Nghiên cứu khả năng sử dụng ngữ pháp và ngôn ngữ tiếng anh của sinh viên năm thứ 3 tại đại học thái nguyên, từ đó xây dựng các bài tập bổ trợ

APPROVAL SHEETThis dissertation entitled “ENGLISH LANGUAGE GRAMMATICAL AND DISCOURSE COMPETENCIES OF 3rd YEAR COLLEGE STUDENTS OF THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY: BASES FOR INTERVENTION EXERCISES

COMPETENCIES OF 3 rd YEAR COLLEGE STUDENTS OF

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY : BASES FOR

INTERVENTION EXERCISES

A Dissertation ProposalPresented toThe Faculty of Graduate SchoolBatangas State UniversityBatangas City, Philippines

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Degree

Of Doctor of PhilosophyMajor in English

By:

NGUYEN THI HONG CHUYEN

June 2015

APPROVAL SHEET

This dissertation entitled “ENGLISH LANGUAGE GRAMMATICAL

AND DISCOURSE COMPETENCIES OF 3rd YEAR COLLEGE STUDENTS

OF THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY: BASES FOR INTERVENTION EXERCISES” prepared and submitted by NGUYEN THI HONG CHUYEN in

partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophymajor in English has been examined and is recommended for OralExamination

Accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

of Doctor of Philosophy major in English

Comprehensive Examination: PASSED

MATILDA H DIMAANO, Ph.D.

Date Dean, Graduate Studies

College of Arts and Sciences

Title : English Language Grammatical and Discourse Competencies

of 3rd Year College Students of Thai Nguyen University: Bases for Intervention Exercises

Author : Nguyen Thi Hong Chuyen

Course : Doctor of Philosophy

Further, the study also dealt with the assessments of the Englishlanguage teachers on the same mentioned competencies and the comparison

as well as the significant differences to the student respondents’ grammaticaland discourse competencies with intervention exercises as output of the study

to enhance students’ language competencies

The study made use of the descriptive method of research and utilized asurvey questionnaire and teacher- made test as the main data gatheringinstrument Statistical tools used are frequency distribution and percentage,weighted mean, standard- deviation, and independent t-test.

Findings of the study showed that in the grammatical competence of the3rd year College students as to parts of speech the % correct items of thestudents are above 50 percent in all five items which implies that the students’performance in this grammatical area is high average and that the students’demonstrated a reasonable degree of competence In morphology the totalrating obtained by the students is 83.07 percent or good where the studentsshowed the best performance and demonstrates mastery of this grammaticalskill component For syntax the total rating obtained by student respondents is74.74 percent which falls under the high average level of classification whichreflects on the advanced level of proficiency In the case of vocabulary the totalperformance rating under this grammatical area is 82.53 percent or goodperformance which implies their high level of competency

For discourse competencies of the 3rd year College students in terms ofcohesive devices results showed that students’ performance is heterogeneouswith the ratings distributed in the extreme ends of the spectrum while in

transitional phrases findings showed that student performance is 73.73 percent

or its equivalent of high average which implies that the student performance isheterogeneous In coherence, results showed that the total rating of % correctitems is 54.74 percent or average which implies inferior student performancerelative to cohesive devices and transitional phrases and further implies thatonly approximately half of the students developed and demonstrated theadvanced skill of coherence

For connectors, findings indicated that the total rating of the students’performance under this component is 69.95 percent or high average whichindicates that the student performance in connectors is equally superiorrelative to cohesive devices and transitional phrases Moreover in choice ofwords results showed that the total rating of the students’ performance underthis component is 57.57 percent or average which implies that students havenot developed mastery

In relation to teachers’ assessment of the grammatical and discoursecompetencies of 3rd year college students, results of the study showed thatseven of nine items obtained an “agree” score of 100 percent These itemspertain to the grammatical skills involving parts of speech and vocabulary; andthe discourse skills involving cohesive devices, transitional phrases,

coherence, connectors and choice of words.

According to the frequency by which the students apply these skills intheir various encounters in class, results showed students practice and usethese skills more often in the class as observed by teachers while according totheir degree of importance results showed that six out of nine items had meanscores close to 5.0 or equivalent to very important which mean that theteachers had high regards and valuation for the nine items as important skills

to be developed by the students

As to relationship of teacher’s assessment and students’ grammaticaland discourse competencies findings revealed that only seven out of nineitems showed a p-value that is below 0.05 which means that the teacher’sassessment and students’ grammatical and discourse competencies alongthese areas are significantly different and further indicates that no relationshipexist between the means being compared and are independent of each other.Only two items showed a p-value of greater than 0.05 which indicates that theteacher’s assessment and students’ grammatical competencies along thesetwo areas such as morphology and syntax are not significantly different

Based on the findings of the study, an English intervention exercises, theoutput of the study focused on the low-scoring items that are below 70 percent

From the findings, the study recommended that the proposed Englishintervention exercises may be reviewed by administrators and suggestionsmaybe adopted before utilization; that teachers must be given seminar andtrainings along discourse competence to enhance students’ writing skills; andthat a similar study may be conducted in other higher educational institutions.

Dr Matilda H Dimaano, dissertation adviser, for her guidance, scholarlyinputs, and consistent encouragement Her expertise in the field of researchwork contributed much in the completion of this academic work Thank you somuch for being my adviser The precious time shared in reading patiently themanuscript, all the help and support make me a better researcher;

The panel Members from Batangas State University Philippines: Dr.Felix M Panopio, Dr Myrna G Sulit, Dr Corazon B Cabrera, Dr Amada G.Banaag, and Dr Maria Luisa A Valdez for their valuable comments andsuggestions;

Dr Remedios P Magnaye, Recording Secretary for her dedication inpreparing and encoding the final defense minutes;

Ms Le Quynh Anh, Staff of International Training Center, TNU Colege ofAgriculture and Forestry for the support; and

Her parents, husband, son, and daughter for their love, and understanding and support in the completion of this academic endeavor.

Nguyen Thi Hong Chuyen

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE i

APPROVAL SHEET ii

ABSTRACT iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT viii

DEDICATION x

TABLE OF CONTENTS xi

LIST OF TABLES xiv

LIST OF FIGURES xvi

CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM Introduction 1

Statement of the Problem 7

Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study 8

Significance of the Study 10

II REVIEW OF LITERATURE Conceptual Literature 12

Research Literature 41

Synthesis 48

Theoretical Framework 51

Conceptual Framework 54

Hypothesis 57

Definition of Terms 57

III RESEARCH METHOD AND PROCEDURE Research Environment 60

Research Design 62

Subjects of the Study 63

Data Gathering Instrument 64

Data Gathering Procedure 67

Statistical Treatment of Data 68

IV PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA 70

V SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION Summary of Findings 126

Conclusions 137

Recommendation 138

BIBLIOGRAPHY 139

APPENDICES……… 146

A Questionnaires 147

B Letters of Request 159

C Documentations 165

D Psychrometric Conversion Table 171

CURRICULUM VITAE……… 174

LIST OF TABLES Table Title Page

1 Distribution of the Respondents of the Study……… 63

2 Levels of Grammatical Competence of Students

9 Levels of Discourse Competence of Students

in Connectors 84

10 Levels of Discourse Competence of Students

in Choice of Words 85

11 Students’ Assessment on Skills in Teaching the

Basic English Course 87

12 Students’ Skills and their Frequency of Use 89

13 Students’ Skills and their Degree of Importance 91

14 Correlation Between Students’ Level of Competencies and their

Performance as Assessed by English Teachers 93

15 Bases in the Design of English Language

Teaching Intervention Exercises on

Morpho-Syntactic Competencies 96

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Title Page

1 Conceptual Paradigm of the Study ……… 56

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines

CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM

Introduction

In Vietnam, students are required to learn English through compulsoryprograms and as a requirement in school and universities and in mostcountries in the world Many students take English course because of its utilityvalue as lingua franca or a world language Most of them fail to learn thelanguage successfully This situation also applies to students in other countrieswhere learning a foreign language is also compulsory Students enrolled in theEnglish courses have either high dropped out rates or failed students at theend of the term This situation is true to countries like the United States andAustralia where students literally drop out in their foreign language studies,while in countries like China, Japan and Vietnam students either mentallywithdraw or look for strategies that will help them to learn the Englishlanguage

In the last decade, the use of English as the main foreign languagetaught and employed in communication with foreigners, has dramaticallyincreased in Vietnam According to the Ministry of Education, the number of off

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines

-shore students exceeds 60,000 in Vietnam nowadays and Vietnamese students who want to work and study abroad are increasing

However, English language teaching in Vietnam still utilizes thetraditional teaching model where students are taught English just for passingexamination purposes only and teachers just give lecture mainly to helpstudents achieve this goal The result is that students do not have the ability tocommunicate effectively with others in English This is referred to as dumbEnglish or deaf English in Vietnam Obviously students’ overall skills are notenhanced, especially for students at the college and university level

In order to improve the situation based on need analysis, VietnamMinistry of Education states that the aims of Vietnam English LanguageTeaching (ELT) at general educational level expressed in the new curriculumare that at the end of the upper secondary level, students will be able to useEnglish as means of communication at a certain level of proficiency in fourmacro skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing and to be able to readmaterials at the same level of their textbook, using a dictionary, to have amastery of basic English phonetics and grammar, to have acquire theminimum of around 2,500 vocabulary items of English; to attain a certain level

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

of undersStoacniadlisint RgepoufbElicnogf lVisiehtnamnd American culturReesp,ubtloic

bofetcheoPmhielipapwineasre of crosscultural differences in order to become better communicators, to better inform

the world of the Vietnamese people, their history and culture and to take pride

in Vietnam, its language and culture (MOET 2007)

To promote the English language teaching and learning at tertiary level

in recent years, Vietnamese government has encouraged the private tertiaryinstitutions to carry out advanced programs in which English is required to bethe medium of instruction They have also encouraged tertiary institutions toteach in English in fundamental science subjects such as mathematics,physics, chemistry and some specialized subjects in the senior years

It is suggested that work start at the two national universities namely;Hanoi National University and Vietnam National University; three regionaluniversities such as Thai Nguyen University, Hue University and DanangUniversity and other pivotal universities in Vietnam with twenty percent of thestudents being involved in these advanced programs This percentage will beincreased and expanded so that finally all advanced programs will be appliedthroughout the tertiary educational system

In Vietnam, English is the most important foreign language since theimplementation of the reform and opening up policy One of the major goals

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

for EngliSsohcialtiset aof Rcephuinblgic ofisViettonamdevelop communRiceaputibvliec

ctohemPphielitpepnincesies of thelearners It is the initial and ultimate goal of English teaching Communication

on the other hand is considered the essence of English teaching

In language teaching, the ability to communicate should be cultivated.Students should learn how to use a language in their daily communication inorder to demonstrate their mastery of a language

Different language skills included under communicative competence arelinguistic, socio-linguistic, discourse, strategic and pragmatic competencies.The expression, interpretation and negotiation of meaning between twointerlocutors or between a text and its readers is referred to as languagelearning

As a component of communicative competence, discourse competence

is the ability to understand and produce the range of spoken, written and visualtexts that are characteristics of a language and includes the ability to conveyinformation appropriately and coherently to those who are listening to, orviewing one’s texts (Schroeder, 2009) Covered also in discourse competenceare the knowledge of interpreting the larger content and constructing longerstretches of language for putting together the parts that would make up awhole coherent unit

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

GraSomcimaliasttRiceapul bclicoomf Vpieettneanmce on the other Rhepaunbdlic

oisf thtehPehilimppainsetsery of the

linguistic code: the ability to recognize the lexical, morphological, syntactic and

phonological features of a language and to manipulate these features to formwords and sentences (Canale and Swain, 1980) This competency isdemonstrated not to state a rule but to use a rule Both grammatical anddiscourse competence are related to linguistic skills at the word, phrase,clause, sentence and discourse levels Correct usage or accuracy is the focus

of these two components

One of the main goals of both English language teaching andcommunicative English teaching in Vietnam nowadays is to develop students’communicative competence, as more students will regard English as acommunicating tool after graduation If students can use the Englishknowledge, skills and cultural aspects they have learned to communicate withpeople of different cultural backgrounds in real language contexts, they arethen using English as a communication tool

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has set a target ofboosting foreign language teaching in high schools At the start of AcademicYear 2011-2012, students at specific schools will have to study mathematicsand information technology in English Despite the significance of English

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

languageS,omciaalijsot RrietypuoblficthofeVVietineatmnamese students rReempuabilnic

hofatnhedPichailipppieneds in the use

of English It was even reported by the MOET in 2011 that English language

competence of Vietnamese students was rapidly deteriorating

This implies that the government, in particular the education sector canhardly address such perceived deterioration of English It was also reported

by the MOET of Vietnam and the AETS or the American Educational TestingService that fifty one point seven percent (51.7%) of Vietnamese students whograduated from college in 2009 had substandard English skills

There are several reasons cited why English language teaching inVietnam becomes a problem Reasons include the deterioration in students’English competence and less opportunities for students to practice English inthe classroom Most of the English classes are still adopting the traditionalteaching in which teachers do the talking while students are merely listeningand note taking so that the chance to speak diminished

Most college graduates in Vietnam have deteriorating English because duringtheir college days, they spend only at least one and half year of Englishlanguage studies So that when they embark on a more complex academicwork which demands the use of English as well as the language skills, they fail

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

because Soocfiallaisct kReoth puf bklicnofwVlietdnagme Another reasonRecpituebdlic iosf

the ePhiilnipcpoinmespetency ofVietnamese students in the use of English This problem leads to losing themost useful assets of Vietnamese people in contributing to national

development and international communication

Many of the students in Thai Nguyen University (TNU) system struggle

to keep up with the expectations of the school for them to communicate ingood English For decades the university system in Thai Nguyen worked toaddress the need of all students But somehow, the expected outcome has avery slow progress

With this scenario, as college teacher teaching English subject in thisinstitution, the researcher is interested to determine the English languagegrammatical and discourse competence of the Third year college students ofThai Nguyen with the end view of proposing intervention exercises that willenhance further their knowledge along the said competencies

Statement of the Problem

This study focused on determining English language grammaticalcompetence and discourse competence of 3rd year college students of ThaiNguyen system

Specifically, it sought answers to the following questions

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines

1 How may the grammatical competence of student respondents bedescribed in terms of:

1.1 parts of speech;

1.2 morphology;

1.3 syntax; and1.4 vocabulary?

2 What is the discourse competence of student respondents relative to:

2.1 cohesive devices;

2.2 transitional phrases;

2.3 coherence;

2.4 connectors; and2.5 choice of words?

3 How do English teachers assess the grammatical and discoursecompetencies of 3rd year college students?

4 How do the respondents’ grammatical and discourse competenciescompare with English teachers’ assessments? Are there significantdifferences?

5 What innovative English language teaching intervention exercises may

be proposed to enhance students’ grammatical and discourse competencies?

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines

Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study

The study determined the English language grammatical and discourse

competencies of 3rd year college students of Thai Nguyen University System

This included the grammatical competence of student respondents in parts ofspeech, morphology and syntax, and vocabulary Included also in the studywas the discourse competence of student respondents relative to cohesivedevices, transitional phrases, coherence, connectors and choice of words

Further, the study covered the assessment of the English teacher on thegrammatical and discourse competencies of 3rd year college students, thecomparison of the respondents’ grammatical and discourse competencies andEnglish teachers’ responses, the significant differences on students’grammatical and discourse competencies and teachers’ responses withEnglish intervention exercises as the output of the study to enhance students’grammatical and discourse competencies

The study covered the three (3) Thai Nguyen Universities in ThaiNguyen City and made used of 40 teachers teaching English and 300 3rdYear College students who were enrolled in the Academic Year 2013-2014

as respondents of the study

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines

This study is limited from the data gathered from the above mentionedrespondents Third year college students and English teachers from other ThaiNguyen University systems are excluded in the study

Significance of the Study

The study is deemed beneficial to the administrators of Thai NguyenUniversity, English teachers, Third Year College students, parents, presentresearcher and future researchers

Administrators of Thai Nguyen University This study can guide them

in the Curriculum development through evaluation of students’ Englishlanguage grammatical and discourse competence This study will serve as aguide for the realignment of the existing English curriculum to meet theinstitutional goals and objectives

English Teachers This study will serve as a guide to the faculty

teaching English as they may be aware of the student’s grammatical anddiscourse competencies This study will provide them insights on whatclassroom learning activities will be appropriate to enhance the languageproficiency of their students Likewise, the teachers may propose some

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines

enrichment activities to improve the student’s grammar and discoursecompetencies

Third Year College Students The findings of this study will make them

aware of their present grammatical and discourse competencies This wouldgive them a challenge to improve their weak points and enhance their overall

performance in English

Parents Through this study, parents of the third year college students

will become aware of the English performance of their children which will makethem more supportive and cooperative in school activities specifically on theimprovement of the English skills of their children

Present Researcher Results of the study will serve as basis for English

teachers to design other instructional materials that will help students improvetheir grammatical and discourse competence

Future Researchers This study will serve as reference for other

researchers

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This chapter presents the relevant conceptual and research literaturewhich have bearing to the present study The literatures included are foundsubstantial to the study and gives the necessary background to understand thepresent research Further, this chapter also includes synthesis, theoretical andconceptual framework of the study, and definition of terms

Conceptual Literature

The following concepts which focused on English languagecompetencies, grammatical competence, discourse competence andintervention exercises were reviewed to substantiate the study

English Language Competencies It is a broad term which includes

linguistic or grammatical competence, discourse competence, socio linguistic

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines

or socio cultural competence and what might be called textual competence.The specific learning outcomes under language competence deal withknowledge of the language and the ability to use that knowledge to interpretand produce meaningful texts appropriate to the situation in which they areused Language competence is best developed in the context of activities ortasks where the language is used for real purposes or in practical applications

(www.e d uc.g o v.nb c a/ K12 c ur/ l a ngu a g e )

The basis for developing language competence should be the classroomactivities which focus on meaningful uses of the language and on language incontext As for choosing tasks, students’ needs, interests, and experienceshould serve as bases Vocabulary, grammatical structure, text forms andsocial conventions necessary to carry out this task will be taught, practiced andassessed as students are involved in various aspect of the task itself not inisolation

The system of linguistic knowledge possessed by native speakers of alanguage is called linguistic competence The concept was first introduced byChomsky (1965) as part of the foundation for his generative grammar.Linguists who are working in the generativist tradition adopted and developedgenerative grammar Competence in the generativist tradition is the only level

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines

of language study that is studied because this level gives insights into the universal grammar Underlying all human language system is universal grammar Competence or skill is referred to as the ideal language system thatmakes it possible for speakers to produce and understand an infinite number

of sentences in their language and to distinguish grammatical sentences from ungrammatical sentences Competence is unaffected by grammatically

irrelevant conditions like errors in speech

Competence as an idealized capacity is the ideal speaker-hearerknowledge of one’s language and it is the mental reality which is responsiblefor all those aspects of language use which can be characterized as linguistic

It was argued that only under an idealized situation, whereby the hearer is unaffected by grammatically irrelevant conditions such as memorylimitation and distractions will performance be a direct reflections ofcompetence

speaker-According to Evans et al., (2006) competence is defined as grammar orset of language rules represented mentally and manifested based on aperson’s own understanding of acceptable usage in a given linguistic idiom.Therefore, grammatical competence defines an innate knowledge of rulesrather than knowledge of items or relation Phillips (2010) stated thatcompetence is regarded as innate knowledge because one does not have to

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

be trainedSoctioalidsteRveep thluobpliciotfaVniedtnawmill still be able to aRpeppulyblit oinf

aenPhinilifpinpiintes number ofunheard examples

The following are included in the speakers linguistic competencenamely: phonetics which deals with the physical production and perception ofthe inventory of sounds used in producing language; phonology which refers tothe mental organization of physical sounds, the patterns formed by waysounds are combined in a language and the restrictions or permissible social

combinations as well as morphology which deals with identification, analysisand description of units of meaning in a language Knowledge in inflectional orderivational morphology which is present in the language consists of affixes ofwords

Syntax on the other hand, which pertains to structure and formation ofsentences, enables a person to distinguish between grammatical sentencesfrom ungrammatical sentences while in semantics, this refers to theunderstanding of the meaning of sentences A user of the language is able tounderstand and interpret the non-literal meaning in a given utterance throughthese three distinctions namely; meaningful and non- meaningful sentences,some structure but different meanings, and different structure and still is able

to relate the meanings

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

BeSlioncciahliostnReeptubalilc.,of(1V9ie9tn4a)mexplained that coRmepebtleicnocf

etheaPshitlihpepinmesain goal in

language learning is also referred to as linguistic competence, a set oforganized knowledge which consists of several sub-competencies, thephonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic and lexical components.Hymes (1972) on the other hand introduces the concept of communicativecompetence as the knowledge which enables us to use language as acommunication device in a given social context It is a dynamic concept based

on the negotiation of meaning among interlocutors, which can be applied towritten or spoken modes of communication

The four distinct elements identified in the model of communicativecompetence according to Munby (1978) include linguistic encoding, sociocultural orientation, socio semantic basis of linguistic knowledge and discourselevel of operation In addition, there are four aspects of competence Theseare grammatical or linguistic which include knowledge of the lexicon, syntaxand semantic; sociolinguistic competence concerned with the appropriateness

of communication depending on the context including the participants and therules of interaction, strategic competence which pertains to a set of strategiesdevised for effective communication and put into use when communication

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

breaks dSoowcinal;istaRnedpubdlisocfoVuiertsneamcompetence whicRhepisublcicoonf

ctheerPnheildippwinietsh cohesionand coherence of utterances or sentences

Six components of communicative competence were introduced by Van

Ek (1977) Apart from linguistic, discourse, sociolinguistic and strategiccompetence, social and the socio-cultural competence were added Bachman

et al., (1996) analyze the communicative ability into three components:language competence, strategic competence and psychological mechanism.Language competence is divided into organizational competence which

include grammatical and textual competence and pragmatic competence whichincludes illocutionary and sociolinguistic competence

Socio linguistic competence is the ability to interpret the social meaning

of the choice of linguistic varieties and to use language with the appropriatesocial meaning for the communication situation (ww w o 1/silan g ling u lin k ) There are several possible relationships between language and society andone is social structure which may either influence or determine linguisticstructure of behavior according to Wardlaugh (2005) A second possiblerelationship is directly opposed to the first Linguistic structure, a third possiblerelationship viewed influence as bi-directional; that is language and societymay influence each other

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

EveSorcyialisltaRnegpubalgiceof VaiestnamHudson (2000) Rsetpautebldic

ofathcecPohmilimppoindesates such

differences as a non-discrete scale or continuum of recognizably differentlinguistic levels or style termed as registers and every socially native speaker,

as part of learning the language, has learned to distinguished and chooseamong the plans on the scale of the register Chun (1998) on the other handpointed out that language and culture was closely tied up to one another andhad a profound influence on verbal and non- verbal communication as well as

in the significance of the length of pause or a change in tone

Other components of communication such as the degree of formality inone’s speech or one’s body language also hold different meanings depending

on the culture with which a person identifies himself Cohen et al., (1981).According to the American Immigration Law Foundation (2000) developing anunderstanding of general cultural context and their implication will enablesomeone who was not raised in a particular culture to fully comprehendspeech or text in that cultures’ language and to use the language more easily

Celce et al., (1995) pointed out that there are four components of cultural competence namely: social contextual factors, stylisticappropriateness factors, cultural factors and non- verbal communication

socio-THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

factors SSocoiamliset Roepf utbhliec sofeVicetonmamponents are oftenRenpeugblliec

coftethde PinhiliEppSinLes education,thereby causing confusion or comprehension difficulties

Language and culture as Alptekin (1993) emphasized is interrelated andstudying language needs to be aware of the culture of that language Inaddition, Guest (2002) explained that in culture, whether the language is forinteractive or instrumental purposes, it is better to be accompanied with thedetailed characteristics of its spoken community

Strategic competence on the other hand is one of the three componentsnecessary for successful communication through language It refers to the

speaker’s ability to adapt their use of verbal and non- verbal language tocompensate for communication problems caused by the speaker’s lack ofunderstanding of proper grammar use and insufficient knowledge of socialbehavioral and communication norms Strategic competence along withgrammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence and discoursecompetence constitute a framework for determining a language learner’sproficiency in communication Together with the other competencies, they areconsidered mainstays of modern theory on second language acquisition (Diaz,Rico and Weed, 2006)

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

EssSoecniatliiastllRye,pubalincyof Vsieptneaamker using technRiqeupuebslic

oinf ttheenPdheilidppinteos preserve

communication, repair breakdowns in communication or preventmiscommunication can be considered to be demonstrating strategiccompetence Some behaviors demonstrating strategic competence includeusing synonyms to substitute for words the speaker cannot recall or has notyet learned, resorting to physical gestures to convey meaning, asking forclarification from the listener, raising one’s voice in order to be heard andfeigning comprehension in order to listen for context clues

Maleki (2010) asserted that communication strategies help in conveyingunknown language between communication partners and assist in maintaining

conversational flow The teaching of communication strategies is beneficialand leads to strategic competence in language learning Strategiccompetence is best gained through the use of games focusing oncommunication with or without visual support, jigsaws, monologues, and otheractivities that allow for language interaction

Moreover, the four aspects of language learning consist of listening,speaking, writing and reading It is in this order that constitutes the traditionaltop-to-bottom approach to language learning, however, it was suggested that abottom-up approach to language learning, which gives emphasis to writing is

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

best suiteSodciafloisrt Rteat ucblhicinofgVisetnramtegic competence.RepTuhbliisc opf

rhoevPidhielipspilneeas rners withtime to process their ideas and language use, before being asked to use itorally This is thought to increase learner’s motivation

Pragmatic competence on the other hand is concerned with the users,learners knowledge of the principles according to which messages areorganized, structured and arranged Discourse competence on the other hand

is used to perform communicative functions or functional competence andsequenced according to interactive and transactional schemata or designcompetence

Grammatical Competence It is the ability to recognize and produce the

distinctive grammatical structures of a language and to use them effectively incommunication It promotes accuracy and fluency in second languageproduction Grammatical competence focuses on command of the languagecode including such things as the rules of word and sentence formation,meanings, spelling, and pronunciation Its goal is to acquire knowledge of, andability to use forms of expression that are grammatically correct and accurate

It is one of the four areas of the communicative competence theory (Gao,2001)

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

AccS ocriadliinstgRetpoubDliicaozf Veiettnaal.m, (2010)

communicRaetpiuvbeliccoofmthpe Pehteilinppcieneiss a feature

of a language user’s knowledge that allows the user to know when, where, andhow to use language appropriately Grammatical competence increases inimportance as the learner advances in proficiency Richard and Schmidt(1983) stated that since communicative competence focuses directly on theknowledge and skill required to understand and express accurately the literalmeaning of utterances it becomes an important concern for any secondlanguage program

Further, features and rules of language, vocabulary, word formation,pronunciation, sentence formation to understand and express accurately theliteral meaning of utterances comprised grammatical competence It also

referred to as the ability to recognize and produce the distinctive grammaticalstructure of a language and to use them (www o1sil Orglingualinks/ whatgrammatical competence html) It focuses on the necessary skills andknowledge in speaking and writing accurately In more advanced stages oflanguage proficiency grammatical competence becomes important to theEnglish learner

Grammatical competence calls for curriculum and instruction thatprepares students to incorporate and apply the language code (Herrera et al.,

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

2005) ESnogcilaislihst Rlaepnugbluicaogf eVieatnnadm grammar are

boRuenpudbelidc oftothgeePthhileiprp.inAess studentstravel through the stages of language proficiency, grammatical competencebecomes more important that Freeman et al., (2004) suggested that sincegrammar is a set of prescriptive rules taught to students in school, it will serve

as glue that binds the English language together

Grammar as explained by Cruz et al., (2001) deals with words, forms ofwords, word combination and the relationship between words In order forstudents to reach higher levels of academic language proficiency, teachersneed to realize that grammatical forms need to be explicitly taught In the case

of grammar, it should be taught in context Larsen et al., (2001) pointed outthat there is a need to pay attention to the three dimensions of grammar: form,

meaning and use and that simply teaching grammar rules or having studentmemorize verb conjugations will not help students acquire grammaticalcompetence

The skills and knowledge necessary to speak and write accurately andinput to English learner in more advanced stages of proficiency are thefocused of grammatical competence Kilfoil and Walt (1997) explained thatgrammatical competence is the correct application of rules of grammar but notexplicit knowledge of rules It is also referred to as linguistic competence, a

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

term usedSoctoialidsteRsecpruibeic ohfoVwietnlaanmguage is defined

wReipthuibnlicaofctohemPmhiluipnpitnyesof speakerand covers the mastering of the combination of sounds, syntax and semantics.Fernandez et al., (2011) pointed out that linguistic competence constituteknowledge but that knowledge is tacit and implicit and that people do not haveconscious access to the principles and rules that govern the combination ofsounds, words, and sentences, however, they do recognize when these rulesand principles have been violated

According to Kac (1992) the grammatical or linguistic competence of ahuman being should be identified with that individual’s internalized program forproduction and recognition of performance It delved on the unconsciousknowledge of grammar that allows speaker to use and understand a language

as well as the innate linguistic knowledge that allows a person to match soundand meaning

Moreover, Aguilar (2007) pointed out that the ability to understand andproduce meaningful sentence that is designed on the rules of a specificlanguage to convey meaning in a way that the native speakers of thatlanguage would use such sentences to express in the same meaningful way isgrammatical or linguistic competence It is also referred to as the potentialability of the speaker based on the knowledge of his language as well as the