REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter is composed of related literatures and studies. The researcher has gone

through intensive readings of materials downloaded from the internet, from different books,

unpublished master’s thesis and other publications which have a great significance to problem

during the course of research writing.

Related Literature

Reading comprehension necessitates the active extraction and construction of meaning from text

by the reader. Many factors, including the other components of proficient reading and the

instruction they receive, can influence the reader's comprehension of text. Children's spoken

language skills provide a foundation for proficient reading comprehension, but they are

insufficient in the absence of effective instruction to develop proficient literacy. Vocabulary, for

example, is a powerful predictor of reading comprehension. Children may have the decoding

skills needed to read an unfamiliar word, but if the word is not in their lexicon, they may be

unable to assign meaning to the decoded text. Reading comprehension is the process of

simultaneously creating and extracting meaning from print through interaction and engagement.

A comprehension event's success is determined by a good match of reader skills, text difficulty,

and task definition. Reader vocabulary and background knowledge are especially important. The

demands of different texts (e.g., fiction vs. nonfiction), different cultures, and different

disciplines define tasks differently. Approaches to comprehension instruction must not ignore

basic word-reading skills for struggling readers, but can instead encourage active engagement

with a variety of texts in both oral and literate modes in pursuit of authentic learning goals.
Children's background knowledge and exposure to the world around them, as well as their home

literacy environment, may influence how well they understand what they read. Children arrive at

the process of understanding what they read with a wide range of abilities and backgrounds,

which appears to influence the types of home and classroom reading experiences that will most

effectively support their learning of text comprehension.

Explicit instruction has a significant impact on children's reading comprehension development,

particularly in the early grades. For example, explicitly teaching children comprehension

strategies results in improved reading comprehension and overall reading proficiency.

One of the common problems encountered by the student is simply not being able

to understand a word or expression in the text. The reader will find the difficulty in neither

understanding the text, because he is not familiar with the word. A written text may be difficult

to understand because it contains many words that are unknown to the student. It may be because

the students are lack of reading comprehension skills or background knowledge about the word.

If students find many unfamiliar words in the text, even though the students are allowed to open

the dictionary, it is still so hard for students to comprehend the text. Therefore, unfamiliar key

words about the text need to be taught to students before reading the material so that they can

easily understand the material.

The principle of effective learning must be clearly understood by educators to coincide

with their instructional activities. Thus, Dechant claimed that one of the crucial tasks of teachers

is to increase the reading skills not only of students who have already acquired several reading
skills but also for those who have few reading skills. Consequently, student’s low performance in

other learning areas could be the result of their poor reading habits, abilities and skills which

should be augmented or enhanced first before progress in the other learning areas could be

attained.

Reading is a skill upon which depends all that the child will have to learn in the future.

His/Her success or failure in reading determines his attitude toward learning. If the child has

learned to read, then he/she is prepared for the work he/she must do later on. But if he/she has

failed, he/she will carry with him/her a severe handicap.

Moreover, Harris described reading as composed of skills and abilities ranging from

simple recognition of words to association of past experiences and applying the ideas gained

from the printed page. It makes use of our senses, our knowledge of and competence in our own

language and culture as well as those of other people. The manifold skills and abilities are

needed in the successful reading act.

Reading experts indicated that reading is a subtle and complex process that involves 5

stages: sensation, perception, comprehension, application and integration.

Bond described comprehension as consisting abilities, such as understanding word

meanings and grouping words into thought units. Fundamental to all reading is deriving

meanings and comprehension which includes five major headings: reading for factual

information; reading to organize; reading to evaluate; reading to integrate; and, reading for

appreciation.
Hence, maturation plays an important role on the child’s progress in reading skills.

Family attitudes toward reading as compared with interest in radio, television, and motion

picture programs also constitute as important factors of influence.

Comprehension, according to Payon, is the process of using one’s prior experiences and

the writer’s clues to infer the intended meanings. This concept emphasizes the idea/fact that the

background of the reader and the nature of the text affect comprehension. The reader gives

meaning to the text based on his experience. He needs his experience as he constructs and

reconstructs his meaning.

Comprehension is often called the teacher’s bugbear. Many students can pronounce and

recognize words correctly, but very few understand their meanings.

Thus, Meyer stressed that reading without comprehension is not reading at all. It is

merely word calling when one reads without understanding. He cannot open the door to the

world of knowledge, enlightenment and enjoyment. Inspite of the effort of the teacher to know

how to teach reading effectively, poor comprehension engulfed the students and the teacher.

In proper skills development, Gates believed that unless reading skills that are taught in

the lower grades are reinforced in the intermediate and high school, skills of the weak reader will

not increase and may even deteriorate. Therefore, the reading teaching should: 1) diagnose each

student’s reading skills to ascertain the level of the material that the student can read; 2) diagnose

each student’s reading skills to determine from a total list of skills, which specific ones have

been mastered; 3) be aware of the reading demand and teaching strategies of the content area so

that these skills can be highlighted and reinforced; and, 4) provide instruction in these skills at

the appropriate level of difficulty.

interests are taught and each of which contributes in some measure to the process of learning to

read.

Good reading starts in the home where the child acquires a functional listening and

speaking vocabulary from parents and older member of the family. It becomes more organized

when he is already under the guidance of his teachers in school. He engages in varied reading

activities and acquires skills in auditory, visual, motor-ocular coordination and critical thinking.

Recognition of the word is not the ultimate goal in reading. Without comprehension,

reading is mere verbalism.

Hence, Yoakam described comprehension as reading matter that involves the correct

association of meanings with word symbols, the evaluation of meanings which are suggested in

context, the organization of ideas as they are read, the retention of these ideas, and their use in

some present or future activity.

Furthermore, Trealese pointed out that reading is also an evaluative process. The

development of efficient and versatile habits of reading and study is a continuous process. It

requires a specialized type of integration. Each of us is responsible for the development of

efficient reading habits.

Related Studies

This study presents related studies both foreign and local that will give clearer

understanding of the present study.

performance of high school students, the poor comprehension ability of the high school students

was due to their weakness in vocabulary, identification of details, and main ideas of the readings

they read. Thus, White recommended that reading enhancement program must be implemented

in order to improve the reading comprehension of the high school students. This previous study

is related to the present study because both studied on reading comprehension of the high school

students. However, the previous study differs from the present study because the previous one

included the factors affecting the reading comprehension performance while the present study

assessed the reading habit of the students. Then, the study of White was conducted abroad while

the present study was conducted locally. On the other hand, the study by Chege (2013), disclosed

that reading comprehension is related to academic performance. However, available literatures

have been in disparity as to which reading comprehension skill correlates with students'

performance in Science. Both the study of White, Chege and the present study have similarity on

the focus of the study since they talked about the reading comprehension of the students.

Conversely, the Chege's study assessed the performance of students in Science; however, the

present study focuses on English reading comprehension performance of the Grade 7 students. In

2014, the study of Owusu-Acheaw found out that majority of the students acknowledged the

importance of reading which helps them to express themselves better. However, the study also

found that 81.9% had not read a novel or fiction within the two preceding semesters and only

18% said that they had read a novel or fiction within the same period.

The study further confirmed that 75.0% of the respondents were engaged in reading just to pass

an examination. It was also confirmed in the study that 62.0% of the respondents visit the library

to read lecture notes, 25.0% to read textbooks and only 3.0% visit the library to read novels or
fiction. The study revealed that majority of the respondents had the view that reading habits have

effect on academic performance and that there is a direct relationship between reading habits and

academic performance. The study further found out that laziness is one of the basic hindrances to

reading among the students.

The study of Awe (2014), examined the relationship between reading attitudes and reading

comprehension performance of secondary school students. The study revealed that negative

attitudes to extensive reading could lead to students' poor performance in reading

comprehension, which could in turn lead to poor performance in English language. Consequent

upon these findings, it was recommended among others, that teachers should always strive to be

efficient facilitators of reading, ensuring that learners maintain enhanced positive attitudes to

extensive reading so that other stakeholders will be motivated into supporting the school system

fully.

The studies of Owusu-Acheaw and Awe are related to the present study because both studies

investigated on how reading comprehension affect the academic performance of the students.

The studies differ in terms of respondent for the former study made use college students while

the present study used Grade 7 high school students. The study of Owusu-Acheaw was

conducted abroad while the present study was conducted in the Philippines.

learners maintain enhanced positive attitudes to extensive reading so that other stakeholders will

be motivated into supporting the school system fully. The studies of Owusu-Acheaw and Awe

are related to the present study because both studies investigated on how reading comprehension

and reading habits affect academic performance of the students. The studies differ in terms of
respondent for the former study made use college students while the present study used Grade 7

high school students.

The study of Owusu-Acheaw was conducted abroad while the present study was conducted in

the Philippines The findings of the study suggest a variety of cognitive and affective factors

which influenced the reading comprehension of secondary Students with Disability (SW).

Knowing the relative importance of these variables will help identify appropriate instruction to

target key reading deficits. Multi-sensory direct instruction in word recognition and vocabulary

is one such method that has promise for secondary SWD (Sanford, 2015). The study of Owusu-

Acheaw is connected to the present study since both studies centered on the reading

comprehension and how it affects the academic performances of the students. But then, the two

studies differ from one another for the reason that the Owusu-Acheaw's respondents where

students with disability while the present study involved with the normal students. In Cotabato

City, Philippines, the study of Imam disclosed that the overall students' performance in reading

comprehension skills is significantly and positively correlated to their performance in Science.

Although this finding supports previous researches which emphasized the important role of

reading skills in science, the weak relationship established by the present study indicated that

reading comprehensions skills is not enough to explain the students' performance in Science.

Both the present and Imam's studies focused on the reading comprehension performance of the

high school students. However, the two studies differ in terms of locality.

The present study used the Phil-IRI instruments in assessing the reading comprehension level of

the students while Imam's study utilized his self-made evaluation instrument. Moreover, Science

is the learning subject is used in the former study while in the present study is English itself. The
decline in performance of public school students in reading comprehension would make one to

ponder the effect of various reading programs and major education inputs like 1:1 textbook in

key subject areas such as Math, Science and English, Makabayan and Filipino which DepEd and

other stakeholders poured into Philippine basic education.

This only shows that these reading-related resources are not enough to improve the reading

competence of public high school students (Sinsuat-Imam,2009). The similarity of the Imam's

study to the present study is the investigation of the reading comprehension that affects the

academic performance of the students. They differ on the subject learning areas being

investigated because Imam's study included the five major learning areas while the present study

only involved English. Furthermore, the study of Imam revealed that in Cotabato City Division

for the last three school years was placed at the bottom among nine (9) divisions in Region XIL,

with Mean Percentage Score (MPS) in English and Mathematics of below 50 percent. Likewise,

private school students obtained similar performance of "below average" in the achievement

tests. Recently, the result of 2010 Regional Achievement Test given to second year students in

both public and private schools in Cotabato City showed that they performed low mastery level

with MPS ratings of 45.16% in Mathematics. Hence, the alarming performance of the Filipino

students in Mathematics locally, nationally an internationally necessitates urgent decisions and

actions from all education sectors is due to the poor reading comprehension of the students. The

study of Imam is similar to the present study in the sense that reading comprehension and

academic performance were being measured in both studies. However, the previous study

focused on Mathematics while the present study is English.

In the study of Javier (2013), he contended that Science, in all areas, is not being mastered by the

students. These range from interpreting and analyzing scientific data, to explaining and proving
scientific theories or laws, to being able to solve scientific problems or to refute or confirm a

theory. In Mathematics, the students are poor in solving problems or even in interpreting and

analyzing data. They are also weak in terms of manipulating numbers and equations. Likewise,

they are weak in thinking conceptually and spatially. Indeed, their analytical, critical and

problem-solving skills are The study that also concludes that the students' weaknesses in Science

and poor.

Mathematics subjects are attributed to the students' difficulty in English. As stated in his

findings, the students' difficulty in English included difficulties in making inferences and

interpretations of information, deducing meaning, drawing conclusions, and summarizing ideas.

All these boil down to problem on comprehension, leading the students not to understand what

they are reading.

Both the study of Javier and the present study reflect similarity on the focused of the study which

is on reading comprehension which was correlated to the academic performance of the students.

Nevertheless, Javier's study included Science and Mathematics as the subject learning areas

being investigated while the present study only

focused on English.

Similarly, the study of Garnace (2013), aimed at finding the relationship between

academic achievement and language proficiency. Results of their studies showed that

there is a significant relationship between English language proficiency and academic

achievement.

The study of Garnace is similar to the present study because both determined the

relationship between the reading comprehension level of the students and the academic

performance in English. However, Garnace's study was conducted in Philippine Science

Based on the findings of Carbonel (2013), majority of the college students have

desirable learning through visual style than tactile learning style. Then, students had an

average study and reading habit only of almost two (2) hours a day. She also concluded

that there is a significant difference of the reading habit, study habit and the performance

of the students in Mathematics which implied that study and reading habit have a great

impact to the performance of the students.

The study of Carbonel is quite similar to the present study since they include the

reading habit as a factor affecting the performance of the students. However, the

dissimilarity between the two studies is that, the Carbonel's study included the learning

study while the present study assessed the reading comprehension of the students of

English not Mathematics as the learning area being studied.

Paz (2018), had studied on the reading comprehension levels in English among

grade 7 students in Caraga State University, the findings of the study revealed that there

was no significant relationship between the profile of the students and factors of reading

toward their reading comprehension. It further concluded that the reading comprehension

levels of the students were weak that requires desirable intervention program in order to

improve the reading comprehension level and academic performance of the students in

English.

The study of Paz showed resemblance to the present study because both studies

dealt on reading comprehension levels and academic performance of Grade 7 students in

English. Nevertheless, Paz' study did not include the reading habit of the students which

is being included in the present study.

current investigation. It amplifies the relationship of aforementioned previous studies to

the present study. With these, readers and researchers would be able to apprehend the

variables being assessed in this study such as reading habit, reading comprehension level,

and academic performance of the students.