165 Development and Evaluation of a Teaching Guide in English Plus SHERILL A. GILBAS TARCELA F. DETERA RITZELDA A. DERI RYAN D. REMOLACIO ANNABELL MANGA [email protected]Sorsogon State College Sorsogon City, Philippines Abstract - The study devised a teacher-made test to identify the needs and difficulties of the students in English Plus and the results were utilized to revise and enrich the syllabus. The descriptive – evaluative method was employed in this research. A teacher-made test was administered to 200 students selected by random sample. Content analysis of the syllabi of the professors and instructors were used as basis in constructing the teacher-made test. The areas under the English Proficiency Test in the SSC Admission Test were also considered. Results of the study revealed that naming words, word groups and paragraph organization are areas with performance level (PL) of 0-49 and are considered as difficult while areas like vocabulary, modifiers and verbs with (PL) of 50-75 are considered as nearly difficult. These results are the basis of the revised and enriched syllabus. It is concluded that almost all competencies in the areas cited were all considered as needs and difficulties of the English Plus students. Thus, there is the need for the inclusion of these competencies in the syllabus and an outline of a teaching guide. Keywords - Teaching guide, English plus, syllabus Vol. 1 January 2012 International Peer Reviewed Journal IAMURE: International Journal of Education
Transcript
International Peer Reviewed Journal
165
Development and Evaluation of a Teaching Guide in English Plus
SHERILL A. GILBASTARCELA F. DETERARITZELDA A. DERI
Abstract - The study devised a teacher-made test to identify the needs and difficulties of the students in English Plus and the results were utilized to revise and enrich the syllabus. The descriptive –evaluative method was employed in this research. A teacher-made test was administered to 200 students selected by random sample. Content analysis of the syllabi of the professors and instructors were used as basis in constructing the teacher-made test. The areas under the English Proficiency Test in the SSC Admission Test were also considered. Results of the study revealed that naming words, word groups and paragraph organization are areas with performance level (PL) of 0-49 and are considered as difficult while areas like vocabulary, modifiers and verbs with (PL) of 50-75 are considered as nearly difficult. These results are the basis of the revised and enriched syllabus. It is concluded that almost all competencies in the areas cited were all considered as needs and difficulties of the English Plus students. Thus, there is the need for the inclusion of these competencies in the syllabus and an outline of a teaching guide.
Keywords - Teaching guide, English plus, syllabus
Vol. 1 January 2012International Peer Reviewed Journal
IAMURE: International Journal of Education
IAMURE: International Journal of Education
166
INTRODUCTION
English is the language of government, education, commerce and industry of most countries of the world including the Philippines. It has been noticeable that the acceptable fluency in English language by Filipinos is one big factor for the booming call center industry in our country. However, Filipinos who can speak read and write excellent English are exceptions. Studies have shown that the Filipinos’ grasp of the English Language is slipping and other Asians are fast catching up.
Bonavente of the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that only one of every five public high school teachers is proficient in the English Language based from the results of a self-assessment test conducted in 2004 by the Department of Education. Moreover, it was stressed that of the 53,000 teachers who took the exam, only 19 percent or 10, 070 scored at least 75 percent which is the passing grade.
Relatively, he added based from the same report that only two out of ten applicants in call centers eventually get hired, the rest failed in the English proficiency tests. Those who do not get hired are often required to undergo a rigorous review of English. In addition, the same report stated that many graduates from the Philippines’ top universities have English Language skills comparable only to second grade children from Western countries.
In an effort to alleviate the problem, DepEd allocated in 2005 nearly P600 million for the training of teachers in English Proficiency. Similarly, in early 2007, Pres. Gloria M. Arroyo directed the DEpEd to use English as the medium of instruction in all levels. It was supported by the HB 305 or the proposed Act to Strengthen and Enhance the Use of English as the Medium of Instruction in Philippine Schools. Rep. Eduardo Gullas, author of HB 305, said in the bill’s explanatory note that the proposed legislation aims to correct the defects of the current Bilingual Education Program (BEP) of the Department of the Education, which was introduced in 1974. According to him, “The use of Filipino as a medium of instruction in the subjects mentioned earlier has limited the exposure of the learner to English, and since exposure is basic to language learning, mastery of the language is not attained.”
It was stated in the CHED MO No. 4, S. 1997 disseminating the guidelines for the implementation of the CHED MO No. 59, S. 1996
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known as “New General Education Curriculum(GEC)” that the intention of the course named “English Plus” is to update the English Language skills of students before they are allowed to take regular English subjects.
The Sorsogon State College is currently implementing the GEC with English Plus being offered during summer based from the approved BOT Resolution No.26 S. of 2003. It is a resolution approving the offering of English Plus as a crash course for non-passers in the College English Placement Test for freshmen as pre-requisite to English 1. It is to be taken every summer for 54 hours with a registration fee of P175.00 to be required for every student who would be taking the course, with a maximum of 40 students per class.
The University of State of New York, State Education Department, stated in theguide to selecting instructional materials that teachers should seek materials based on the given standards. Those materials are written/produced by people with in-depth knowledge of the subject; available in languages other than English, as needed; designed to help students create their own new information; designed to help students develop new learning strategies; relevant; current; age-appropriate and authentic.
Thus in SSC scenario, there is a need to have a syllabus that intends to meet the purpose of offering the course English Plus. The said output may provide proper implementation of the course which shall be anchored from the learners’ needs. The aforementioned information motivated the proponents to conduct this research.
FRAMEWORK
Sulekha (2007) wrote in his blog, “By 2010, this world will be forced to unlearn what have been pretty good till 20th century. At the same time, people will have to learn things which will not be available in regional languages. The updated knowledge and wisdom will not be available in any language other than English. This is a caution to all the non-English speaking people across the world”. The writer speaks of the importance of being equipped with the knowledge of English language. He stressed further that “the governments of almost all the developing countries are suffering from ego and power politics. They
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fear to lose their chair to go against the comfort zone of the people. As life has its own hardship; there is hardly any growth or success in comfort zone. People have to come out of that comfort zone and march into new domain to enjoy the pleasure of development.
Fernandez (2004), the Deputy State Director/District III, Director LULAC Florida State Board presented and signed the resolution at Tampa, Florida the “English Plus Concept”. It promotes the addition of a second language without forfeiting ones’ mothers tongue fosters the suggestion that “additive bilingualism” creates “a language competent society” in which both limited English proficient individuals and native English speakers will be able to develop fluency in a second language while simultaneously developing reading and writing skills in the home language.
The ideas of Sulekha (2007) and Fernandez (2004) implied the necessity about the duty of the government to provide focus on learning other language such as English rather than being confined to the regional dialects. Similarly, this study aims to provide appropriate ways of catering to the needs of the students through identifying their level of difficulty.
Dela Torre of Philippine Star wrote an article about the English proficiency of Filipinos, particularly the Cebuanos. The idea was shared by Paul Winters, the chief operating officer of Bragg, Winters and Associates Professional Advisory Inc. According to winters, the proficiency in English, invites more investors and deals with companies abroad that could bring in their businesses in Cebu. The article may encourage the Filipinos to keep that good impression towards them through meeting the standard which has been set to the young learners of the country.
In the University of Wolverhampton, the University Quality Committee on Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences and School of Sport, Performing Art And Leisure Standing Panel (2002 / 2003) was asked to review and validate the English Plus Preparatory Award in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences and is pleased to recommend to University Quality Committee approval of the proposal.
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English Plus began in 1995-1996 as an externally funded operation with its own free structure. The award was designed to provide a very intensive full year of teaching in the English language to overseas non-native speaking students in order to bring them up to a level commensurate with starting the said award at the University. Students have the requisite school leaving qualifications with the only factor holding them back being their level of English. English Plus prepared students to take the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam.
The said activity as well as the written article of Dela Torre stressed that English Plus is indeed a necessity to maintain the proficiency in the English language. It shall also help the speakers to be competitive in the international setting.
A Swedish University essay of Susanna Axelsson (2007) stated that English is taught as a compulsory second language in Swedish schools. It is one of the three core subjects needed to be passed in order to receive a leaving certificate. Statistics show that 6.9% of the students do not acquire proficiency enough to receive a G (pass) in English in grade nine.
The aim of the said study is to investigate to what extent weak language learners are considered in the English classroom and if compensatory aids are used to further support their learning conditions. The method used for the study is qualitative interviews which were semi-structured. Four interviews with English teachers were conducted within the same municipality. The result shows that there are aspects that can be considered in order to provide better opportunities for weak language learners within the English classroom as well as outside the English classroom. Some teachers find it difficult to separate lack of motivation from lack of knowledge which makes discovering the students as early as possible important.
In the English classroom, weak language learners can be supported by smaller discussion groups since one problem seems to be oral skills. A connection to Swedish can be observed and students with difficulties in reading and writing in their native language experience more problems when learning English. The interviewees state the importance of first focusing on oral skills in the target language, before introducing written skills.
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In the school of Teacher Training and Education in Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta, Indonesia (2008) Yani stated in his study that as a part of the subjects in schools, Indonesian students are required to learn English through the mastery of the four skills, which had been proven not easy to master well, since they encountered many difficulties in English
The studies of Axelsson (2007) and Yani (2008 ) have bearings to the present study since the first aimed to investigate the extent of weak language learners and the latter focused on the mastery of the four skills. One of the objectives of the present study is to identify possible solutions that teacher may provide to lessen the identified difficulties in English.
Working with other teachers and collaborating with library media specialists who are skilled in locating and selecting resources will result in assembling a collection of classroom instructional materials that assures students access to the variety of resources necessary to meet their needs.
Furthermore, Cruz et al (2001) in his book, Fundamentals of English Grammar points out that when there is grammatical error, there is misconception or misunderstanding and will surely affect the progress of the learner .He simplifies the idea of communicating properly as to putting words together with the right precision, logic and clarity.
The idea of Cruz et al (2001) focused on the development of communication skills as to appropriate use of grammatical structures to achieve a successful interaction in a given situation. In the same way, the present study aimed to provide instruction anchored on enhancing the weak areas of learners in grammatical competence.
Moreover, Boiser (2000) defines programmed instruction as a method of self-help through instructional experience including tasks allowing the students to demonstrate their comprehension skills. On the other hand, Kitao (1997 ) suggests that teachers should not rely much on commercially –produced textbooks and the students should be the major concern in instruction. The aforementioned ideas were relevant to this study considering that the main intention of the researchers was to prepare a teaching guide. It aimed to help further both the faculty and the learners.
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The abovementioned articles revealed that there is indeed a necessity to learn the English language with substance in order to become globally competitive. Different schools provide an instruction that will answer the need of the learners. The effort of uplifting the idea of language proficiency still lies in the hands of the government through the curriculum offered in the institutions.
Every learning situation requires necessary materials to enhance the process in achieving its objective. Hence, this research aims to help attain the real aim of education, specifically the English plus subject through a revised and enriched syllabus and an outline of a teaching guide with topics, objectives, materials, time allotment and expected output suited to the needs of the learners.
The most basic instructional materials that a teacher should prepare for his/her class and his/her own use in teaching an English course is the syllabus. This serves as the guide in discussion of the lessons since the syllabus includes the coverage and other elements like strategies and methodology. It also includes the criteria for evaluation and the respective percentage assigned to every criterion as way of measuring effectiveness of teaching and learning. Moreover, it also contains the references or the resource materials to be used.
The syllabus for English plus as an instructional material is described to contain sequencing of the major topics and subtopics. They are arranged in such a way that evaluation is suggested and the amount of time is sufficient to complete each topic. Learning tasks that are based from the objectives are integrated in the syllabus to assist the students learning. Likewise, the number of long and short tests that will be conducted, the required papers to be written, research to be undertaken and other related projects to be submitted at the end of the course are included. Furthermore the textbook to be used and other reference materials are also listed in the syllabus. Observations made by the teachers and the faculty and the students using the syllabus during the period provide significant inputs in the revision, enrichment and responsiveness of the syllabus. If the teacher has carefully evaluated the performance of his class based on the learning outcomes then, there is an assurance of an improved and responsive syllabus.
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OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
This research is aimed to develop a Teaching Guide in English Plus. To realize this aim, this research seeks to achieve the following objectives: devise a teacher-made test as instrument in identifying the skills to be developed; determine the needs and difficulties encountered by the students; revise and enrich a syllabus; and develop an outline of a teaching guide based on the syllabus.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
To attain the objectives of this study, the descriptive-evaluative method was used. Descriptive because it deals with the process of developing a teacher-made test and evaluative in the sense that the same test was used to measure the proficiency and the difficulty levels. The content analysis was employed using the existing syllabus of the instructors and professors in English Plus to come up with an output that was based from the needs and difficulties of the end user. This research also focused on the teacher-made test preparation as well as preparation of an enriched syllabus in English Plus. Towards the end it aimed to develop and evaluate a Teaching Guide in English Plus.
Data Collection and Procedures
The researchers used the teacher-made test to identify the difficulties of the college entrants in English. It was used to identify the students’ skills that need enrichment. The coverage of the test was based from the Sorsogon State College Admission Test, composed of verbal ability,(grammar and usage) reading comprehension, vocabulary, paragraph organization and literature . The said examination was the output of the research, “Development of Sorsogon State College Admission Test (SSCAT)” that aims to measure the proficiency or ability in the English language of the incoming freshmen students.
The syllabi of the ten instructors and professors handling English plus were also used as reference materials in the preparation of the teacher-made test. The same test was administered to 200 freshmen students taking English Plus primarily to identify the skills to be
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developed among them and to come up with a revised, enriched and more responsive syllabus. The 200 students were randomly selected. The total population of the students who took the English Plus classes is 400. They belong to the first batch of English Plus classes which are composed of students who are called “qualifiers” having passed the SSCAT.
The test was conducted during the first day of classes. The original number of items was ninety which was then trimmed down to eighty items; sixteen of them were revised based on the results of the item analysis.
Further, the results of the evaluation were then used as a basis for developing a teaching guide in English Plus.
Analysis of Data Collected
To identify the performance of the students in the teacher-made test, frequency count, mean and performance level were used. To determine the difficulties of each skill, the researchers adopted the equation Mean/no. of items x 100 to determine the performance level in each skill. They also refer to following scale (DepEd DAT,2009) for measuring the proficiency level based on the performance level.
Performance level Proficiency level Level of difficulty 0-49 not proficient difficult 50-75 nearly proficient nearly difficult 76-100 proficient not difficult
The level of difficulty for each competency was also employed using the same scale as shown below. These levels were used as basis to interpret the difficulty in each level.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The levels of proficiency and difficulties encountered by the students are shown in table 1 which presented the result of tabulation of scores of the 200 respondents in the six skills. The competencies included vocabulary, naming words, modifiers, verbs, word groups and paragraph organization.
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The competency can be traced based on the result of the specific skills being measured. Of the five competencies, naming words, word groups and paragraph organization revealed as not proficient and difficult. The performance level ranges from 0-49.
Table 1. Levels of proficiency and difficulty in English plus
The data denote that the students lack recognition in the two naming words, nouns and pronouns. It can be observed that the incompetence in the use of noun also means incompetence in the use of pronoun, thereby resulting to difficult. Thus, the students should study both the two parts of speech considering that they have distinct features and usage. Agno (2009) encouraged using a repertoire of teaching approaches to make the teaching-learning process interesting, productive and effective.
In like manner, the not proficient result of word groups and paragraph organization may be traced from the limited vocabulary and the non-recognition of nouns, being a basic part of word groups. It was supported by Cruz et al (2001) who suggested that there should be focus on the development of communication skills as to appropriate use of grammatical structures to achieve a successful interaction in a given situation.
The remaining three competencies are vocabulary, modifiers and verbs with nearly proficient level and with performance level that ranges from 50-75. This means that students consider the choices in the items to measure the skills in vocabulary. The three types of tests given under this area, context clues, word relationship and word with multiple meanings were provided with choices of answers. The test items in those areas resulted to having a nearly proficient outcome. According to Rivera et al (1982) the teacher should provide several ways of handling teaching-learning situations as well as evaluation
instead of only one. Limitations in method and evaluation may also limit the learning capabilities of the students.
The modifiers and verbs which have also nearly proficient result, imply that there is still a need to incorporate the modifiers with the verbs to attain a proficient outcome. It may mean that the proficiency level of a learner does not mainly rely on one area but involves the entire grammatical features to achieve the purpose. It was stressed by Chomsky (1965) that the notion of communicative competence lies in the rules of grammar.
The table reveals that the performance levels of the respondents measure the achievement of objectives on each competency. As reflected in the table, only the vocabulary, modifiers and verbs have achieved the passing objective with at least 50% PL. On the other hand, competencies in naming word, word groups and paragraph organization failed to achieve the objective with a PL lower than 50%.
It could be gleaned from the table that the respondents did not perform well in English Plus test conducted along the mentioned skills despite of the 51 hours lecture in the subject using the syllabus. This indicates that there is a need to reconsider modification and enrichment of the syllabus with greater emphasis on skills along naming words, word groups and paragraph organization.
This would also mean that English Plus teachers should be very critical in tackling nouns under naming word skill; sentence structure, phrases and sentence pattern under word group skill. On the other hand, skills where the respondents showed passing performance should also be revisited for enhancements. These are skills in vocabulary, modifiers and verbs.
Moreover, it is worth mentioning that there are specific skills under the mentioned areas that need necessary attention and enrichment because of the respondents’ failing performance. These are context clues for vocabulary skill and adjectives for modifiers. In general, findings revealed that the respondents performed better only on verbs. A 70% performance level is the result of their high performance on its specific skill components such as SV agreement, tenses and voice.
Consequently, the researchers arrived at an enriched syllabus, which focused mainly on the areas which showed low performance of the students. Based from the enriched syllabus, the researchers devised a proposed teaching guide in matrix form.
CONCLUSIONS
Based from the findings of this study, the researchers arrived at the following conclusions: (1) The teacher-made test can be devised to identify the skills to be developed; (2) The needs and difficulties of the students can be determined through the proficiency and difficulty levels; (3) The existing syllabi of the faculty teaching English plus can be enriched and revised; and (4) a Teaching Guide in English Plus can be developed.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The researchers would like to recommend the following: (1) Validate and utilize the Teaching Guide in English Plus; (2) Develop a work text in English Plus; (3) Enforce the BOT Resolution No. 26 S. 2003, on the class size policy.
LITERATURE CITED
Boiser, D.C.2000 Strategies for Teaching, A Modular Approach, Manila, Rex
Bookstore Inc.
Chomsky, N.1965 Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. New York: Harcourt, Brace and
World
Cruz, I. A. and C. Quialson 2001 Fundamentals of English Grammar.Manila ; Rex Bookstore
