TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES ON THE USE OF DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

This study investigated the use of differentiated instruction for English language teaching. Descriptive survey research design was utilized in this study which involved 160 public elementary school English language teachers in Catanauan I and II Districts who were chosen through complete enumeration. In congruence, the data were obtained through the use of five (5)-part survey questionnaire. In order to verify the results of the survey, the researcher conducted focal group discussion (FGD), involving eight (8) purposively selected respondents. The gathered data were analyzed and interpreted using weighted mean, standard deviation, and multiple regression analysis. Findings revealed that the public elementary school English language teachers practice differentiated instruction along the dimensions of content, process, product, and environment to a great extent. Accordingly, they perceive differentiated instruction as a potent approach designed to employ strategies suited to the needs of diverse ELLs. Relative to the level of engagement, findings affirmed that they are highly engaged in employing such approach; for, they strongly agree that differentiating content, process, product, and environment positively impacts the performance of ELLs. On the other hand, they experience challenges on the utilization of differentiated instruction. Meanwhile, results affirmed that the content, process, product, and environment as dimensions of differentiated instruction practices have significant relationship to the public elementary school English language teachers’ perception. This was established since the p-values of their ?-coefficients are all less than 0.05 level of significance. This could indicate that in order to meet the demands of efficient differentiation processes, the practices must be parallel to their understanding. Hence, the output of this study, which is the capacity enhancement program was designed to support the improvement of knowledge and skills through providing high quality training on differentiation.