Undergraduate Thesis Bachelor of Secondary Education major in English University of Rizal System, Rodriguez, Rizal 2011

This research aimed to determine the spelling competence of college freshmen at URS-Rodriguez was conducted during the second semester of school year 2010-2011. The respondents of the study were the sixty four college freshmen in School of Education. The study tried to answer the formulated problems through the hypothesis which is stated below:

There is no significant difference in the spelling competence of the students in terms of easy, average and difficult level.

The research made use of the descriptive design to determine the spelling competence of college freshmen utilizing a thirty item test which is divided into easy. average and difficult level.

The spelling competence of the respondents was determined utilizing the appropriate statistical tools such as frequency distribution and percentage to determine their profiles in terms of previous grade in English, arithmetic value and ANOVA to determine the spelling competence of the students.

Data were gathered, tabulated, analyzed and interpreted. The respondents have an outstanding performance in easy level, satisfactory performance in average level and fair performance in difficult level. It implies that the words in easy level came as an easy task for the respondents and average and difficult level were difficult for them. Then, the null hypothesis stating that there is no significant difference in the spelling competency when grouped according to their previous grade in English was rejected.

There is a significant difference in spelling competence of the respondents in terms of their performance in easy and average level with regard to their previous grade in English.

On the basis of the conclusions drawn out of the findings, the following are recommended:

1) College freshmen should give focus to the spelling of words that are unfamiliar to them. They should be more conscious of their spelling as spelling skills may determine their capability in English which is highly in demand in job applications.

2) Teachers should conduct spelling competitions and tests across all the year levels.

3) Parents need to pay attention to their children's study habits. They should also give importance in influencing their children's attitudes towards learning so their improvement is more possible.

4) High school teachers have to be more supportive in the students spelling skills especially during earlier years in high school because what they achieve in high school will certainly reflect their performance in college.