STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE BETWEEN NUMERACY AND LITERACY SKILLS:

A CORRELATIONAL STUDY

A Research Paper

Presented to
Alangalang Agro-Industrial School
Alangalang, Leyte

In Partial Fulfilment of the

Requirements for the Subject
PRACTICAL RESEARCH I

by

Abadines, Anna Mae

Areglo, Ella Mae A.
Borromeo, Mark Vincent P.
Catina, Wencilyn B.
Cadiente, Jessica D.
Morallos, Jessica N.
Ponce, John Paul A.
Restor, Emmanuel M.
Saoy, Rofani
Trebita, Iriz Joy M.

July 2023
 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION OF THE STUDY

This chapter presents the introduction of the research study. This includes the
background of the study, statement of the problem, scope and delimitations,
significance of the study, and the definition of terms. Further, this chapter reviews the
researches and other related literature directly or indirectly relevant to the present
subject which are briefly discussed to provide the foundation of this study.

Background of the Study

The subject Mathematics and English are being taught to the learners from their
primary level to help them enhance their numeracy and literacy skills since it is the
basic and commonly used in our daily lives. However, not all students can excel in
both skills. The Senior High School Students especially from Grade 12 are
experiencing difficulties because of their personal hinders. Due to this, they are
experiencing difficulties in achieving the target level of skills in numeracy and literacy.

Literacy and numeracy, although basic, have not been learned well by most of the
students despite going to school for several years. Amidst the initiatives on different
methods of teaching reading, as revealed by the diagnostic report compiled by the
Department of Basic Education in 2012, many learners cannot read with
comprehension and lack the ability to make correct inferences from the given
information in a text. It also stated that being mathematically literate presupposes an
ability to express quantitative information coherently in verbal or visual form. In general,
students with challenges in both academic areas tend to perform lower on math
assessments than students with difficulty in just one area (Fuchs et al., 2004).
Students with math and reading difficulties are characterized by weaknesses in both
problem solving and arithmetic fact mastery (Jordan, Hanich, & Kaplan, 2003). Kemp
(1995) argues that this includes the ability to communicate clearly and fluently and to
think critically and logically, skills which also underpin the Revised National
Curriculum Statement. Bohlmann & Pretorius(2008) stated that without adequate
reading skills, learners will be unable to properly understand mathematical topics.
Without adequate understanding of the topics taught, learners will continue to follow
rote methods of learning often used by teachers who lack confidence and knowledge.
If teachers themselves are less than comfortable with the discourse of mathematics
they will resort to procedural, language-free problems in their assessment tasks,
further undermining learners’ opportunity to grapple with these issues. Without
consideration of the literacy scaffolding learners require, it may well be that the new
curriculum is, at present, beyond the reach of many learners, partly as a result of
limited literacy.
In this study, the researchers aim to prove if there’s an actual relationship between
the students’ performance in literacy and numeracy that can help the teachers know
of their learners' state of capabilities that may enlighten them where to focus on
improving their learning ways.

Statement of the Problem

This study aims to determine if there is a relationship of the students’ performance

between their numeracy and literacy test. To accomplish this aim, the study will focus
on the following questions:

1. What is the performance of Grade 12 learners in literacy test?

2. What is the performance of these learners in numeracy test?
3. Is there a significant relationship between the students’ performance in literacy and
numeracy?

Scope and Delimitations

This research will focus on the performance in numeracy and literacy of grade 12
students enrolled in Alangalang Agro Industrial School, Alangalang, Leyte during the
school year 2022-2023. This study aims to know the relationship between numeracy
and literacy.

Significance of the Study

This study aims to know if there is a significant relationship between the literacy and
numeracy skills of the students. This study will be beneficial to the students, speciially
for the Grade 12 learners as it will help evaluate their performance and excellence in
both skills. The results of the study will also help the teachers identify the students’
performance and skills in dealing with literacy and numeracy. This will help also them
to develop new strategies of teaching to help students learn and enhance their
knowledge and avoid the students’ abstruseness in academics. Lastly, this study will
serve as a reference for researchers who wish to pursue the same research topic.
This will act as a guide in further advancing the research.

Definition of Terms

Literacy Skills - knowledge of the students in writing, reading, listening, and speaking,
and measured through their performance in PHIL-IRI test.

Numeracy Skills - the students’ skill to work with numbers, including the use of
mathematical formula, such as multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, ratios,
and percentages.

The International Journal on Mathematics Education, v52 n3 p433-445 Jun 2020The

effectiveness of interventions intended to improve academic numeracy will be
enhanced if they focus not only on quantitative competence but also on language
development.