The Problem and its Scope: Rationale of the Study
All normal humans bring into the world an innate faculty for language acquisition, language use, and grammar construction. It is the internalization of the rules of the grammar of one’s first language from a more or less random exposure to utterances in it. The language learners are very able to construct new, grammatically acceptable sentences from material they have already heard. Unlike the parrot in human society, they are not limited to mere repetition of utterances.
Language acquisition could not take place “through habit formation” because language is far too complicated to be learned in such a manner, especially given the brief time available. There is an innate capacity of human beings who get possessed and predisposed them to look for fundamental patterns in language. People could create utterances that they could not have possibly encountered in the language that was spoken to them.
In first-language acquisition, young children have certain innate characteristics that predispose them to learn the language. These characteristics include the structures, which enable children to make the sounds used in language, and the ability to comprehend a number of general grammatical principles, such as the hierarchical nature of syntax. Children acquire whatever language is spoken around them, even if their parents speak a diverse language.
An interesting feature of early language acquisition is that children seem to depend more on semantics than on syntax when speaking. Furthermore, the acquisition of language facility is one of the most interesting but perplexing phenomena in learning. The learners’ ability to speak is marvelous and his mastery in other areas of learning such as listening, reading and writing gives a clear indication that he has the distinct opportunity of being a learner of a fantastic classroom teacher.
Constant practice under the proper guidance of the teachers makes the students feel at home with any language. The teacher sees to it that the learner can imitate and speak the correct English patterns that are taught to him in the classroom. It is a psychological fact that young people can learn a new language easily and idiomatically. In the language lessons, exercises take the forms of repetition, pattern drills and accompanied reinforcements by the teachers just to learn the language.
It is not a facile undertaking to simplify a process in the four walls of the classrooms an atmosphere of self-confidence and enthusiasm in learning a language. It is energy-consuming and time-consuming. It involves failures and successes. It involves an acceptance of individual’s strengths and weaknesses – including one’s own. The teacher needs to face the exciting and creative experience in the classrooms while in the process of teaching the language. Errors should be avoided. If an error is committed, quick correction is desirable in order to prevent the establishment of bad habits.
The presence or manifestation of various teaching strategies for use in the field has perplexed a lot of public secondary English teachers whose students come from different educational backgrounds. These students come from exclusive schools which have different English books and students come from remote barangay elementary schools which have dearth of learning materials and limited learning experiences. The teachers are cynical whether or not the methods they use in their classes could keep up with the benchmarks of a good and effective teaching procedure considering a mixture of students they have in the classroom.
Teaching should be adjusted to the needs of the learners. Because of this, it is imperative to determine first their difficulties and needs so that whatever materials a teacher purports to design should be in accordance with these needs. This is what is known as directional teaching. This means an assurance of more achievements in teaching than mere teaching without any sound basis.
The researcher who was once a District English Coordinator of Minglanilla District in the Municipality of Minglanilla had been resorted to this study for the purpose of predicting public school’s first year selected students’ learning performance utilizing the macro-skills of structured lessons in English.