CORRELATION OF CRITICAL THINKING AND WRITING PROFICIENCY IN

ENGLISH ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY AMONG SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

STUDENTS OF AMA COMPUTER LEARNING CENTER

A Research presented to the faculty of

AMA Computer Learning Center

San Francisco, Naga City

A Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements

For Senior High School students under

Reseach 2

By:

Mario A. Briones

Jahzeel J. Alcantara

Shanne P. Monedero

Claire C. Gorospe

Jana Mae L. Kamiyama

NOVEMBER, 2024
 CHAPTER I

PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Introduction

Nowadays, the importance of learning English language cannot be denied and ignored.

English is an important means of communicate, which is used by many countries in the

world. It plays an important role as an international language according to in the book of

teaching principle explained “Practice in English language teaching has identified the four

skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking. Writing is an ability that has purposes as a

means to communicate the language in a written form through the cognitive and

organizational strategies in the process. Through writing, students can convey ideas,

feelings, or opinions in readable form, meanwhile writing is not simply activity which can be

completed spontaneously, and otherwise writing involves complex things and requires effort.

As Fromkin, Rodman and Hyams proclaim that writing is considered as one of the important

mediums of communication which may across space and through time.

According to National Commission on writing (2014), reading is a widely needed skill, but

that writing is an elite skill. It is more than 90% of mid-career professionals indicate that

writing is vital in their work. Writing is essential for success in higher education, yet more

than 50% of first year college students have serious writing problems. To become successful

in their chosen career, students should learn first the basics of writing. That is to learn how to

write sentences and later good compositions. Students should also not feel restless and

embarrassed whenever they cannot assimilate lessons or not to construct good sentences.

They should be supported and assisted in this endeavor. To improve the performance of the

students in writing, English teachers should know the students’ capabilities and needs. So,

they can produce therapeutic and plan strategies to help and assist them. The Department
of Education is implementing various intervention programs to provide support to Filipino

students falling behind in reading and writing.

Additionally, Department of Education, ECARP aims to equip students in public schools with

strategic reading and writing skills to make them independent young readers and writers.

This intervention program is supported by the Executive Order 13166 signed by the

President of the Philippines on August 11, 2000 entitled, ―Improving Access to Services for

Persons with Limited English Proficiency. Malasiqui National High School caters to almost

4000 students coming from different barangays in Malasiqui, Pangasinan. Most of the

students from different barangay high schools are lacking writing skills. This finding is also

supported by the different writing results during the writing activities in English. Writing

results show that most of the learners cannot construct compositions well in English. They

have committed grammatical errors, improper use of vocabulary, inappropriate punctuations

and misspelled words. That is why the researcher would like to find answers and solutions to

eradicate the problem in English writing.

Furthermore, writing viewed as the most difficult skill among students. This skill requires

students to express their feelings, thoughts, ideas and emotions in a written form. Writing

skill is one of the activities that difficult to be mastered, because it needed understanding

and comprehension. It is not a skill that naturally acquired, it requires to have some

instructions in order to may be able to write. In addition, students need to pay more attention

to the things that helps them to write effectively. One of the activities of students that helps to

develop writing skills is writing essay. Essay defined as a written piece that is designed to

present an idea, propose an argument, express the emotion or initiate debate.

Moreover, writing proficiency is taught in senior high school to advance reading skills. It

implies that expanding pupils' literacy skills will be possible through writing instruction. The

pupils need to be proficient writers since they will use their writing abilities to direct their own

writing tasks, it must thereafter be able to write numerous. Writing an essay is challenging.
To write an excellent essay, learners must have knowledge on the subject matter. A

compelling essay will entice readers to read it. Setiawan argued that essay writing is the

expectation of the reader to write and extend a topic more extensively or complex, it must

convey it into essay form, in which a kind of writing that consists of more than one

paragraph. In writing, there are various types that should be learnt by the students including

expository, narrative, descriptive and argumentative. Among this type of writing student

mostly challenge in writing argumentative essay. In this kind of writing, authors are not only

giving information but also present an argument. Richards and Schmidt (2018) define

argumentative writing as the act of forming reasons, making inductions and drawing

conclusions. It is supported by Amalia (2016) who says that all language skills are useful for

students, however the ability of argumentative essay seems to be the most crucial one. It is

because, composing argumentative essay requires students to have a critical thinking and

argumentative expression.

The argumentative essay is a type of writing that calls for the student to research a subject,

gather and analyze supporting data, and take a stand on the subject. It requires strong

writing abilities and ought to be able to construct a paragraph using their concepts. In

addition, an argumentative essay requires student to convey their thinking in deep

understanding and extensive knowledge by considering the evidence or supporting ideas to

make the reader believe about the writers' argument. Wahid & Marni, (2018) says that

argumentation is a proposition to influence and convince others both verbally and in writing

using evidence or an acceptable reason, on the other hand, Stupple et al., (2017) says that it

is a tool to measure students' critical thinking skills. To produce a critical argumentative

essay, a guideline containing data, theory, phenomena, and problems are needed as a

starting point for students to start their arguments. This guide is intended to avoid negative

perceptions of students about critical thinking, such as the results of research that shows

students' perceptions of critical thinking understanding tend to be negative concept of

"critics" (Kanatli Ozturk & Schreglmann, 2018). Arguments are the main tools of reasoning
as they attempt to bring the critically analyze, explain, and evaluate what others are saying.

A series of arguments that present in writing will show how students process their thinking so

that they become more critical thinkers because the process of giving an argument the more

they used their thinking abilities that helps them to develop a good ideas and concepts.

In this modern era, students are required to have an extraordinary knowledge and higher

order thinking skills which is called "critical thinking". Critical thinking has an important role in

education. Cottrell (2017) defined critical thinking as "a cognitive activity, associated with

using the mind.” From Cottrell definition, it means that critical thinking is an activity that

involves one's mind. In addition, Critical thinking is the ability to analyze situations or texts

and make decisions based on that analysis. It involves a higher level of thinking such as

analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating. It is not only about "what" but "how", which student

think with a deeper knowledge and comprehension. Students who are skilled in critical

thinking have higher cognitive learning outcomes than those who are not, and critical

thinking has a significant influence on academic success (Wiles, Allen & Butler 2016).

There are some studies reveals that writing an argumentative essay student find difficult in

writing it. According to Hidayah, Gani and Ys (2016), it found that writing is an activity of

communicating ideas effectively by producing correct words and sentences. This result of

the study also indicates the students in fair categorize could write the essay. However, they

had difficulties in grammar, spelling and vocabulary although they were able to write based

on its generic structure. In addition, they had difficulties in starting the arguments and

concluding the essay. They had difficulties as in writing evidence, and writing exact

sentence, because the nature of argumentative essay is complex since the writer has to take

position, provide evidence to convince the reader toward the controversial issue (Sukma,

2019 Permata et.al, 2019). The students who are in the poor category had major difficulties

in writing the essay because they had major difficulties in writing thesis statement, starting

the ideas with topic sentences, and arguments in the body of essay, plus difficulties with

grammar, vocabulary, and form.

Another study conducted by Alfiah, S.N (2018), conducted a study aimed to find out the

kinds of problems in writing argumentative essay for Indonesian EFL Learners. The result of

the study showed that the students’ difficulties in writing an argumentative essay were lack

of exercise of writing, lack of structure and grammar, confusion in word classes and

understanding English learning. The above mention data, ignited the inquisitiveness of the

researcher to conduct this study to investigate the correlation of critical thinking and writing

proficiency of the students in writing English Argumentative essay. Researcher will also look

into the problems encountered by the students in writing argumentative essay.

Theoretical Framework

Critical thinking may be considered as a complex activity since it involves many aspects to

consider. Besides, it has recently become one of the foremost subject matters of many

experts to discuss and explore. Regarding to this condition, a number of proposals related to

the definitions of critical thinking are suggested by some experts. First, according to Cottrell,

critical thinking is defined as: “A cognitive activity, associated with using the mind.” From

this, it can be considered that critical thinking is an activity in which one involves one’s mind

to cope with the matters found.

Meanwhile, Jean Piaget proposed the cognitive learning theory. It is all about the

understanding how the human mind works while people learn. The theory focuses on how

information is processed by the brain, and how learning occurs through the internal

processing of information. Cognitive learning theory uses metacognition - "thinking about

thinking"- to understand how thought processes influence learning. Halpern (1996; 1998;

2007) argues that the main components of critical thinking are an individual’s ability to

consciously reflect on and evaluate their own thought process. Halpern explains that critical

thinking requires analytical skills and an appreciation of rules and criteria for making

reasonable judgments as well as a disposition to use those skills. Sternberg (1996) defines
critical thinking as ‘the mental processes, strategies, and representations people use to

solve problems, make decisions, and learn new concepts.

Cognitive Learning
Theory

Cognitive Correlation of Critical

Process thinking and writing
Figure 1. The Theoretical proficiency in English
Theory of Paradigm of the Study
Writing Argumentative essay

Product Approach

Along with the Cognitive learning theory, another theory which the product approach as

Pincas is (1982) the learner should internalize fixed patterns of smaller components in

sentences before proceeding to larger units of composition or text. With this approach,

teachers focus on how students’ final product measured up against a list of criteria that

included “content, organization, vocabulary use, grammatical use, and mechanical

considerations such as spelling and punctuation” (Brown, 1994, p. 320). In this approach,

learning to write has four stages: familiarization, controlled writing, guided writing and free

writing.

The product approach has its merits as well as shortcomings. The advantage of this

approach is the students will have a clear idea about the organization of a particular text, for

imitation is one effective way to develop students’ vocabulary and structure in writing.

However, this approach, which focuses on writing tasks in which students imitate, copy and
transform teachers supplied models, is in total teacher-centered and product- or output-

focused, and students’ creativity is given little consideration.

The Cognitive Process Theory of writing talks about a writer’s mental process. Long-term in

cognitive process theory refers to the domain knowledge of a topic, they create the content.

A writer does it in three basic steps. These steps are proper planning, translating/drafting the

first work and reviewing it. A writer repeats the cognitive process until the goal is not

reached. Environmental conditions are types of audience, size of the content and novelty of

the topic. Cognitive process theory of writing is research topic. There is a famous model of

cognitive process theory called Flower and Hayes’ model.

According to Flower and Hayes (1981), the cognitive process theory of writing evolved

through observations of students’ writing with an effort to “introduce a theory of cognitive

processes involved in composing to lay groundwork for more detailed study of thinking

process in writing. The theory is based on four key points: (1) while composing a written

work, authors proceed through a set of distinctive thinking processes; (2) a higher-order

system of organization exists among these processes; (3) composing requires goal setting;

and (4) writers create macro and micro goals to complete the writing task (Flower and Hayes

1981). Flower and Hayes (1981) were the first to develop a model of writing that showed the

interactive nature of writing process (e.g., brainstorming, pre-writing, drafting, revising, and

editing).

The above two theories are the Cognitive learning theory and the product approach and the

arrows suggested that these two theories support to the circle which is the cognitive process

theory of writing and it is give the study a well-defined and proven basis correlation of critical

thinking and writing proficiency in English argumentative essay among Senior High School

students of AMA Computer Learning Center. The Cognitive learning theory focuses on how

information is processed by the brain, and how learning occurs through the internal

processing of information.
Cognitive learning theory uses metacognition - "thinking about thinking"- to understand how

thought processes influence learning and the product approach focus on how students’ final

product measured up against a list of criteria that included “content, organization, vocabulary

use, grammatical use, and mechanical considerations such as spelling and punctuation” and

the last theory which is the cognitive process theory of writing talks about a writer’s mental

process in writing.

Conceptual Framework

This research will adapt the Context Input Process Product (CIPP) theory specifically the

input, process, and output. The first part of the input illustrates the correlation of critical

thinking and writing proficiency in English argumentative essays includes the level of critical

thinking of students in English writing argumentative essays, under the level of critical

thinking it includes the skills being applied in writing an argumentative essay such as

Problem- Solving, Analyzing, Decision making, Evaluating and Reasoning. The second

variable is the writing proficiency level in writing argumentative essay of students in

developing argumentative along Introduction, Thesis statement, Supporting evidence,

Counter argument and Conclusion. The third variable is the Difficulties Encountered of

students in Writing English Argumentative Essay. Fourth, the significant relationship

between critical thinking and writing proficiency level of students in writing argumentative

essay.

The second part of the conceptual framework is the process of collecting data

including the use of survey questionnaires. Each student will distribute a survey

questionnaire via face to face. The data that collected from respondents will interpreted by

the researcher for further evaluation of data, conclusion and interpretation. Moreover, the

last phase is output. The researchers want to determine the critical thinking and writing

proficiency level in writing argumentative essay and programs and intervention for the
 improvement of critical thinking level and writing proficiency level of the Senior High School

Students.

Figure 2. The Concept Paradigm of the Study

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

The level of critical

thinking skills of students Determine the level of
in English writing critical thinking skills in
argumentative essay writing English
along Problem- Solving, argumentative essay.
Analyzing, Decision
making, Evaluating and Determine the writing
proficiency level of students
Reasoning. in writing argumentative
The Writing proficiency essay.
level of the students in
Determine the difficulties of .
developing argumentative student in writing English
essay along Introduction, argumentative essay.
Thesis statement,
Supporting evidence, Determine the relationship
Counter argument and between the level of critical
Conclusion. thinking skills and writing
proficiency level of the
The Difficulties students in developing
Encountered of students English argumentative
in Writing English essay.
Argumentative Essay.
Distribution of survey
questionnaire through face
Significant relationship
to face.
between the level of
critical thinking skills and Gathering all the data from
writing proficiency level of respondents.
the students in developing
argumentative essay.
 FEEDBACK

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study aimed to know the correlation of critical thinking and writing proficiency in English

argumentative essay among Senior High School Students of AMA Computer Learning

Center

Specifically seeks to answer the following questions:

1. What is the level of critical thinking skills of students in English writing argumentative

essay along?

1.1. Problem solving skill

1.2. Analyzing

1.3. Decision making

1.4. Evaluating

1.5. Reasoning

2. What is the Writing proficiency level of the students in developing argumentative essay

along?

2.1. Introduction

2.2. Thesis Statement

2.3. Supporting Evidence

2.4. Counter Argument

 2.5. Conclusion

3. What are the Difficulties Encountered by the students in Writing English Argumentative

Essay?

4. Is there any significant relationship between the level of critical thinking skills and writing

proficiency level of the students in developing argumentative essay?

Research Hypothesis

1. There is no significant relationship between critical thinking level and writing

proficiency level of the students in developing argumentative essay.

Scope and Limitations of the study

The purpose of the study is to know the correlation of Critical Thinking and Writing

Proficiency in English Argumentative Essay among Grade 11 General Academic Strand

(GAS) Students of AMA Computer Learning Center.

Each respondent were sent the same survey to complete. This analysis will determine

the correlation of critical thinking and writing proficiency in English argumentative essay

among Senior High School GAS Students of AMA Computer Learning Center and the critical

thinking skills applied in writing argumentative essay and the writing proficiency level of the

students in writing argumentative essay. The researchers’ survey will be the primary source

of data, and they will seek additional assistance from the school, high school teachers in

distributing the survey questionnaires.

Significance of the study

This research initiative was expected to contribute in the tarn of complex knowledge in the

field of education management and was meaningful beneficial to the following individuals or

groups:

Chief Education Supervisors. With this research, the chief education supervisor would

be given additional insights on how to support, guide, and monitor the progress of the senior
high school student’s standing in English. Moreover, with this research data, the guidelines

and instruction they could provide for the teaching subordinates be more concrete and

abstract.

Regional and Division Supervisors for English. The gathered data from this research

may be used in reviewing and revising the program-oriented for seminars, orientations, and

pieces of training for teachers to reach the demanded effort in addressing the difficulties in

writing of the senior high school student’s as well as propose revision on the current

curriculum that would address the problem.

District and School English Coordinators. This study would help reconstruct

instructions ensuring the quality of teaching delivery and program content aligned to thinking

and writing ability, for teachers on how to actively engage with students in learning English

vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure.

Public Schools District Supervisors. As they were the ones who delivered both

professional and instructional advice, support to the school heads and teachers or facilitators

of schools and learning centers in the district, along with technical assistance in school

management and curriculum implementation, this study would do well as a reference in

addressing the problems encountered by the students in writing an argumentative essay.

School Heads-In-Charge of English. Results and data from this study could share

light on what needs to be added as a focus in school policy-making and strategic planning in

schemes of work for teachers handling the English Language.

Senior High School English Teachers. The result of this study will be useful for the

teachers, particularly to the senior high school in which the writer conducted a study, as the

consideration and concern to design a course that can facilitate their students to explore

more about critical thinking ability through writings. This study will be given them additional

information particularly in critical thinking ability of learners in writing argumentative essay.

Now that we are in the pandemic teachers must be aware of what students happening even

it is in distance learning.
 Senior High School Students. The result of this study will give the students,

particularly the senior high school students of Tomas Avila Andaya Senior National High

school, the reflection and information in terms of their critical thinking in relation to their

writing proficiency in English argumentative essay. They were the respondents of this study

itself, they are the one who will benefit from this research especially that we experiencing

pandemic today because of covid-19. In this study they will help them to develop their critical

thinking skills in writing argumentative essay. This study will serve as an instrument for

students to measure their thinking and writing ability in developing argumentative essay. If

student practice their thinking ability they will be applied it in writing.

The Researchers. This study could be beneficial to the researchers as they were

part of the new era of teachers under the same generation as the subject of this study which

resulted in having them aware of the significant impact of the problem on the respondents

which they could use as the basis for personal and professional growth and understanding of

their taken field.

Future Researchers. The result of this study will be useful for other researchers as a

consideration as well as a recommendation in case they will carry out any further studies in

the same field. This study provides guidance to gather information and it may serve them as

a building blocks to have a bigger study.