Syntactic Priming, Speech Acts, and Linguistic Competence of Senior High School Learners: Basis for the Development of Language Enhancement Exemplars

This study aimed to determine the levels of syntactic priming, speech acts, and linguistic competence among Senior High School learners in Aklan for School Year 2024–2025. The findings served as the basis for the development of a language enhancement exemplar. From a population of 11,154 Senior High School students enrolled in public schools in the Division of Aklan, a total of 372 participants—191 from Grade 11 and 181 from Grade 12—were selected using the Raosoft calculator. Simple random sampling was employed so that every student had an equal chance of being selected for the study. Researcher-made tests were administered to measure syntactic priming and speech acts. Linguistic competence was assessed using a 30-item test composed of three components: reading comprehension (adapted and modified from Fernandez, 2021), grammar, and vocabulary (both researcher-made). The instruments were pilot tested on 30 Grade 12 students not included in the main study. Results from the pilot testing were used for content validation and item analysis. Data were analyzed using statistical tools such as mean, frequency, percentage, standard deviation, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Pearson r, with a significance level set at 0.05. Findings revealed that the level of syntactic priming was “low,” speech acts “moderate,” and linguistic competence “high.” No significant difference was found in linguistic competence across levels of syntactic priming, but a significant difference was observed across levels of speech acts. Positive correlations existed between syntactic priming and both speech acts and linguistic competence, while no significant correlation was found between speech acts and linguistic competence. Based on these findings, a language enhancement exemplar titled “Enhancing English Proficiency: A Practical Guide to Syntactic Priming and Speech Acts” was developed.