A Correlative Study of the Mental Ability and Language Achievement

According to Pahang (1995) in her dissertation entitled "A Correlative Study of the Mental Ability and Language Achievement," this study has something to do with the freshman's actual needs in English. The question is how students can later on develop essays and other literary forms after attending English classes. Some of them will later enjoy reading newspapers and write letters. But others will become tourists, immigrants, hotel clerks, and stewards on cruise ships, journalists, diplomats, participants in domestic and foreign conferences. Such people will need to be able to communicate orally, write legibly, read with comprehension and understand each other when conversant or concerned individual speaks. If speech is unintelligible, the act of communication has failed; the person who is supposed to receive the message would fail to respond or if ever a response is made, this may be inappropriate.

It is also supported by Gabison (1991) in her study entitled "A Correlative Study of the Mental Ability and Language Achievement," it is worth-noting that these structural lessons are dependent upon the data gathered from the language inventory tests responded to by the learners. For theoretical specificity, these structural lessons consider the four (4) areas of English language teaching, namely: listening, speaking, reading and writing as sequenced in the lessons. The lessons are more on the difficulties and needs of the freshmen as identified by the students and their teachers. Those studying English may be aware of the importance of oral and written communications. The students who are second speakers of the English language expend their efforts to acquire proficiency in this particular language.

Students need to be able to communicate orally. That is, a learner needs to comprehend each other; if speech is unintelligible, the act of communication, needless to say, has failed. The student who is to receive the message fails to respond inappropriately. Thus, it is very important that one should learn to speak as intelligible as possible - not necessarily like native speakers - but well and clear enough to be understood. Communication needs constant practice despite the barrier of the language made culturally diverse from the others. Difficulty of the language is inevitable on the learner who is not native speaker of the language. That's why structured English lessons are a must in the step-by-step study and in-depth analysis done by the students themselves in order to pan out both in oral and written communications in English (Navarro, 2001).

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