THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE SKILLS AND THE TEACHING COMPETENCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS IN TAGKAWAYAN DISTRICTS I AND II, DIVISION OF QUEZON
Keywords:
language skills, teaching competence, fluency, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, secondary school English teachers, Spearman rank correlation, Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney U-testAbstract
This descriptive-evaluative-inferential-correlational study determined the relationship between the language skills and the teaching competence in English of secondary school English teachers in Tagkawayan Districts I and II, Division of Quezon, for School Year 2023–2024. Using purposive sampling with total enumeration, forty-seven (47) secondary school English teachers self-assessed their language skills (fluency, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation) and their teaching competence (effective instruction, communication and relationship, professional attitudes, and global perspective) through two sets of researcher-made, validated questionnaires (Kuder-Richardson 21 reliability coefficient = 0.72, t = 6.97). Weighted mean, the Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney U-test, and Spearman rank-order correlation were used to analyze the data at the 0.05 level of significance. Results showed that teachers' language skills (overall mean = 4.07) and teaching competence (overall mean = 4.07) were both rated "Much Evident," with vocabulary (M = 4.38) the strongest language dimension and grammar (M = 3.92) the weakest, and professional attitudes (M = 4.22) the strongest competence dimension and global perspective (M = 3.91) the weakest. No significant difference was found in the rank orders of language skills or teaching competence between Districts I and II (p > .05 for all dimensions), indicating comparable performance across the two districts. However, a significant positive relationship was found between language skills and teaching competence (rs = 0.69, t = 6.39, p < .001), leading to rejection of the null hypothesis. These findings imply that strengthening English teachers' language proficiency—particularly in grammar—is likely to enhance their overall teaching competence. Policy recommendations for the Department of Education, school heads, and teacher-training providers are discussed.
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