Development and Acceptability of Intervention Material for the Common Errors in Subject-Verb Agreement

Chapter I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Introduction

English is used as a second language in the Philippines. It has its own grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary which are different with our native language. Because of its complex struture, Filipinos experience so many grammar problems and one of these problems is the subject and verb agreement. This becomes one of biggest and most common problems for English-speaking Filipinos.

When a person’s writing is clean and free of grammatical and mechanical errors, people tend to take him/her more seriously as a writer.  Although many people understand this concept, still, there are many who fail to catch all of their errors.  Many people tend to overlook their errors because they may not be hundred percent familiar with the English rules of grammar and mechanics. 

Subject-Verb Agreement is one of the most commonly made errors of the students. This is a rule which states that the number present in a noun must agree with the number shown in the conjugated form of the verb that is being used, and that the person of the noun must agree with the person of the conjugated form of the verb that we are using. Subject-Verb Agreement is taught to the students in school since elementary level up to the tertiary level but there is still no mastery taking place with the students. Teachers utilize workbooks to strengthen the learner’s knowledge and to address specific problems in applying subject-verb agreement. However, the exercises given in the workbooks are not enough to make them comprehend the concepts. These workbooks fail to give excellent results.

With the above concepts, the researcher thought to create an intervention material that will help the students overcome their difficulties with subject-verb agreement.

Background of the Study

To teach grammar effectively to the learners has been one of the key issues that researchers have struggled to address to with over the last thirty or so years.

The...