LIBON COMMUNITY COLLEGE

LIBON, ALBAY

Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM

Introduction

Reading means many things to many people. It can be one of the most

rewarding preoccupations of the individual, expanding our horizons and making it

possible for him to partake man’s gathered experiences and achievements

through the ages.

Reading is an active dialogue between the author and the reader and is

the basic tool for learning in all subjects. It is the skill that helps man to discover

the answers to questions about existence. It stimulate us to further efforts to

unravel the mysteries of nature. Moreover, it takes man into the world of thought

and imagination, an adventure which enables him to acquire a clearer, deeper

understanding of reality and it helps all humans to sharpen his/ her mind because

reading is the best weapon for us to understand the things around us.
Reading state that learning to read means learning to pronounce and to

recognize words and deduce their meaning. Durkin 1 stated that the model

applied to each child to speak a primary or secondary language has an impact on

the type of reading and writing instruction provided in schools. It is important to

note that, not all children pass through the same stages simultaneously and

possess all the same skills. Therefore, an individual reader may be identified in

terms of his readiness, skills and own pace.

As you read through the following pages, you can find valuable

information that will state the factors that affect the reading and reading

comprehension of the pupils. The cognitive approach to education assumes that

if we can specify in enough detail the tacit processes that underlie various

thinking skills, then we can find methods to teach students to master these skills.

In this paper we focus on one critical domain -- reading comprehension -- and

attempt to specify the thinking skills required together with interactive methods

for teaching these skills. Reading comprehension is usually taught in schools in

one of two ways. One method is to have students read a text, and then read

comments or answer questions about the text. The comments and questions can

range over a variety of topics, from what particular words mean to the main point

of the whole text. In particular, it does not teach students what to do when they

have difficulty comprehending parts of the text; nor does it teach them how to

construct and revise hypotheses about what is likely to occur in the text based on
what they have already read. Both of these aspects are important in constructing

an interpretation of the text.

Statement of the Problem

The study aims to measure the Reading and Reading Comprehension of

the pupils in Libon Central School Grades 4, 5 and 6, West Carisac Elementary

School Grades 4, 5 and 6, Bonbon Elementary Schools Grades 4, 5 and 6,

Balinsayawan Elementary School Grades 4, 5 and 6. Libon, Albay A.Y. 2017-

2018 Second Semester.

Specifically, this sought answers to the following questions:

1. What are the levels of elementary pupils in Reading and Reading

2. What are the main Factors affecting the Reading and Reading
Comprehension of the Pupils?

3. What are the importance of Reading Comprehension in each learners?

4. What recommendations maybe proposed as a result of the study?

The findings of this research make prove useful to the following:

Students/ Pupils/ Learners: This will further enhance student’s knowledge and

social learning this may lead to the better enthusiasm and develop the Skills and

Motivation in learning in reading and reading comprehension.

Teachers: This may heighten their awareness in classroom practices this may

further be a motivating factor to adapt measures and new strategies for the

improvements of their selves. This may also help the teacher to easily teach and

understand what factors and reason are affecting the students/Pupils reading

comprehension. By this teachers think the appropriate methods and skills that

can use to their lesson and teaching.

Researchers: Serve as the preparation of being good researchers have enough

of knowledge to learn more about this research.

Parents. The result of this research will give information to the parents to

understand the benefits of why his/her child are poor in reading and reading

comprehension and can enlighten their minds and understand and make their

action to train their child as well, because education started in our home.

Future Researchers: The information and insights that will be gained from this

study may serve as guide for other research in framing their conceptual
framework and design and at the same time encourage them to conduct lateral

studies within their area of preferences.

Scope and Delimination

This study focuses on Factors Affecting the Reading and Reading

Comprehension of the Pupils in Libon Central School, West Carisac Elementary

School, Bonbon Elementary School and Balinsayawan Elementary School

Grades 4, 5 and 6 from School Year 2016 – 2017.

The respondent of this study are the pupils o Libon Central School, West

Carisac Elementary School, Bonbon Elementary School and Balinsayawan

Elementary School Grades 4, 5, 6, because researchers are trying to find out

why some pupils are poor in reading and comprehension. This also help to the

learners know the possible affect in reading and reading comprehension. This

problem are very common to all teachers as well as in the learners, the

researchers are trying to resolve this problem because we all know that the

reading is a simple and basic skill that the learners must possess but as of now

some of the pupils/students are not interested to read books or browse the book

because of the modern technologies. Modern technology can be the possible

reason why learners are poor in reading and comprehension specifically the

pupils. And to expand this and found out the possible reason of this problem in

schools, the researchers prepared 15 questions to be answer by our main

respondent which are the school we selected, the Libon Central School, West
Carisac Elementary School, Bonbon Elementary School and Balinsayawan

Elementary School Grades 4, 5 and 6.

1. In what level do elementary pupils reach in Reading and Reading

Comprehension?

2. What are the main Factors affecting the Reading and Reading

Comprehension of the Pupils?

3. What is the importance of Reading Comprehension in each learners?

4. What recommendations maybe proposed as a result of the study? True

by this research objectives the respondent will be guided to understand and

enlighten the mind of all learners that reading comprehension is most important

skills that the learners possess and develop.

Reading-

Comprehension-

Reading Comprehension-

Preoccupation- Is a state where you`re absorbed in something.

Horizon- The line or circle that forms the apparent boundary between earth and

sky.

Partake- When you partake in something, you join in, like when you partake in

the three-legged race and bobbing for apples at your town fall festival.
NOTES
Chapter 2

RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presents the literature and studies which are significant and

relevant study. Related literature and studies gathered from journals,

dissertation, unpublished thesis, books and internet.

Comprehension is the main goal when reading. For many students with

disabilities, reading is a skill that eludes them for a variety of reasons. Cognitive

processes such as working memory and phonological processing can account for

some of the variability in reading comprehension. These processes allow the

reader to not only decode words but access memory “stores” to understand

written text. Readers also rely on lexical knowledge and reading strategies to

comprehend the specific words they have read. Additionally, a reader’s

motivation to can influence reading comprehension. Reading is essential not only

to school success but for post-secondary options (e.g., getting a job or going to

college). Understanding which factors are most important to reading

comprehension is vital to inform instructional practices so that students with

avenues for post-secondary success.

This chapter reviews the literature for the proposed study of the

relationship between working memory, vocabulary, prior knowledge, word

recognition, reading strategies, and motivation-to-read and reading

comprehension for all readers especially in primary level.

Related Literature

Emerald Dechant1 stated that the meaning is constructed by the selective

use of information from various sources, without relying on anyone set order.

These sources may be graphemic, phonemic, morphemic, syntax and semantics.

All levels of processing are used although the reader can rely on one source at a

given time.

According to Kenneth Goodman2, Reading is understood at once as both a

perceptual and cognitive process, once you read the cognitive and affective are

being active base on what you have read, reading can brought you anywhere,

and can experience travelling around the world. To be able to accomplish the

tasks of reading, a skilled reader must be able to use sensory, syntactic, and
pragmatic information. During the process of reading, various sources of

information may interact in many complex way.

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body (Richard Sleete) 3

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits.

Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy

habits of thinking. (Albert Einstein)4 Reading as a receptive process of written

communication. According tohim5 reading begins with a linguistic surface

expression encoded by a writer and ends with meaning in which the reader

decoded. On the other hand, Grebe states that reading is not merely a receptive

process of picking up information from the page in a verbatim manner but it is a

selective process which is characterized as an active process of comprehending.

Reading can be seen as an “interactive” process between a reader and a text

which leads to automaticity.

It is a dynamic process in which the reader works actively to construct

meaning from the material. In this process, the reader interacts dynamically

with the text as he or she tries to elicit the meaning. Therefore, Students must be

able to adjust their reading to fit the type of material being presented. Effective

readers are involved in the process of reading and look for meaning actively.

Ineffective readers play a passive role during reading. They do not connect the
text material with their prior knowledge. In other words, students can combine

their background Majdi Abdullah Ahmad AD-Heisat6. Webster’s Dictionary7,

Comprehension is the capacity for understanding fully, the act of action of

grasping with the intellect. Webster also tells us that reading is to receive or take

in the sense of (as letters or symbols) by scanning; to understand the meaning of

written or printed matter; to learn from what one has seen or found in writing or

printing.

Comprehension is the essence of reading and the active process of

constructing meaning from text (Durkin, 1993) 8. Reading comprehension is a

complex interaction among automatic and strategic cognitive processes that

enables the reader to create a mental representation of the text (van den Broek &

Espin, 2012)9. Comprehension depends not only on characteristics of the

reader, such as prior knowledge and working memory, but also on language

processes, such as basic reading skills, decoding, vocabulary, sensitivity to text

structure, inferencing, and motivation. Comprehension also requires effective

use of strategic processes, such as metacognition and comprehension

monitoring. As readers mature in their comprehension skills, they are able to

progress efficiently from the stage of learning to read to the ultimate goal of

reading to learn (Yovanoff, Duesbery, Alonzo, & Tindal, 2005) 10

Pardo (2004)1 a common definition for teachers might be the comprehension

is a process in which readers construct meaning by interacting with text through

the combination of prior knowledge and previous experiences, information in the

(2004)2, stated that increasing vocabulary, extensive reading and critical reading

are some of the practices that can be used to strengthen and refine the person’s

ability to comprehend any text. However, reading comprehension fails for a

number of reasons. One of the reasons is the lack of knowledge base. This deals

on how much knowledge a reader has about the subject he or she is reading.

When the reader is more familiar with the happenings in the text because

they likely are similar in many ways to his or her own life experiences then he or

she can easily generate the necessary inferences from the text.

Reading Comprehension according to Basaraba (2013)3 is a complex process

that requires different building-block skills. One model of

reading comprehension proposes that understanding what we read is really the

result of three levels of skills: literal comprehension,

inferential comprehension and evaluative comprehension. Reading is the true

backbone of most learning. Everything starts with the written word — whether

it’s math, science or even home economics. As students go up the educational

ladder, more reading is usually required as subjects become more dense and

challenging. (Philippine Star, 2010)4.

Tongson, Jr. (2005) as cited by Nangleg (2007) 5 attests to the

deterioration of reading skills of the pupils in the country when the Every Child a
Reader Program (ECARP) has been implemented and the Bureau

of Elementary Education (BEE) supports this program by developing the

Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI).

Phil-IRI is an assessment tool that evaluates the reading proficiency level

of elementary school pupils. It is the first validated instrument that intends to

measure the pupils’ reading comprehension level. The pupil’s word recognition

and comprehension ability as well as his/her reading speed are informally

assessed quantitatively and qualitatively through stories and passages.

RELATED STUDIES

Snow, Burns. & Griffin (1998)1 suggested three initiatives to address the

educational needs of children beyond grade three. One is putting what we now

know about improving reading comprehension into practice. Next is building the

knowledge base for improving reading comprehension. Another is developing

policies to support improvements in practice and in research. According to the

authors, initiatives to improve practice operate most effectively through teacher

education and professional development programs. With regard to improving the

knowledge base in reading comprehension, they believe that a child who builds

up a strong general knowledge base in many different subjects will have better

reading ability than a child who doesn’t. Indeed, students need to continue to

read a lot, and to be guided to read books of an appropriate level, so that they

have opportunities to practice reading skills, to learn new vocabulary items, and

of understanding of a text or message. This understanding comes from the

interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge

outside the text or message (Rayner, Foorman, Perfitti, Pesetsky & Seidenberg,

2001)2.  Reading comprehension is a skill that can be strengthened and

improved through more reading practice.

Pressley (2003)3. In 1997, Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmermann 4,

partners at the Denver-based Public Education and Business Coalition,

published “Mosaic of Thought,” which explained how good readers use thinking

strategies to build comprehension. Zimmermann followed with “Seven Keys to

Comprehension,” a work designed to give parents and teachers practical advice

on teaching children to read strategically. She explains how readers use their

background knowledge and imagination to visualize what they read.

Zimmermann also reveals how children can learn to ask themselves questions to

help them find important details and make key inferences. Finally, she shows

how readers can put ideas together to form a complete understanding of what

they’ve been trying to comprehend. Debbie Miller5, the author of several books

on reading, outlines methods for teaching reading comprehension to elementary

school students in “Reading with Meaning.” Miller discusses setting up a

classroom where plan instruction around what students need individually and

help those students with one-on-one conferences. Reading teachers, Miller

communications. Miller teaches students to work with the same reading

strategies Zimmermann and Keene outline in their works. However, in the book,

Miller describes teaching students to apply those comprehension strategies

independently. Tovani, who also worked with Keene and Zimmermann 6, is a

teacher and literacy coach in Denver. In this book, she discusses why many

children who have learned how to recite the words on the page still struggle with

comprehension. She believes struggling readers need to see how good readers

think as they read.

To promote thinking, Tovani asks children to write down what’s on their

minds as they read. Tovani says writing makes readers pay attention to their

“thinking voice,” the thoughts they have as they try to understand the text. By

recording their thinking in the margin -- or on another piece of paper -- students

create a permanent record of their attempts to understand the text. Readers can

return to their thinking, revise their ideas and accumulate information needed to

build comprehension.

In “Readicide,” English teacher and literacy consultant Kelly Gallagher 7 warned

educators about literacy practices that he felt killed student motivation to read. In

“Deeper Reading,” he describes what effective reading instruction looks like. He

tackles methods for getting students to tackle difficult books such as “Romeo and

Juliet” and “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Challenging material, Gallagher

explains, usually requires more than one reading. He outlines plans for what he
calls “first-draft readings” and “second-draft readings.” Gallagher encourages

readers to work through the confusing parts of their books and to reread

passages to find new ideas they didn’t see in the first reading. In 1917, Edward

Thorndike8 noted that “reading is a very elaborate procedure”. His assertions are

no less true today. Reading requires the ability to decode words or phrases and

make meaning from those individual words and phrases. This process requires

explicit instruction, practice, feedback from the teacher, and more practice to

become a proficient reader.

Christine Cziko Cynthia Greenleaf, Lori Hurwitz, Ruth Schoenbach 2000 9, stated

Reading is not merely a basic skills, a very complex process, a problem solving

and sense making. Is not the same as decoding, and situationally bounded. They

also believe the proficient readers share some key characteristics. They are

mentally engaged, driven to read and to learn, socially active around reading task

and strategic in monitoring the interactive processes that assist comprehensions.

(1964, as cited in villamin, et al, 2001) 10 describes the developmental reading

program as a program in which students who are able readers continue to be

taught reading skills and appreciations acquired previous years, and to develop

new skills as they are needed.

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Chapter 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Methods

This study made used of descriptive research method which is designed

for the researches to gather information about present existing conditions needed

in the chosen field of study. This research study entitled “Factors Affecting

Reading and Reading Comprehension of the Pupil” to interpret data about the

problem reading and comprehension of the pupils.

Descriptive research describes and interprets what is; it is concerned

with practices that prevail, beliefs, processes that are going on, effects that are

being felt, or trends that are developing.

tabulation of data. It involves the elements or interpretation of the meaning or

significance of what is described. Thus description is often combined with

comparison and contrast involving Reading and Reading Comprehension,

classifications, interpretation and usage.

Descriptive method encompasses all data gathered useful in adjusting or

meeting the existing phenomenon. Pre-experimental method was employed to

measure the performance level of the respondents through the questionnaire we

give, which was the baseline score of this study.

To use this design in our study, we could compare the interest level of the

understanding in reading and reading comprehension of the respondents.

Respondents

The researchers are randomly selected eighty (80) respondents, Grades

4,5,6 at Balinsayawan Elementary School, Bonbon Elementary School, West

Carisac Elementary School and Libon Central School, Libon, Albay A.Y 2016-

2017, wherein to prove the data’s research.

SCHOOLS FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE %

A 10

Section
B 10

TABLE

Bonbon, Elementary

School

A
10

Section:
B 10

West Carisac

Elementary School

A
10
Section: B 10

Libon Central

Elementary School

A 10

Section:

B 10

TOTAL 80 100%

TABLE 2
Interview

The researchers may conduct the simple Informal interview among the

respondents to get opinions, reactions and feedbacks about the topic of research

is conducting at Balinsayawan Elementary School, Bonbon Elementary School,

West Carisac Elementary School and Libon Central Elementary School pupils.

Statistical Tools

Percentage Technique. To determine the proportionate number of

respondents who answered certain questions, or quantifying the responses.

Percentage Technique was used with this formula:

Ʃf
P=
N

Where:

P = Percentage

∑f = Summation of frequency

N = Total number of respondents

Sampling Design
The primary source of data of this study was taken from the responses of

the Balinsayawan Elementary School, Bonbon Elementary School, West Carisac

Elementary School and Libon Central School, Libon, Albay pupils are randomly

selected. The researchers used random sampling which was the convenience

sampling. Convenience sampling is the method in which, for convenience sake,

the study units that happen to be available at the time of data collection are

selected in the sample.

Date Gathering Procedure

The researchers had great deal of time in developing the questionnaire as

to serve its intended respondents. With regard to data gathering, the researchers

personally in to the premises of the Balinsayawan Elementary School, Bonbon

Elementary School, West Carisac Elementary School and Libon Central School,

to conduct a simple interview to the pupils grades 4, 5,6 section A and B. The

researchers are hoping for the positive response to accommodate the request of

the researchers with the notion that the experience is for research only. However

recognizes there personal opinion and insight about what may the possible

factors affecting in their reading and reading comprehension, that could assess

their performance as a pupils in their corresponding Schools.

The respondents will give an ample time to answer the questionnaire

provided for more understanding and appreciation. Other respondents were

understanding. The result will be tallied and tabulated according to the frequency

of items checked by the participants. Thereafter, data tabulation results will be

interpreted using various statistical tools. The result of which will serve in coming

up with the conclusion and recommendations.