Content Analysis on Videographed Debate Activities of Grade 9 Meranaw Students Among Selected Private and Public High Schools in Marawi City

Abstract

This study was conducted to make a video content analysis on debate activities of Grade 9 Meranaw students among selected private and public schools in Marawi City. The study made use of a quali-quanti approach which largely analyzed ambiguous and incomprehensible sentences or utterances made by the respondents at the same time, tallied the errors committed by the respondents in the aspect of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. After the analysis and interpretation of the data, the following were the findings: (1) In phonology, the 5 grade 9 Meranaw speakers had a difficulty in pronouncing the sounds /θ/, /ð/, /ӕ/. (2) In morphology, they frequently committed pluralization, derivation and inflections. (3) In syntax, they committed preposition, pronoun, diction, verb and article. (4) In semantics, the speakers frequently committed unclear meaning, incomprehensible sentence, unclear idea, and inappropriate word choice. Since this is a study on debate activities, a generalization that can be formulated could be that a debater should be a critical speaker for him to be convincing and powerful to the audience. Hence, he must also have some rhetorical skills—that is, he is not only good in phonology and morphology but also in syntax and semantics. Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions were drawn: Those errors committed were made apparent in their written constructive speeches. The respondents had an increasing level of committing errors in semantics because they had no experience and they lacked exposures in debating activities since they were non-debaters.