Attitude towards Social Media and English Language Competency of Grade 11 Students of Surigao State College of Technology

This study determined the attitude towards Social Media and English Language Competency of Grade 11 students of Surigao State College of Technology, Surigao City. Specifically, the demographic profile of the respondents, the attitude towards social media and English language competency in reading and writing of the respondents were determined. The significant difference on the ratings of respondents towards Social Media and the two macro skills in English Language with respect to th eir profile and the significant relationship between the attitude of respondents towards social media and English Language Competency were also ascertained. The data were gathered from the 31 Grade 11 students. The data were analysed through frequency count and percent, weighted mean and standard deviation, one–way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Scheffe’s test, Pearson product moment of correlation and t-test. The findings of the study are: Most of the respondents spend 1-1.5 hours a day in using social media specially Facebook to look for advanced career opportunities, for self-expression, for academic school work, to interact with friends, make new friends, and coordinating group projects in their classes. Their parents have monthl y income of less than 5000 and they used the Filipino language when using their social media account. The respondents have positive attitude towards social media. The respondents showed a failing result in English language competency in terms of reading and writing skills. No significant difference existed on the English language competency of the respondents as to reading and writing when grouped according to their profile, and no significant relationship was found between attitude towards social media and the English language competency of the respondents in terms of reading and writing skills. The study concluded that: Access to social media especially Facebook has been affordable to the students despite meager income of parents; that they use social media to look for advanced career opportunities, for self-expression, for academic school work, to interact with friends, make new friends, and coordinating group projects in the classes. The Grade 11 students, regardless of profile, lack technical skills in writing and understanding what they read, in defining words, comparing words, identifying the main idea of a paragraph, in pointing-out the topic sentence, and in analyzing and interpreting important lines, and students’ favorable attitude towards social media does not have a connection to their reading and writing skills. The recommendations of the study are: The students should be reminded that constant engagement to social media due to their positive attitude may hinder their studies which may lead to poor performance in school, the parents being the partners of the school may monitor the whereabouts of their children and periodically check the school if their children are attending their classes, and teachers may incorporate in their classes the use of social media such as giving of assignments and other instructions related to their classes so that their students may not only engage in social media for chatting but also for educational purposes, and teachers should encourage their students to use English language in using Facebook to improve their English language competency.