On Inflectional Morphemes: Grammatical Competence of College Students

Abstract

Language proficiency refers to one’s ability to use language for a variety of communicative purposes. Proficient users are said to have a good command of the language-they can understand the language without difficulty, express a range of ideas clearly in speech and writing, and interact with other speakers comfortably. This study aimed to determine the grammatical competence of college students. Specifically, it sought to answer the level of grammatical competence of 93 Education English major students of Pangasinan State University (PSU) on inflectional morphemes and difference in the respondents’ grammatical competence when categorized in terms of demographic characteristics such as most preferred language for communication and general average in Senior High School (SHS) English subject. The descriptive survey method was utilized as the research described and attempted to interpret the level of grammatical competence on inflectional morphemes of Education English major students and how the grammatical competence of the respondents differs when categorized in terms of the aforementioned demographic characteristics. Survey and written test questionnaires were used as instruments of this study. Findings revealed that majority of the college students were found to have high grammatical competence on inflectional morphemes. Anent this are the demographic characteristics such as most preferred language for communication and general average in SHS English subject which contributed to grammatical competence. Hence, grammatical competence on inflectional morphemes would entail better comprehension in word formation processes among others.