Chapter I THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

Reading is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas. Like all language, it is a complex interaction between the text and the reader which is shaped by the readers prior knowledge, experiences, attitude, and language community which is culturally and socially situated. The reading process requires continuous practices, development, and refinement.

Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that encode meaning. The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that meaning is.

Reading comprehension is the ability to understand what we read -- where words have context and texts have meaning. Reading comprehension skills allow us to read proficiently, learn effectively, problem-solve, strategize, conceptualize, and succeed in life. Without reading comprehension skills, many students are left behind.

Reading comprehension is the heart and goal of reading, since the purpose of all reading is to gather meaning from the printed page. If a student says words in a passage without gathering their meaning, one would hesitate to call that reading.

By age six to seven children should be sensitive to such characteristics of stories as the main character, sequence of events, inferences, the motives and feelings of characters, and sentence order. As they get older, children should be more efficient at recognizing and recalling facts, recognizing and inferring main themes and relationships, drawing conclusions, making judgments and generalizations, predicting outcomes, applying what has been learned, and following directions. The comprehension goals of the intermediate grades address these abilities as well as those required for independent study: skimming, using reference materials, outlining, summarizing, altering reading rate and focus as the purpose of reading changes, use of headings, note taking, and so on.

For many students, reading comprehension is a major problem. There are mainly three causes for poor reading comprehension:

First is, if the person has a language problem. Language plays a vital role in reading. One cannot read a book in a language unless one knows that particular language. If a child's knowledge of English is poor, then his reading will also be poor, and naturally also his reading comprehension.

Second is, if the foundational skills of reading have not been automized. When a person attempts to speak a language in which he has not become automatic yet, he will necessarily have to divide his attention between the content of his message and the language itself. He will therefore speak haltingly and with great difficulty.

As Yap and Van der Leij explained in the Journal of Learning Disabilities, if the skill on the primary task is automatized, it will not be disrupted by concurrent processing on

the secondary task because automatic processing does not take up attentional resources. If, on the contrary, the skill is not automatized, it will be disrupted by concurrent processing of a second skill because two skills are then competing for limited attentional resources. This also applies to the act of reading. The person, in whom the foundational skills of reading have not yet become automatic, will read haltingly and with great difficulty. The poor reader is forced to apply all his concentration to word recognition, and therefore has no concentration left to decode the written word, and as a result he will not be able to read with comprehension.

Lastly, the reader is unable to decode the written word: The decoding of the written word is a very important aspect of the reading act. Without being able to decode the written word, reading comprehension is impossible. This explains why some children can read without understanding what they are reading.

Many students dont realize how important it is to be able to fully comprehend what you read. Being able to completely and accurately comprehend what you read is essential to your ability to learn, perform well on tests and ultimately succeed in school and in a career.

Anyone who desires to acquire effective study techniques would do well to improve his reading comprehension skills. Developing reading comprehension techniques is one of the two basic ways of improving reading skill, the other being developing reading speed. However, rapid reading is valueless unless what is read is understood. Thus, comprehension is the vital factor in efficient reading.

The goal of the researcher is to facilitate not only the learning of the students but also to improve teaching strategies of the teachers. The result of this research will show the weak points of the students regarding their reading comprehension skills. When these weak points are identified, the teachers will be able to think of approaches and techniques that would lead to the development of the students in reading area, thus result to improvement in their academic performance.

Theoretical Framework

Reading is a complex process. It is not general ability but a composite of many abilities. It involves skill and thinking. In its broader sense, it affects entire personality of the individual.

Many factors contribute to the childs learning to read. These factors are classified as biological, environmental, and psychological. There is an inter relationship that exists among these factors (Dullman.1992).

In order to develop higher skills in reading, it is necessary to have a foundation in basic skills. If a child cannot recognize words or cannot determine the natural meaningful group into which words fall, it is useless to attempt and develop the more complex comprehension skills. The different skills that a child should develop are the following:

a. b. c. d. e. f.

Word Perception Noting Details Getting the Main Idea Sequencing Events Predicting Outcomes Following Directions

The Theoretical Framework is illustrated in a theoretical paradigm presented in Figure 1. It presents reading comprehension skills as independent variable and pupils academic performance in English as dependent variable.

Independent Variable

Dependent Variable

Reading Comprehension Skills 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Word Perception Noting Details Getting the Main Idea Sequencing Events Predicting Outcomes Following Directions

Pupils Academic Achievement

Figure 1. A Diagrammatical Representation of the Independent Variable composes of reading comprehension skills and its correlation to the dependent variable which is the academic performance.

Statement of the Problem

This study was designed to determine the correlation between reading comprehension skills of elementary students with their academic performance in class. More especially this study sought to answer these problems: 1. What is the level of pupils reading comprehension skills? 2. What is the pupils academic performance in English? 3. Are pupils reading skills correlate with their academic performance in English?

Hypothesis

For the purpose of the study, the researcher proposes this hypothesis. The dimensions of reading such as noting details, getting the main idea, word perception, sequencing events, predicting outcomes, following directions correlated with pupils academic performance.

Importance of the Study

Reading as a total subject is one of the most important courses in curriculum. It is said that all subjects are reading subjects and all teachers are reading teachers. Hence; every teacher is required to stress and develop in children the skills and abilities to read with understanding.

However, this has been found to be a great problem among teachers on how to improve the reading abilities of the children in school. In present outcomes of the elementary education; many of our pupils were found to be slow learners. Impressions and opinions of educators, teachers and parents suggested that something must be done to remedy the prevailing problem.

Results of this study may provide teachers with objective data on which to base their efforts to improve the reading comprehension of pupils of different age levels; to help pupils develop reading rates appropriate to each kind and difficulty of materials; and to imply remedial techniques to overcome faulty reading habits of pupils.

It is further expected that this study would encourage educators to develop a reading program that would be relevant to the needs of the young children today.

To the administrators, its their duty to ensure that there should be regular professional development opportunities available to their teaching staff. To ensure the pupils success in reading

comprehension, we rely on administrators to pass on their knowledge and be effective advocates for the benefit, not only their students but also in the whole academe.

This research also wants to give a number of instructional strategies that are very promising for teaching students with reading difficulties. Many of these teaching methods and approaches are ready right now for use in the classroom. In addition, providing extensive references that teachers can use to find appropriate and scientifically validated instructional methods. It also noted areas where more research is needed to determine objectively if teaching methods are effective.

Parents have long been considered critical to the development of their children's reading skills. Parents who read with their children can help get them interested in reading at an early age and help model good reading habits. Parents also have other important roles to play in supporting their children's reading development. Parents should be familiar with the quality of reading instruction in their children's schools. In addition, they can use this information to help them determine if their children are struggling and if they should be candidates for more individualized reading instruction. Parents can now rely on this researchers findings as their source on reading instruction and use their understanding of the findings to identify other tools to help their children develop better reading skills.

This research suggests that reading instruction is complex. Children come into the classroom with different levels of preparation, as do their teachers. In addition, learning to read requires a combination of skills, including phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, and

text reading comprehension skills. Not all children learn in the same way and one strategy does not work for all children. Learning phonics skills is critical for positive reading development. However, the best results will be achieved when direct instruction is combined with the development of other skills, and when teachers are able to use a combination of direct instructional strategies to achieve those skills.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The problem is concerned with the reading comprehension skills of the students affecting their academic performance. This study aimed to identify students specific reading skills namely: Word Perception, Noting Details, Getting the Main Idea, Sequencing Events, Following Directions, and Predicting Outcome. This also attempted to find out whether or not reading comprehension skills of elementary students have a significant relationship with their academic performance.

Definition of Terms

The following terms are defined below for better understanding of this research which involves dictionary and operational meaning.

Academic Performance refers to how students deal with their studies and how they cope with or
accomplish different tasks given to them by their teachers.

Comprehension understanding, grasping of the meaning of something. Following Direction ability to follow printed and written directions may be viewed as a survival reading skills. Getting the Main Idea ability to indicate what is being said and about the topic or subject matter. (Salvation & Rechnick, 1983) Noting Details taking notes of the important details in a conversation and in an article. Predicting Outcomes - ability to predict things that might happen next. Reading - is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of deriving meaning (reading comprehension) and/or constructing meaning. It is the mastery of basic cognitive processes to the point where they are automatic so that attention is freed for the analysis of meaning. Reading Comprehension defines as the act of grasping the meaning, significance, or nature of an idea with the intellect and specifies understanding as its closest synonym. Sequencing Events ability to determine the chronology of events in a passage which are not only grammatically linked to one another, but are also logically related and sequenced. Word Perception - the ability to identify words and understand their meanings.

Word Recognition define as a process of producing sounds represented by symbols and putting them together into words.

Chapter II REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presents literature in foreign and local regarding the problem. Research and studies done by different person all over the world are mentioned here, and everyone agreed that reading comprehension skills of pupils at present must be given full attention because it does affect their performance in class and with their future endeavors.

Foreign Literature

Fielding & Pearson (2003) defined reading comprehension as the level of understanding of a writing. Proficient reading depends on the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly. If word recognition is difficult, students use too much of their processing capacity to read individual words, which interferes with their ability to comprehend what is read.

Many educators in the USA believe that children need to learn to analyze text (comprehend it) even before they can read it on their own, and comprehension instruction generally begins in pre-Kindergarten or Kindergarten but other US educators consider this reading approach to be completely backward for very young children, arguing that the children must learn how to decode the words in a story through phonics before they can analyze the story itself

Gear (2006) stated that developing positive reading comprehension skills at an early age can greatly impact a students ability to approach new and complex concepts in many

different subject areas. English teachers can use a variety of different methods to approach and explain new vocabulary and reading comprehension concepts to their students. Instilling in children a love of reading and developing constructive reading skills is the cornerstone to a complete education. Jarris and Sipay (1982) also gave emphasis on the classroom teacher. They believed that teachers are the dominant element on the issue of teaching reading. Their ability to recognized, nourish and channel the interest and needs of their pupils and to create conditions that arouse through activity and imagination in their pupils is critical. Daneman (1991) explains that reading involves several component knowledge structure that interact simultaneously during the reading process. In literature, a distinction is commonly made between two main types of process, via decoding and comprehension. Decoding refers to deciphering of printed symbols into language and involves perceptual and linguistic passing aspect of reading act related to letter, sound correspondences, word identification and lexical access. Comprehension refers to the understanding process whereby meaning is assigned to the text as a whole. Both decoding and comprehension are important aspects of reading, and comprehension is not possible without decoding. However, skill in decoding does not necessarily imply skill in comprehension. Many readers may decode text quite readily but still have difficulty understanding what it is that they have decoded.

Foreign Related Studies

A study shows that it is through wide and frequent reading of printed materials that students in grades 3 through 8 increase their general word recognition, vocabulary, and spelling performance. Its a matter of reading volume. Reading a lot is one of the most powerful methods of increasing fluency, building vocabulary, and improving comprehension. Even the findings of the American National Reading Panel support the fact that the best readers read the most and the poor readers read the least. ( Cunningham and Stanovich.1988)

Interest in reading comprehension strategies began to grow as a part of the new scientific understanding of cognition that emerged in the latter decades of the twentieth century. In 1988, they observed that a reader is an active participant with a text and that a reader "makes sense" of how ideas based on the text relate to one another by interpretive interactions between what the reader gleans from the text and what the reader already knows. They proposed that a reader actively builds meaning as mental representations and stores them as semantic interpretations held in memory during reading. These representations enable the reader to remember and use what had been read and understood. ( Walter Kintsch and Teun A. van Dijk.1988)

Reading instruction in fourth-grade classrooms were also studied over the course of a school year. For many student readers, fourth grade is a transition year from "learning to read" to "reading to learn." It is reported that there was very little comprehension instruction in the classrooms. Teachers assigned questions and told students about content. But in

seventy-five hours of reading instruction observed that year, teachers devoted only twenty minutes, less than 1 percent of the time, to teaching readers how to comprehend and learn new information from reading. Her studies and the others cited above anticipated an intense interest in helping students learn strategies to comprehend and learn from reading. ( Dolores Durkin.1979)

Generally, many types of individual comprehension strategy instructions appeared to be successful in improving readers' ability to construct meaning from text. With the observed success of various individual strategy applications, there were several reviews of this growing body of scientific literature. In the study of Pearson and Gallagher in 1983, they categorized cognitive strategies by what teachers need to do to teach reading effectively and subdivided these strategies into pre-reading, during-reading, and post-reading activities.

With the success of the above mentioned strategy instruction in improving reading comprehension measures documented by research, students who received this instruction showed marked improvement on a classroom performance. (Harris.1984)

Local Related Studies The very first attempt to evaluate the reading abilities of the Filipino children was made by Martinez as part of educational survey on the status of education in the Philippines. Reading test which is one part of the survey included skills in paragraph reading, sentence meaning, and vocabulary. The result of the test showed that pupils were poor in reading comprehension. The reading ability of the Filipino children was in general 2 years behind that of American children. The survey revealed that the main cause of poor achievement of

Filipino children in reading was due to English as a foreign language and the textbook used by the Filipino children. Survey on reading abilities of Grade VI pupils in public elementary in Bataan was done and the study was about the general abilities of Grade VI pupils as revealed by the Gates Mac Survey Form 1.3 1965 Ed. The test included speed and accuracy, vocabulary and comprehension. Results of the study revealed that the subject were below the average norm of the test on speed and accuracy and vocabulary. The result of comprehension test was the lowest among the three areas.( Solibao.1985) A study conducted to know just how good are our students in reading these days. The results of the National Achievement Tests (NAT) administered to public schools gave some answers.

The Department of Education reports that there has been a 21.36 percent increase in NAT results from 2006 to 2009. The 2009 NAT revealed a rise in mean percentage score (MPS) of only 66.33 percent from 54.66 percent in 2006, which equates to an improvement of 11.67 percent.

The percentage gains were in all subject areas and point to a steady improvement in the primary education of the countrys public school system.

Statistics says that there is progress in the reading skills of the countrys students but its not something to be happy about. A 66.33 MPS is still a rather low score. In fact, its at the near mastery level!. (C. Z. Borja.2007)

In 2007, Bureau of Elementary Education, attributed reading problems as the main culprit for the poor performance of students in the NAT. (Quijano.2007)

While statistics and reports tell a solid and sad story on the subject, you need only ask any veteran educator of their horror stories to get a convincing picture.

An English professor, lamented the distressing lack of basic competence among her students in reading, which naturally carries over to their writing.

My students have difficulty comprehending basic short stories and essays, she bemoaned. And this is reflected in their writing, which pains me to ask rhetorically, How did they even pass high school?

The sadder and scarier part of this is that these students graduate and set out into the real world with the (false) confidence that the diploma they have is an accurate certification of their skills. Employers will expect their college-level applicants to possess a decent level of communication skills of which reading is a foundation.

Beyond the job market, poor reading comprehension also has implications on an individuals level of participation in society. Those who read more tend to involve themselves more in current issues, cultural, political and public affairs.

Proficient readers are also more inclined to be active in community and charity work. They engage themselves in noble causes and make better informed decisions.

A decline in reading comprehension also affects a persons performance in mathematics and sciences. After all, if youre going to understand complex formulas and theories, youd have to be able to read properly first.

In short, reading well spurs a person to do and achieve more, far beyond getting higher scores on scholastic exams. Proficiency in reading comprehension means proficiency in other disciplines. (Martinez.1989)

Review of Related Literature and Studies Reading offer greater opportunities for the formation of correct habits of thinking and satisfactory accomplishment in all the school subjects which is largely dependent in the ability to interpret the instructional materials. Reading has been given greater emphasis in the school curriculum. There has been so much concern about reading abilities of the pupils of the

elementary schools. A considerable number of writings in the various forms in reading have affirmed the belief that teachers all over the world have similar doubts and hopes in their teaching of reading. Some of the numerous studies are taken into account in this chapter to serve as background for the present study. These studies were obtained from methods in Philippines and foreign sources. Taken into account are the following studies related to the present study.

Relationship of the Reviewed Study with the Present Study The present study aims to help both pupils and teachers in developing the reading comprehension skills of learners. The main focus of the study is to determine how these skills affect the academic performance of every learner. This study is somewhat similar with the study conducted by Solibao for both studies dealt in determining reading comprehension skills of elementary pupils today and how they will affect learners performance in class. But this study makes it somehow different with Solibaos study in the kind of instrument used.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_%28activity%29) (http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/reading/reindex.htm) (http://www.learningrx.com/reading-comprehension-skills.htm *Leila Solibao, The Study of Reading Abilities of Grade VI Pupils in Division of Talisay SY1974-1975, (Unpublished Thesis, La Consolacion College, Bacolod City, 1975)

Chapter III METHOD OF PROCEDURES AND SOURCES OF DATA

This chapter presents and describes the method used in the study of the subject, the respondents and the sources of data, construction and validation of questionnaires, including its administration and retrieval of the questionnaires, and finally, the treatment of data.

Type of Study This study uses the correlational research which presents the relationship between two variables as contained in the problem in Chapter 1. Correlation Research Method, a statistical measure of a relationship between two or more variables, gives an indication of how one variable may predict another. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_correlational_research_method. The type of procedure in this study will try to determine which scores on two variables are simply measured, without manipulation of any variables, to determine whether there is a relationship. www.utexas.edu/academic/diia/assessment/iar/glossary.php This study presents the correlation between reading comprehension skills of Grade IV pupils of Kitang Elementary School during the school year 2010 2011 and their academic performance.

Research Instrument To gather data, researcher made test is used. It is a set of test in reading made purposively by researcher to suit to present conditions among students. Much has been taken into considerations to some test items and some difficult words were changed to suit grade level for which the test is intended. Unobtrusive method will also be used. It will collect data from the class adviser with regards to their class performance based on their report cards. Unobtrusive measures are unknown to the subjects of the study at least at the data collection phase. This is where data collection procedures involve no intrusion into the naturally occurring course of events. In most instances, no instrument is required. Other obtrusive techniques are collecting data/ information/evidence from documents, diaries, statistical records, etc(Cortez.1990). The reading comprehension skills was divided into 6 reading skills namely; word perception, noting details, getting the main idea, sequencing events, predicting outcomes and following directions. Each skill is composed of 5 items and so it has a total number of 30 items. Multiple choice questions were used, hence; the pupils will merely write the correct responses on the sheet.

Description of the Subject The subject of the study composed of 100% of the grade V pupils in Kitang Elementary School SY: 21020-2011. Respondents had a total of 79 pupils, 40% are boys and 60% are girls. Random sampling will be used as method to obtain data from the respondents.

Random sampling also refers to taking a number of independent observations from the same probability distribution, without involving any real population. (Donald Ary. 2009)

Since the population of these respondents are not too large, researcher combined the two sections of Grade V with a total number of 79 pupils. Researcher believed that using large number of samples would be more reliable in obtaining quantitative data, hence; relationship between sample, size, and error would be more accurate from small samples.

Construction of Questionnaires A questionnaire is a series of questions asked to individuals to obtain statistically useful information about a given topic. When properly constructed and responsibly administered, questionnaires become a vital instrument by which statements can be made about specific groups or people or entire populations. Questionnaires are frequently used in quantitative marketing research and social research. They are a valuable method of collecting a wide range of information from a large number of individuals, often referred to as respondents. Adequate questionnaire construction is critical to the success of a survey. Inappropriate questions, incorrect ordering of questions, incorrect scaling, or bad questionnaire format can make the survey valueless, as it may not accurately reflect the views and opinions of the participants. A useful method for checking a questionnaire and making sure it is accurately capturing the intended information is to pre

test among a smaller subset of target respondents.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Questionnaire_construction)

Designing good questionnaires involves creativity and precision. It takes a good deal of time to develop a draft of a good questionnaire, ensuring that each question has a specific purpose which relates back to the research aims and questions. It is also imperative to know how to analyze the results received, be it through statistical analyses or more in-depth qualitative techniques. The researcher must have a clear idea of how the data will be dealt with. (http://www.cros.ac.uk/question_design.pdf)

Validation of Questionnaires A set of questions to test the different reading comprehension skills was made by the researcher. Questions and selections were carefully chosen to suit the present condition and level of comprehension among Grade V students today.

Administration and Retrieval of the Questionnaires The researcher secured permission from the school principal for the administration of the questionnaires to the Grade V pupils who will serve as the respondents of this study. Teachers - in-charge of the respective sections are also asked for permission. To facilitate the collection of information, researcher personally sought the support and cooperation of the concerned school and teachers.

Treatment of Data The data gathered from the questionnaire will be treated statistically in accordance with the problems presented in Chapter 1. To present the personal data of the respondents, as well as their reading comprehension skills, the mean will be used. Mean is an average; a numerical value intermediate between two extremes. It is also called arithmetic mean. The formula of the mean is :

To present the relationship between reading comprehension skills of respondents with their academic performance, the Pearson Product moment coefficient of correlation method was used. Pearson Product-Moment Correlation is one of the measures of correlation which quantifies the strength as well as direction of such relationship. It is usually denoted by Greek letter (Amit Choudhury.2009).

In the study of relationships, two variables are said to be correlated if change in one variable is accompanied by change in the other either in the same or reverse direction.

The formula for coefficient of correlation is;

Ccxy - E dx dy (E dx)(E dy)

Where: Ccxy - denotes the coefficient correlation of the set of test scores with their academic performance. Dx denotes the deviations of the corresponding x test scores form the

mean of the scores Dyscores. E dydy- denotes the sum product of the deviations dx, multiplied by the corresponding dy deviations. Edx = denotes the sum of the squares of the deviation of the scores of text. A criteria which serves as the basis of the interpretation of the relationship is as follow: +1- denotes perfect positive correlation 0- Denotes no correlation -1 - denotes perfect negative correlation In a positive correlation, an increase in the amount of the variables produces corresponding increase in the amount of other variable, or vice versa. If an increase or decrease in the amount of one of the variable compared does not produce a corresponding amount of increase or decreased in the other variable, then the variables have no correlation and the co efficient of correlation is equals to zero. denotes the deviation corresponding test scores from the mean of the

If a negative correlation, an increase in the amount of one of the variables, or vice versa, produces a corresponding decreased in the amount of the other variables, or vice versa. Garret has presented a broad tentative classification to be accepted with reservations as general guide to the interpretation of coefficient. .00 to +.20 +.20 to +.40 +.40 to +.70 denotes indifferent or negligible relationship denotes low but slight correlation denotes substantial or marked relationship

+.70 to + 1.00 denotes high to very high relationship

To determine the students academic achievement, grades are grouped according to the following level and description. Mean is also used. Category Excellent Outstanding Very Satisfactory Satisfactory Fair Poor Very Poor Grades 96 100 91 95 86 90 81 85 76 80 71 75 70 below

To determine relationship of pupils reading skills and their academic achievement, it was necessary to come up with a correlation between research made test and academic performance grade of Grade V students in Kitang Elementary School. The formula for the Pearson Product moment coefficient of correlation method was used. The formula for coefficient of correlation is;

Where:

- denotes the coefficient correlation of the set of test scores with their academic performance.

- denotes the deviations of the corresponding x test scores form the mean of the scores

denotes the deviation corresponding academic achievement

scores from the mean of the scores.

- denotes the sum product of the deviations dx, multiplied by the corresponding dy deviations.

Donald Ary, Lucy Cheser Jacobs, Asghar Razavieh 2009, Tools of Reseach, p 221

Donald Ary,Lucy Cheser Jacobs,Asghar Razavieh,Chris Sorensen, Introduction to Research in Education p.669

Sudman, S. and Bradburn, N.M. (1989) Asking questions: A practical guide to questionnaire design. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

http://www.experiment-resources.com/pearson-product-moment-correlation.html#ixzz13wVLoFCr