Oral Language Proficiency: Basis for Material Design and Development

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine the perceived level of oral language proficiency of the first-year college students enrolled in the Purposive Communication course during the school year 2019-2020 in a private university of Davao City. It also aimed to determine the challenges experienced in speaking activities. This study used embedded mixed-method design. An adopted survey questionnaire was used in quantitative that contained six constructs: comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and non-verbal communication. Whereas, in qualitative data, it employed focus group discussion. Sixty respondents participated in quantitative data selected through simple random sampling, and eight respondents participated in interview sessions. Results reveal that: (a) students’ overall perceived level of their oral language proficiency is high; (b) the themes that flourished in the FGD are dilemmas in comprehending the subject matter/topic, drawbacks in analyzing the question, troubles in organizing thoughts and ideas, predicament brought by stage fright, shortfall of vocabularies, insufficiency of terms, hurdles with difficult words, struggles on how to pronounce words correctly, problems with sentence construction, lack of mastery of the rules of subject-verb agreement, experiencing uneasiness through physical reactions, and exhibiting anxiousness through physical activities/discomfort. It is recommended that the proposed instructional material should be utilized to aid the needed speaking competence.