International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 10, Issue 9, September 2020 861

ISSN 2250-3153

Teaching Purposive Communication in Higher Education

Using Contextualized and Localized Techniques
Meldred O. Avila

College of Arts and Sciences, Quezon City University

673 Qurino High way, San Bartolome, Novaliches, Quezon City, 1116 Philippines

DOI: 10.29322/IJSRP.10.09.2020.p105103
http://dx.doi.org/10.29322/IJSRP.10.09.2020.p105103

Abstract- The study focuses on exploring the implications of readers who can confidently and autonomously speak and read
contextualized and localized techniques on teaching and learning English in and outside the classrooms, according to Loyola
the subject Purposive Communication. A true experimental (2018).
design is used to determine the implications of the used Ramos (2015) and Pangalangan (2008) even emphasized
techniques in teaching the General Education core subject as well that Philippine English classes are mostly dominated by
as its significant effect on students’ performances. Two groups of traditional methods of teaching. Loyola (2018) stresses that Rote
first year college students from Quezon City University are learning and translation methods are commonly used for teaching
randomly selected to participate in this study. Using independent core subjects and students rarely develop sufficient skills. In
sample t-test, results showed that there is a significant addition, he states that the lack of speaking, reading and writing
improvement on the performances of the students under the in English culture in the Philippine society is also a hindrance in
experimental group as compared to those in the control group. developing English communication skills among Filipino
The study suggests that the contextualized and localized students.
technique are effective in supporting the teaching and learning According to Madrunio, Martin, and Plata (2016), aside
process in higher education. from other hindrances, like ineffective textbooks and extremely
limited resources, the methods employed by teachers to teach
Index Terms- Contextualized and localized techniques, Teaching English courses remains one of the main causes behind students’
strategies, English Education, Teaching and Learning. poor communication and reading skills. They also discussed that
majority of teachers use traditional lecture based methods to
teach English subjects in their classroom and does not show
I. INTRODUCTION much evidence of proper planning. Furthermore, there is little
emphasis on using strategies that encourages the students to
C ommunication is one of the essential skills that a 21st
Century learners should acquire according to Alismail and
McGuire (2015). Muego, Acido, and Lusung-Oyzon (2016), state
become actively involve and participate in the lesson. The
examples used in class are not based on local, personal, and real
that developing good communication skills, both in written and life experiences. This is the reason why there is no focus on
oral among Filipino learners, most especially in the tertiary developing metacognitive awareness in general.
education is pivotal for ensuring success in education as well as Ramos (2015) and Pangalagan (2008), explain that the
in professional life in the modern world. traditional teaching methodology and techniques used in teaching
Furthermore, acquiring proficiency in English language is English subjects has proven ineffective and a pressing need for
mandatory for every Filipino students as English enjoys the adopting or using more current and effective methods and
status of one of the official languages in the country. Also, it is techniques in teaching the subject is necessary. In addition Chan
the language of science, education, politics, business and (2019), Fallah and Nazari (2019), Teng (2019), and Manurong
commerce, according to Separa, Gerales, and Medina (2019). In (2007), reveal that studies on English teaching and learning
addition, it is the medium of instruction for higher education at across the world tested and evaluated various teaching
tertiary level institutions in the Philippines, thus, having a better methodologies, and strategies and techniques that can be used to
English language and communication skills are an essential enhance and develop communication, reading, and
ingredient for academic success. Tupas, and Ruanni (2002), comprehension skills of the students, as well as their academic
opine further that English language is taught as a compulsory success. To simply put in, through the use of combined various
subject for twelve years in the basic education in the Philippines teaching methods, and strategies and techniques students become
with the goal of developing Filipino learners to have a proficient more aware of the process of learning, participate actively in
skills in English language and communication. class, and gradually become autonomous learners.
However, based from the study of Ramos (2015), Moreover, according to Bringas (2014) and Bird, Livesey,
traditional methods and techniques used in the Philippines, and Simon (2011), contextualized and localized techniques in
especially in teaching communication and other English subjects teaching are two of the various techniques that a teacher can be
to develop necessary skills used in majority of Filipino used to improve his or her teaching and students’ academic
classrooms has not produced proficient English speakers and performances. Chew (2008), stresses that contextualized

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International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 10, Issue 9, September 2020 862
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technique provides a paramount ways of establishing young II. METHODOLOGY

learners’ English proficiency because they are made to engage in The study was conducted in Quezon City University,
tasks and topics which relate to the circumstances and situations Quezon City, Philippines, sometime in February 2019, during the
that require the use of language. On the other hand, localization second semester of the academic year 2019–2020. The
technique is a subfield of contextualization where in teachers respondents were composed of a total of sixty (60) freshmen
utilize the local tradition and culture of the students in both college students under the General Education (GenEd) Program
instruction and assessment, according to Center for Occupational of the university. Students were divided as control (n = 30) and
Research and Development (2012). In addition, it is the process experimental (n = 30) groups. They were assigned randomly. The
of relating learning content specified in the curriculum to local experimental group received the contextualized and localized
information and materials from the learner’s community, technique of teaching the subject Purposive Communication,
according to Garin, Reyes, Domantay, and Rosals (2018). where in the researcher discussed the topics in a contextualized
Crawford (2002) particularly points out that with the use of these manner and used local materials, examples, conversations,
techniques, students will be able to conceptualize the presented formative tests in presenting the topics, while the control group
materials in class and drag and store it in a long-term memory does not, and undergone a usual lecture discussion technique.
space of their brains, because the concepts are presented in The topics and objectives were based on the outcomes-
meaningful and contextual ways. based course syllabus used in the subject Purposive
Celce-Murcia, Dornyei, and Thurrell (1995), state that Communication which is also in lined with the CHED
learning becomes meaningful when it is transferred from one Memorandum Order No. 2, series of 2013. The same topic about
context to another. Students’ knowledge should be connected to the nature of communication and objectives were given and used
the real world and to their previous and present experiences, as in both groups except for the teaching strategy employed for one
well as to their present environment. Similarly, Celce-Murcia, week. Each group was given a posttest examination using a 30
Domyei and Thurrel (1995), point out that to make learning item test questionnaire which was developed by the researcher.
effective, knowledge should be contextualized with the prior Prior to the experimentation, the test questionnaire was evaluated
understanding of the learners. In addition, as a facilitator of by five English teachers for its face validity, and a total of fifteen
learning, teachers should serve as a catalyst to recall the past (15) freshmen college students who are not part of the
memories, concepts, or experiences of the learners and help them experiment took the test to determine its reliability. Chronbach
to connect it to the present, so that they can use prior knowledge alpha test revealed a reliability coefficient of 0.78 which denotes
in a useful and meaningful way. that the test questionnaire has a high internal consistency. The
Moreover, according to Lee and Yee-Sakamoto (2012), in result of the examination of each group was analyzed using
the contextual curriculum, learners are encouraged to learn independent sample t-test to draw a sound and valid conclusion
within the compatible environment for learning. This compatible on the implications of contextualized and localized technique on
environment for learning is mainly associated with community teaching and learning.
centered, learner centered and knowledge centered learning.
Mediha and Enisa (2013), state that in this sense, contextual
curriculum enhances the social and/or public pedagogy and III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
personal pedagogy for the contextual learners. Mouraz and Leite
(2013) opine further that contextual learners set the environment
of learning where knowledge is connected with the context. Perin Data were analyzed by using IBM SPSS STATISTICS
(2011) on th other hand explains that teacher’s conceptual and version 22. Before analyzing the data, all assumptions of the
analytic tools must acknowledge the importance of the local, analysis were checked.
thus, this serve as a call for highlighting the contexts, conditions, Table 1 shows that the mean score of control group is
and processes of teaching and learning in a localized-based 18.20 with a variance of 6.097, while the mean score of the
setting. experimental group is 25.87 with the variance of 7.982. The
Garin, Reyes, Domantay and Rosals (2018) even result denotes that students under the experimental group
emphasize that although there are number of studies that perform better in their posttest examination as revealed by their
highlight the use and effects of contextualized and localized group mean score value. The use of contextualized and localized
techniques in teaching, there are limited studies that has been techniques in teaching the subject Purposive Communication
carried out on exploring the efficacy of localized and help the students to improve their performances in class. This
contextualized technique in teaching English subjects result is similar to the study conducted by Garin, Reyes,
community, such as Purposive Communication in the Domantay, and Rosals in 2017 and 2018 concerning the effects
Philippines. And because of these claims, educational leaders at of contextualized and localized techniques in teaching statistics
present encourage teachers to use and adopt localized and and basic government-academe-industry network. They found
contextualized techniques in teaching various subject matter. out that the performance of the the students who are exposed
In line with these development, the researcher tried to with the contextualized and localized technique was significantly
investigate if using contextualized and localized techniques in performed better as compared to those group who are not.
teaching the subject Purposive Communication also produce a Furthermore, their finding indicates that using indigenous data in
significant improvement on students’ academic performances. teaching serves as an effective teaching and learning strategy that
a teacher can use in his or her classes.

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Table 1. Mean Score of the Post-test Examination the utilization of indigenous materials and locally-based
selections in teaching Purposive Communication as one of the
suggested teaching-learning strategy to teachers in the tertiary
level. Lastly, teachers should use and incorporate authentic and
indigenous instructional materials so that the teaching and
learning process becomes more effective and long lasting.
To support the claim of this study, Table 2 shows that
result of the independent sample t –test that is used to investigate ACKNOWLEDGMENT
whether there is a significant difference between the results of
the posttest examination results of the control and experimental The researchers would like to thank all the students of Quezon
groups. The results shows that the computed t -value is 0.04 with City University who participated in this study despite the
58 degrees of freedom (df). This value is significant at 0.05 level pandemic, and to the QCU administration, faculty and staff. The
of confidence since the computed t -value is greater than the researchers would also like to acknowledge the support and
critical value which is 2.002. patience of their family during the conduct of this study. Special
thanks to Ms. Cecille Tenecio-Tamalla for the map used in this
Table 2. Result of the Independent-sample t-test of the Post-test paper.
Examination
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