LAGRO HIGH SCHOOL

CHAPTER 1

The Problem and Its Background

Introduction

Few years ago, the Philippines used to have the biggest

competitive advantage in the global job market due to the workers’

proficiency in the English language. However, the rising competition

from other countries and the decreasing mastery of the English

language by our students caused a warning situation.

The Philippines has been using the English language for

more than sixty (60) years. Since the American regime, the English

language has been the alternative medium of communication. It has

been the language for mass media, education, business, and even in the S
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legal sector. It is evident, therefore, that English plays a highly n
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important role in the Philippine-society. o
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Knowing the use of this language provides strength that opens H

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countless doors for job opportunities, local and abroad. Often, fluency h

in the English language is equated to good jobs. In fact, there was a S

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time when the Philippines was known to be the largest English-speaking h
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country in Asia. Because of Filipino’s known proficiency in the English l

language, our country has been the preferred voice-outsourcing.

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Statement of the Problem

This study intended to identify the common errors committed by

the Grade 11 students of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS), a

basis to develop strategic intervention material (SIM). Specifically, it

aimed to answer the following questions:

1. What is the result of the initial-writing assessment?

2. What are the common errors committed?

3. What are the common errors committed according to the taxonomy

of errors:

3.1. Omission,

3.2. Addition,

3.3. Misformation, and

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3.4. Misordering? e
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4. What is the result of the final-writing assessment? i
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5. Is there a significant difference between the results of the initial and r

final writing assessment? H

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6. How may the findings of the study be utilized in the development of g
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Strategic Intervention Material (SIM)?
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Hypothesis of the Study

There is no significant difference between the results of the initial-

writing and final-writing assessments.

Significance of the Study

Recently, students wrote without using the correct guidelines of

grammar, and the teachers suffer the burden in correcting their essays.

In the senior high school grade level, students are expected to be good in

constructing English sentences, because the basics are taught in

English from the elementary and junior high school.

English teachers. The result of this study is somehow, useful for

English-teachers, as they instantly will recognize students’ S

the
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difficulties in constructing or composing sentences in English; the errors n
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will be given more attention. The results of the study will serve as an o
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evaluation as to whether they are successful or not in the English
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language teaching process. i
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Students. The study reveals which part in grammar they are
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weak. With the help of strategic intervention material, students’ c
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grammatical errors are expected to reduce. Moreover, the students are o
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more aware of the errors. l
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School Administrators. They will benefit this study since the

results would challenge them to review their school’s program, such as

Creative Writing, Oral Communication, Reading & Writing, Practical

Research 1, and other English language-related subjects.

Future Researchers. This study will inspire them to conduct

further studies about common errors using other varibles to enhance

the English proficiency of the students.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

This study is limited to the identification of the errors committed

by the students in the subject-verb agreement, verb tenses,

prepositions, spelling, punctuation marks, misplaced and dangling S

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modifiers, faulty parallelism, and capitalization. Other errors in n
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mechanics, usage, forms and writing process, and other parts of speech o
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were not included in the composition analysis because the study focuses
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only on the common errors committed from the written essays of the i
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participants. h

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Only the Grade 11 students of Humanities and Social Sciences
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(HUMSS) strand from a public high school in Quezon City of school year
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2018-2019 were identified as the participants of the study because the o
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researcher, herself, is their subject-teacher in Reading and Writing. In
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Definition of Terms

The following are the operational definition of terms to be used in

this study.

Error of Addition is the presence of an item that should not

appear in a sentence.

Error Analysis is a branch of applied linguistics that studies and

analyzes errors made by L2 learners.

Error of Misformation is the use of the wrong form of the

morpheme or structure in a sentence.

Error of Misordering is the incorrect placement of a morpheme or

a group of morphemes in a sentence.

Error of Omission is the absence of an item that should appear

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in a sentence. e
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HUMSS an acronym that stands for ‘Humanities and Social i
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Sciences’; a strand in the academic tracks of senior high school r

curriculum under K to 12 enhanced basic education of the Philippines.H

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L1 learner is a learner who speaks his/her mother tongue or g
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native language.
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L2 learner is a learner who speaks foreign or second language, c
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other than his/her mother tongue or native language; sometimes it is o
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interchangeable. l