International
English Journal
Library Users and their Satisfaction Level on Library Service 141
Lilian Dupa, Genevieve Vivero, Fatima Hare and Felicitas Vicitacion
Open-Laboratory Monitoring System of the 167
Information Technology Education Program
Roy B. Manseras and Jerry R. Flores
Air Quality of Davao City as 177
Affected by the Traffic Vehicle Density
Renan P. Limjuco, Jay Vincent T. Yu, Jann Francis A. Barcibal,
Kristian A. Lim, Niño John P. Urquiza, Diane J. Orejudos,
Cyrene Karl M. Capao
Development of Educational Quality Assurance 189
of Educational Institutions: A Case Study of
Primary Schools in Thailand
Jadsadaporn Chiadphrommarat
Democracy in the Teaching Pedagogies 197
in the Arab Region after 2011
Ben Moussa Elhadj Moussa, Dave Burnapp,
Janet Wilson, David Simmons
Exploring the Productive Overlap between 211
Philosophy and Anthropology
Raymundo R. Pavo
xiv
Language of Education
Exposure Research for Higher Learning
and Grammatical Print ISSN 1656-0604
Knowledge
Vol. 24 No.of2Pre-service Teachers
October 2018 Online
V. Mamonong, ISSN&2244-6532
J. Rillo P. Repato
English Language Exposure and Grammatical
Knowledge of Pre-service Teachers
Virgion H. Mamonong1, John Anton B. Rillo2, Princess Mae A. Repato3
1,2,3University of the Immaculate Conception, Davao City, Philippines
4Corresponding author’s email address: mamonong@uic.edu.ph
ABSTRACT
Possessing excellent English grammatical knowledge makes a pre-service
teacher facilitate classroom learning effectively; however, some hesitate to use
the language due to one’s level of proficiency. This situation becomes upsetting
as these students are soon to practice their profession, thus, it demands
examination on students exposure to English language stimuli vis-à-vis with
grammatical knowledge. Employing the descriptive – correlation design, the
study aimed to investigate the influence of English language exposure to the
grammatical knowledge of 65 pre-service Education students who were chosen
through complete enumeration technique. More particularly, it sought to
determine extent of English language exposure at home, with social group,
in school, on social media and their level of grammatical knowledge in terms
of phonology, vocabulary, and syntax. An adapted and validated-researcher-
made questionnaire determined students’ extent of language exposure and their
level of grammatical knowledge. Findings revealed that despite less English
language exposure, the pre-service teachers’ level of grammatical knowledge
was high. Furthermore, Pearson r and the coefficient of determination analysis
divulged that the English language exposure had a significant influence to the
grammatical knowledge of the pre-service teachers.
KEYWORDS: English language exposure, grammatical knowledge, pre-service
teachers, descriptive – correlation, Davao City, Philippines
International Journal of Education Research for Higher Learning.2018.24(2):1-8 1

V. Mamonong, J. Rillo & P. Repato
INTRODUCTION
English is the lingua franca of the global village where it has become the
language of the business, law, and education. It is the language used as a medium
of instruction in many schools and a subject compulsory in all levels. However,
expressing oneself in spoken and written communication in English has remained
a grueling task among students, thus making them taciturn and unconfident
when speaking or writing due to limited or lack of grammatical knowledge.
Grammatical knowledge seems to be a scarce phenomenon. Repeated
studies or national reports have signaled weaknesses in teachers’ grammatical
content knowledge (Myhill, Jones & Watson, 2012). In United States, Vavra
(1996) as cited by Myhill (2012), critiqued the expectation that students
should analyze the structure of sentences, but how can these students be able
to do so when English teachers themselves could not do it; and in England, a
survey by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) also concluded
that teachers lacked confidence with syntactical knowledge. Gordon (2005)
noted that because linguistics was not widely taught in New Zealand University
courses and because English teachers entered the profession through a literature
degree route, they avoided the need for grammatical content knowledge by
approaching language teaching from a predominantly sociological, rather than
linguistic perspective.
Yesteryears, the Philippines flourished as the third largest English-
speaking country in the whole world. In fact, Macasing (2011) highlighted
that graduates of the pasts had better command of the English language than
the graduates of today. But Bolton and Bautista (2008) of Philippine English:
Linguistic and Literary Perspectives reported the decline of the nations’ English
proficiency. In the very recent survey, Leonen (2018) reported that in the two-
year study lead by the Hopkins International Partners among 10,000 graduating
college students from Luzon who took the Test of English for International
Communication (TOIEC) scored an average of 630 on English proficiency.
The said average was lower than the competency requirement for taxi drivers
in Dubai. He added that the “graduates also averaged a Common European
Framework of Reference of Language (CEFR) grade of B1, lower than the
CEFR B2 proficiency target set for high school graduates in Thailand and
Vietnam”. More so, the average signified to be “comparable to the proficiency
of 5th and 6th grade students in native English speaking countries such as the
US and the United Kingdom.” Macasinag (2011) posits that this weakening
proficiency is evidenced in various ways such as “incorrect grammar, lack of
2 International Journal of Education Research for Higher Learning.2018.24(2):1-8
English Language Exposure and Grammatical
Knowledge of Pre-service Teachers V. Mamonong, J. Rillo & P. Repato
fluency in the language, poor reading comprehension skills and poor writing
skills among others”. The data simply imply that Filipinos are no longer as
proficient in English as they used to be.
Studies had been carried out how English grammar is best learned.
However, these studies specifically the one carried out by Mamonong (2012),
on how students’ exposure to e-Learning Management System (eLMS) improves
the grammar proficiency among intermediate graders. His study revealed that a
blended type of learning, the use of eLMS and traditional teaching, can grammar
learning be better facilitated. Another, study conducted by Myhill, Jones, and
Watson (2012) determined how teachers’ grammatical knowledge influenced
classroom practice and shaped the nature of learning experience by students.
Despite studies previously mentioned, researches regarding the relationship
between English language exposure to stimulus and grammatical knowledge of
students are yet to be developed, hence, the conduct of this study. The study
is different from those that were already conducted since the current research
hopes to determine how students’ exposure to English language at home, with
social groups, in school, and on social media influence students’ grammatical
knowledge. There is this urgency to know the extent of English language exposure
so as to determine how it would impact grammatical knowledge improvement.
This would aid teachers on how they can best teach grammar and make students
become communicatively competent in the use of the English language.
Moreover, the result of this study may serve for crafting a grammar enhancement
program among the pre-service teachers to make them more effective teachers
who could deliver their lesson with much grammatical chutzpah.
Objectives of the Study
This study aimed to determine the influence of English language exposure
to grammatical knowledge of the pre-service teachers. It specifically sought to
determine the extent of the English language exposure of the pre-service teachers
at home, with social group, in school, and on social media and determine the
level of grammatical knowledge of the pre-service teachers in terms of phonology,
vocabulary, and syntax.
3
 English Language Exposure and Grammatical
V. Mamonong, J. Rillo & P. Repato Knowledge of Pre-service Teachers V. Mamonong, J. Rillo & P. Repato

Conceptual Framework teachers. Pearson Product Moment Correlation on the other hand, determined if
the variables had positive, negative or no correlation at all.
Independent Variable Dependent Variable

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Extent of English Level of Grammatical
Language Exposure Knowledge
Table 1. Level of English language exposure of the pre-service teachers
home Phonology
social group Vocabulary English Language Exposure Mean Standard Deviation Descriptive Equivalent
school syntax Home 1.90 .51 Low
social media Friends 2.07 .50 Low
School 3.00 .51 Very High
Media 2.56 .57 Very High
Figure 1. Conceptual paradigm of the study
Overall 2.38 .52 Low

Presented in Figure 1 is the conceptual framework of the study. The

independent variable consists of the various sources of English language exposure
namely, at home, with social group, in school, and on social media that is
premised to influence the grammatical knowledge of the pre-service teachers. The
independent variable comprises the grammatical knowledge of the respondents
in terms of phonology, vocabulary, and syntax.
METHOD
This study used descriptive – correlation design in determining the extent of
students’ English language exposure and level of grammatical knowledge. The study
was conducted in one of the catholic universities in Davao City and administered
among the pre-service education students who were chosen through complete
enumeration technique. This study used two instruments. The questionnaire on
the extent of English language exposure which contained five statements in each
indicator and the level of grammatical knowledge which contained 10 questions
for each indicator were adapted and validated by field experts. To determine the
extent of the English language exposure and the level of grammatical knowledge
of the respondents, mean was used to give concise descriptions. Moreover, the
standard deviation was used to determine the dispersion in the extent of English
language exposure and the level of grammatical knowledge of the pre-service
Table 1 presents the pre-service education students’ extent of English
language in terms of their exposure at home, with social group, in school, and
on social media with corresponding mean score of 1.90, 2.07, 3.00, and 2.56
respectively. The overall mean 2.38 revealed that the extent of English language
exposure of the respondents was low which was interpreted as it is sometimes
manifested. This implies that students have a minimal exposure opportunity of
using English language when interacting with the others at home, with social
group, in school, and on social media.
Among the four indicators, home obtained the lowest mean score in
which according to Paradis (2010) “whether English is spoken at home had
little impact on children’s grammatical knowledge. Nevertheless, the over all
findings collaborated with the study of Celce-Murcia (2002) which stated that
the participation of the students in various English activities or programs was
less as their social interaction was constrained and as such the amount of English
exposure was limited. The respondents studied English out of compulsion; as it
has been prescribed as a subject at the college level where students are obliged to
express themselves in the target language.

4 International Journal of Education Research for Higher Learning.2018.24(2):1-8 5

 English Language Exposure and Grammatical
V. Mamonong, J. Rillo & P. Repato Knowledge of Pre-service Teachers V. Mamonong, J. Rillo & P. Repato

Table 2. Level of grammatical knowledge of pre-service teachers Table 3 shows the relationship between English language exposure and
grammatical knowledge. The table reveals that there was a significant relationship
Grammatical Knowledge Mean Standard Deviation Descriptive Equivalent between English language exposure and grammatical knowledge of the pre-service
Phonology 76.77 22.16 Very Good teachers since the p-value of .00 was lower than the level of significance, which is set
Vocabulary 69.54 22.18 Very Good
at .05 (p-value = .00 < .05). Furthermore, it showed that there was a high correlation
between English language exposure and grammatical knowledge since r=0.724.
Syntax 71.69 24.97 Very Good
This means that the percentage of the variations in grammatical knowledge
Overall 72.67 23.10 Very Good
of the pre-service teachers which can be attributed to their score in English
language exposure is 52.50%, while the remaining 47.50% is attributed to other
factors. This finding was in support to Thordartodottir (2014) who determined
Table 2 shows the descriptive data in the level of grammatical knowledge the grammatical ability of bilingual learners after exposure to language. His study
of the pre-service teachers based on the three indicators. As shown in the table, revealed that exposure to language improved grammatical ability compared to
results on phonology, vocabulary, and syntax had the mean scores of 76.77, those who were less exposed to any language stimulus. Hence, learners who had
69.54, and 71.69, respectively with the descriptive equivalent of very good. weaker exposure scored significantly lower. Furthermore, the result also strongly
Overall, the level of grammatical knowledge of the pre-service teachers testified the experimental study conducted by Matusevych, Alishahi, and Backus
was very good with the overall mean score of 72.67. This means that students (2017) and Paradis (2010) which yielded that the role of higher cumulative
demonstrate high knowledge of phonology, vocabulary, and syntax. This high amount input exposure could lead to a higher performance in second language.
performance is due to the practice of the students in using English when sharing Thus, based on the findings, this study could also claim that the more students are
their ideas and insights in their daily class discussions and online activities. exposed to English language whether it is at home, with social group, in school,
This result appears to be similar with the findings of Kirpatrick (2007) which and on social media, the more they can enhance their grammatical knowledge in
report that in Singapore, India, and, Malaysia, learners used English as the terms of phonology, vocabulary, and syntax.
medium of communication whether they are at home or with other speakers of
English language. In his study, it was found that speaking always the language
has a significant implication for their development of fluency and competency REFERENCES
in English.
Bolton, K. & Bautista, M.L. (2008). Philippine english: Linguistic and
literary perspectives. Philippine English
Table 3. Significance of the relationship between the extent of English language
exposure and the level grammatical knowledge Celce-Murcia, M. (2002). Teaching english as a second or foreign language.
Boston, MA: Newbury House
Dependent Degree of
Independent Variable r r2 Relationship p-value Remarks
Variable Gordon, E. (2005). Grammar in new zealand schools: Two case studies,
English Language Grammatical .724 0.53 High .00 Significant English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 4 (3) 48-68.
Exposure Knowledge Correlation
Kirkpatrick, A. (2007). World Englishes: Implications for international
communication and English language teaching. Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://
repository.lib.eduhk.hk/jspui/handle/2260.2/5861

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V. Mamonong, J. Rillo & P. Repato
Leonen, J. (2018). Inquiry into the decline of English sought of PH students
sought. Inquirer.Net. Retrieved from http://newsinfo.inquirer.
net/969318/inquiry-into-decline-of-english-skill-of-ph-students-
sought.
Macasinag, B. (2011). Decline-english-proficiency: Sunstar: Retrieved
from http://www.sunstar.com.ph/baguio/opinion/2011/08/04/ma
casinag-170862
Matusevych, Y., Alishahi, A. & Backus, A. (2017). The impact of first
and second language exposure on learning second language
constructions. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 20(1), 128-
149. doi:10.1017/S1366728915000607
Mamonong, V. (2013). E-Learning management system and its effect on
ragmmar proficiency of grade six pupils of the university of the
immaculate conception. UIC Research Journal. Vol. 19
Myhill, D.A., Jones, S.M., Lines, H. & Watson A. (2012). Re-thinking
grammar: The impact of embedded grammar teaching on students’
writing and students’ metalinguistic understanding. Research
Papers in Education 27 (2) 1-28
Paradis, J. (2010). Bilingual children’s acquisition of English verbs
morphology: Effects of language exposure, structure cpmplexity,
and task type. Language Learning: A Journal of Research in
Language Studies.
Thordardottir, E. (2014). The relationship between bilingual exposure and
morphosyntactic development. International Journal of Speech-
Language Pathology. 17:2, 97-114.
Vavra, E. (1996). On not teaching grammar. The English Journal, 85(7),
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8 International Journal of Education Research for Higher Learning.2018.24(2):9-27
International
Print Journal on
Media Coverage of Education Research for Higher Learning
ASEAN Integration Print ISSN 1656-0604
2015:
Vol. 24A No.
Retrospection
2 Octoberand Evaluation
2018 Online
M. Tagaytay, ISSN&
C. Arro 2244-6532
S. Napal
Print Media Coverage on ASEAN Integration 2015:
A Retrospection and Evaluation
Monique Musni-Tagaytay1, Camille E. Arro2, Shiela Michelle L. Napal3
1,2,3University of the Immaculate Conception, Davao City
4Corresponding author’s email address: nikkimusni@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
This study explored the print media coverage on ASEAN Integration 2015
in Davao City, Philippines in an attempt to investigate possible contributory
factors to reported low levels of ASEAN Integration 2015 awareness which
has been reported in member countries. The researchers conducted a content
analysis of over 400 articles from three pre- selected newspapers spanning three
years starting from January 2011-July 2014. Retrospection and validation
of the coverage focused on their framing, focused stakeholders as well as
the information given to the public. The analysis revealed that there were
information vacuum on ASEAN Integration as there were no articles written
during certain quarters of 2011-2014, overtaken by other news. Framing of
the information of the coverage was confined only to basic knowledge about
ASEAN Integration with no apparent in-depth coverage on what challenges
and changes would be brought on by the ASEAN Economic Community in
2015. Focus of the coverage was mainly limited to stakeholder in the Business
and Labor Sector while there was little coverage on the educational sector.
Findings would imply that the public would have had to depend on other media
sources to get information on ASEAN Integration 2015. The lack of coverage
could possibly be a factor in low awareness resulting to an ill- primed public
consciousness on ASEAN Integration and consequently a lack of cooperation
among stakeholders.
KEYWORDS: Media studies, qualitative, content analysis, print media coverage,
ASEAN integration, Philippines
9