English Teachers’ Strategies and Students’ Writing Performance

This study aimed to assess the level of writing performance of Maritime freshmen students and teachers’ strategies in handling English 1 classes in the College of Maritime Education. The descriptive-correlational analysis method was used in this research. The respondents of the study were the bona fide Maritime freshmen students enrolled in Bachelor of Science in Maritime Transportation, Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering in the University of the Visayas, and English teachers assigned in the College of Maritime Education handling English 1 classes. The instrument utilized in the study was a researcher made questionnaire. The study revealed that the in the utilization of various teaching strategies in writing skills, the use of graphic organizers got the highest rank, followed by blue printing, and then peer talk. The least as ranked by the faculty were timeline, story starter, and simulation of games. The study further revealed that the Maritime freshmen students’ level of writing performance as to vocabulary, 97.01% was identified as poor; 0.25% was identified as excellent, good, and satisfactory; and 2.24% was identified as unsatisfactory. For the level of writing performance as to sentence construction, 25.12% was identified as excellent; 18.41% was identified as very good; 17.91% was identified as good; 18.66% was identified as satisfactory; 8.71% was identified as unsatisfactory; and 11.19% was identified as poor. For the level of writing performance as to paragraph development, 88.31% was identified as poor; 1.24% was identified as good; 5.72% was identified as satisfactory; and 4.73% was identified as unsatisfactory. Nevertheless, the final grade obtained in English 1 classes was 2.7 identified as fair; 8.96% of the respondents’ final grade was very good; 38.81% obtained a final grade as good; 41.2% obtained a final grade as fair; and 10.95% obtained a final grade of passed. However, the correlation of writing performance and final grade showed insignificant relationship, hence, all hypotheses were not rejected. The facilitating factors that influenced the teaching of writing skills were teachers’ commitment, administration support and student’s interest in writing. While the hindering factors were classroom non-conducive for learning, mass admission, lack of administration support, and heavy teaching load. In view of the findings and conclusion of the study, a program design is recommended to enhance the writing performance of maritime freshmen students which is beneficial to both students in the College of Maritime Education and English teachers as well.