geographical locations that they are used.

Regardless, the main principles are all related to one

another. According to Bacon, even if there are different grammatical rules in each language, they
can be understood when put into comparison with one another because they have similarities. He
says: In its substance, grammar is one and the same in all languages, even if it accidentally
varies (Bacon, 2005). Therefore, there should be no struggle in learning English grammar and
using it in various forms. Problems will only arise if people are not given opportunities to learn
and practice the language and if they are being taught incorrectly. These are the only factors that
can lead to the flaws in the process of gaining grammatical competence.
Ehrenworth (2003) argues that there are only two possible reasons why students fail to
gain grammatical competence through the direct instruction methods inside educational
institutions and these are the resistance theory and confusion. First, Ehrenworth argues that
almost all direct grammar instructions inside schools are very confusing to students. There are
rules that students are taught but these are put side by side with a wide number of exceptions that
make these rules confusing to begin with. This hinders the ability of students to think
independently about grammatical rules and schemes. The resistance theory on the other hand says
that the existence of boredom and resistance prevents students to learn grammar. Students may
find English education as threatening, intolerable, and rather very boring and teachers have a very
active role here. In order to properly teach grammar and not bore the students and bring them to a
point when they are not willing to learn, teachers must have a conscious grasp of grammatical
concepts and a deep understanding of the language that requires intensive training on their part
too. Ehrenworth says that there are only a few teachers who are actually well-trained and
prepared to teach English or teach other subjects using English. Therefore, teachers use their own
improvised ways of teaching the language or with the language, which greatly affects the
grammatical competence of the students and their academic performance as well.

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Orthography
Brown (2002) says that spelling is logical, learnable, and critical to reading as well as to
writing. However, the most important thing is for it to make sense. In working with students,
teachers and educators have the responsibility to facilitate the acquisition of literacy and
language classroom teachers, speech and language specialists, special education teachers,
administrators may benefit from an awareness of this reconceptualization of spelling and its
implications for learning. The skill of learning according to Browns work is in the
understanding of the educators and their teaching capabilities.
Berninger & Fayol (2008) says that learning to read and write is a very important
component of the education process that children go through in the American elementary school
setting. Spelling is considered as a very critical factor in literacy learning. Studies show that skills
acquired from spelling instruction actually improve the reading abilities of students.
Joshi et al. (2008) believes that learning to spell changes the way children think about the
sounds that can be found in the language that they use. It is important for children to recognize
how the sounds and letters in words are related to each other. However, this is not always an easy
task. The same authors said that regularities in letter-to-sound correspondences support accurate
English spellings for nearly 50% of English words. Thus spellings are directly related to the
ability to recognize and understand sounds in the language.

Reading Comprehension
Rices article (2005) claim that when one has read a text and understood it,
comprehension also happens there. However, comprehension can only be understood if
considered as a process through which a reader interacts with a text to construct meaning rather
than a particular outcome or product. This view of comprehension highlights the deliberate,

15

strategic, problem-solving processes that readers go through as he or she engages with a text.
Therefore, the meaning a reader understands from a text is influenced by his or her own
knowledge (including knowledge of language and print), experience, and perceived purpose for
reading.
The process of deriving meaning from a text is what Durkin (1993) describes as the
essence of reading. There is no point in reading a text without the intention of understanding it.
Therefore, the ability to comprehend what a text is all about is very important in terms on overall
literacy.

Semantics
The Reading Rockets publication (2012) describes how calendars help young children
learn the basics of the days of the week and the months of the year. The calendars only contain
numbers and months but as long as the children learn what these numbers stand for, the children
get the semantics of the whole calendar. Things as simple as family calendars and other things
that can be found in the immediate environment serve as opportunities for learning. The same
publication suggests that families select interesting words for the month, develop timelines, and
strengthen the understanding of numbers. This numeracy or numeric literacy highlights the ability
of numbers to serve as signifiers that represent actual meanings.
Spring (2003) defines the goal of semantics as properly characterize semantic
competence. Semantic competence can be defined as the ability to determine the meaning of a
particular string of words beyond what has been uttered. Since a particular string of words may
correspond to more than one syntactic structure, semantic competence can also be defined as the
ability to determine the meaning of a particular syntactic structure which entails the ability to
determine the relationships between the meanings of distinct syntactic structure. Moreover, these
relationships include entailment, equivalence, and contradiction all of which need to be

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understood to be good at semantics.

Studying the meaning in language forms is very problematic according to most linguists
and makers of dictionaries since people can have different understandings of what words mean.
According to Leech (1981), there exist seven types of meaning including Conceptual Meaning or
the logical content; Connotative Meaning or what the language refers to; Social Meaning or
meanings derived from social circumstances; Affective Meaning or the feelings of the speaker;
Reflected Meaning or associations with another Sense of the same word; Collocative Meaning or
associations with words which co-occur with another word; and Thematic Meaning or the theme
that is obvious in the way the message is organized. All of these are used just to derive meaning.
At times, this can be very confusing.
The same kind of semantics can also happen in social interaction according to Rendsvig
(2011). Even though there are multiple levels of understanding possible on social conversations,
it is necessary to understand the semantics so that statements can be identified correctly. For
example, the host of the party asks one of his guests if he has brought extra wine. The guest
replies by saying: Yes, but the car is locked. My brother has the keys. Though it was not
evident in the statement, the meaning of the statement is that he cannot get the wine, it is in
the car, and his brother who has the key to the car is not here. These information need to be
determined before the party host can say that he understood the semantics of the social
conversation.
Local Literature

Grammar
San Diego (2008) stated that Communicative Competence is a strong and common
characteristic Filipinos as evidenced by the demand for Filipino workers in other countries. Many
nations compete for international job opportunities but Filipinos have the edge due to the ability
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to use English properly. In the colonial times, San Diego argued that Filipinos have always been
brilliant in using the language and even sounding like the colonizers. This ability impressed
Americans and put the Philippines on the map. Unfortunately, the ability of Filipinos in speaking
the language correctly is deteriorating over the past few years. Over time, the country is reshaped
by technology and the competence in English language started to fall. Filipinos are no longer that
good in English, especially in terms of grammar. A few factors that influence this decline are the
media, the school curriculum, and the lack teachers that are competent in English grammar all
of which needs to be addressed.
Orthography
One of the best instructions for orthography in the country is a document called The
Orthography of the National Language (Commission on the Filipino Language, 2007) which is a
product of the series of consultations with various educators and linguists and details a number of
important factors including the Filipino alphabet, punctuation marks, Filipino accents, borrowed
words, and most importantly, spelling guidelines that will help people understand how to spell
words that have foreign origin. Spanish and English are the two main foreign languages that have
influenced Filipino words and their orthography since the time of colonization and this mix can
make orthography somewhat confusing in the local setting. It is very important for people to
understand how the orthography of these words is adapted to Filipino phonology or when it
chooses to adapt the original foreign spelling.

Reading Comprehension
Many students consider reading comprehension as a major problem mainly because of
three causes: language problem, foundational skills of reading is not yet automatic, and not
decoding the written word. The ability to read language is affected by the lack of understanding
of the language and thus affects comprehension. Having an automatic ability use the language
also affects comprehension because the attention of the reader is divided between the text and the
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language. If the reader is unable to decode the written word, no reading comprehension is
possible because the readers cannot understand the text. Therefore, reading comprehension can
really be traced back to understanding the language and being able to use it effortlessly
Makisig(2001).

Semantics
Ethan (2008) says that it is always a process working with vocabulary words and this
does not happen in the initial stages of education; it also continues even to the tertiary stages and
even during the professional careers of individuals. The ability to use the language correctly in
sentences oftentimes depends if the person already had a previous experience with using that
word. Of course not everyone has a wide array of experiences to cover the whole vocabulary so
researching through books or online materials can significantly increase vocabulary and ability to
form proper sentences and paragraphs.

Foreign Studies

Grammar
Raimes (2008) stated that grammar is a very important gauge of language mastery.
Though Raimes focused on writing, he also stated that people often have difficulty in using the
language and there is always a risk for errors. Using English language involves more than just
producing words and sentences. People must know how to produce a connected series of words
and sentences which are grammatically and logically linked, so that the ideas that people have in
their mind will be communicated to the readers, audience, or listeners. Correctness of form,
appropriateness of style, and the unity of topic are all very important in using the language.
Raimes also stated that there is a very close relationship between the understanding of grammar
and correctly using it. The ability to think with the right grammar is a valuable part of any
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language course or subject. Therefore, correct language, punctuation mechanics, and logical
content are all necessary in English usage.
Since English is now the universal language, grammatical competence is necessary.
According to Ramos and Sanchez (N.d.), it is essential for a person to have a good working
knowledge of English grammar rules because it will not only make him appear intelligent and
educated but it will also give him credibility and it is one of the most sought after evidence of
being educated nowadays. Knowledge and the ability to use English language with grammatical
competence is an advantage for people looking for jobs since they will have a great advantage
over other applicants whose grammar skills are below average.

Orthography
Durkin (1966) discovered that children who learned how to spell before they learned how
to read, their writing lead to their ability to read. This study proves that spelling is indeed an
important foundation of the other skills that individuals have in using English grammar. A person
cannot speak words correctly and use them properly without being able to spell them correctly.
Chomsky (1971) says in his Development of Early Writing Behaviors that children use
their knowledge of letter names and sounds to write words. Sounds are the basic building blocks
of children about words and spellings affect the capability to utter the words properly. Childrens
spellings were attempts to use the phonemic or sound structure of English language which is not
just simple memorization. Simple memorization will not work because there are many
irregularities in English spelling because of the number of words assimilated from other
languages, and the conflict between the uses of English in the Middle English to the Modern
English periods. As language evolves, spellings evolve too and this can be confusing.
Share (2004) had third graders practice reading words spelled in one or another way in
text and discovered that students remembered target letters for over a month even when they had
read the words only once. This study just goes to show how easy it is to make individuals
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remember the spellings of words through familiarization.

Rules of spelling are important in using the English language. Schlagel (2002) identifies
three basic approaches for learning how to spell correctly. The incidental approach is the first,
which suggests that students be taught spelling in school as the need arises. The labeled
developmental word study is second and it asserts teaching spelling should be done in a
systematic manner that directly affects individual development. As students go through
developmental stages, their need to learn spelling is identified and then addressed. The use of
basal spellers is the third approach which suggests that there should be an increasing level of
English orthography difficulty as students go through the developmental
spelling stages.
Learning and teaching orthography to students are becoming increasingly difficult
however because of the explosion of technology. The increasing dependence on technology has
an impact on spelling and it has only been addressed in recent quantitative research studies. One
of the concerns that researchers try to address is the effect of the use of mobile phones to send
text messages, among others including the use of social networking. According to Thurlow
(2006), much media attention has been given to how the use of text messaging may have a
negative effect on the writing skills of students and many scholars believe that this form of
communication affects orthography because it sacrifices standard spelling with the use of
abbreviated forms of language. As people use shortened versions of words, there is a tendency for
forgetting or not desiring to learn how to correctly spell words. The mediocrity that this habit
produces results to people not caring about correct spelling as long as their words can be
understood by the person who receives the message.
Early research studies, however, do not support these assertions about the negative effect
of mobile phone texting and other technologies. There are no strong evidences to prove that there
are indeed detrimental effects of abbreviated language and not conventional spelling methods

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according to Kemp & Bushnell (2011). These researchers also believe that since text language are
usually phonetically acceptable versions of the words they replace, only in abbreviated form, they
actually serve as cues to individuals on how to apply general phonological awareness skills and
strengthens orthography in the process. This theory says that even shortened spellings affect
orthography positively.
Reading Comprehension
Duke and Pearson (2004) say that reading comprehension research has a long and rich
history in both process and instruction. In 1975, a lot of instructions were created and it just grew
very quickly from then on because of the lack of controversy about teaching comprehension
which created a steep learning curve. There were many descriptions made of good readers but not
of good instructors.
Pressley & Wharton McDonald (2006) indicates in their research that good readers of all
ages are able to engage in conscious, active comprehension strategies before, during, and after
reading. Goals are defined before reading, relevant prior knowledge is activated during reading,
and reflection after the reading is over. These are the characteristics that educators must relay to
students to make them able to comprehend text.
The RAND Study Group (2002) explains that the capabilities and dispositions the reader
brings to the task of reading, his or her engagement in and responses to given texts, and the
quality of the outcomes produced by the act of reading for some purpose are, themselves, shaped
by cultural and subcultural influences, socioeconomic status, home and family background, peer
influences, classroom culture, and instructional history. The RAND Study Group defines
capabilities as fluency in word recognition, oral language ability, and domain knowledge.
Dispositions include readers motivation, goals, and purposes. This study shows that reading is
the foundation of intelligence and people who are skilled in reading tend to perform better
academically, professionally and personally.
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Wigfield and Guthrie (2005) defines reading comprehension as a very complex task that
requires different cognitive processes and reading abilities over the life span of a person. It is a
constant learning process in both oral and silent reading comprehension abilities. Therefore,
definitions of reading comprehension should include motivation. As much as possible, readers
should be engaged in the process of reading so they can use their knowledge and skill in
comprehension. When motivated, readers tend to exert much effort in understanding the meaning
of the text.

Semantic
Chall & Jacobs (2003) says that vocabulary is the glue that holds stories, ideas and
content together making comprehension accessible for children. The word knowledge of
students is a determinant of academic success since it helps students understand concepts and
ideas faster. The steady and continuous growth of vocabulary is important as a student goes
through one level of education to another.
Duffy (2009) discovered that as students progress in school, subject matter becomes more
complex together with meanings of words. Direct experiences no longer become the main source
of meaning and students are forced to learn meanings through reading alone and studying the
words. Categories and subcategories are also introduced and become more complicated. Students
will need to learn semantic mapping to categorize word meanings through identifying key
attributes that distinguish one word from another.
Davis (2002) confirms the assumption that there is a strong correlation between
vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension exists. As a person reads a text and aims to
understand it, the words there are naturally stored in the receptive vocabulary of the reader. This
study shows that reading comprehension is impeded if individuals do not know 90%95% of the
total words in the text. This makes it impossible to understand what the text even means.
According to Snchal (2006), a persons vocabulary contributes to comprehension
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because it provides the building blocks for higher-order thinking skills. The words that a person
knows helps in correlation and understanding other words so the more words a person knows, the
easier it becomes to infer meanings.
Armbruster (2003) says that a persons understanding of words goes through the
following three stages: the word being unknown, the person being acquainted with the word, and
the word being established in the persons mind. This is the process of learning and mastering
words and their meanings. When these three stages are completed, a person will be able to use the
words properly.

Local Studies

Grammar
Baniagas (2008) research focused on determining the competence of the subjects in
English grammar in terms the following factors: subject-verb agreement, verb tenses, adjectives,
adverbs and prepositions. The study used a pre-tested English grammar exam which was used to
determine the subjects grammatical competence of the first year college students from selected
colleges of Baguio Central University. The result of the study showed that most of the
respondents had very poor grammatical competence, especially in terms of subject-verb
agreement and many failed to show that they have grammatical competence. The study
discovered that the schools in which the students graduated from had an effect in their
grammatical competence and proved that in order to produce grammatically competent college
students, schools mush first product grammatically competent high school students. Other factors
also affected grammatical competence including the educational attainment of their English
teachers and the length teaching experience. Students who studied under teachers that have a
higher degree of learning and longer length of teaching experience are better and are more
grammatically competent than those who have been taught be the opposite. The study therefore
24

recommended that subjects need to improve their grammatical competence and teachers should
also be subjected to proper learning and training.

Orthography
Most educators need help from linguistics experts in developing a working orthography
from the academe because they are not well-equipped to teach orthography to their students. In
his concept paper, Dr. Ricardo Nolasco writes: A vital prerequisite for developing educational
materials in a local language is a working orthography consisting of written symbols that
represent the important sound features of that language and the rules for using these symbols. A
working orthography is not the standardized written form of the language. It is the embodiment of
all spelling conventions actually used and decided on by language users for official and academic
purposes at a particular point in time. Such orthography has to be tested, revised and retested in
the crucible of practice before standardization and final decisions can be made by the language
community.

Reading Comprehension
Laruans (2008) study identified the reading comprehension level of the first and second
year students on the following reading skills: noting details, identifying main ideas, following
directions, sequencing events, and making inferences; determined the effects of gender, school
graduated from and parents educational attainment in the reading comprehension level of the
subjects; and found out that there are differences in the reading comprehension level between the
first and second year students. The results showed that both first and second year students are
competent in noting details but are weak in the following areas: identifying main ideas, following
directions, sequencing events, and making inferences. Second year students are found to be very
competent. Gender, the school, and the educational attainment of parents were not a factor in
25

differentiating reading comprehension levels of the first and second year

students.
Pado (2003) explains that the essence of reading is looking at the printed words and
finding meaning in it. The reader gives life to the printed page through meaning and therefore,
comprehension is necessary from the beginning. From the start of reading instructions, it must be
clear to the readers that they should find meaning and therefore their minds will be focused on
decoding the text and extracting meaning from it.

Semantics

Allay (2008) performed a study determining the level of English proficiency of the senior
students of a local educational institution in terms of synonyms and grammar, the extent of effect
of the teacher, student, and school factors on their English proficiency, and the difference on their
English proficiency depending on the type of material used in the test, curriculum and socioeconomic status are considered. Among 125 respondents, the researcher found out that synonyms
and grammar proficiency are at par with one another. However, English proficiency is affected
more by the teachers than the student and school factors. Therefore, the ability to understand
semantics highly depends on the skill of the teacher to instruct students and make them
understand the meanings.

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