Chapter I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

Introduction

Literacy is a crucial issue in almost every countrys educational system.

While most studies have attempted to focus on elementary school literacy,

adolescent literacy must also be given attention because the content that they

learn increases and so, literacy demands also surge (Snow & Biancarosa, 2003 as

cited by Sanford, 2015).

Comprehension in textbooks, scholarly books, and research journal articles,

along with identification of important information can be problematic for college

students. Reading is fundamental in all academic disciplines. Many college

instructors do not see that teaching students reading skills as part of their job,

and that reading required college-level textbooks and scholarly books are not

different from reading general (non-academic) materials. These instructors also

assume that students have developed proper reading skills from previous

academic years. However, instructors do not realize that students may often

experience difficulty in reading academic subject matter and in comprehending

what they have read, resulting in low rates of student success and retention,

along with lowered academic standards. There are various strategies for

improving student comprehension of required reading materials. These strategies

may include providing students with background knowledge or experience,

providing practical homework and class work, providing learning aids, using the

SQ3R and peer teaching methods, practicing encoding, as well as teaching

reading flexibility (Machado, 2010)

White as cited by Aslan (2010) said that reading is basic in all academic

disciplines (Aslan, 2010). Good comprehenders are knowledgeable and strategic

readers according to Anmarkrud and Braten, as cited by Machado, 2010).

College student graduates are not necessarily good readers. Even though college

students are reading advanced academic material, it does not mean that they

always comprehend the information as asserted by Taraban, et al., ss cited by

Aslan (2010). In most public schools, reading instruction often ends in the fifth or

sixth grade.

It is often observed that even though students spend the majority of their

time reading and studying, college-level courses do not put an emphasis on

reading comprehension. Many instructors think that students already possess the

skills that are needed to succeed, and there are those who do not believe it is

possible to teach the required skills at the college level In addition, instructors

may not believe that there is much more difficulty involved in reading college

level materials. In the Philippines, most college-level students do not have the

reading skills needed to function in the world of work.

These students then need to attend reading classes as well as enroll in

assistance labs. There are many strategies, both in class and at home, to improve

reading comprehension and researchers have proven these. Instructors can

improve comprehension through non-reading related information such as

background knowledge or experiences, homework and class work, and learning

aids. Instructors can also teach students how to use other strategies including the

SQ3R method, peer teaching, encoding, and reading flexibility.

Many college students discover that there is significantly more to read in

college than there was in high school. Students frequently remark that they do

not have enough time to read through all of their assignments during the week.

However, many students have bad habits and subscribe to reading myths and

other incorrect beliefs about reading.

 As a tertiary education institution catering to students from mostly

financially and academically disadvantaged communities, Mindanao State

University in Marawi City is no exception to the problem being discussed. Per

observation, college instructors constantly complain of students whose reading

skills and consequently, academic performance, do not befit university-level

standards. With this in mind, the researcher proposes a study on the level of

reading comprehension of English 1 students in Mindanao State University and

the factors that are responsible for this.

Theoretical Framework

Gunning (1996) identifies three main theories of reading comprehension,

which the researcher has determined as appropriate to serve as the theoretical

bases for this study. These theories are Schema Theory, Mental Models, and

Proposition Theory.

Schema Theory

Gunning (1996) defines a schema as the organized knowledge that one

already has about people, places, things, and events. Kitao (1990) says the

schema theory involves an interaction between the readers own knowledge and

the text, which results in comprehension. This schema, as Gunning defined, can

be very broad, such a schema for natural disasters, or more narrow, such as a

schema for a hurricane. Each schema is "filed" in an individual compartment and

stored there. In attempting to comprehend reading materials, students can relate

this new information to the existing information they have compartmentalized in

their minds, adding it to these "files" for future use. Based on the Schema

Theory, depending on how extensive their "files" become, their degree of reading

comprehension may vary.

Mental Model Theory

Another major theory is the Mental Model. This model can be thought of as

a mind movie created in one's head, based on the reading content. Gunning

gives a detailed description of this process, stating that a mental model is

constructed most often when a student is reading fiction. The reader focuses in

on the main character and creates a mental model of the circumstances in which

the character finds him or herself. The mental model is re-constructed or updated

to reflect the new circumstances as the situation changes, but the items

important to the main character are kept in the foreground according to Gunning,

(1996).

Perkins (1991) identifies that sometimes misconceptions about important

concepts reflect misleading mental models of the topic itself or the subject

matter within which it sits. There are, however, interventions the teacher can do

to help the reader to stay on track and create a more accurate picture. One

suggestion is for the teachers to ask the students to disclose their mental models

of the topics in question, through analogy, discussion, picturing, and other ways.

This information gives the teacher insight on the student's knowledge gaps and

misconceptions, therefore allowing them to help students reconstruct a more

accurate picture.

Proposition Theory

The final explanation of comprehension is the Propositional Theory. This

involves the reader constructing a main idea or macrostructure as they process

the text. These main ideas are organized in a hierarchical fashion with the most

important things given the highest priority to be memorized (Gunning, 1996).

 It is interesting to note how intertwined the three theories are. Each one

supports the other. In order to form a mental model in ones head; one must have

a schema of that topic already stored. According to the Proposition theory, the

student is forming a mental model in their mind as they are forming the

macrostructure. Forming a schema is the most basic comprehension tool used by

students. As they become more advanced, they can build on their base of

schemas and create mental models throughout the reading. The most complex

comprehension tool is forming a series of propositions, which are constantly

updated throughout the text.

A student will make use of all three major theories as a means of reading

comprehension, through the strategies, which are the responsibility of the

educator to teach. In order for the Schema theory to be effective, the student

must have knowledge of the subject they are to discuss. One may assume that if

a child has little background knowledge on a subject, they will have difficulty in

comprehending readings regarding that subject. Students sharing with the class

their own schemas could alleviate this. If a student had no prior knowledge of a

subject, they could begin to build their schema based on their classmates

experiences.

The Mental Model theory seemingly relies the heaviest on the Spatial

Intelligence area in Gardners Multiple Intelligences theory (Armstrong 1994).

Therefore, this model may not be as affective for non-spatial learners. Teaching

the process of how a mental picture is formed could develop this skill. Taking

information about the main character as it comes through the readings and

writing descriptive pieces on that character would be a way to improve this skill

and work towards increasing comprehension.

 The Proposition theory works hand in hand with organizational strategies

such as remembering only the relevant information, or identifying the main idea.

These are skills widely taught throughout schools as well as seen on standardized

tests.

Factors

Many older children and adolescents experience difficulties with reading

comprehension because they continue to struggle with word-level deficits that

impede the extraction of meaning from text, a higher-level cognitive skill. In

addition, there are poor comprehenders. These poeple have difficulty

understanding text despite adequate word-level skills. Other factors, such as

those in the domain of oral language, also have been found to predict reading

comprehension.

Several key factors impede a students reading comprehension. One of the

most important is phonemic awareness, the ability to process the individual

sounds of letters, which is needed for word recognition. During a students first

years in school, reading instruction focuses on decoding and fluency, which

require both strong phonemic awareness and phonics skills according to the

National Reading Panels (NRP) report of 2010. Further compounding these

reading problems, the emphasis of reading instruction shifts away from phonics

instruction to reading comprehension around the third grade.

Another factor that affects a students ability to read proficiently and

comprehend text is poor working memory (Alloway, Gathercole, Kirkwood, &

Elliott, 2009; Swanson, Kehler, & Jerman, 2009 as cited by Sanford, 2015).

Working memory allows a student to temporarily store information in short-term

memory while engaging in cognitive tasks. Thus, when a student reads, he can

activate prior knowledge about a topic or use context clues to determine the
meaning of a word while remembering what has just been read. According to

Swanson, Zheng, and Jerman (2009 as cited by Sanford, 2015), students who

struggle to read are unable to retain ordered information which is directly related

to phonological retention processing. Retaining phonological information (i.e.,

blending sounds within words, or segmenting multi-syllabic words), a task

performed through working memory, is essential to learning to read. Additionally,

a direct relationship has been found between working memory and learning,

which Alloway, Gathercole, Kirkwood, and Elliott (2009 as cited by Sanford, 2015)

posit is related to poor academic performance in both reading and math.

Statement of the Problem

This proposed study seeks to determine the level of reading

comprehension of English 1 students in Mindanao State University and the factors

that are responsible for this. Specifically it seeks to answer the following

questions:

1. What is the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of:

1.1 Age

1.2. Sex

1.3 Civil Status

1.4 Degree Program/Course

1.5 School graduated from (Public or Private)

1.6 Ethnic Affiliation

2. What is the level of reading comprehension of the respondents?

 3. What are the factors that may have contributed to the level of reading

comprehension of the respondents?

4. Is there a significant relationship between the profile of the respondents

and their level of reading comprehension?

5. Is there a significant relationship between the profile of the respondents

and the factors that contribute to their level of reading comprehension?

Null Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses are formulated and will be tested on a 0.05

level of significance:

Ho1: There is no significant relationship between the profile of the

respondents and their level of reading comprehension.

Ho2: There is no significant relationship between the profile of the

respondents and the factors that contribute to their level of reading

comprehension.

Conceptual Framework

The study is an attempt to determine the level of reading comprehension

among English 1 students of Mindanao State University and the factors that

contribute to this. The independent variables for the study consists of the profile

of the respondents. The dependent variables include both the level of reading

comprehension of the students as well as the factors that contribute to this.

Figure 1 on the next page shows the schematic diagram of the flow of the study.
 Demographic
Profile of the
` Respondents

1.1 Age

1.2. Sex

1.3 Civil Status Reading

1.4Degree Comprehensio
Program/Course n Levels
1.5 School
graduated from
(Public or Private)

1.6 Ethnic
Affiliation
Factors

1. Word Deficits

2. Poor Working
Memory

3. Phonemic
Figure 1. Schematic Diagram of the Conceptual Framework of the Study

Scope and Limitations

The study will be limited only to the determination of the English 1 students

level of reading comprehension as well as the factors that have contributed to

this. Only English 1 (Study and Thinking Skills) students officially enrolled in the

First Semester of Academic Year 2016-2017 in Mindanao State University Main

Campus will be chosen as respondents. This is because the course has lessons in

reading comprehension. Other limitations to the study include the honesty of the

respondents in answering the research instrument, and the time and resources

needed to conduct to conduct the study.

Significance of the Study

This study aspires to be an addition to the growing number of researches

regarding university students reading comprehension levels. Specifically, this

study hopes to benefit the following:

School/University Administrators. This study will help them propose and

implement programs that will help improve the reading comprehension of their

students, a laudable move since this will equip the students with the reading

abilities required to survive the rigors of academic work and beyond.

Teachers. The data that will be gathered by the study will help motivate

teachers to find strategies and materials to help the students improve their

reading comprehension.

Students. This study will give them insights as to why a high level of

reading comprehension is important in their lives at present and in the future.

They will become more aware of the factors that may have contributed to their

level of reading comprehension.

Future Researchers. This research will serve as a reference to future

researchers intending to pursue research in reading comprehension.

Definition of Terms

The following terms have been defined for better understanding:

After Reading Comprehension Strategies. Strategies that require the reader

to nactively transform key information in text that has been read (e.g.,

summarizing,retelling).

Background Knowledge. Forming connections between the text and the

information and experiences of the reader.

Before Reading Comprehension Strategies. Strategies employed to

emphasize the importance of preparing students to read text (e.g., activate prior

knowledge, set a purpose for reading)

Comprehension. Refers to the act of making sense of what one reads

(Gunning, 1996).

Decoding. The ability to translate a word from print to speech, usually by

employing knowledge of sound symbol correspondences; also the act of

deciphering a new word by sounding it out.

Reading comprehension. It is the ability to deeply and actively glean meaning

from written text (Taraban, Rynearson, & Kerr, 2000 as cited by Machado, 2010).