and Mclaren (2006: 321), “Speaking is one of the most difficult skills that
language learners have to face. In this point, the researchers would like to
discuss about the difficulties of speaking:
1. Unclear Pronunciation - is one of the most important thing in speaking.

The first impression of the audience comes from the good and clear
pronunciation of the speaker, as clearer the pronunciation is much better
for the audience. Also, pronunciation is really close related to the
understanding of the material. The problem is since speaker cannot
speak English clearly, the receiver cannot understand it clearly as well.
2. Intonation - is a tone of someone’s speaking; it is a rise voice or a down
voice, whichever of this, it should be words or sentences. The big line in
the problem is not in the interrogative sentence or the following sentence
but instead it stops as it was finished.
3. Confidence - one of the most important aspects of gaining confidence
when speaking English is speaking it well. This means speaking clearly

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and making sure you articulate your words well. A great way to achieve
your speaking skills is to practice speaking while increasing vocabulary.
Whatever the major, you will have to produce many written

assignments over the course of your college career. If you are not confident in
your writing skills, the prospect of completing a report or essay may fill you
with dread. Perhaps you never know where to start and find a blank page to
be intimidating, or maybe you have trouble piecing together an argument.
Heaton (1975) stated that writing skill is complex and sometimes it is difficult
to teach. Requiring mastery are not only of grammatical and rhetorical devices
but also of conceptual and judgmental elements. As students’ progress, they
are increasingly expected to express what they know about many different
subjects through writing. If a student fails to develop certain basic skills, he
will be unable to write with the speed and fluency required to excel as these
demands increase. Indeed, for a student who is struggling with a writing
problem, the writing process itself interferes with learning. Students faced with
such difficult odds have trouble staying motivated.
Reading Difficulties
Difficulty with reading is a common problem—about one in five people,

struggles with reading in some way. Since it is such an important skill, reading
difficulties can cause trouble in other areas of learning, including writing,
spelling, fluency, and comprehension. These barriers make it very hard for
students to perform well in school and often lower self-esteem. In a recent
study in the UK, Kuzborska (2015) examined international students'
perspectives that guided their academic reading practices. The author found
that academic reading difficulties encountered by international students could
not be attributed to their knowledge of grammar, vocabulary or a reader's
cognition; rather these difficulties were associated with their abilities to
interact socially with other members in their academic community.
Reading difficulties influence student identity (Hall, 2012). In a recent

case study, (Kabuto and Harmey, 2020) a student defined by his teacher as

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struggling with reading in the same terms. This impacted his ability to engage
with text. The levels and labels assigned by the teacher acted as gatekeepers
to whether he would attempt to read a book, regardless of whether he could
read it accurately. The findings echoed those of Kontovourki (2012) who
found that the level assigned to children often became internalised, limiting
what they thought they could do. Equally, Morgan et al. (2008) discovered that
early reading failure co-varied with lack of motivation and student ‘avoidance
of reading’ (p.387). Mesmer (2009) encountered in a study that compared
reading accuracy on decodable versus levelled texts, similar to what have in
Reading Recovery (Clay, 2016), levelled texts provided favourable results in
terms of reading rates in terms of fluency. She concluded that levelled texts
had a ‘pronounced fluency advantage due to the similarity of the language of
books and the language of the students (p.35).
Difficulties with reading comprehension can stem from different

underlying causes. Vocabulary and knowledge are necessary bases of
comprehension. All students bring funds of knowledge and language to their
learning experience. The term "academic language" refers to the vocabulary
and language patterns used in texts and concepts in school and in the
workplace, and which are especially critical for reading comprehension
(Lesaux and Russ Harris, 2015; Ricketts, Nation, & Bishop, 2007). A student
struggling with reading comprehension may require more-developed
academic language in order to read and comprehend grade-appropriate texts.
Moreover, a reader's prior knowledge of a topic is a chief determinant of
whether he/she will understand the passage (Anderson & Pearson, 1984).
Students familiar with the topic of a text will fully comprehend it more,
including making more inferences (Oakhill, Cain & Elbro, 2015). Any student
who lacks familiarity with the topic of a text will struggle to fully comprehend it.
The approach of integrating knowledge-building into literacy instruction is
receiving growing attention (e.g., Cabell & Hwang, 2020), and is especially
beneficial for students who do not bring background knowledge of topics that
appear in the curriculum (e.g., science, history, or the arts).

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Local Literature
Communication is one of the primary means by which people affect

one another and in line with communication are four basic skills namely
reading, writing, speaking and listening. However, among these four skills,
listening is given the least attention in literarture since testing and assessing
skills in this area is difficult (Demayo, 2011). People commonly take hearing
as synonymous to listening. Although related, these two have a great
difference. Hearing is a sensory process. Nerve endings in the ear receive
sound waves and transmit them to the brain; the brain receives them, and
people become conscious of sound. This is a physiological process. In
contrast, listening is a mental operation. It involves processing the sound
waves, interpreting their meaning, and storing the interpretation in memory so
we can recall it, think about it, or act on it (Zarefsky, 2008). Listening is
important as to talking to a conversation. Good listening involves encouraging
other people to say interesting things, understanding thoughts, and being
sensitive to feelings (Nielo et.al, 2009).
As said by Gabriel (2009), Listening in classrooms must be an active

involvement process with students reacting and responding rather than
passively receiving alone. Active listening goes beyond reception and even
retention of words and ideas heard. According to Robles (1999), people have
ears that listen but seldom have they acquired the necessary over-all skills
which would allow those ears to be used effectively for what is called listening.
One of the reasons for this is the serious lack of programs and facilities in
schools for the development of this skill. On the other hand, Zarefsky (2008)
said that some people try to overcome the difficulties of listening by going to
the other extreme. They set the goal of focusing on each and every word the
speaker utters. This approach rarely works, however, because attempts to
take in everything makes it less likely that you will think about, interpret, and
assess what you are hearing. Similarly, students who try to make notes about
every word in a professor’s lecture often cannot explain what the lecture was
about. They are so busy writing that they have little energy or time for thinking.

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It’s a classic case of seeing the trees but missing the forest. Listening without
thinking is just as flawed as hearing without listening.
Speaking problems are some problems that make someone lacks of

speaking ability. According to Doris and Jessica (2007) language problems
actually serve as one of the important reasons behind poor academic
performance. These problems may become the obstacles for the students to
enhance and improve their speaking ability. The reason why the students are
having problems in their speaking are they are poor in grammar, vocabulary,
and pronunciation. Those problems are belong to linguistics problems. Other
problems that may become a barrier for the students to become good English
speakers is the psychological problems. Xinghua (2007) states that
psychological problems are those problems which often interfere your
emotional and physical health, your relationships, work productivity, or life
adjustment such as nervous, lack of self confident, and afraid to speak. These
problems may affect students performance in their speaking. Khan (2005)
claims in his research that some of his participants have psychological
problems in speaking. This emphasizes that psychological problems also
affect students performance in speaking. Finally, Hayriye (2006) states that
speaking is to select appropriate words and sentences according to the
proper social setting, audience, situation, and subject matter. Being a fluent
speaker requires many knowledge towards the language learnt itself and its
usage in the real communication.
The students’ difficulties in writing English can be influenced by lack of

enough vocabularies and grammar, and lack of written exercises and ideas. It
is supported by Sulasti (2003), the problems that they mostly face are about
how to write, what to be written, and lack of vocabulary words, as well as
incompetence in structure. The basic point that makes writing difficult is the
usage of language aspect or ability in writing like punctuation, spelling,
grammatical, vocabulary and so on. According to Jordan (1997), writing is

20
often confusing with the process of putting words down on paper in the same
structure as an outline prepared with appropriate style and vocabulary the
major ideas arranged in some often on the correction of mechanical and
grammatical errors.
Wijayanti (2010), on his study about Descriptive study of teaching

reading comprehension using jigsaw to the second year students of SMP N 2
Simo Boyolali Academic year’s 2009-2010, stated that the conventional
method of English language teaching that is still only transferring knowledge
alone from the teacher to the students or teacher centred was felt ineffective
any more. Due to that the students will feel bored and will have no chance to
improve their skills. For this reason, the experts begin to look for a model of
teaching learning process that can meet the need of a meaningful teaching
learning process that also dig the student’s ability to master the knowledge.
Wichadee (2003) states that teacher centred approach taking place in

traditional classrooms do not produce active recipients and result in fossilized
language learning.
Cubucku’s (2008) study presents a study of the teacher trainees in an

English department who have received instructions in metacognitive
awareness for reading comprehension. Metacognition or ‘thinking about
thinking’ involves the awareness and regulation of thinking processes.
Metacognitive strategies are those strategies which require students to think
about their own thinking as they engage in academic tasks. Within this study,
students have been taught metacognitive strategies for reading in a five week
program they have joined voluntarily. The students have used reading logs to
reflect on their own thinking processes as they have been engaged in reading
tasks. The purpose of the study is to determine the effectiveness of
systematic direct instruction of multiple metacognitive strategies designed to
assist students in comprehending text. Specifically, the reading
comprehension and vocabulary achievement of 130 third year university
students has been investigated to determine whether instruction incorporating

21
metacognitive strategies has led to an increase in the reading comprehension

of expository texts. In addition, the investigation is also designed to determine
the impact of the metacognitive strategies on vocabulary.
Local Studies
In the Philippine school settings, listening is expected to have been

developed through the usage of listening activities pertaining to
recordings, dubbed conversations, and videos with narrations and
listening to songs in the native tongue as indicated in the curriculum. But
as per observation, schools do not strictly practice the listening activities partly
because of the classroom dilemma involving the lack of equipment and
its availability, classroom size, and class size. The activities could have
helped the learners attain proficiency in listening comprehension. Philippines
also accept international students where majority are non-native English
speakers. Cebu, in particular has universities with international students.
Therefore, the meeting of learners from different nationalities and
different English varieties happens. In this case, the listening anxiety
and listening comprehension problem are centered on the intelligibility of
the speech heard (Jaber and Hussien, 2011). Listening problems then
developed into a more complicated result affecting the students’ listening
comprehension and defeating the purpose of their coming to the
Philippines (Krashen, 2013). Munro and Derwing (1998) claimed that too
many genres of accented speech would result in a significant reduction
in comprehension.
The country uses the English language as an international language for

communication and because the majority of the population has a degree of
fluency. Yet not most people from other countries know that English learners
from the Philippines are also facing difficulties in learning to speak English.

22
Tupas (2002) introduced the concept of the culture of inferiority in the

Philippines which makes learners feel that their knowledge and skills in
English are not enough compared to the native speakers, thus making them
feel insecure of their abilities in speaking.
As students’ progress, they are increasingly expected to express

what they know about many different subjects through writing. If a student
fails to develop certain basic skills, he will be unable to write with the speed
and fluency required to excel as these demands increase. Indeed, for a
student’s struggling with a writing problem, the writing process itself interferes
with learning. Students faced with such difficult odds have trouble staying
motivated. Bryne (1988) divided the problems that make writing difficult into
three categories. The first is Linguistic Difficulty. Linguistics aspect like
grammar, vocabulary, language usage and choice of sentence in writing must
have fully monitored. The second is Physiology Difficulty, which more focuses
on the writer’s difficulty because there aren’t direct interaction and feedback
from the reader when they are writing. This difficulty more focuses on difficulty
in developed written material or content of composition. The third is cognitive
difficulty. Writing has to be thought through formal instruction like spelling,
punctuation, capitalization and paragraphing.
Blay (2011), on his study about the relation between motivation and
second language reading comprehension among fourth grade Filipino
students, stated that success in first language reading comprehension is said
to be influenced by one’s own motivation to read. With an attempt to prove
this claim in second language reading, this study aims to (1) identify whether
Grade-4 Filipino students motivation has a significant relationship with their L2
reading comprehension, (2) determine which of the five aspects of motivation
– challenge, curiosity, involvement, competition and compliance – influences
student’s reading comprehension.

23
Synthesis and Relevance of the Study
The findings of the study synthesized here are highly relevant to the
researchers' idea. The related literature and studies explain and stated the
same experiences that encountered regarding the difficulties of the students
in the areas of four basic language skills. According to International TEFL and
TESOL training (2019), learning English can be broken into four key skills
including speaking, listening, reading and writing. The student may have
individual factors which could make learning difficult. These factors are
numerous, but may include: difficult living circumstances, a missed period of
schooling, negative learning experiences, poor vision, being used to a rote
system of learning in a critical thinking learning environment or poor
motivation.
These studies were considered in the present study with similarities on

the objective of determining the difficulties in four basic language skills of the
Third Year AB English students at Gapan City College. According to
Muhammad Fareed, students make mistakes in subject-verb agreement,
pronouns, tenses, articles, preposition and basic sentences structure. Also,
As call mentions, short term memory, which chunks utterances into
manageable sizes according to syntactic rules, has a significant role in
constructing the meaning.
Furthermore, According to Bueno, Madrid, and Mclaren “speaking is

one of the most difficult skills that language learners have to face.” In this
point, the researchers would like to discuss about the difficulties of speaking:
Unclear pronunciation, intonation, and confidence. However, Kuborska
examined international students’ perspective that guide their academic
reading practices.
Included in the related literature and studies are the analysis and
interpretation that shown in this study. However, there are a variety of learning
difficulties that could negatively impact a student’s learning progress
according to the theories. Therefore, the students’ can use different
approaches to help themselves to learn and make progress.

24
Chapter 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Method
The quantitative research was used in the study, descriptive research

study method in particular. The quantitative methodology gathers a range of
numeric data; the collection of information allows researchers to conduct
simple to extreme sophisticated statistical analyses that aggregate the data.
This kind of methodology is a way to learn about a particular group of people,
known as a population frame. Using scientific inquiry, quantitative research
relies on data that are observed or measured to examine questions about the
sample population (Allen, M. 2017). The study utilized a descriptive approach,
according to Gay (1976), descriptive method involves the collection of data in
order to test hypothesis and to answer questions concerning current status of
the subject of the study. In relation to this research, the descriptive method
was utilized because it was the most appropriate with regard to the purpose of
the researcher, that is, to gather data in order to answer the specific questions,
as well as to test the hypothesis related to the topic.
The Population Frame and Sample Size
The research setting of the study is the Gapan City College. The target
respondents are the group of third year students taking up Bachelor of Arts in
Language Studies, in this school year 2022-2023. This study specifies exactly
the limits of the participants to be studied. The said group of students have a
number of 44 in total enumeration.

25
Description of the Respondents
The respondents in this research were selected using the following

criteria:
1. The respondents must be of legal age.

2. The respondents are Third Year students of Gapan City College, taking
up Bachelor of Arts in English Language Studies.
3. The respondents maybe irregular students in third year and fourth year
level.
4. The respondents are active students (not drop in school) upon the
conduct of the study.
5. The respondents are willing to answer the questions and cooperate in
the study.
Instrumentation
This research study used questionnaire as research instrument,

consisting of a set of standardized questions to gather statistically useful
information on the problem topic from the respondents. A questionnaire,
according to Creswell (2012) “a form used in a survey, design that participants
in a study complete and return to the researcher”. It is a very useful tool to
gather first-hand information from a large audience. Aashish Pahwa (2021)
stated that, descriptive questionnaire is developed to capture or document the
extent of a particular topic or issue within a population of what exists at the
moment. Questions in this questionnaire are focused on students certain
experiences that hold a particular opinion. This questionnaire calculates the
percentage of student who answered the same level of difficulties in some
areas of four basic language skills.

26
Data-Gathering Procedure
This study aimed to determine the academic difficulties encountered by

third year AB English students in Gapan City College. The researchers used
structured questionnaire to collect the data. It is a questionnaire that consists
of a set of standardized questions with fixed scheme, which specifies the
exact wording and order of the questions, for gathering information from
respondents. A printed questionnaire was given to participants. Before they
answer the questionnaire, they were informed of the purpose of the study and
assured that the data gathered would be confidential and their names were
concealed. The respondents were given questions that they needed to rate
depending on their difficulties in some areas encountered during the
discussion, activities, writing essays, oral recitation, and seatwork. Answering
the questionnaire may last for 15-25 minutes. After the data is collected and
analyze, the interpretation retrieved to the respondents to show if it is relevant
to their answers.
Statistical Treatment of the Data
This study aimed to convert the answers of the respondents to

percentage in order to see if how many of them often encountered the
following situation given related to the four basic language skills. Researchers
came up with a typical five point Likert question which has the following
possible responses: 5 – very often, 4 – often, 3 – moderate, 2 – rare and 1 –
very rare. For each question, the total number of students who answered
those questions was taken. Furthermore, the researchers also used
dichotomous questions which offered two possible answers of yes or no.
Percentage can be calculated by dividing the value by the total value, and
then multiplying the result by one hundred (100). The formula used to
calculate percentage is:
Percentage = Value ÷ Total Value x 100
The percentage helped the researchers to interpret the answers of the

students.

27
Chapter 4
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
In this chapter, the data gathered by the researchers has been
tabulated, chart, analysed, and interpreted to get a meaningful conclusion
about the data.
I. Profile of the Respondents
Age
Using frequency and percentage, the results in Table 1 shows that out
of 44 respondents: 52% of them are around 17 to 20 years old, 37% of them
are around 21 to 24 years old, and 11% of them are above 25 years old.
Table 1: Age of the respondents
AGE FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE

17 to 20 years old 23 52%
21 to 24 years old 16 37%
25 years old above 5 11%
TOTAL 44 100%
Snow (2002) claimed that age affecting students in the learning of

basic language skills. The results indicated that there was relationship
between age and rate of learning. Among the students exposed to four basic
language skills in using English language at the same time, the older students
are having difficulties in writing and listening, whereas the younger students
are having difficulties in speaking.
Sex
Using frequency and percentage, the results in Table 2 shows that out
of 44 respondents: 32% are male and 68% are female.

28
Table 2: Sex of the respondents
SEX FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE

Male 14 32%
Female 30 68%
TOTAL 44 100%
According to Tannenbaum (2016), knowing the sex of the respondents

could serve as a parameter and help surveys understand how sex influences
the acquisition of the four basic language skills of an individual. Based on the
data gathered, there is no significant effect of having difficulties in four basic
language skills on the students’ sex. The both male and female respondents
are experiencing the same difficulties in their academic performances.
II. Analysis of the Students’ Answers
The respondents’ data aimed to analyzed using pie chart. Each question
was computed to get the frequency as well as the percentage.
A. How often they encountered the four basic language language skills
difficulties:
Listening
Chart 1
As shown in Figure 3, out of 44

respondents: 29% of them answered
Very Often, 39% answered Often,
14% answered Moderate, 14%
answered Rare, and 4% answered
Very Rare as they encountered this
situation, “Inability to concentrate, I
have noisy classmates which distract
my attention during class discussion.”
Figure 2: Inability to concentrate, I have noisy classmates which distract my attention

during class discussion.

29
Huang and Elhiali (2020), stated in their study that noticeable noises of
other students in background shift the attention of the listener and lead them
to not focus on the class discussion. Students have a limited capacity for
attention, and that new sensory information can divert students’ attention from
discussion to background noises.
Chart 2

Very Often, 23% answered Often, 48%
answered Moderate, 11% answered
Rare, and 2% answered Very Rare as
they encountered this situation, “Lack of
control over the speed of the speaker.”
Figure 3: Lack of control over the speed of the speaker.

According to Underwood (1989), there are barriers to effective listening
comprehension process. Listeners cannot control the speed of speech. The
biggest problem with listening skills id that listeners are not able to control
how quickly speakers talk. Chastain (2011) stated that the goal of listening
comprehension is to comprehend the language at norml speed in an
automatic condition.
Chart 3

Rare, and 5% answered very Rare as
they encountered this situation, “Not
being able to understand sentences
dictated.”
Figure 4: Not being able to understand sentences dictated.


30
Graham and Herbert (2010) state when students take notes while
listening, their comprehension on what they have listen decrease because
they find it hard to follow what is being dictated. The students cannot
remember the other words that a teacher said, they find it difficult in identifying
the words and the sound of the letter in combining sentences.
Chart 4

situation, “Difficulties on recognizing
the signals of the speaker.”
Figure 5: Difficulties on recognizing the signals of the speaker.
When students are listening to something, it is difficult for them to

pinpoint the speaker’s trying to say, they cannot recognize the signal that is
given. According to Palin (2008) listening can be more challenging because of
the signals of the speakers. Furthermore, speaker may speak too quickly or
too softly depends on how they intend to emphasize the message, in some
other way that is difficult to follow by the students.

31
Speaking
Chart 5

answered Rare, and nobody
answered Very Rare as they
encountered this situation, “Difficulty
in expressing my thoughts and ideas
when I am speaking”.
Figure 6: Difficulty in expressing my thoughts and ideas when I am speaking.
Students fail to express themselves properly when speaking, even

though they have something good in mind. One reason is they process
information deeply over and over in their mind that results for them to pause
while thinking the next phrase that they wanted to say (Nunan, 2001).
Chart 6

situation, “Lack of confidence to speak
in front of people.”
Figure 7: Lack of confidence to speak in front of people.


32
Lacking confidence speaking and being nervous is usually tied to

students’ fear of being judged or not feeling that they are not good enough.
Spijck (2011) amplified that according to his research, almost eighty out of
every hundred people experienced lacking of confidence while speaking at a
small or large scale of audience.
Chart 7
As shown in Figure 9, out

of 44 respondents: 27% of them
answered Very Often, 41%
answered Often, 27% answered
Moderate, 2% answered Rare,
and 2% answered Very Rare as
they encountered this situation, “I
am poor in speaking using
English language.”
Figure 8: I am poor in speaking using English language.
Effective communication in spoken English is desirable in this

globalized world due to its statues as a lingua franca. Therefore, students
desperately struggle with using English language while speaking. (Jenkins,
2007). Many learners who is not proficient in speaking English language find it
hard to deliver what they are trying to say in classes. (Chen and Goh, 2011).

33
Chart 8
As shown in Figure 10, out of

44 respondents: 32% of them
answered Very Often, 30% answered
Often, 27% answered Moderate, 2%
answered Rare, and 9% of them
answered Very Rare as they
encountered this situation, “Problems
in my intonations.”
Figure 9: Problems in my intonations.
According to Muniem (2015) intonation is a feature of pronounciation

and common to all languages. It include stress, rhythm, connected speech
and accent. Problems in intonation can make the language learner very
difficult to understand, many students find it difficult to deal with. Fraser (2000)
reprted that many learners of English have major difficulties in intonation,
most of them did not know how to use it correctly.
Writing
Chart 9

Moderate, 18% answered Rare, and
9% answered Very Rare as they
encountered this situation,
“Difficulties in punctuation,
capitalization, spelling, and
paragraphing.”
Figure 10: Difficulties in punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and paragraphing.


34
Banlomchon (2006) stated that most students have errors in using

punctuation, capitalization, spelling and paragraphing. Tertiary level students
expected to write their written output without errors and corrections. In the
study of Yemeni (2014) found that students have less knowledge and did not
employ most of the punctuation, capitalization, spelling and paragraphing
rules in their writings.
Chart 10

answered Very Often, 30% answered
Often, 27% answered Moderate, 7%
situation, “Problems in Language
usage.”
Figure 11: Problems in Language usage.
According to Muhammad Fareed (2016) students make mistakes in

subject-verb agreement, pronouns, tenses, articles, prepositions and basic
sentence structures. By having difficulty in it, students will face anxiety to write
sentences with correct language usage.
Chart 11
As shown Figure 13, out of 44

situation, “Lack of vocabulary.”
Figure 12: Lack of vocabulary.


35
Lack of vocabulary has caused the students to face challenges in

acquiring writing skills claimed Misbah (2017). Vocabulary is the fundamental
element in constructing sentences which is the core of effective writng skills
(Asep, 2014). Having difficulties in vocabulary will lead students to not
express what they intend to say.
Chart 12
As shown Figure 14, out of

encountered this situation, Lack of
interest on writing, “I do not know
how to start writing a piece.”
Figure 13: Lack of interest on writing, I do not know how to start writing a piece.
According to Richards (1999) for some reasons students avoid writing,

they feel writing takes too long of their time because they do not have the
interest on doing it. They struggle to develop their ideas fluently. They
struggle to keep track of their thoughts while getting it down on paper. They
are inefficient in retrieving the right words to express an idea.

36
Reading
Chart 13
As shown Figure 15, out of

encountered this situation, “I find it
hard to understand what I had read”.
Figure 14: I find it hard to understand what I had read.
Reading comprehension, simply stated, is the ability to recognize,

understand, and retain written text. According to Adam (2002) 85% of tertiary
students diagnosed with learning difficulties in reading skill, they were having
confusion about the meaning of the words and sentences, inability to connect
ideas in a passage, difficulty in distinguishing significant information from
minor details and lack of concentration during reading.
Chart 14

Rare, and 7% answered Very Rare as
they encountered this situation,
“Inability to decode unfamiliar words
that I had read.”
Figure 15: Inability to decode unfamiliar words that I had read.


37
Reading skills relies on the mastery of decoding, students who struggle

to decode unfamiliar words find it difficult to understand and remember what
has been read. Their efforts to grasp individual words are so exhausting, they
have no resources left for understanding (Lauren, 2002).
Chart 15
situation, “Being slow and labored at
reading.”
Figure 16: Being slow and labored at reading.

Problem in reading skill appear at students in tertiary level, including
slow and labored reading. When students are reading slow and labored, they
are able to think about overall meaning of the text. Often, students struggling
with reading fluency are focused on sounding out each word and reading at
such slow pace, they have hard time looking at sentences and paragraphs as
a whole (Pikulski and Chard, 2005).
Chart 16

respondents: 36% of them
encountered this situation, Stop
reading when the next word is hard
to pronounce.”
Figure 17: Stop reading when the next word is hard to pronounce.

38
Students reported that they were force to stop reading when the next
word is hard to pronounce and mentioned that they need of lecturer’s
assistance in pronunciation and terminologies of that word (Shen, 2013). In
Sultana (2016), students mentioned the same frustration in terms of reading
difficulties. Another difficulty is also found when students have to read long
academic reading text that has deep words.
B. The effects of these difficulties in their academic performance:
The respondents answered whether they experienced the following

statements using yes or no.
 Statement 1: When we have oral recitation, I find it hard to stand in front

of my classmates and teacher.
 Statement 2: I find it hard to express my thoughts and ideas in essay

writing.
 Statement 3: I got stuttered when I am reporting in front of the class.
 Statement 4: When I am nervous, I cannot control the speed of my

speech, there are words that I cannot pronounce correctly and clearly.
 Statement 5: Having a short-term memory loss or being mental block in

quizzes and seat works.
 Statement 6: When the teacher dictates the question, I find it hard to

follow while.taking notes.
YES NO TOTAL
Statement 1 29 66% 15 34% 44 100%

Statement 2 21 48% 23 52% 44 100%

39
Statement 3 23 52% 21 48% 44 100%

Statement 4 37 84% 7 16% 44 100%
Statement 5 26 59% 18 41% 44 100%
Statement 6 18 41% 26 59% 44 100%
Table 3: The effects of the four basic language skills difficulties in the students’
academic performances.
Table 3 represents the data gathered regarding the effects of the four
basic language skills difficulties in the students’ academic performances.
As shown in statement 1, 66% of the students answered they find it

hard to stand in front of the class during oral recitation while 34% said that
they find it easy.
In statement 2, 48% of the students answered they find it hard to

express their thoughts and ideas in essay writing while 52% said that they find
it easy.
In statement 3, 52% of the students answered they got stuttered when

they are reporting in front of the class while 48% said that they did not
experience it.
In statement 4, 84% of the students answered they cannot control the

speed of their speech and there are words that they cannot pronounce
correctly and clearly when they are nervous, while 16% said that they did not
experience it.
In statement 5, 59% of the students are having a short-term memory

loss or being mental blocked in quizzes and seat works while 41% said that
they did not experience it.
In statement 6, 41% of the students said that when the teacher

dictates the question, they find it hard to follow while taking notes and 59%
did not experience it.

40
C. Major subjects affected by the four basic language skills difficulties:
The respondents answered whether the said difficulties affected the

following major subjects by using yes or no.
 Category 1: FL2 - Intermediate Spanish
 Category 2: ELS 107 - English Discourse
 Category 3: ELS 108 - Stylistics
 Category 4: ELS 111 - Language of Non-Literary Texts
 Category 5: ELS 112 - Computer-Mediated Communication
YES NO TOTAL
Category 1 19 43% 25 57% 44 100%

Category 2 29 66% 15 34% 44 100%
Category 3 21 48% 23 52% 44 100%
Category 4 18 41% 26 59% 44 100%
Category 5 20 45% 24 55% 44 100%
Table 4: Major subjects affected by four basic language difficulties.

Table 4 represents the major subjects affected by four basic language
skills difficulties.
As shown in category 1, 43% of the students answered that the subject

FL2 - Intermediate Spanish is affected by these difficulties while 57% said that
it is not affected.
In category 2, 66% of the students answered that the subject ELS 107 -
English Discourse is affected by these difficulties while 34% said that it is not
affected.

41
Stylistics is affected by these difficulties while 52% said that it is not affected.
Language of Non-Literary Texts is affected by these difficulties while 59% said
that it is not affected.
In category 5, 45% of the students answered that the subject ELS 112
- Computer-Mediated Communication is affected by these difficulties while
55% said that it is not affected.
D. Coping mechanisms to reduce the four basic language skills difficulties:
The respondents answered whether they did the following statements to

reduce the difficulties they encountered by using yes or no.
 Statement 1: Enhancing my four basic language skills through practice.
 Statement 2: Doing positive self-talk to encourage myself to keep forward..
 Statement 3: Staying present and focus at school.
 Statement 4: Seeking social support to study.
YES NO TOTAL
Statement 1 32 73% 12 27% 44 100%

Statement 2 31 70% 13 30% 44 100%
Statement 3 41 93% 3 7% 44 100%
Statement 4 35 80% 9 20% 44 100%
Table 5: Coping mechanisms to reduce difficulties.

Table 5 represents the coping mechanisms done by the students to
reduce the four basic language skills difficulties.

42
As shown in statement 1, 73% answered that they are enhancing their

four basic language skills through practice while 27% said they did not do it.
In statement 2, 70% answered that they are doing positive self-talk to

encourage them to keep forward while 30% said they did not do it.
In statement 3, 93% answered that they are staying present and focus
at school while 7% said they did not do it.
In statement 4, 80% answered that they are seeking social support to

study with while 20% said they did not do it.

43
Chapter 5
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
Based on the statement of the problem, the following summary are made:
1. Based on the data gathered, half of the class is around 17 to 20 years old;
14 of them are males and 30 of them are females, which total of 44
students. Furthermore, the study find that third year students have the
biggest changes in their subject, because, from combination of minor and
major subjects in their first and second year in college, they went to pure
major subjects this school year.
2. There are academic difficulties encountered by third year AB English
students in learning English Language like inability to concentrate, lack of
control over the speed of the speaker, not being able to get things
repeated, difficulties on recognizing the signals of the speaker, difficulty in
expressing their thoughts and ideas when they are speaking, lack of
confidence to speak in front of people, being poor in speaking using
English language, problems in intonation, difficulties in punctuation,
capitalization, spelling, and paragraphing, problems in language usage,
lack of vocabulary, lack of interest on writing, they do not know how to
start writing a piece, find it hard to understand what they had read,
inability to decode unfamiliar words, being slow and labored at reading,
and tend to stop reading when the next word is hard to pronounce.
3. Among the four basic language skills, the majority of third year students
find speaking as the most difficult.
4. According to the data collected, ELS 107 - English Discourse is the major
subject that most affected by these difficulties.
5. There are four coping mechanisms applied in order to reduce their
difficulties in such areas: (1) Enhancing my four basic language skills
through practice; (2) Doing positive self-talk to encourage myself to keep
forward; (3) Staying present and focus at school; and (4) Seeking social
support to study.

44
Conclusions
Based on the findings of the study, the following conclusions are made:
1. The results indicated that there was relationship between age and rate of
learning. Among the students exposed to four basic language skills in
using English language at the same time, the older students are having
difficulties in writing and listening, whereas the younger students are
having difficulties in speaking. Furthermore, based on the data gathered,
there is no significant effect of having difficulties in four basic language
skills on the students’ sex. The both male and female respondents are
experiencing the same difficulties in their academic performances.
2. The findings of the study show that each skills have difficulties in it and
having difficulties in such areas may affect the students’ academic
performances in some of their major subjects.
3. Majority of the third year students find speaking as the most difficult
among the four skills. The said difficulties affected more of the students by
being nervous in front of people, that they cannot control the speed of
their speech, and there are words that they cannot pronounce correctly
and clearly.
4. ELS 107 - English Discourse is one of the major subjects taken by third
year AB English students this first semester, school year 2022-2023. In
that subject there are activities where students are required to make a
speech in front of their teachers and classmates. Students find this
subject hard because it mostly compose of speaking skills.
5. Coping strategies are an effective method to help learners deal with
difficult situations. The results showed that staying present and focus at
school was the coping strategy that the participants used most often when
they were experiencing difficulties in four basic language skills. Results in
this study have implications for both teachers and students to become
more aware of the relative efficacy of different coping strategies.

45
Recommendations
Based on the conclusions of the study, the following are recommended:
1. Age, sex and gender, as well as the year level of the respondents affects
their academic performances when it come to four basic language skills.
The administrator should be aware of that for them to give much accurate
activities that fits the need of the students.
2. There are different strategies to cope up or reduce the said difficulties in
the four areas of basic language skills. The third year students must be
aware what is exactly those situations that they find difficult. By knowing it,
it is easier to assess their problems and create effective solutions.
3. More of the students were having a hard time on speaking skills, therefore,
teachers must be aware of that. Teachers and administrator may help the
students by giving them seminars and training that will practice their
language speaking skills.
4. Based on the data gathered, more of the students were having difficulties
in the major subject ELS 107 - English Discourse. The teachers need to
make an action that may help the students by giving them activities that
will catch their attention. It is easier for the students to learn if they are
having fun in doing the activities. On the other hand, the students need to
be cooperative on the said activities in order for them to learn.
5. Aside from the four coping mechanisms that found in the study,
researchers recommend the six ways to overcome difficulties in the four
basic language skills: (1) be aware of your strengths and weaknesses; (2)
take action, continuous practice until you became better; (3) try to watch
English movies that has no subtitles or English lessons that can be found
online; (4) seek and study unfamiliar words and phrases; (5) have faith in
yourself; and (6) ask for help from your classmates and instructors.

46
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 Zarefsky (2008) "Problems in the Listening Abilities of the First Year High
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HdzNCoIQFnoECBIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3l870-wbaBw-CU__wypixM

54
APPENDIX A:
Cover Letter

55
APPENDIX B:
Questionnaire
ACADEMIC DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY THIRD YEAR AB

ENGLISH STUDENTS AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE
Name:
Age:
17 to 20 years old
21 to 24 years old
25 years old above
Sex:
Male
Female
Difficulties you been encountered this semester that related to the four
basic language skills: listening, speaking, writing, and reading.
 How often do you encounter the following situations?
Very Often Moderate Rare Very

Often Rare
Inability to concentrate, I have
noisy classmates which distract my
attention during class discussion.
I find it hard to understand what I
had read.
Lack control over the speed of the
speaker.
Not being able to get things
repeated.
Inability to decode unfamiliar words
that I had read/heard.
Being slow and labored at reading.
Stop reading when the next word is
hard to pronounce.
Difficulty in expressing my thoughts
and ideas when I am speaking.
Lack of confidence to speak in front
of people.

56
I am poor in speaking using English

Language.
Problems in my intonations.
Difficulties in punctuations,
capitalization, spelling, and
paragraphing.
Problems in Language usage.
Lack of vocabulary.
Lack of interest on writing, I do not
know how to start writing a piece.
Difficulties on recognizing the
signals of the speaker.
The effects of this difficulties in your academic performances.

 What are the effects of these difficulties on your academic
performances?
When we have oral recitation, I find it hard to stand in front of

my classmates and teacher.
I find it hard to express my thoughts and ideas in essay
writing
I got stuttered when I am reporting in front of the class.
When I am nervous, I cannot control the speed of my speech,
there are words that I cannot pronounce correctly and clearly
Having a short-term memory loss or being mental block in
quizzes and seat works.
When the teacher dictates the question, I find it hard to follow
while taking notes
You may answer whether you experienced the following
statements by using yes or no.
Major subject affected by the four basic language skills difficulties
Using yes or no, you may answer whether if the said major
subject is affected by the four basic language skills difficulties.
FL2 - Intermediate Spanish

ELS 107 - English Discourse
ELS 108 - Stylistics
ELS 111 - Language of Non-Literary Texts
ELS 112 - Computer-Mediated Communication

57
Your coping mechanisms to reduce these difficulties.

 What are your strategies to cope with these difficulties?
Using yes or no, you may answer whether the yo did the
statements below to reduce your difficulties.
Enhancing my four basic language skills through practice.
Doing positive self-talk to encourage myself to keep forward.
Staying present and focus at school.
Seeking social support to study.
Other (Please specify):

58
APPENDIX C:
Documentation Pictures

59
CURRICULUM VITAE
Name: TRISHA MAE E. GOMEZ

Address: Purok 1, Sto. Cristo Sur, Gapan City,
Nueva Ecija
Cell Number: 0965 207 6631
Email: [email protected]
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Nickname: Trish
Birth date: March 19, 1999
Age: 23
Nationality: Filipino
Religion: Roman Catholic
Civil Status: Single
Father`s Name: Pedro G. Gomez
Mother`s Name: Caridad E. Gomez
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Tertiary: GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

Bachelor of Arts in English Language
City Hall Compound, Bayanihan, Gapan City Nueva Ecija
2019-present
NUEVA ECIJA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND

TECHNOLOGY (GAPAN CAMPUS)
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration
City Hall Compund, Bayanihan, Gapan City Nueva Ecija
2015-2016

60
Secondary: JUAN R. LIWAG MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL

Bayanihan, Gapan City, Nueva Ecija
2011-2015
Primary: STO. CRISTO PROPER INTEGRATED SCHOOL

(Formerly: Sto. Cristo Proper Elementary School)
Sto. Cristo Norte, Gapan City, Nueva Ecija
2008-2011
GAPAN SOUTH CENTRAL SCHOOL

San Vicente, Gapan City, Nueva Ecija
2005-2008

61
CURRICULUM VITAE
Name: REINALYN S. DEL ROSARIO

Address: Purok 6, Maburak , Gapan City,
Nueva Ecija
Cell Number: 09511021306
Nickname: Rein
Birth date: July 28, 2001
Age: 20
Father`s Name: Ronald F. Del Rosario
Mother`s Name: Rochelle S. Del Rosario
2019-present
Secondary: STA. CRUZ NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

Sta. Cruz, Gapan City, Nueva Ecija
Senior High School Junior High School

2017-2019 2013-2017
Primary: MABURAK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Maburak, Gapan City, Nueva Ecija
2007-2013

62
CURRICULUM VITAE
Name: JHOY NICOLE B.DE GUZMAN

Address Mahipon, Gapan City, Nueva Ecija
Nickname: Nicole
Age: 27
Father`s Name: Ruperto De Guzman
Mother`s Name: Emily De Guzman

2019-present
Secondary: MARUHAT NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

Maruhat, Macabaklay Gapan City Nueva Ecija
2010-2011
Primary: BUNGO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Bungo Gapan City Nueva Ecija
2007-2008

63
CURRICULUM VITAE
Name: DAISY V. ORTEZA

Address: Sapang, Jaen, Nueva Ecija
Nickname: Daisy
Age: 28
Religion: Pentecostal
Civil Status: Married
Father’s Name: Domingo Villanueva
Mother’s Name: Flora Villanueva
City Hall Compound, Bayanihan, Gapan City
2019-present
Secondary: SAN NICOLAS HIGH SCHOOL

San Nicolas Gapan City Nueva Ecija
2011-2012
Primary: SAN ISIDRO CENTRAL SCHOOL

San Isidro Nueva Ecija
2005-2006

64
CURRICULUM VITAE
Name: AIRA JOY G. SIMBULAN

Address: Kapalangan Gapan City Nueva Ecija
Nickname: Aira
Birthday: October 8, 1997
Age: 24
Father`s Name: Alvin B. Galicia
Mother`s Name: Jonna S. Galicia
2019-present
Secondary: TAGULOD HIGH SCHOOL

Tagulod Candaba Pampanga
2010-2014
Primary: CUAYAN BUGTONG ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Cuayan Bugtong Candaba Pampanga
2004-2010

65
CURRICULUM VITAE
Name: AILEEN F. RAMOS

Address: Malimba, Gapan City, Nueva
Ecija
Nickname: Leen
Birthday: December 20,1984
Age: 37
Religion: INC
Father`s Name: Alfredo V.Francisco
Mother`s Name: Estelita B.Francisco

2019-Present
Secondary: SAN ROQUE NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

San Roque, Gapan City, Nueva Ecija
Primary: ENGR. J&F VALLARTA MEMORIAL SCHOOL

66

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BASIC LANGUAGE SKILLS DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY THIRD YEAR AB ENGLISH STUDENTS

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

In order to achieve a good result in learning English, first, students

Listening has long been recognized as a challenging skill for students

In the EFL context, speaking skill can be considered as a primary skill

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

(low self-confidence). They sometimes do not have anything to say (low of

Like all learning problems, difficulties in writing can be devastating to a

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

developing written material or content of composition. The third is cognitive

Reading also plays a vital role in ones’ success in school. It is one of

An individual cannot learn English Language properly without a strong

This study is supported by the model of academic literacies (Lea &

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

considered suitable to be the theoretical framework of this study. Since this is

The sociocultural theory of learning is also considered essential for this

According to Goh (1999) the most common problems faced by

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

According to Bueno, Madrid, and Mclaren (2006), “Speaking is one of

According to Petersen (2015), writing difficulties can stem from

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

The conceptual framework demonstrates the relationship between the

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

Statement of the Problem

This study aimed to determine the academic difficulties encountered by

Scope and Delimitations of the Study

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

Significance of the Study

The study seeks to determine the academic difficulties of third year

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

 Academic Difficulties - learning problems in a schoolchild who does not

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

Listening is a vital primary stage of language acquisition. If students do

The ability to speak English as a second or foreign language well is an

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

English in order to develop proficiency in speaking. However, developing the

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

Lack of vocabulary has caused the students to face challenges in

Reading difficulties are often a component of academic difficulty; most

Wijayanti (2010), on his study about Descriptive study of teaching

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

Listening is a vital primary stage of language acquisition. If students do

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

of comprehension (perception, parsing, and utilization) can overlap. As a

1. Unclear Pronunciation - is one of the most important thing in speaking.

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

Whatever the major, you will have to produce many written

Difficulty with reading is a common problem—about one in five people,

Reading difficulties influence student identity (Hall, 2012). In a recent

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

Difficulties with reading comprehension can stem from different

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

Communication is one of the primary means by which people affect

As said by Gabriel (2009), Listening in classrooms must be an active

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

Speaking problems are some problems that make someone lacks of

The students’ difficulties in writing English can be influenced by lack of

AT GAPAN CITY COLLEGE