Academic Writing Skills of English as a Secondary Language Learners

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate English as a Second Language (ESL) learners’ writing skills to help develop an instructional module for SY 2026-2027. Specifically, the profile of the learners was presented, writing skills were measured in terms of correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery, and the differences were analyzed by age, grade, parents' educational attainment, and family monthly income. The quantitative descriptive comparative method was applied in the Research. 151 learners were chosen from the 7th to the 10th grade of a private secondary school in Bacolod City. The students completed a 250-300-word argumentative paper. The paper was evaluated by two independent raters with a previously tested analytical scale. Different statistical methods (frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, independent samples t-test, and one-way ANOVA) were applied at the 0.05 significance level. As provided, no significant difference was found between the age of students and parental education. According to the results, the overall writing performance level was high (M = 31.77). The results indicated that clarity (M = 8.34) and engagement (M = 8.14) were very high. The delivery (M = 7.73) and correctness (M = 7.57) were high.