CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Introduction

"To learn to read is to light a fire," one of the famous line of Victor Hugo in

the musical play “Les Misérables". Everyone can be a light that fires to other

people in different aspects, but one of the secrets to have light is to learn in

reading. This is one of the weapon that we can share to others and protect

yourself to somebody degrading and putting you down. It is a simple action but

it will give a great impact to you, as a future maker in the society.

Reading as a weapon, it means that everyone can use it as strength, so

that it needs to be practice properly. English language as a medium of

communication that helps individuals to interact to each other’s. It can be verbal

or non-verbal communication to improve one's understanding and widen their

vocabulary.

In school, knowledge and information in English have been acquired often

by reading selection. It has been an outstanding skill in getting information

through translating and understanding the written text from different reading

1
materials. It is considered as a first provider of relevant information for other

communication skills such as writing, speaking, and listening.

Based on Omerin and Faremi (2011), since technology and the

Globalization is evidently evolving and influence the development in terms of

being media and information literate. Students are expected to have a capacity

to easily comprehend as a 21st century learners. One of the factors that students

gaining knowledge is because they can understand clearly the selection that they

are reading. But unfortunately, many students still have a hard time to

understand what they have read.

Even the educational system has a coordination to develop and strongly

provides sources of knowledge. According to Department of Education (2012),

the K12 Curriculum is literature- based that will enlarge reading skills of the

students. In each grade level will increased and addresses the difficulties of

reading material that helps to strengthen our comprehension and learning. For

the Grade 7 focused on the Philippine literature and next Is the Grade 8 that

tackled Afro-Asian Literature, Grade 9 that explores American Literature

respectively and Grade 10 that discussed the World Literature.

Many school still have a challenge in reading comprehension on how they

provide such solution to impart more knowledge on the students. Based on the

2
latest results of Philippine Informal Reading inventory (PHIL-IRI) conducted in

June 2017 at Calaitan National High School of Bayugan City Division presented

the poor performance of the Junior High school students. They have a finding of

accurate and independent level and other is frustration level. It shows that out if

the 316 Junior High School only 91 or 28 percent of students are identified as

independent reader. There are students who easily access the accuracy or

completeness in reading and other 125 students or 72 percent of the population

reveals that this percentage of students have reading difficulties and have a low

comprehension.

Based on the context that the researcher was prompted to study the

reading comprehension levels in English of the Grade 7 students of Caraga State

University High School, Cabadbaran City Agusan Del Norte, one of the principal

causes of failure school is the difficulty in reading of the students. Out of the 100

percent, 10-15 percent of the general school population had trouble in reading.

If it is not attained of the students the feeling of competency of the child, it will

be influenced in comprehending selection or text that may lead to misbehavior,

anxiety and lack of motivation.

As an observation, the Reading Proficient through reading needs and

improvement. Even they have certain knowledge about basic elements such as

3
grammar and vocabulary. We need to discuss the reading comprehension levels

(literal, interpretative, critical and application) to the to have wider

understanding and appropriate usage of texts read.

The effectiveness of Reading comprehension is slowly decreased in

students in different schools, and we can say that is a big challenge to us and

even now, the grade seven students from Caloocan City Business High School is

facing this challenge and this urge researchers to know more about this and to

give solution.

Statement of the Problem

The study ought to answer the following questions:

1. What are the effects of having poor reading comprehension of

students?

1.1 Difficulties in performing written instructions.

1.2 The students unable to communicate well using English

language.

1.3 Students have low chance of passing subjects used English as a

medium of instructions.

4
 2. What are the causes of having poor reading comprehension of the

students?

2.1 Limited Vocabulary

2.2 Lack of Interest

2.3 Lack of Practice

3. How does reading comprehension affects the students’ academic

performance?

3.1 Students easily comprehend instructions in English language.

3.2 Students could acquire advance understanding to subjects well

used English as a medium of instructions

3.3 Students reading comprehension help them to be competent in

communicating using English language

Assumptions

The researchers formulated the following assumptions base on their study and

these are:

1. These are different effects of having poor reading comprehension of the

students and these are the following: Difficulties in performing written

5
 instructions, students unable to communicate well using English and they

have low chance of passing subjects that used English as a medium of

instruction.

2. There are different factors why students having a poor reading

comprehension the first is having limited vocabulary, second is lack of

interest and lastly, lack of practice.

3. There are big impact to the students of having good reading

comprehension: Students easily comprehend instructions in English

language, students acquired advance understanding to subjects that used

English as a medium of instruction, students reading comprehension help

them to be competent in communicating using English language.

Significance of the Study

The result of this study would benefit the following:

Students- This study will provide a right information about the real

importance of reading comprehension in becoming a Senior High School. It

will enlighten every student's mind about improving their reading

comprehension skill.

6
 Teachers- This will serve as background for teachers about their

student's possible competency in reading comprehension.

Future Researcher- This will guide for researchers as it gives several

information about the given topic. The content of this study serves as a

background for their incoming research study.

Scope and Limitation of the Study

This study aims to focus on the English Reading Comprehension of Grade

7 students in preparation for their Senior High School. The respondents of the

study are Grade 7 students of Caloocan City Business High School academic year

2019-2020 Grade The researchers focus on these students because they are

fresh graduate that needs to be assess their reading comprehension for their

readiness in entering senior high school.

Definition of Terms

Afro Asian Literature- the term is most often used to describe literature

written by writers who are Afro-Asians, people of mixed African and Asian

ancestry.

7
American literature- is literature written or produced in the United States of

America and its preceding colonies

Communication Skills- are abilities you use when giving and receiving

different kinds of information.

Comprehension- is the ability to understand and get meaning from spoken and

written language.

Context- the parts of a discourse that surround a word or passage and can

throw light on its meaning.

Curriculum- refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a

view of the student's experiences in terms of the educator's or school's

instructional goals.

Literature- is a term used to describe written and sometimes spoken material.

Non-verbal communication- is communication between people through non-

verbal or visual cues.

Philippine Literature- is literature associated with the Philippines from

prehistory, through its colonial legacies, and on to the present.

Reading Anxiety- is a phobia. It's associated with a strong negative emotional

reaction toward reading.

Reading Comprehension- is the ability to process text, understand its

8
meaning, and to integrate with what the reader already knows.

Reading Proficiency- refers to performance on the National Assessment of

Educational Progress (NAEP) Reading Assessments.

Verbal Communication- is the use of auditory language to exchange

information with other people.

World Literature- is sometimes used to refer to the total of the world's

national literatures.

9
 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter discusses and presents the related and relevant information

taken from different reference materials of local and foreign origins, which are

deemed important for better understanding and for validation of area under

study.

FOREIGN STUDY

Sawangsamutchai, Y., & Rattanavich, S. (2016) defined Reading

comprehension as the result of innate brain mechanisms that develop through

the steps that connect brain circuits. In addition, it is influenced by experiences

and background knowledge that readers bring to the text and text

comprehension. This enables readers to construct, extend, and examine the

meaning of the text they read. Having internalized various ideas, readers are

more able to easily express their own critical responses which include identifying

the intended audience and author’s purpose. Also reading comprehension helps

10
the innate knowledge to be widen so that the reader can gain more information

as a person completely understand what they are reading.

According to Swanson et al. (2015) in his study entitled: Literacy and Text

Reading in Middle and High School Social Studies and English Language Arts

Classrooms, successful implementation of the same comprehension skill, such as

identifying evidence to support a point or main idea, can differ from one content

area to another. Successful comprehension of text by adolescents can be

predicted by their vocabulary, background knowledge, inference ability, word

reading, and comprehension strategy use. Several research studies have

examined the components of effective instruction in content area literacy. Many

implications of challenges in reading and comprehension are mention and

evidently in need to assess.

FOREIGN LITERATURE

An article by Melissa Kelly an accomplished author, instructional designer,

consultant, and classroom teacher entitled ‘10 Reading Comprehension

Strategies All Students Need’ in the site, ThoughtCo., reading comprehension

problems are not limited to the low level reader. There are several reasons that

even the best reader in class may have problems understanding the reading that

a teacher assigns. One major reason for a lack of understanding or confusion is

11
the course textbook. Lots of content area textbooks are designed to overload or

cram information as much as possible in one textbook. This density of

information may justify the cost of textbooks, but this density may be at the

expense of student reading comprehension. Another reason for a lack of

understanding is the high level, content specific vocabulary (science, social

studies, etc) in textbooks that result in an increase in a textbook's complexity.

Most textbooks are rated using a Lexile range, which is a measure of a text's

vocabulary and sentences. This thing adds up to the whole complexity of a

textbook aside from its information. Students are assigned reading from the

literary canon including works by Shakespeare, Hawthorne, and Steinbeck.

Student read literature that differs in format (drama, epic, essay, etc). Some

students may not have the background knowledge or maturity to understand

material written for an older audience. The importance of reading comprehension

cannot be understated.

Richard Nordquist a Professor of English and Rhetoric in his article “What

Is a Second Language?” in the website of ThoughtCo, written by Robert

Nordquist, a former professor of English and Rhetoric who wrote college-level

Grammar and Composition textbooks, L2 is any language that a person uses

other than his/her native language. Linguists and educators often use the

12
term L1 to refer to a first or native language, and the term L2 to refer to a

second language or a foreign language that's being studied. "When L2 students

read specific texts in classroom contexts, particularly in academically oriented

settings, they will engage in varying types of reading that reflect differing tasks,

texts, and instructional objectives. Sometimes students do not fully understand

the goals for a given reading text or reading task, and perform poorly. The

problem may not be an inability to comprehend but a lack of awareness of the

real goal for that reading task (Newman, Griffin, & Cole, 1989; Perfetti, Marron,

& Foltz, 1996). Students need to become aware of the goals that they might

adopt while reading." (William Grabe, Reading in a Second Language: Moving

from Theory to Practice, Cambridge University Press, 2009). At the wide range

of contexts for L2 reading, instruction or curriculum development are crucial for

the students. It should be conscious and are able to consider the needs of the

students and the goals that they should have in mind, as well as the larger

institutional context.

An article by Louise Spear-Swerling a professor of Special Education and

Area Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Learning Disabilities at Southern

Connecticut State University said that children individually can vary in important

ways, considering their specific interests, personalities, and prior learning

13
experiences. In the article mentioned that when it comes to reading problems,

there are three common patterns of difficulties tend to happen and encounter

repeatedly. Recognizing the underlying pattern of poor reading is helpful in

providing effective intervention and differentiation in classroom instruction. Poor

reading comprehension in effect of having many factors can lead to poor

comprehension along the way of learning. Factors do vary in comprehending

what they are reading.

LOCAL STUDY

As stated by Paz P. (2018), Reading difficulties may be the main cause of

failure in school. Reading ability of the students can influence the feeling of

competency, attitude, motivation, and comprehending of any kind of text or

learning material. He also mentioned the three levels of comprehension. Literal

level refers to the acquisition of information that is directly stated in a selection.

Interpretive level, "reading between the lines", in which connotative meanings of

line as well understood making inferences. Critical level refers to evaluation of

ideas and information. A survey was conducted at 7th Grade students and the

results of the study shows the literal level manage to have an average mean of

7.66 interpreted as Very satisfactory it implies that the students were able to

14
comprehend the information. Interpretive level gets average mean of 4.67or Fair

shows the students were not able to analyse what is being asked in the reading

material. Critical level gets 3.7 average mean also interpreted as fair it depicts

that the students should improve their skills, since it needs and requires

analytical and evaluative thinking. And application level marked an average mean

of 5.7 and considered as satisfactory rate. The survey given in Grade 7 students

implies the student requires enhancing their skills in reading comprehension.

Appropriate learning materials should suit the reading needs of the students also,

through the partnership of teachers and parents in guiding their children and

students; it may help to develop the reading skills because they can ask for

clarification, verification and to visualize and analyse what he/she have read.

According to Guimba W. and Alico J. (2015), state that anxiety greatly

takes place while students undergo the process of reading a text written

in English. More importantly, reading anxiety is necessarily associated with

reading comprehension performance which denotes that, as it elevates, reading

anxiety decreases. A student’s lack of understanding and synthesizing details and

main ideas of the text may lead to reading anxiety that might cause the students

low performance when comprehending a text. In classroom reading students

suffer anxiety when their teachers correct their manner of reading the text. With

15
this information we can conclude that when reading comprehension increases

reading anxiety decreases that show likely they will fail in comprehending a text.

We should remember that readers come with different levels such as beginners,

intermediate, and advance; students have different levels of understanding

which imply that a student’s comprehension varies in the difficulty of the text.

Fluency in English is also a factor on their comprehending ability meaning that if

a student’s ability in understanding the English language is high they’re likely to

have a problem understanding an English text.

As studied by Estemera M. L. and Estemera G.L. (2018), The reading level

of Grade Six pupils and the training needs for the effectively and efficiently

handling their students. Their study shows different categories related to

individual’s comprehension based on their competencies. They concluded that

silent reading gives a frustration level of reading comprehension as well as oral

reading, while instructional were categorized as independent readers. These are

the students who answered the questions correctly and smoothly. They are the

students who tend to refuse to read due to frustration and they are the ones

who usually commit errors while reading such as inability to recognize,

pronounced the words correctly and to interpret punctuation marks. The

remaining students are considered as independent readers or the students who

16
can simply recall and connect the ideas of he/she have read. Also, they are the

students who can read with their own, without the help of elder, like teacher,

and know how to interpret what the selection all about. Furthermore, it depicts

that there is lack of understanding to the students that affecting the reading

comprehension of the students for the higher level of education. They

highlighted the factors such as pupils, mother tongue-language, school teachers,

home, community of students where he/she belongs. The study recommends the

module that was developed should not just practice the level of comprehension

but also to utilize the linguistic competence of the students such as interrelating

their interpersonal skills like, listening, speaking, writing, and viewing. Another is

checking the pupil's progression by the parents and school administration, and

making peer-program a buddy system of reading, the students can get a

motivation to read with this kind of program or remedial reading that may the

school can provide to their students to increase the level of reading

comprehension.

LOCAL LITERATURE

According to article of Phil star (2010), "It can be secretly said that reading

is the true backbone of most learning." As the students step up for higher year

of education the reading become more sense and challenging, the level of

17
difficulty increases. Hence, the reading comprehension of the students becoming

poor that may affect to the performance in other subjects like Math, Science, and

English. Based on National Achievement Test (NAT) the mastery level of the

among grade 7 students are just 14.4% and its only near mastery level, 1.1%

with 4th year high school students which shows below mastery scores are a

staggering 85.6% among the former 98.1% among the latter. According to an

interview of Dr. Yolanda Quijano (2007), the reading problem is the main cause

of poor performance of the students in NAT. There are lot of possible methods or

way to overcome the poor performance of the student. The curriculum for

elementary and high school, reading, is part of three subjects-listening, writing,

and speaking is under English and Filipino. The two subjects have to fit in all

learning components in one class session. Because of failure allotment of time all

four learning components can't compress in just once class session the students

have certainly less time to practice that. For the goal to achieve the mastery, in

the case of reading comprehension it should give a lot of time or extensive hour

to do that. One solution is to separate reading as a subject from Filipino and

English. In doing this the students would expose the more books, and will have

wider knowledge, the consequence the school should provide lot of books to give

the students a free material to read and enjoy. After reading became a subject in

18
school it will develop to habit of a lifetime that means the students became

lifetime learners.

An article by Neni Sta. Romana Cruz an award-winning writer, an

accomplished educator, a noted children's book critic, a reading advocate and

freelance journalist on the Inquirer.net credited the statement from Dr. Nene

Guevara, president and CEO of Synergeia Foundation, as she shared results from

a study that covered 91 local government units in the country of Grades 1-6

students. For school year 2017, prior to any reading intervention, almost half of

the percentage were frustrated readers and 23 percent independent readers and

can comprehend on their own. Twenty-three percent could not comprehend and

7 percent could not read at all. Comprehensive approach is needed to address

this by strengthening teacher content skills along with parent education to help

make them realize how important reading is for success in education, and

providing students with attractive workbooks to help hone their reading skills.

According to Philippine Inquirer article by Simona L. Yabes (2019), there is

a remarkable change of decreasing numbers of good English speakers in the

Philippines in proportion to our total population. Because of the rareness, they

are being subjected as “maarte” when they try to express themselves in English.

To end this, DepEd should promote that reading should be sustained forever and

19
not just on the National Reading Month of November. The benefits of reading are

huge, it could expand the mind, develop the vocabulary, as well as honing

his/her speaking and writing skills, and could also affect the self-confidence of an

individual. DepEd should also prioritize students from lower-class families as it

can lower the growing number of illiteracy and help these people for the better.

Almost everybody says we can move forward if the citizens are properly

educated. To help educate ourselves and each by reading.

Conceptual Framework

The researchers formulated a conceptual framework on the stud, "Effects

of having poor English Reading Comprehension of Grade 7 students to their

Academic Performance". This framework emphasizes the effects on the students

having poor comprehension while reading. It also answers and enunciates the

factors why students have poor reading comprehension in relation with English

language. Through the years, with the use of Modified Guided Reading (MGR)

method/technique, students are able to acquire competence with reading

comprehension and communication using the second language (English).

According to Fountas and Pinnell (1996), guided reading is a material you

can use in balanced literacy program, small group reading instruction to four to

six students with same strengths and instructional needs; or to heterogeneously

20
grouped students stated by (Cunningham, Hall, & Sigmon, 2002) it is suggested

that these group of individuals meet at least three to five time per week for 20 to

30 minutes each session in order for students to make consistent reading gains.

This approach in reading instruction provides teachers opportunity to teach

children skills and strategies needed to be competent and observing student's

reading proficiency. Different copies of grade leveled books are properly selected

and use by the teachers in terms of instructional needs and interests. Reutzel

and Cooter (2005), stated that graded leveled books are categorized to include

four levels of student's reading development: early emergent, emergent, early

fluency, and lastly fluency. The language in this level matched the syntax and

management of most young children's speech. It is important that the text

chosen for guide/reading groups is not only providing a reasonable challege but

also give an opportunity for possible success. According to Rumelhart (1997) in

his theory of Modified Guided Reading (MGR) is an interactive reading

development approach. The reading interactive model divides the reading

process in two parts which are the background knowledge ( top down) and the

readers cognition (bottom up). Birch (2002) mentioned that both components of

the cognitive processing strategies should worked together effectively and

accurately in order to gain and comprehend the meaning of the text. Using MGR

21
APPROACH the literary instructional aims to develop and enhance the

understanding ability and reading process of the student to build stronger level

of knowledge in literacy learning. The researchers create a conceptual framework

based on the research problem entitled “Effects of the English reading

comprehension of Grade 7 students to their performance “through the strategy

of Monitor, Assist, Materials, Ask and Habit or MAMAH techniques. According to

the aforementioned research problem, research found out that there are factors

that really affect the reading comprehension: first, Difficulties in performing

written instructions; next is Unable to communicate well using English language

and last, Having low chance of passing subjects used English language. Also, the

research figured out that there is factors why students having poor reading

comprehension such as limited vocabulary of the students, lack of interest and

practice in reading. That is why the research came up to the strategy that help

the students to solve the problems regarding to the poor reading comprehension

at the Caloocan City Business High School and it is called MAMAH strategy. This

approach will monitor and assist the student, give appropriate reading materials.

Ask the students to assess their reading comprehension and lastly, to become

their habit as a life-long learners.

22
Paradigm of the Study

“Effects of Having Poor English

Reading Comprehension of Grade 7
Students to their academic
performance” Difficulties in performing written
instructions

Unable to communicate well using

English language
Effects of having poor reading
comprehension to students Having low chance of passing
subjects used English language

Limited vocabulary

Factors why students having poor Lack of interest

reading comprehension

Lack of practice

Through the use of M.A.M.A.H.

techniques will acquire good reading
comprehension

Competent in communicating
using English language

Students easily comprehend

instructions in English language
By having good reading
comprehension

23 Students acquire advance

understanding to subjects used
English
 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the research methodology utilized in the data

collection, analysis and interpretation in order to address the specific problem of

the study. Included in this section are research method, respondents of the

study, instruments used in gathering pertinent data, and the statistical treatment

of the study.

Research Design

The descriptive-developmental method of research was used in this quest

for solution. It described the factors and level of comprehension skills of the

students. The training needs of teachers were also indicated. These led to the

development of an instructional material as an output of the study.

Sampling Technique

The researchers used purposive sampling technique in selecting the

respondents of the study. Purposive sampling technique is a method of collecting

data from a group of people with characteristics that may respond to standards

requested by the study. The respondents choose Grade 7 students in Caloocan

24
City Business High School to assess their reading comprehension skills in

preparation for their Senior High School.

Respondents Of The Study

The respondents of the study are those students from Caloocan City

Business High School in Academic Year 2019 – 2020 who are currently in Grade

7. The number of respondents are only 30 Grade 7 students.

Instruments Of The Study

A standardized reading material with questions served as the main

instrument of the study. This is self-administered and the questionnaires

are distributed by explaining the purpose of the study and instructions. The

researchers had already provided questions that should be answered by the

respondents, they prepared a reading material and then they gather the data’s

they needed, the researchers make sure that all of the collected answers are

reliable and validated.

Statistical Treatment

The researcher will score the test papers and evaluate the result. To

interpret and analyze the data, statistical computations will be used. The

percentage will be computed to show the number of respondents who have

25
acquired good reading comprehension skills. The raw score of each part of the

test will be transmitted to percentage scores using the formula.

Formula:

PS (%) = F/n x 100

Where

PS= percentage score

F= frequency of correct response

N= total number of items

The frequency count the answers of the individual students will be

made so that the skills of the students in reading comprehension will be

identified. The percentage will be computed to emphasize the number of

respondents who have acquired the skills.

For the category of the performance level in Reading, the following

scale will be used.

86%- 100%- Excellent / Independent Level

76%- 85% - Very Satisfactory

51%- 75% - Satisfactory / Instructional Level

25%- 50% - Improvement Needed

24% below- Poor / Frustration Level

26