ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to understand and identify the effects of reporting on

students’ oral communication skills. This features the contributing factors on the

improvement of their skills in oral communication that will be beneficial for all students

as it would be essential to them by giving them ideas and perspective on the effects of

reporting when it comes to the improvement of their oral communication skills.

A questionnaire was developed for this project consisting of four questions. After

distributing the questionnaires, the researchers conducted a follow up interview on some

respondents to clarify their answers. Based on the respondents’ answers on the questions,

the things that usually helped the respondents in acquiring good skills in reporting are

mainly practicing and knowing or studying the topic well, they also said that reporting

has a positive and negative effect on the way the respondents’ understand different

things, they also added that reporting in class can both gain and lose their confidence

because of different factors. Lastly, it can improve their skills because of the factors

affecting the way on how they understanding things and the level of their confidence. It

can also show no improvement at all because the factors don’t necessarily affect the

students’ skills in communicating orally.

The researchers found out that there are diverse effects that affected their skills

when it comes to speaking in front of many people, like the way they understand new

things and the level of their confidence are mainly the factors that are affected when they

are reporting in class. The information about the distinguishable effects of reporting to

students were enough to say that each factors had their own particular influences that

contributed to the students’ skills on oral communication.

Oral communication is a way used to express ideas or opinions by speaking in

front of many individuals. It is a way to communicate with others while doing the

discussion or teaching the topic. Reports done by group or individually can show how

good the student’s oral and social skills because the ability of speaking in front and

expressing your ideas to discuss a topic can help in building up confidence and

experience that helps a student enrich in this type of social speaking.

Reporting is one of the example of the task that students usually do inside the

classroom. As defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, reporting is telling people

about something or making a report about it. It can be a group or an individual report.

Reports are usually used for better understanding of discussions by self-studying and

expanding the students’ knowledge by sharing opinions and facts to other students. By

means of reporting in front of the class, the student can showcase his/her skill in

communicating effectively. Through reporting, it can assess if a student can speak

confident in front of the class and can deliver organized ideas through his/her own words,

and also to see if the student has the skill to interpret and analyze data and knows the

proper way to explain it in a way that everyone will understand.

Even though reporting is a way to improve one’s oral communication skill, it can

also have substandard effects. The researchers want to find out how reporting in class

affects students’ oral communication skill. Some students prefer not to speak in front

because they are afraid or shy to share their ideas. There are also students who can speak

confidently in front of the whole class without any hesitation. Since reporting is a

common task in school, the researchers seek to find how it can help students to face the
fear of speaking in front and learn ways how to cope with it. The researchers also want to

discover how reporting enhances a student’s skill in communicating effectively. Overall,

this study yearns to identify all the factors that have a significant effect to students’

performance on communicating orally and to distinguish if it is good or bad.

Statement of the Problem

This study aims to observe how reporting affects students’ oral communication

skills. This study sought to find out how it can affect a student's ability at oral

communication by means of finding out if the results will be good or bad. This is due to

that reporting in class can amend a better communication skills within the students or can

result into a bad perception of learning, specifically it answered the following question:

1. What accounts for the development of student’s skill in reporting?

2. How does reporting in class affects students’ way of understanding ideas?

3. How does reporting in class affects students’ level of confidence?

Scope and Delimitation

The study will be conducted at Cabanatuan City Senior High School, Sta.

Arcadia, Cabanatuan City. During the month of November 2019 to March 2020 of the

second semester of school year 2019-2020. The study covers only the effects of reporting

on students’ oral communication skills. The aspects that will be looked into are the

factors of reporting in class and in what way it influences students’ oral communication

skills. The study will be delimited to 10 students from Grade 11 STEM (Science,

Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and ABM (Accountancy, Business and

Management) of Honorato C. Perez Sr., Memorial Science High School. 5 students will
be selected from Grade 11 STEM and the same process will be applied in choosing the

students from Grade 11 ABM.

Significance of the Study

The findings of this study may benefit certain groups and the benefits they may be

able to gain are as follows:

The students. This study will enable them to assess how reporting can affect their

performance in communicating orally. They will be able to know also if reporting has a

significant effect on their ability in speaking in front of other students. Moreover, this

study will help them assess their skills and know how far they can go in building good

communication through reporting in class.

The teachers. This study will help them to acquire knowledge on how the students can

enhance their skills in oral communication. The teachers will be able to assign task to the

students that will develop good oral communication skills among the students. In

addition, this study aims to help the teachers discover how oral communication can affect

the students’ level of confidence and to know if its effect is good or bad.

The future researchers. This study will guide them to have an idea about a similar or

related topic that they will conduct in the future. The future researchers will have a

reference in starting a new study. Furthermore, they will be able to improve this study

and can provide additional details.

This study seeks to explore the certain effects of reporting in class on students’

oral communication skills. This chapter is designed to have an in-depth review of the past

studies that were already conducted that would either help this research or contradict it.

One study by Rajoo (2010) states that oral presentation or public speaking

is a form of communication which is intended to convey certain ideas or information. In

order to make effective oral presentations, certain communication skills need to be

employed so that the ideas, messages and information that have been created are easily

understood by the audience. However, in many classroom situations, it has been observed

that most students are not able to deliver effective oral presentations, even though they

may have done thorough preparations in written form. It is common to find most students

getting the jitters, which get even worse especially if oral presentations are part of their

coursework. Even though these students undergo courses that are specially designed to

develop the strategies and skills which are considered necessary for effective oral

presentations, many of them are still not able to deliver effective speeches.

Oral presentation skills are considered one of the most important proficiencies

needed for higher education and future careers. Results indicate that students experience

difficulties with their oral presentation at a medium level. Students still experience a

number of difficulties that are mostly related to fear of evaluation, avoidance of the

instructor’s eyes, and forgetting what they want to say. Indeed, students see “personal

traits” as the most important factor affecting their performances. (Al-Nouh, 2015)
 A research study by Haber (2009) explains that the students’ oral presentations

should be encouraged as one among other tools for the preparation of students for their

future career. Students responded voluntarily that oral presentation of assigned reports by

individual students is beneficial as a learning tool. In line with that, some students

responded that they learned something new from others’ reports. Public presentations

enabled students to increase interaction and to receive immediate feedback.

Presentations can be student-centered, meaningful activities that students enjoy

doing. Students in these classes become more active learners and learn to enjoy taking

part in creating their own content for the class. These students viewed oral presentations

as a challenging, but rewarding task. Despite the challenges involved in using

presentations in the language classroom, these can be valuable activities in helping

learners improve their oral communication skills, develop their research skills, improve

their creativity, and gain confidence speaking in front of others. (Brooks and Wilson,

2014)

Cooperative learning has frequently been used in language classrooms, from in-

class task-based group work to group presentations. Research suggests that cooperative

learning provides mutual support, as well as successful and effective learning outcomes

of tasks. As learning is strongly related to strategies or approaches adopted to facilitate

one’s comprehension and production of the target language, the present study were to

investigate the use and influence of learner strategies in cooperative and individual

learning, such as oral presentations and the benefits of cooperative learning in improving

students’ speaking ability. (Chou, 2017)

speaking can increase students’ participation to speak as well as to make them interested

to join the class. In fact, though several exertions have been done by English

lecturers in teaching speaking to gain adequate students speaking skill, the results still do

not meet our expectation. Many students still get difficult while speaking in front of the

class and lacks skills in communication.

A research study conducted by (Ali and Säberg, 2017) reveals that using tasks to

improve student’s communication skills is useful for building confidence and make more

comfortable conversations between the classes. Such as presenting focus group

discussions, describing semi-structured interviews and presenting ethical principles. The

methods used for this study helped the students to feel comfortable speaking to their other

classmates, using favorite topics about certain interests and using right expressions and

vocabularies helped them to feel more confident about communicating to other students.

The conclusion that can be withdrawn from this study is that teachers can help their

students to feel more confident by gradually giving them balanced activities and

appropriate tasks to challenge them.

The use of oral communication may cause embarrassment to the speaker but using

two languages to communicate with others is more stressful. The analysis of the study is

that self-confidence issues are affecting the learning gaps between the students. This

study also shows that students are being encouraged to speak to each other if they are

engaged in pair or group activities, although it is essential to raise learners’ awareness to

on being used to public speaking (Cunha, 2017)

of language teaching, especially in the university environment. Teaching students to

design effective oral presentations presupposes two goals, namely, enabling students to

function successfully in the future professional surrounding, and preparing them for their

possible further academic career. For both directions, the author of this text, an ESP

lecturer and syllabus designer, concludes from her own teaching experience that teaching

presentations is a necessity if students are to perform well both in professional and

academic settings. Since oral presentations involve multi-skills, a carefully planned and

constructed guideline will help develop students' receptiveness to oral presentations. By

making students aware of basic points, types, characteristics and styles of scientific and

technical communication, the paper is to serve as a starting point in an attempt to make

them expand and perfect their oral presentation skills.

The latest work by Sharma (2018) said that speaking is the first way to interact

with others in the social community. Furthermore, the success in learning a language at

first can be seen from the ability of the learner’s speaking. There are a lot of reasons why

they get difficulties in speaking, such as lack of ideas to tell, lack of vocabularies to

express the ideas, lack of the exposure to speak, and lack of the interesting teaching

method or technique that can motivate them to speak. This research was a collaborative

classroom action research whose main purpose was to know whether or not storytelling

strategy could improve the students’ speaking skill. Meanwhile, the specific purposes

consisted of describing: To implement storytelling strategy in 11th graders students at our

School to improve their speaking skill. To enhance their confidence in speaking skill and

create fluency in speaking. The result showed that there was an improvement on students’
speaking proficiency after the implementation of storytelling strategy. Storytelling

improved their comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Thus,

it can be said that storytelling strategy could improve students’ speaking skill.

Methodology

This chapter presents the research design, the sample and sampling technique of

the study, data gathering procedure, data analysis, research instrument and research

locale. Furthermore, a qualitative research is the most fitting design to give the

researchers the information that they need. Related literature studies was also used to

enhance the knowledge of the researchers and to figure out how to properly implement

the experiment. Overall, these are what makes the study most convenient.

Research Design

In order to research students’ perspective towards the effects of reporting on

students’ oral communication skills, this study employed a qualitative approach.

According to Mason (2002) qualitative research can explore a wide array of dimensions

of the social world, specifically the weave of everyday life. In this study, the researchers

wanted to know the effects of reporting to students and to know if it has a significant

effect on their communication skills.

The researchers used a special case study design called phenomenology, a

Phenomenological Study attempts to set aside biases and preconceived assumptions about

human experience, feelings and responses to a particular situation. This design makes you

follow a research method that will let you understand the ways of how people go through
inevitable events in their lives. According to Giorgi’s (2012) definition, the goal of

phenomenological research is to describe a lived experience rather than to explain or

quantify it in any way; it is to maximize the depth of the information collected which

makes less structured interviews the most effective. A Phenomenological Study was

selected because it seeks to understand how people experience a particular situation or

phenomenon. It allows the researchers to look into perceptions, perspectives,

understanding and feelings of those people who have actually experienced or lived the

phenomenon or situation of interest.

Data Gathering Procedure

To have a complete and accurate source of data, the researchers used surveys,

specifically questionnaires as an instrument to conduct this study.

Survey is the most popular data-gathering technique in quantitative and

qualitative research studies. It obtain facts or information about the subject or object of

your research. According to Matthers et. Al (2007) surveys are a traditional way of

conducting research as they are particularly useful for non-experimental descriptive

designs that seek to describe reality. As defined by Oxford Dictionary, questionnaires on

the other hand is a set of printed or written questions devised for the purposes of a survey

or statistical study. The researchers chose to use questionnaires to gather the response of

the respondents

Instrumentation
 In order to obtain a more precise and accurate information and knowledge about

the respondents, the researchers disseminated questionnaires that helped the respondents

to have a full participation on the said research study.

The researchers made a letter for the approval to conduct the study at

Honorato C. Perez Sr., Memorial Science High School. Then the researchers distributed

questionnaires to the 10 respondents from Grade 11 STEM (Science, Technology,

Engineering and Mathematics) and Grade 11 ABM (Accountancy, Business and

Management) students from Honorato C. Perez Sr., Memorial Science High School after

securing the letter of approval. The researchers conducted some follow-up interview to

some certain students to validate their responses. The instruments were retrieved after

they were finished answering

Sample and Sampling Techniques

The sample from this study was from the population of Grade 11 students of

Honorato C. Perez Sr., Memorial Science High School. The target sample was restricted

to 10 students from Grade 11 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and

Mathematics) and Grade 11 ABM (Accountancy, Business and Management).

This resulted in the selection of non-probability sample as the researchers want to

choose subjects based on the purpose of the study, and in some cases, on the sole

discretion of the researchers.

Purposive or judgmental sampling was utilized in this study. The objective of this

sampling is to purposively select those who are the right match for the study. The

researchers will choose people whom could correspond to the objectives of the study, like
selecting those with rich experience or interest in the study. It is a non-random technique

that does not need underlying theories or set of number of informants.

Research Locale

The study was

conducted at Sta.

Arcadia, Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija. The respondents of the said study are students, if

not a resident of Cabanatuan City, live near the city.

Figure 1. Map of Cabanatuan City Senior High School.

Data Analysis

In analyzing and understanding the data collected from the respondents, the

following quantity was employed.

needed for the said study. The data was analyzed of what effects does reporting give to

students and how can it affect their skills on oral communication. After that, the

researchers can see if there are any congruence and differences in their answers that gave

us the findings of the study.

Research Instrument

The instrument used was a researcher-made questionnaire to gather the needed

data from the respondents of the study. The draft of the questionnaire was drawn out

based on the objectives of the said study. In the preparation of the instrument, the

requirements in the designing of good data collection instrument was considered. For

instance, questions describing the situation or issues pertaining was toned down to

accommodate the knowledge preparedness of the respondents. The questions are as

follows: (1) What are the things that usually help you to develop good skills in reporting?

(2) Does reporting in class affects your way of understanding things? If yes how and

why? If no, why? (3) Does reporting in class affects your level of confidence? If yes how

and why? If no, why? (4) Overall, does reporting helped you in improving your skills in

oral communication? If yes how and why? If no, why?

This chapter presents the result, analysis and interpretation of data gathered from

the respondents and discusses an in-depth exploration of the research problem. Its

findings were based in the data gathered through the transcript of questionnaires and

emerged as the themes that serves an answer to the research problem.

The answers of the respondents indicated that there are several factors that affects

their skills in oral communication through the use of reporting. In line with that, the

researchers found out that there are diverse factors that affected them throughout their

different experiences when it comes to reporting in front of the class. The information

about the effects of reporting to students’ oral communication skills that the respondent

provided were enough to say that each of the respondents had their own particular

influences and experiences.

researchers to arrive into different findings and can be categorized into the following:

Reporting in class

As said in the questionnaire, the respondents were asked the things they usually

do to acquire good skills in reporting. According to an article from Oxford Royale

Academy, these skills are usually developed while you were studying and it will help you

to have a big foundation when you started working. However, a lot of people lack the

ability to communicate effectively and some suffer from anxiety. When asked what are

the things they usually do, most of the respondents answered that practicing helped them

to develop good skills in reporting, they also mentioned that practicing in front of a

mirror helped them a lot. In simple words, it all starts by practicing your skills. One of the

respondents stated that in acquiring good skills in reporting, the reporter should practice

being good in front of the audience and think clearly for a way to interact with them. The

researchers can conclude that practicing helped them to be clear and concise while

reporting and be an effective speaker. Another answer from a respondent stated that

knowing the topic or the material well will help you develop good skills while reporting.

If the first step is understanding your topic, the next is reading the material you need for

reporting. One respondent answered that by reading books and also watching news in

television helped him/her to develop his/her skills in reporting in front of the class, that

statement was supported by another answer from a respondent saying that searching for

related topics about the topic will help expand the knowledge the speaker has for it to be

an effective reporting. Reading regularly is considered to be the best practice that can

enhance or develop one’s skill in reporting. That involves reading English literature,
newspapers, magazines and many more. In line with that, reading a lot can help improve

the thinking process of the speaker and enhance sharpness in gathering ideas. In

conclusion, the researchers believe that practicing and knowing the topic well are some of

the factors that helped the respondents to acquire good skills in reporting.

Effects of reporting on the way of understanding things

According to Kirst (2017) the main purpose of communication is to transmit

thoughts and beliefs to another person. The researchers asked the respondents if reporting

in class affects the way they understand things. Most of the respondents said that the

effect is positive because most of them tend to learn something new and enlightens them

about the things they don’t know. Since reporting is considered as an example of oral

communication, it has the process to express ideas and thoughts through the medium of

speech and plays a crucial role in the life of students. The researchers can conclude that

reporting was effective if it can affect the perspective and belief of an audience, in a way

that they will learn something new and help them gain knowledge. Effective reporting

can be achieved if the speaker has the ability to be clear and precise at all time. The

substance of a presentation should be relevant to the audience and the goals of the

presentation. Simplicity of the message is a good factor in effective reporting, the

message is direct and proportional to clarify the message of the presentation. However

there are some instances that the effect is not positive at all, some respondents mentioned

that reporting in class sometimes hinders their understanding of things and made them

confused. This is possible if the speaker is not an effective reporter, or on the other hand,

the speaker didn’t research enough about the topic resulting into a negative way of

understanding things. A good communicator needs to keep his/her audience engaged on

can conclude that reporting affects the way of understanding of students’ in both positive

and negative way.

Effects of reporting on the level of confidence

Confidence is another vital aspect of good communication. A person may know

the subject and yet not communicate adequately if he lacks confidence. The respondents

were asked if reporting affects their level of confidence. Most of them answered that they

gained confidence when they start to report in front of class. If you are reporting, you

need to get the attention of your listeners. One respondent said that piquing their interest

can help you deliver an effective report. In order to get the attention of your listeners, you

need to show that you are confident enough to stand in front and deliver a spectacular

report. Aside from that, one respondent said that it will help you gain experience to make

you less nervous on your next reporting. Another is it helps you to have courage to

present in front of others and overcome your shyness that will help you to gain more self-

esteem. Reporting may be a hard task but if you are confident enough, you can be an

effective speaker. Speaking in front of many people helps the speaker to build connection

and interact with them and eventually, the speaker can get used to it and will no longer

feel nervous. But some respondents don’t agree that reporting helped them increase the

level of their confidence, some respondents said that they tend to get shy and nervous

around people and decreases the remaining level of confidence that they have. Some

respondents said that they are not used to speaking in front and tend to have anxiety when

they need to speak in public. The researchers can conclude that reporting can not only be

helpful to gain confidence but it can also be a reason to lose confidence.

According to Farooq (2015) oral communication is a way to express your ideas

and knowledge to others, it is of equal importance in business as well as in an academic

career, and is the key to success. People having good speaking skills are the best option to

convey messages. Some people lack verbal communication skills, and thus are phobic to

speak in front of public. The researchers asked the respondents if they noticed some

improvement on their skills in oral communication through reporting in class. The quality

of having a good oral communication refers to the fact that how effective will be the

communication in achieving goals. The quality of communication can be checked by

considering the content and the medium through which it is conveyed. Most of the

respondents said that they have some improvements when it comes to their skills in oral

communication. They mentioned that they enhanced their skills in public speaking, have

a chance to interact with others, overcome their anxiety and made themselves more

confident. In that case, the researchers can conclude that through reporting, students can

improve their skills when it comes to oral communication. However, one respondent said

that reporting is not really a factor because he/she is totally social by nature. There are

also instances like that where some people are born social and knows how to

communicate effectively without trying too hard. But since oral communication’s main

goal is to express and leave an impact to the beliefs of the audience, a speaker needs to

consider a lot of factors to improve his/her skills. Therefore, the researcher can conclude

that students can practice their skills in oral communication through reporting in class

and contribute a big help for them to develop and enhance their skills in the future.
 Conclusion and Recommendations

Conclusion

The following are the conclusions drawn from the results of the study:

1.) The question that asked what are the things that usually students do to develop

good skills in reporting obtained the statement saying that the things that usually

helped the respondents in acquiring good skills in reporting are mainly practicing

and knowing or studying the topic well.

2.) The question that asked if reporting in class affects students’ way of

understanding things obtained the statement saying that reporting has a positive

and negative effect on the way the respondents’ understand different things.
3.) The question that asked if reporting in class affects students’ level of confidence

obtained the statement saying that reporting in class can both gain and lose their

confidence because of different factors.

4.) The question that asked if reporting in class helped them improve their skills in

oral communication obtained the statement saying that it can improve your skills

because of the factors affecting the way of understanding things and the level of

confidence. It can also show no improvement at all because the factors don’t

necessarily affect the students’ skills in communicating orally.

Recommendations

On the basis of above findings, the following recommendations are hereby made.

1.) The study aims to understand and identify the effects of reporting on

students’ oral communication skills. However, this was only made possible

through questionnaires. To have a better understanding of the study’s findings,

it is recommended for the future researchers to conduct a one-on-one

interview for deeper and more precise information.

2.) The study was conducted in such a short period of time and had some

conflicts such as the small number size, the future researchers are

recommended to conduct this dissertation in a longer period of time so they

can have more respondents and can analyze each subject’s answers thoroughly

and more precisely.

3.) The study would be more efficient and effective if the questionnaire is more

precise and tackles more questions that will evidently have more answers that

are specific.
4.) The study would be more reliable and credible if the views and opinions of the

teachers were gathered also. It is recommended to conduct also an interview

to certain teachers so that the results will be more varied and diverse.