ASSESSING THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE PROFICIENCY OF SPEAKING SKILLS

IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE OF AMONG 3RD YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

IN ICCT COLLEGES CAINTA CAMPUS
A.Y. 2023-2024

By:
Kesia D. Cuasito
Nikka Shaine T. Simba
Jesryl G. Lagsilon
Argene L. Arellano

Presented to the
Faculty of College of Teacher Education
ICCT Colleges Foundation Inc
V.V. Soliven Avenue II Cainta Rizal

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English
In Language Education Research (EL115)

Mr. Rommel T. Dasalla

July ,2024
 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Speaking skill is one of the most important skills to be developed and enhanced as means of
effective communication. It is regarded as one of the most difficult aspects of language
learning which allow us to express our thoughts, feelings and to communicate effectively
with others (Leong & Ahmadi, 2017). Speaking skills in English language involves fluency,
vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. Most previous research studies claims that the
proficiency in speaking skills particularly in English language covers a wide array of
academic and international opportunities resulting learners to study English language in
today’s globalize world.
According to Stephen Krashen, learners will only learn a language when they want to learn it.
As a result, it is the language teacher’s prime objective to deal with internal and external
factors of the learners. In the past research explorations, various researchers have conducted
studies to pinpoint the several internal and external factors affecting the proficiency of
speaking skills in English Language. Oxford (1990, P.267) recommended that one of the most
important influences on language learning success or failure is probably the affective side of
the learner. This study was supported by Krashen (1982) that a variety of affective variables
has been confirmed to be related to success in second language acquisition in research over
the last decade but most of those studies examined the three categories: motivation, self-
confidence and anxiety. On the other hand, based from (Hassan, 2023) when it comes to
external factors that affects the proficiency of speaking skills in English language has to do
with the learning method or the teaching and learning process, the classroom environment
and teacher’s acknowledgment or support during speaking activities create a great impact for
the student’s confidence and encouragement to speak English language.
A relationship exist between these present factors which widely affects and lessen the
proficiency in speaking skills of English language in most efficient and effective way of
speaking communication.

Problem Statement
The proficiency of speaking skills in English language which world widely use for
connections and unity both international and academic field to communicate fluently and
effectively. And due to it’s dominant usage, the existence of some factors blurred the
boundaries connection to be proficient in terms of speaking skills in English language.
There’s a lot of problems can be arise if an individual lack proficiency of speaking skills in
English language. This includes; limiting the extent to which students can demonstrate their
learning (Alhamami, 2021), unable to impart knowledge with others effectively due to failed
communication and might delayed and missed academic and future opportunities.

Purpose of the Study

Speaking skills in English language is crucial to each and everyone of us and must be
efficient and effective at all times. We are living in a globally competitive, diverse and
changing society where in expressing and communicating fluently particularly in English
language is dominant. With this in mind, the purpose of this qualitative study in general
perspective is to Assess the factors affecting the overall Proficiency of speaking skills in
English language. In specific view, the researcher will be interested to identify the challenges
and factors encounter by the English major students that affects their proficiency of speaking
skills in English language, to examine the relationship between present factors to the
proficiency of speaking skills in English language and to determine the perceptions of 3 rd year
English major students at ICCT Colleges Cainta towards the importance of understanding
factors that could affect their proficiency of speaking skills in their future endeavours or
career. This will help explain why students shows incompetent communication skills and lack
speaking skills behaviour during speaking activities or performance.

Research Questions:
This study aims to know the insights of 3rd year English Major students of ICCT Colleges
Cainta Main Campus about the different factors affecting the proficiency of speaking skills in
English language.
Specifically this study seeks to answer the following questions:
1.What are the factors affecting the proficiency of speaking skills in English Language?
2. In what way does these factors affect students in developing proficiency of speaking skills
in English language?
3. What are the benefits of understanding the factors affecting the proficiency of speaking
skills in English language of English major students?

Significance of the Study

The significance of this study is through understanding internal and external factors that
could affect proficiency of speaking skills in English language, both individuals from
educational institutions and community will provide them a set of awareness and compliance
to filter out the things they need to do to overcome existing factors that hinders the
development of it and capable of taking an advancement of their proficiency of speaking
skills in English language through the lens of 3rd year English major’s viewpoint and
experiences
This part of the study ponders the importance and impact of the research. Thus, the findings
of this study will benefited to some sectors of community as well as education institutions
such as:
The Students - This study will provide them awareness and motivations to filter out the
things they need to do to overcome internal and external factors and more likely to develop
their proficiency of speaking skills in English language
The Teachers – Teachers serve to be as the role model of every students inside the
classroom. They are the one who create peaceful and inclusive environment as well as
providing quality and effective teaching and learning process. With the help of the findings of
this study, the teacher can evaluate the challenges and crucial factors that might encounter
and faced by their students that affects the speaking proficiency in English language.
The School Administrators – The result obtained in this study will serve as a guide of the
school administrators in implementing useful and appropriate instructional method
considering the goal to develop the proficiency of speaking skills in English language and
lessen the impact of the present factors that might affect it. And by that, it will enhance
student’s speaking performance in English language.
The Parents and Guardians – Through this study Parents and Guardians able to gain an in
depth understanding about the struggles of their child as it being exposed to internal and
external factors in terms of speaking in English language. This would give them an
opportunity to help, offer support morally and emotionally as well as guide their children in
facing internal and external factors that has a capability to affect the proficiency of speaking
skills in English language.
The Future Researchers – This research study will further open doors for future researchers,
who would plan to create any related study particularly the factors affecting the proficiency
of speaking skills in English language. Utilizing this paper as useful reference material to
expound their studies and explore more about the existing factors.

Definition of Terms
To facilitate the understanding of this study, the different terms are defined herein.
Anxiety – these are the worries about of committing grammatical mistakes, pronunciation
and fear of being judge with their speaking skills.
External Factors – it involves the Physical factors affecting the proficiency of speaking skills
in English language such as the teaching method, and classroom environment.
Internal Factors – it is about the affective factors that affects the proficiency of speaking skills
in English language. This includes anxiety, motivation, self confidence
Motivation – a self determination to that set goals to improve proficiency of speaking skills in
English language.
Proficiency – is the advancement in skills or the quality of having great competence
particularly in speaking skills using English language.
Self-Confidence – is related to motivation, persistence and willingness to take risks in
language learning.
Study Habits – the effective utilization of resources to gain proficiency of speaking skills in
English language involving technological advancement, taking notes, and speaking exercises

Organization of the Study

This study is divided into (5) five chapters, Chapter one contains the general introduction
that includes the background of the study, problem statement, purpose of the study, research
questions, significance of the study, definition of terms and Organization of the study.
Chapter two encompasses the review of related literature that will provide support
information all throughout the study giving the theoretical framework and brief summary
about the concept presented in previous studies.. Chapter three focused more on the methods
and techniques applied in this study. This involves, the research design, research participants,
data collection methods, instruments, procedures, data analysis and ethical considerations.
Chapter 4 will shows the presentation of the results gain from data collection and interpreting
outcomes of the interviews and lastly Chapter five that covers the discussion, conclusion and
recommendation of this study.

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
This chapter reviewed some of the numerous works done by scholars and researchers which
are directly related to this research work. In doing so, this chapter examine and reviewed the
following areas:
• The Concept of Speaking skills in English Language
• Factors affecting the Proficiency of Speaking skills in English language.
Review of Related Literature
The Concept of Speaking Skills in English Language
English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, and it has become a global
language for communication, business, and education. Despite of it’s dominant use, still
many people struggle to speak with confidence and fluently. (Haque, 2023). In the four
macro skills, speaking is considered as the most important since it represent someone’s
knowledge about different aspects in our lives. In the study as cited, (Kiruthiga &
Christopher, 2022) Speaking skills does not only mean uttering words through the mouth; It
involves communicating one’s thoughts through words and this was supported by ( F.
Prayuda, 2021) stating that speaking skills is crucial to build communication in providing
insights, recommendations, ideas and necessary information into each other. Therefore,
people always commend individuals that has a good speaking skills.

Factors affecting the Proficiency of Speaking skills in English language.

Several studies explore different existing factors that widely affects the proficiency of
speaking skills in English language. (R. Leyaley, 2023) investigated student’s passiveness in
speaking English resulting that internal factors such as nervousness, lack of confidence, fear
of making mistakes affects their proficiency of speaking skills in English language.
Moreover, students often has limited vocabulary and struggle to express the concepts required
by the teacher. They may also fail to understand the purpose of speaking English constantly
in class and find it mentally exhausting, particularly if their language proficiency is low. It
also highlighted .
Moreover, few studies have investigated the impact of external factors on the proficiency of
speaking skills in English.
Further research is necessary to explore these external influences and their effects on learners'
speaking abilities.
Educational Environment: The quality of the educational environment, including the
availability of resources, teaching methodologies, and support from educators, greatly affects
students' speaking proficiency. A supportive and resource-rich environment can enhance
learning experiences and encourage active participation in speaking activities (Johnson &
Anderson, 2023).
Theoretical Framework
Brain functioning and hemisphericity are two crucial characteristics of learner differentiation
in language learning. The hemisphericity theory, which has gained popularity in recent years,
proposes that individuals choose a preferred mode of cognitive processing linked to action on
behalf of the left or right hemisphere (Bavand Savadkouhi et al., 2013). Further, Alptekin and
Atakan (1990) interpret hemisphericity as a person’s inclination to believe one cerebral
hemisphere more than the other, regardless of the attitude and mindset of task requirements.
Hemisphericity was described by Leng et al. (1998) as “the propensity for using one side of
the brain more than the other.” (pp. 115–116).
The study of Hudson (2000) also mentioned brain hemisphericity as right, left, or complete
brain dominance. He discovered that the left hemisphere is stronger at analytical and
temporal tasks like mathematics, riddles, music, and alphabetic reading. Likewise, Stevick [as
quoted in Brown (2000)] concluded that left-brain-dominant second language learners
appeared to be competent at producing independent words, gathering linguistic
characteristics, performing function cycles, and using conceptualization, categorization,
naming, and restructuring. On the other hand, right-brain dominant individuals appear to
function effectively with full imagery and generalization, metaphors, emotive input, and
artistic and spectacular claims (Brown, 2000). The right hemisphere analyzes non-verbal,
tangible, and spatial information, pays attention to connections, and views everything
holistically. As a result, the right brain is acknowledged to have a worldwide tendency. Other
right-brain activities include creative abilities, such as music and graphics (Dulger, 2012;
Gunasinghe et al., 2020; Hamid et al., 2020).
Although some people prefer to process information with their left- or right-brain, others may
use both hemispheres simultaneously, benefiting the student in instructional procedures
(Dulger, 2012). Entire-brained learners employ all of the tactics that right and left-brained
learners employ (Morris, 2006; Namaziandost et al., 2020). It is important to note that the left
and right hemispheres are not fully autonomous and function as a team, and it is the corpus
callosum that connects both hemispheres (Saleh, 2001) to make the vital neurological
connection of the brain for the optimal dilemma.

Several studies have been conducted to investigate the association between hemisphericity
and language abilities, such as speaking (Mireskandari and Alavi, 2015; Namaziandost et al.,
2019), listening (Kök, 2014), writing (Weisi and Khaksar, 2015), and reading (Weisi and
Khaksar, 2015). (Kök, 2010; Khabiri and Heidari, 2011). Mireskandari and Alavi (2015)
discovered a statistical difference in the use of compensating methods among whole-brain
dominant respondents and both right and left-brain students. According to the research done
by Weisi and Khaksar (2015), right-brain dominant students were more innovative in a
writing exam. Kök (2014) discovered no significant difference in listening comprehension
between control and experimental group participants in terms of hemisphere dominance.
The study conducted by Kök (2010) offers an in-depth examination of the relationship
between learners’ use of reading comprehension strategies, their reading comprehension
successes, and their perceptions of learning English concerning hemispheric dominance by
drawing attention to the notion of hemisphericity and reading comprehension and other
factors. He conducted a study of 40 respondents from a preparatory university program.
According to the data analysis, there was no statistical difference in reading comprehension
performance. Nevertheless, the findings revealed a statistically significant difference in
perceptions between the experimental and control groups, favoring the experimental group in
both left and right-brain dominant participants.
Individuals’ cognitive styles associated with the brain hemisphere possibly derive from two
main factors, heredity, and environmental condition. Some scientists of the genetics field
assume that there is a possible correlation between the specific structure of two halves of the
brain and enzymes production due to heredity factors (Gardner, 1993). Environmental
differences contribute to the functions performed by the particular brain hemisphere area
(Hall, 2005). Brain dominance to each individual can be changed depending on the routines
that predominantly activate the left- and right brain. Goswami (2004) states that the brain,
which is functioned to auditory analysis or hearing sounds, can serve as a visual or spatial
analysis by deaf people who exercise sign language. Despite blind people who possess the
dominant ability to hear due to heredity factors can develop performance to read and
recognize objects forced by extreme environmental conditions. The purpose of this study is to
find out the significant correlation between brain dominance and two English language skills,
reading and speaking. Different categories of brain dominance are also analyzed and
compared to find out specific differences and contributions of students’ preferences based on
brain personality traits to reading as a receptive skill and speaking as a productive skills.
Summary
The purpose of this study is to find the significant correlation between brain dominance and
two English language skills, reading and speaking, and to analyze the specific differences and
contributions of students’ preferences based on brain personality traits to these skills.
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY

Introduction
The methodology, procedures, and techniques used in the research study are covered in this
Chapter 3. This includes the study's inclusion participant characteristics, and sampling
strategy. The studies give an explanation of the research design selected for this investigation
as well as the rationale behind it. Along with the procedures that will be followed to carry out
this study, an instrument that will be used for data collection is also described. The researcher
also specify about the procedures that will be followed to analyse the information that is
collected.

Research Design
In order to assess the factors influencing the proficiency of speaking skills of third-
year English major students at ICCT Colleges, the researchers will employ the qualitative
interview methodology. According to E. Knott (2022), In-depth interviews are a versatile
form of qualitative data collection used by researchers across the social sciences. They allow
individuals to explain, in their own words, how they understand and interpret the world
around them to attained, questioned and reinforced in-depth information about the subject
which are helpful for learning the backstory of a participant’s experience.
Convenience sampling will be the research sampling method used. A third-year English
major respondent was chosen by the researcher, specifically from section LFCA333E033,
because of their accessibility, availability, and exposure to various factors influencing English
language proficiency, all of which will greatly enhance the study's outcomes.
Research Participants
The study's participants will be chosen at random from among ICCT Colleges' third-year
English major students. There are currently two sections of the English major and third-year
education students at ICCT Colleges. As a result, the researcher has chosen to choose at
random from the English major third-year students. The investigator is of the opinion that
these subjects would be able to supply adequate and necessary data in
order to address the research questions.

Data Collection Procedure

A consent form will be provided to each respondent before the interview, following the
random selection of those who will be interviewed. This form will serve as official
documentation that the respondents have granted permission for the researchers to interview
them. A concise overview of the research is included in the consent form, along with
information about confidentiality and name disclosure to respondents both during and after
the study's conclusion. The interviewer will notify the respondents of the start time of the
actual interview as well as the recording once the consent form has been signed by them.
The recorded responses will be turned into texts for analysis once every respondent has been
interviewed. The use of a semi-structured interview will give the researchers
some leeway in crafting the questions for each respondent because this study is descriptive in
nature. Additionally, it will allow the researchers to delve deeper when needed to
get clarification and additional information.

Research Instruments
A Semi-structured interview is a qualitative research method that is used to gain an in-
depth understanding of the respondents’ feelings and beliefs. We, the researcher prepared a
question ahead of time that can adjust the order. Disregard any that are redundant or create
new one. In addition, we as the interviewer should be prepared regards with asking follow up
questions and probe for more details.
The Research Instrument will be use is Interview particularly a Semi-structured interview
wherein the researchers goal is to ask the respondents about their actual experiences or
challenges faced that affects their speaking proficiency in English language followed by
probing question to reveal more information to provide in depth understanding of the factors
participant’s presented.

Procedures
For instance, researchers may observe and interview participants in the same conditions. In
terms of observations, researchers commonly identify behaviours they are interested in
watching. Well-designed observations typically use standardized procedures that two or more
observers follow with comparisons of the recordings and analysis of each observer to identify
if the study has high internal reliability.

Data Analysis
After the data gathering process, every data was employed in this study through a
Qualitative research method, using Semi-structured interview. With this procedure, the result
was handled through observation LFCA333E033, a 3rd Year English Major at ICCT Cainta
Campus, and we're treated with and only with what's related with the study. Every data
gathered from selected respondents we're treated with utmost confidentiality so as to
contribute greatly and effectively in the study being conducted. Furthermore, the researchers
eliminated biases to the condition in order to avoid conflicts with the target respondents.

Ethical Considerations
Among the third year students, the researcher will first ask permission to the respondents
before conducting the research ethics to consider in qualitative research ethics the researcher
will not force the respondents to answers the questioners and also make sure that all
information of the respondents will be confidential

References
Rochelle,C.(2021). Factors Affecting the Speaking Skills of Second English Language
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Kiruthiga,E.& Christopher,G.(2023). The Impact of Affective Factors in English Speaking
Skills.
Zhavar, G. & Bareq, R. (2023). Factors Affecting Proficiency in English Language Learning:
A General Overview of the Speaking Skills of Second English Language.
Rhonda, L. (2023). Students Passiveness in Speaking English: The Culprit behind the silence
in the Classroom.
Ali, D. & Tevfik, D. (2020). Proficient Speakers of English as a Foreign Language.
Febrian, P. (2021) Factors Affecting Students Speaking Skill
Minda, S. (2023) Factors influencing the students Speaking Ability.
Crow, Graham. & Oakley, Ann.& In Sage Research Methods Foundations, edited by Paul
Atkinson, Sara Delamont, Alexandru Cernat, Joseph W. Sakshaug, and Richard A. Williams.
London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2020
Roth, J. (2023). College and career readiness, addressing an initiative for instructional
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