THE LEVEL OF GRAMMATICAL

COMPETENCIES OF THE FOURTH

YEAR GRADUATING STUDENTS
Bernardo Lirio Memorial National High School
Darasa, Tanauan City, Batangas

Submitted
by:
Biscocho, Erica Joi F.
Magsino, Dolores R.
Balatero, Jhon Dave L.
Malabanan, Christian
Lopez, Juluis P.

Date:
Chapter I
Introduction
Curriculum for the graduating students requires grammar
should be part of their knowledge as a part of their learning at
school. As a prerequisite, grammar has been taught in high school
and at other school as well. In linguistics, grammar is the set of
structural rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases,
and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to
the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology,
syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics,
semantics, and pragmatics. Also, grammatical competence is the
ability to recognize and produce the distinctive grammatical
structures of a language and to use them effectively in
communication. So, why study grammar? When you study
grammar, you are studying the structure of languages, and
learning about how languages work. Grammar all by itself will not
make you a good writer or a reader. The accuracy in the sentence
depends on the learners mastery and knowledge of grammar.
Grammar is believed to be the most important factor in terms of
language.
So why are there cases about the wrong grammar of the
students? In some cases, they are not familiar with the words
used in a particular sentence, or they really do not have interests
in studying grammar. Although in today's current situation,
grammar has been thought to students thoroughly by the
teachers, but students choose to pay a little attention to it. With
these, the status of the grammatical competency of the
graduating students doesnt have the assurance for the advanced
level of grammar.

According to William B. Bradshaw, an author of a grammar

book says that regardless of the country or the language,
grammar is the foundation for communication. The better the
grammar, the clearer the message, the more likelihood of
understanding the messages intent and meaning. Hence, if you
do not know the proper usage of grammar and if you dont study
to have the enough knowledge about grammar you will keep
making the same mistakes over and over again.
So the importance of grammar is that to ensure that what
you write is correctly comprehended and is easy and enjoyable to
read. Writing that is poorly punctuated and contains grammatical
errors is difficult to read and sometimes impossible to understand.
If the reader has to go back and re-read a sentence several times
because they are not quite sure what it means, it spoils their
reading experience and they are quite likely to misunderstand the
point or even to give up and not read any further. According to
Sarah Bronson, an eHow contributor, no matter what language
you use to speak or write, using correct grammar not only helps
you communicate more effectively and precisely, but also helps
you avoid embarrassment. Around the world, correct grammar is
an indication that the speaker or writer is an educated person
who understands the nuances of the language, while grammar
errors can indicate that you are not focusing on your words or,
worse, that you do not understand the mechanics of your own
language.
The reason why we conducted the research is to determine
the level of the grammatical competencies of the fourth year
students, and to help our fellow graduating students to extend
their knowledge of grammar. This research may help the
students, teachers and also the researchers to answer their
questions about why is there a wrong grammar of the students
and to improve the students grammar.

Research Questions
The study aimed to determine the level of the grammatical
competencies of the students among the fourth year graduating
students of Bernardo Lirio Memorial National High School.
Specifically the study sought to answer the following:
1. What is/are the common mistakes of the fourth year
graduating students in their usage of grammar?
2. Does the English teachers teaching methodologies affects
the students competency level in the use of correct
grammar?
3. Is there relationship about the respondents' profile with
their competency level?

Research Objective
The aim of the work described in this research was to
improve the competency level of the students in grammar by
conducting this research, and formulating hypothesis for the said
problem. The research objectives include:
1. To determine the level of the grammatical competencies
of the fourth year graduating students.
2. To help our fellow graduating students to extend their
knowledge of grammar.

Significance of the Study

The English Journal (1982), Ronald J. Goba said that grammar
should be taught in our schools. By grammar, the system of
language, the ways words are formed and positioned in English to
make meanings.
Hence, this study will be beneficial to the schools in promoting
English competence. By this study, the curriculum developers can
identify more suitable English programs for high schools to further
enhance the grammar of students.
By this study, teachers may also learn strategies in teaching the
correct usage of grammar and be able to make it as
comprehensive as possible. This study will be significant in
knowing the common mistakes in the use of grammar.
By understanding what are the common errors in grammar,
students will be able to know which topic to focus on. This may
help them to enhance their grammatical competence. More
importantly, this research will educate the students how they
need to be proficient in using correct grammar.
In addition, it may also help the researcher to answer their
questions about why is there a wrong grammar of the students.
Also, it may conclude them to prove their research about the
students level competencies.

Definition of terms
Terms here are contextually and operationally defined for
better understanding of the readers:

Assurance
Operational: the sureness of a thing.
Contextual: feeling of certainty; self-confidence; promise
Competence/Competency
Operational: the ability of something
Contextual: fitness; sufficiency; enough to live on with
comfort;
capacity; legal power of capacity
Foundation
Operational: an idea, principle or fact to prove a certain
thing
Contextual: a founding or being founded; an endowment for
an
institution; such an institution; the base of a
house,
wall, etc.,; a womans supporting undergarment

Grammar
Operational: structure of the whole language
Contextual: language study dealing with the forms of words
and
with their arrangement in sentences; a system of
rules
for speaking and writing a language; ones
manner of
speaking and writing as judged by such rules; a
grammar textbook; the principles or rules in art,
science, or technique.
Importance
Operational: value of a thing
Contextual: the state or fact of being of great significance or
value.
Language
Operational: a method for communication
Context: human speech or the written symbols of speech;
any
means of communicating; a special set of symbols
used
in a computer, the speech of a particular nation,
etc.;
the particular style of verbal expression
characteristics or

a person, group, profession, etc.

Nuances
Operational: difference or degree
Contextual: a delicate degree or shade of difference.
Prerequisite
Operational: a requirement for something
Contextual: a condition or requirement that must be fulfilled
beforehand, required as a condition of something
else.

Chapter II
Related Literature and Study
Related Literature
I.

HEIGHTENING GRAMMATICAL AWARENESS IN ENGLISH by

Olcay Sert, Hacettepe University, Turkey.

This article discusses a student project which helps ELT (English

Language Teaching) students develop their grammatical
awareness, as well as linguistic competence and performance
at upper-intermediate or advanced levels. Encouraging
students to carry out research on English grammar, collecting
data, evaluating structures of language in use, drawing upon
the discourses of movies, media and literature, is obviously
beneficial to foreign language learners in many respects as

they cannot be exposed to target language and its culture in

natural settings. From this, it is possible to claim that foreign
language learners should be directed to the discourse of native
speakers in order to have an understanding of language in
use from a descriptive perspective rather than following the
subjective prescriptive grammar rules.

II.

ASSESSMENT OF GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE BASED ON

AUTHENTIC TEXTS by Yonca Ozkan, Assistant Professor, Elt
Department, University Of Cukurova, Turkey

This study illustrates how alternative assessment could be

made observing both recognition and production skills of the
participants who were English language students at the ELT
department, University of Cukurova. In an English Contextual
Grammar course, news articles were used as lesson material
during the first term of the 2009-2010 academic year, and a
midterm and a progress test were administered following a
rather unconventional set of procedures. The study displays
such procedures aiming to show how an effective and truly
learner-centered approach to assessment of grammatical
competence can be embraced yielding an alternative type to
the conventional assessment methods in the field of English
language teaching (ELT) through the use of target language
news articles; it also reflects students perceptions about the
alternative method presented in this study.

III.

COMPETENCY LEVEL OF COLLEGE STUDENTS ON THEUSE OF

ARTICLES IN WRITTEN DISCOURSE by Elizabeth Ann T.
Gutierrez of De La Salle University from Taft Avenue, Manila,
Philippines

 Articles are said to be one of the most use words in English.

Although articles are difficult in nature most people doesnt
have full awareness of how it is used. In 2006 the
administration of Lyceum of the Philippines University decided
to terminate grammar subjects of CTIHM (College of Tourism
and International Hospitality Management) in their curriculum
to add a new subject related to HRM (Hotel and Restaurant
management), with the assumption that the students are
already proficient enough in English since grammar is already
thought during their high school years. In this regard the
researcher would then determine the competence of CTIHM
students since; the Non-CTIHM students retain their grammar
classes. However, both college groups will take ENGL12A
(Writing in the discipline). This study analyzed the competency
level of ENGN12A students in their use of articles in written
discourse. Specifically the study sought to answer the
following: (1) what is/are the common mistake(s) of CITHM and
Non-CITHM in their use of articles? (2) Does the new curriculum
affect the students competency level in the use of the English
article system? (3) Is there a relationship between the
respondents profile with their competency level? Each
respondent was given a questionnaire patterned from
Cambridge University ESOL test in grammar to examine their
proficiency. The scores were measured according to the Qubec
Scale of Competence to clarify their levels in English language.
The results of the study can be used as a basis for developing
the curriculum and could also be useful in teaching articles in
classroom discourse. It is also beneficial to future researcher
who aims to study syntax and morphology.

Related Study
I.

FROM GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE TO GRAMMATICALLY

CORRECT PERFORMANCE: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY WITH
REGARD TO THE ENGLISH FUTURE TENSE SYSTEM. By
Schneider, Elke. Master's Thesis, Miami University.

This thesis focuses on the transferability of grammatical

competence to grammatically correct performance in the future
tense in 10th grade German students who were learning
English as a Second Language. The goal was to suggest an
empirical contribution to the issue of whether implicit or explicit
knowledge of grammatical rules or grammatical competence

has any direct impact on its correct application in grammatical

performance. Student communicative effectiveness was
assessed using a passive grammar test, an implicit/explicit
test, and a performance letter writing test with focus on
content. Results indicate that 93.3% of students gave evidence
of a transfer of competence to performance when using the
English future tense, suggesting that grammar practice should
be kept in a communicatively-oriented framework to make
transfer easier. Test materials and quantitative data results are
appended. (Contains an extensive list of references.) (NAV)

II.

AN EVALUATIVE STUDY OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN

CONVERSATIONAL ENGLISH AMONG ENGLISH LANGUAGE
LEARNERS IN THE LITERARY OPTION: THE CASE OF RUSIZI
AND NYAMASHEKE DISTRICTS by Valens Ngaboyera,
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF RWANDA

Students, and especially students in developing countries,

frequently remain deficient in the ability to actually use the
language and to understand its use in normal communication.
Therefore, the lack of communicative competence in
conversational English among E.L. learners can cause a serious
problem to the whole Rwandan society in general and
particularly to the learners themselves. This study intends to
illustrate the extent to which E.L. learners in the literary option
are communicatively competent in conversational English and
factors that influence that competence. To achieve this

objective, three research questions and three hypotheses were

used. The population targeted by this study was made of 366
students and 4 teachers of English in the literary option in
Rusizi and Nyamasheke. Using the purposive sampling and the
random sampling techniques 73 and 4 teachers were selected
as the sample of the study.
Two research instruments: the questionnaire and the test were
used in the collection of data. After testing the validity of
instruments the questionnaire was administered by the
researcher and he managed to control over the students who
sat for the test to prevent them from cheating. Then, the
quantitative method of data analysis was used. It was found out
that students are not communicatively competent in
conversational English.
This results in the fact that 100% of teachers say that their
students are not interested in using E.L. in real-life
communication, and that they feel shy when using English
outside the classroom while 43.8% of students say that they
prefer to be more accurate rather than fluent in their speech. It
was also noticed that, despite students and teachers'
awareness of a paramount importance of using audio-visual
equipment in E.L. teaching and learning, teachers do not use
some of these teaching aids that are available in their schools in
E.L. teaching. For instance, 50% of teachers say that they use
only radio in E.L. teaching.
Then, it was found that oral language skills are given less
emphasis. This study has some implications to the development
of oral skills for communicative purposes among E.L. learners.
Since students are not interested in using English in real-life
situations, they can not be communicatively competent. Then,
since teachers do not use updated teaching aids, students
would always find their E.L. learning boring. Therefore, to

overcome this problem, learners, teachers and decision-makers

need mainly to be aware of it.

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