TAYABAS WESTERN ACADEMY
Founded 1928Recognized by the Government
COLLEGE DEPARTMENTCandelaria, Quezon
________________________
AN ANALYSIS OF THE READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF THE
THIRD YEAR
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS OF ST.JOHN PAROCHIAL SCHOOL,
TIAONG, QUEZON DURING THE SCHOOL-YEAR
2012-2013.
__________ ___________________
A Research Proposal Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Education
Tayabas Western AcademyCandelaria, Quezon
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of
Secondary Education (BSED)
B y:
DELOSREYES EUFRACINA AZON
DIGMA AARON CHRISTOPER ALOG
MARCH 2013
APPROVAL SHEET
In partial fulfillment for the Degree of Bachelor of Secondary Education,
major in English, this research paper entitled “AN ANALYSIS OF READING
COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF THE THIRD YEAR HIGH SCHOOL
STUDENTS OF ST.JOHN PAROCHIAL SCHOOL,TIAONG, QUEZON
DURING THE SCHOOL-YEAR 2012-2013.” has been prepared and
submitted by EUFRACINA DELOS REYES and AARON CHRISTOPER A. DIGMA
who are hereby recommended for oral examination.
MR.RAUL AGARAN
(Research Adviser)
Approved by the oral examination Committee with a grade of _____on March
_____, 2013.
____________________________ ______________________________
____________________________
DR.THELMA O.MAGNAYON
Chairman
Accepted and approved in partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of Bachelor of Secondary Education, Major in English (BSed)
________________________________
DR.THELMA O.MAGNAYON
Chairman
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This dissertation would not have been possible without the guidance and the
help of several individuals who in one way or another contributed and
extended their valuable assistance in the preparation and completion of this
study.
First and foremost, our utmost gratitude to our dear instructor Mr. Raul Agar
an sincerity and encouragement we will never forget. Mr.Agaran has been
our inspiration as we hurdle all the obstacles in the completion of this
research work.
Second, the Administrators, teachers and personnel of the St.John Parochial
School for their untiring effort in helping us in materializing our research.
Thirdly, to the third year students of the said school for their sincere
cooperation in answering each questionnaire given.
Last but not the least, our family, our friends and the one above all of us, the
omnipresent God, for answering our prayers, and for giving us the strength
to continue on despite our constitution wanting to give up, thank you so
much Dear Lord.
THE
RESEARCHERS
DEDICATION
I dedicate this dissertation work to my family and many friends. A special
feeling of gratitude to my loving father, Domingo Delos Reyes whose words
of encouragement and push for tenacity ring in my ears. My brothers, who
have never left my side and are very special,
I also dedicate this dissertation to my many friends and personnel in St.John
Parochial School- the institution where I belong for past four years which
supported and believed in me throughout my study. I will always appreciate
all they have done,
I dedicate this work and give special thanks to my special best friend for
serving as inspiration. Thank you for always being there.
EUFRACINA DELOS REYES
ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this study was to analyze the situation of Reading
Comprehension Skills of the third year high school students of St.John
Parochial School during the school year 2012-2013.
Specifically the study sought to answer the following questions.
What is the profile of third year high school students in St.John
Parochial School in terms of gender and age?
What are the reading comprehension level of male and female high
school students according to selected Reading comprehension skills
such as:
-Noting details
-Getting the main idea
-Making generalization
-Predicting outcomes
-Drawing conclusions
What are the difficulties in Reading Comprehension of the students
according to the selected skills?
Is there significant difference between difficulties of male and
female students in Reading Comprehension?
The descriptive type of research was employed in the course of the study .The subject of this study was the third year students of St. John Parochial School, Tiaong, Quezon during the school year 2012-2013.The researchers focus on the representative respondents who were chosen through random
sampling .The respondents were compose of _male students which comprise the 50% of the total respondents and _females which comprise 50% of the total respondents.
The sources of the data are the respondent’s answer in the research
questionnaire.
FINDINGS
The salient findings of the study were:
1.As to English Performance of the respondents group by sex before the
treatment, it revealed that _ subjects had a higher mean performance of
_compared to subjects who got only _.The overall mean performance of the
groups was _ and the standard deviation was _
As to English Performance of the controlled group before the treatment, it
revealed that male subjects had a higher mean performance which was
_compared to female subjects who got _. The standard deviation obtained
which was _for female and _ for male subjects indicated that females were
grouped more heterogeneously than males: however _ subjects had higher
achievement than _subjects.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abdur Rauf, S.M. (1988). Culture and Reading Comprehension. English
Reading Forum, xxvi, 44-46.
Al-Rufai, M. (1977). The Effect of Reading Comprehension on The Acquisition
of Literary Appreciation and
Criticism. IDELTI Journal, 9, 49.
Burns, P. and Roe, D. (1976). Teaching Reading in Today's Elementary
Schools. Chicago: Rand McNally.
Carroll, J. (1973). Defining Reading Comprehension. In Carroll and Roy (Ed.),
Language Comprehension and
Acquisition of Knowledge. Washington, D. C.:V.H. Winstons and Sons.
Dechant E. and Smith, H. (1977). Psychology in Teaching Reading (2nd Ed.).
Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education
Flesch, R. (1955). Why Johnny Can't Read. New York: Harper and Brother.
Reading and Learning. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publishers.
Lunzer, E., Waite, M. and Dolan, T. (1979). Comprehension and
Comprehension Tests. In Lunzer, E., and
Gardner, K. (Eds.), The Effective Use of Reading. London: Heinemann
Educational Books.
Pumfrey, P. (1977). Measuring Reading Abilities: Concepts, Sources, and
Applications. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Rivers, W. (1981). Teaching Foreign Language Skills (2nd ed.). The University
of Chicago Press.
Smith, F. (1978). Understanding Reading: Psycholinguistic Analysis of
Reading and Learning to Read. New
York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
Spiro, R., Bruce, B. and Brewer, F. (1980). Theoretical Issues in Reading
Comprehension. Hillsdale N. J.,
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Thiele, A. and Herzic, G. (1983). Listening Comprehension Training in
Teaching English to Beginners. System
Thomas, E. and Robinson, H. (1977). Improving Reading in Every Class (2nd
ed.), Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon Inc.
Thonis, E. (1970). Teaching Reading to non-speakers of English. London:
Collier MacMillan.
Tinker, M. and Mc Gullough, c. (1975). Teaching Elementary Reading (4th
ed). New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE
APPROVAL SHEET
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
DEDICATION
ABSTRACT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES
CHAPTER I-THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
RESEARCH PARADIGM
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
SCOPE AND DELIMINATION
DEFINITION OF TERMS
CHAPTER II-REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
RELATED LITERATURE
RELATED STUDIES
CHAPTER III-METHODOLOGIES
RESEARCH DESIGN
SOURCES OF DATA
DATA GATHERING INSTRUMENT
CONSTRUCTION OF THE INSTRUMENT
DATA GATHERING PROCEDURE
STATISTICAL TREATMENT
CHAPTER IV-PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND
INTERPRETATION OF DATA
CHAPTER V-SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
SUMMARY
FINDINGS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDICES
CHAPTER 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING
INTRODUCTION
Reading is an essential skill for students not only because it is a source of
pleasure and getting information but also because it helps them widen and
deepen their knowledge of language. Reading in this sense is not the mere
mouthing of words and decoding of every word in every sentence. It is rather
the activity that enables the students to go deeper and deeper to get the
meaning which is intended by the author. It is the activity that depends
largely on comprehension. Accordingly, developing reading comprehension is
one of the great aims of teaching English. It is reading comprehension that
enables students to pursue their studies and to meet their interests in all
fields of knowledge. Thus, reading comprehension should receive more
emphasis throughout the teaching process.
The importance of this study is to help students realize that they are
literary readers and their attempts to go beyond the literal meaning are very
limited. Moreover, this study attempts to make students aware of the fact
that reading comprehension is a process of thinking, evaluating, judging,
imagining, and problem solving.
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
There is a term known as functional illiteracy that has been discussed
in academic and political circles for some time. The term basically describes
reading and writing skills that make it very difficult to manage daily living
and work in an environment that requires reading beyond the most
elementary level. People with such skills may not be purely illiterate,
meaning they can read and write in some capacity, but their reading
comprehension level is so low they can’t manage the everyday aspects of
life.
The lack of strong reading comprehension skills obviously affects a student’s
success in school. Academic progress depends on understanding, analyzing,
and applying the information gathered through reading. But it goes
much further than that. Poor reading comprehension skills have been also
been linked to poverty and crime. Consider these facts:
Over 60% of inmates in the U.S prison system have reading skills at or
below the fourth grade level.
85% of U.S juveniles in prison are functionally illiterate.
43% set of adults with extremely low reading skills live at or below the
poverty line.
And even more alarming:
Nearly 2/3 of students who reach the fourth grade without proficient
reading skills end up on welfare or in prison.
While these statistics are not meant to shock you, they do send a message
that is loud and clear: developing strong reading comprehension skills is
essential for a rich academic, professional, and personal life. Imagine trying
to survive and thrive in a society where you couldn’t comprehend the basic
meaning of your cable bill, your mortgage agreement, or how to follow road
signs. Even worse, imagine not being able to read the label on a bottle of
medicine or a container of dangerous chemicals. Living safely and
productively is only one of the many outcomes of proper reading
comprehension skills. Being able to derive meaning from the written word
also enables students to develop intellectually, socially, and emotionally –
something we all want for our children.
‘’The goal of reading is to derive meaning “Obviously, this is an extreme
example but sadly, classrooms across the nation are interspersed with
students who experience the same type of frustration every day. They don’t
possess adequate reading comprehension skills to do what is expected of
them. Without comprehension, reading is simply following words on a page
from left to right while sounding them out. The words on the page have no
meaning. And while people read for many different reasons, the chief goal is
to derive some understanding of what the writer is trying to convey and
make use of that information – whether for fact gathering, learning a new
skill, or for pleasure. That’s why reading comprehension skills are so
important. Without them the reader cannot gather any information and use it
to efficiently function and enjoy the richness of life.
Reading is a multifaceted process that develops only with practice. There are
certain aspects of reading, such as fluency and word recognition, which can
be learned in a few years. These basics must be mastered but at the same
time reading comprehension should be emphasized in the process. Students
can parrot words on a page all day long but if they don’t have the necessary
comprehension skills they will not be able to make predictions about what
will happen next, monitor their understanding of content, sequence or
characters, clarify confusing parts of the text, or connect what they’re
reading to their own experience or prior knowledge. And that is what true
comprehension is all about.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The main purpose of this study was to determine the state of Reading Comprehension in English by the third year high school students of St. John Parochial School, Tiaong, Quezon during the school year 2012-2013.
Specifically the study sought to answer the following questions.
What are the demographic profile of third year high school students
in St.John Parochial School in terms of gender and age?
What are the reading comprehension level of male and female high
school students according to selected Reading comprehension skills
such as:
-Noting details
-Getting the main idea
-Making generalization
-Predicting outcomes
-Drawing conclusions
What are the difficulties in Reading Comprehension of the students
according to the selected skills?
Is there significant difference between difficulties of male and
female students in Reading Comprehension?
What types of readers are the majorities of the respondents?
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Since this study projected the analysis of the state of reading
comprehension of students in English 3 of St. John Parochial School, the result was
the springboard in recommending pedagogical strategies for the
improvement of teaching the subject English.
The study also hopes to provide beneficial results to the following:
Teachers of English. The findings of the study will make them aware of
the actual difficulties the students face in reading comprehension and their
different views on the activities done involving reading. With this information
from this study, the teachers could devise ways and means to develop the
reading comprehension skill.
The School Administrators. By knowing the state or the real situation
of both teachers and students in reading comprehension in English. The
suggested solutions to the problems can be incorporated in formulating
policies for the English program of the school.
Future Researchers. This will serve as reference for future study, which
may be important enough as a contribution to the state-of-the-art in
research.
SCOPE AND DELIMINATION OF THE STUDY
The study focuses on the Analysis of the Reading Comprehension in
English to Third year High School students of St. John Parochial School during the
school year 2012-2013, result of which was used as a basis for selection of
pedagogical strategies in teaching English.
It reveals the reading comprehension level of the students and their
difficulties in reading comprehension. The result of this study is limited only
to the third year High School Students of St. John Parochial School, Tiaong,
Quezon for the school year 2012-2013 which consisted of ________( )
students, _______( ) males and ____ ( ) females who were chosen purposively
in terms of age, and gender.
The respondents are chosen for the reason that they are on the critical
stage of learning and that they are closest to the tertiary level of education
to which the ability of reading comprehension is a commodity. The school
was selected to help the research yield feasible and functional result.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
For better understanding of this study, the researchers had defined the
following terms operationally:
AGE. - The length of time which the respondents existed,
usually expressed in years.
SEX. - Classification of the respondents of this study as being a
boy or girl.
COMPREHENSION - Act of or capacity for grasping with the intellect.
The term is most often used in connection with tests of reading skills
and language abilities, though other abilities (e.g., mathematical reasoning)
may also be examined.
GRAMMATICALSTRUCTURE - are the building blocks of language.
These structures can be broken down into phrases and clauses.
VOCABULARY - is the set of words within a language that are familiar
to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a
useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge.
Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning
a second language.
PASSAGES - Brief portion of a written work or speech that is relevant to
a point under discussion or noteworthy for content or style.
TONE (literature) -literary technique which encompasses the attitudes
toward the subject and toward the audience implied in a literary work that is
compatible with the other drive.
KINDS OF READERS:
a. Good Reader - easily comprehend what he reads
b. Regressive Reader - does not easily comprehend what he reads
c. Skillful Reader - not rely on dictionary for words due to large recognition of vocabulary
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter deals with the review of literature which provides relevant
information which regards to the Analysis of Reading Comprehension Skill of
the Third year High School students of St. John Parochial School, Tiaong, Quezon
RELATED LITERATURE
To many experts and specialists the '' reading comprehension ''
process can be broken into a number of skills. These skills are interrelated
and the acquisition of certain ones will pave the road for acquiring others.
To explain the difficulty of giving a unified definition for the term
''reading comprehension', 'the researcher introduces below some lists of
reading comprehension skills. Each list gives a number of skills which are
considered essential to comprehend a piece of writing.
Hildreth (1965:455), for instance, defines "reading comprehension" as
comprising the ability to:
1) follow the sequence of ideas .
2) grasp details .
3) catch the general significance and implications of statements made, and
4) to evaluate them and make inferences from them .
Kelly and Greene (1953: 2) consider seven skills to be indispensable to
effective reading:
1) Skimming to locate passages containing answers to specific questions.
2) Careful and critical reading to identify details necessary to answer specific
questions.
3) Selecting the central idea or theme of a paragraph or a passage.
4) Making generalization from a series of related statements.
5) Drawing inferences from material read.
6) Summarizing in a few words the gist of a paragraph.
7) Remembering material read in the light of a specific purpose
Many of those who are involved in studying the comprehension process hold
the belief that comprehension skills can be classified into different levels.
Burns and Roe (1976: 208), for instance, mention three of them, namely
literal, interpretive, and creative.
Zintz (1980: 230) holds the same view. He states that “comprehension, or
the understanding of what the author has written, takes place at different
levels of complexity according to the nature of the materials and the purpose
for which the reading is intended”. Then he classifies the skills into the
following:
1) Literal comprehension or the pre-interpretive skills.
2) Interpretive skills,
3) Evaluative skills. ( Ibid :231)
Accordingly, the efficient reader is the one who not only recognizes the
meanings he gets from the written materials, but also the one who has the
ability to interpret, evaluate, and reflect upon those meanings.
According to Logan et al (1972: 372) and Spache (1961: 52), the ''reading
comprehension skills'' can be classified into the following three levels:
1) Literal level.
2) Inferential level.
3) Critical level.
The literal level of comprehension is the direct level in which one identifies
what the words say; it does not involve determining what the words beyond
their literal meaning mean. It deals with facts, such as dates, names, places,
and with all that can easily state and comprehend, once the meaning of
unknown words is known. Sometimes, the literal level is called ''receptive
level, since this type of comprehension involves merely the ntake of
information'' (Herber, 1967: 139). Nevertheless, it is an essential one
because it constitutes the first step towards a complete understanding of a
written message.
For Thomas and Robinson (1977: 133) four skills are essential to gain the
literal meaning. These are:
1) Grasping directly stated details or facts.
2) Understanding main ideas.
3) Grasping the sequence of time, place, ideas, events ...etc.
4) Understanding and following directions.
A number of studies have shown that most of the directed questions to
students inside the classroom tend to test mainly literal comprehension, yet
fail to motivate them to cope with problems concerning the inferential and
critical levels.
The inferential level of comprehension is commonly defined as ''... arriving at
something that was not directly communicated. What the something is
depends on the explicit context. It may be a conclusion, an inference, a
predication, identification of cause.'' (Durkin, 1978:441)
The inferential level is the reaction of the reader to what is read; so it is, as
Gans (1963: 198) says, ''a highly personal process''.
Tinker and McGullough (1975: 23) emphasize Gans's view by stating that the
''interpretation of word meanings is often in terms of the reader's related
experience''. They add that ''a reader will react in his own individual ways to
the textual material and its wider references and implications in proportion
as his background of experience is uniquely his own'' (Ibid)
When the student reaches the second level in his reading process, this
means that he goes deeper and deeper toward the third one, which is to the
Critical, or Evaluative level of ''reading comprehension''. This level is
identified by a variety of names, such as applied, creative, associational, and
expressive. When dealing with the critical level of comprehension, the reader
makes use of the skills which belong to the literal and interpretive levels. He
gets the facts and information from the first level and the interpretation of
these facts from the second.
This view is emphasized by Herber (1970: 63) who believes that the reader
''takes the product of literal, what the author has said, and the interpretive,
what the author meant by what is said, and applies it in some pragmatic
exercises.''
Durrell (1949: 203) explains that the critical level includes such skills as:
1) judging suitability of material for particular purposes,
2) distinguishing between facts and opinions,
3) discovering evidence of bias of prejudice and other evaluation skills.
He adds that ''critical reading may be concerned with the form of
presentation of the ideas, the choice of vocabulary, sentence organization,
paragraph structure, illustrations, or general quality of the writer.'' (Ibid)
Teachers and experts of ''reading comprehension'' believe that the critical
level is essential for students, because understanding sentences and
paragraphs does not necessarily mean that the students completely
comprehend the reading materials.
Teaching students to be critical is not an easy job, ''because of lack of
classroom time or adequate regard of its importance or because the teacher
is unsure of his ability to pursue it''. (Gans, 1963: 198) In spite of being
difficult to be taught, the critical level should be emphasized by teachers in
the classroom.
RELATED STUDIES
Spiro, Bruce, and Brewer (2002: XV) emphasize this fact. They write ''one
problem faced by anyone seeking to understand current beliefs about
comprehension is the interdisciplinary nature of research in this area. There
are no readily available syntheses of the relevant work in the diverse
discipline of cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, linguistics, and
reading education.''
For Lunzer and Dolan (2004: 257) ''comprehension'' is conceived of as ''a
measure of the pupil's ability and willingness to reflect on whatever it is he is
reading.'' This means that the reader does two things in his reading process;
one of them is certainly reading, and the other one is not only understanding
but in some sense thinking.
Fairbanks (2005: 81) shows this close relationship between
''comprehension'' and ''reading''. He found that poor readers made an
average of 5.8 oral errors per 100 words; on the contrary, good readers
made only 2.1 errors per 100 words. More relevant is the fact that in 51
percent of the cases the errors of the poor readers tended to change the
meaning, but the errors of the good readers never did.
The good readers also corrected their own errors more often than the poor
readers did. Fairbanks concludes that the basic problem of the poor readers
is the lack of comprehension. Thus, effective reading is not only a process in
which the reader reconstructs a message put in graphic symbols by the
writer, but also one of seeking the meanings beyond the surface level of the
graphic symbols.
Tinker and McGullough (2003: 197) point out:''The fundamental goal in
seeking to produce nature readers is to have them able to comprehend
whatever printed materials will serve their purpose, no matter how difficult
these materials may be. The acquisition of a sight vocabulary and of skill in
recognizing words, and of verbal facility in general, all are aimed at
promoting the understanding and interpretation of the meanings embodied
in printed symbols.''
Lewis and Sisk (2002: 111): ''No matter how one lists the various reading
abilities [skills], it is practically impossible to isolate them or to give priority
to one skill. All comprehension skills are interrelated, and the sequence of
skills is therefore almost impossible to determine accurately'' The
interrelated nature of the reading comprehension skills makes it difficult to
see them as separate entities. No one can put a firm border between them,
because the comprehension of a piece of writing is the immediate outcome
of the interrelationship between these different skills. Lewis and Sisk cite an
example of the interrelation of comprehension skills: ''if asked to state the
first or basic comprehension skills required, many people would name the
ability to grasp main ideas. But by what process does one arrive at the main
idea except by putting together details? And one must understand the
relationship of these details to one another. Therefore, the ability to select
details is basic, as the ability to weigh the comparative importance of
details.'' (Ibid) To explain the difficulty of giving a unified definition for the
term ''reading comprehension', 'the researcher introduces below some lists
of reading comprehension skills. Each list gives a number of skills which are
considered essential to comprehend a piece of writing.
Duke and Pearson (2002) according to them , good readers are active in
their reading. They ask questions about new words and concepts, make
comparisons, and draw on their prior knowledge to assist them in
comprehension.
Foorman & Torgesen, (2005) according to their studies, students taught in
a more direct and explicit fashion on decoding skills improves faster than
students taught in a more implicit fashion.
Matlin, (2005) stated that students learn more and better when they have
previous knowledge or experience with a topic under study. This helps them
use top-down processing to extend their neural networks in semantic
memory. They use bottom-up processing to connect to the former nodes and
links in their networks
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGIES
This chapter deals with the method and procedures utilized by the
researchers in order to arrive to a valid conclusion and to show how this
paper is systematically created out of the output gathered.
RESEARCH DESIGN
The researchers used the descriptive method of research in order to
analyze the state or real situation of reading comprehension skill of the
THIRD YEAR high school students .The researchers gathered all pertinent
information through a questionnaire as the primary instrument in finding out
some fact regarding the topic.
SOURCES OF DATA
The respondents are third year high school consists of__
students ,twenty-five (25) males and twenty-five(25) females who are
enrolled at ST. JOHN PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. They are selected through
purposive random sampling.
DATA GATHERING INSTRUMENT
The data gathering instrument of the study is the 25 item test that was
focused on five developing reading skills as follow:
-Noting details
-Getting the main idea
-Making generalization
-Predicting outcomes
-Drawing conclusions
The test content was taken from various reading materials utilized by public
school teachers in which the test content measured the level of the
possessed skill on the five (5) identified reading comprehension skills.
CONSTRUCTION OF THE INSTRUMENT
The data gathering instruments is constructed in consonance with the
statement of the problem. Each answer to the questions reflects the___ to
the predicament being researched about.
DATA GATHERING PROCEDURE
At the outset of the study, the researcher engaged in the gathering
information related to the research variables. The body of information
gathered has provided the researcher with additional insights as to the
instrument to be used in gathering data.
To start the study, the researcher delivered a letter of request for the
conduct of the study to the principals of the identified high school. Upon the
approval of the request, the researcher selected the respondents. After
identifying the respondents, the researcher, in coordination with the adviser
of the selected class, gathered the respondents in one place for the
administration of the instrument. The respondents were assigned to read
the selection and answer the test which is composed of 5 items for each
skills.
Information and response of the students were processed and
subjected to statistical treatment. The findings were extracted and analyzed
based on the processed data.
STATISTICAL TREATMENT
The responses of the subjects in the reading comprehension skills
test were checked and tallied, summed up and analyzed, based on the
objective of the study. The data gathered was tabulated and treated
statistically particularly using arithmetic mean and standard deviation.
1. To get the mean age of the respondents, the following formula
were used:
= ∑x
n
Where:
= mean age
∑x = sum of all the values
n = no. of respondents
2. To construct the frequency distribution, the researchers used the
following procedures and formula:
a.) Getting the value of Range:
R= H – L
where: R = range
H = highest rating
L = Lowest rating
b.) Determining the number of classes:
k = 1 + 3.3 log n
where:
k = number of classes
n = number of respondents
c.) Determining the size of class intervals:
c = R
k
where: c = class intervals
R = range of difference between the highest and
lowest value of
rating
k = number of classes
3. To get the mean for the grouped data, the Midpoint method were used:
= ∑fx
n
where: f = frequency of each class
x = midpoint of each class
n = total number of frequencies
4. To get the Standard Deviation, the variance for grouped data was first
determined:
s² = ∑f ( – ) ²
n
where: x = midpoint of each class interval
= mean
n = number of respondents
*Standard Deviation = square root of the variance, therefore I
s =
wherein :
s = Standard Deviation
s² = variance
5. To determine the difficulties of male and female subjects in terms of
noting details, getting the main idea, determining the cause and effect,
predicting outcomes and drawing conclusion, the percentage were
obtained using the formula:
Percentage ( % ) = number of correct responses
total number of subjects
6. To validate the test, the researchers used the formula:
Rs = 1 – 6 ∑D²
N3 – N
where: Rs = spearman coefficient of correlation
∑D2 = sum of the squared differences
between ranks
N = total number of cases
This formula was also used in determining the relationship of the
male and female subjects.
CHAPTER IV
PRESENTATION ,ANALYSIS,AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
This chapter presents the analysis and interpretation of data as references to the
personal data. Tables were used for more systematic presentation.
TABLE 1
The Mean score of Students Performance in Reading Comprehension Skill.
RANGE F M fM
97-99
94-96
91-93
88-90
85-87
82-84
79-81
76-78
73-75
70-72
X=
The table shows the grouped data in tabular form with the frequency midpoint, and
the product of frequency (f) and the midpoint (M) to get the mean. After careful
calculations, we got the score of___as the mean of the group.
TABLE 1.1
Ranking in Most Difficult part in Reading Comprehension Skills.
CATEGORY PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS
WITH CORRECT ANSWERS
RANK
Noting Details
Getting the Main Idea
Inferring
Making Generalization
Predicting Outcomes
Tayabas Western Academy
Candelaria, Quezon
Sr.Cecilia P.Varonn, O.P.
Directress/Principal
St.John Parochial School
Tiaong, Quezon
Madam:
Greetings in the most precious name of our LORD SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!
We are the third year students of TAYABAS WESTERN ACADEMY taking up Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English, and presently enrolled in the subject AB 103 Research Seminar.
In this connection, we would like to ask permission from your office to conduct a research study entitled “AN ANALYSIS OF THE READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF THIRD YEAR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS OF ST.JOHN PAROCHIAL SCHOOL, TIAONG QUEZON DURING THE SCHOOL-YEAR 2012-2013.” Rest assured that all information and data gathered would be carefully studied and treated with confidentiality.
We are hoping to your kind consideration and favorable action.
Very truly yours,
DELOS REYES EUFRACINA A.
DIGMA AARON
Noted:
____________________________
Mr. Raul Agar an
Research Adviser
_____________________________
Mrs. Thelma O.Magnayon
Approved:
____________________________
Sr.Cecilia P. Varonn, O.P.
Directress/Principal
Please put a check (√) inside the brackets before the answer that is acceptable to you.
1- The lesson of reading comprehension is:
( ) a-most important
( ) b- as important as any other lessons
( ) c- the less important
2- If your answer to item no. 1 is (a) or (b), is this because:
( ) a- reading comprehension lessons help you to understand the meanings of vocabulary
( ) b- reading comprehension lessons help you to understand the grammatical s tructures.
( ) c- reading comprehension help you to understand other culture
( ) d- reading comprehension lessons motivate you to think critically about what you have read
3- When you read a topic in class, you usually pay more attention to:
( ) a- vocabulary
( ) b- grammatical sentences
( ) c- understanding the other culture
( ) d- getting the general meaning
( ) e- getting the deep meaning
4- The questions you usually want to answer deal mainly with:
( ) a- the meaning of words
( ) b- the grammatical structures
( ) c- the general meaning of the passage
( ) d- the deep meaning of the passage
5- The activities which you are interested with concentrate on:
( ) a- pronunciation
( ) b- writing
( ) c- knowing the meaning of words
( ) d- knowing the grammatical structures
( ) e- knowing the general meaning
( )` f- knowing the deep meaning
6- Do you face any problems with reading comprehension lessons
a- yes ( )
b- to some extent ( )
c- no ( )
7- If your answer to question no. 6 is either (a) or (b) is this because of
( ) a- the textbook
( ) b- methods of teaching
( ) c- your previous knowledge of English
8- If your answer to question no. 7 is (a) is this because of
( ) a- vocabulary
( ) b- grammar
( ) c- the foreign culture
( ) d- the topics
9.If you will be given a chance to choose ,do you prefer to read in the reading comprehension lessons topic of:
( ) a- students' choice
( ) b- the teacher's choice
( ) c- both students' and the teacher's choice
11- Do you think that the textbook in your hand reflects your interest in reading
( ) a- yes
( ) b- to some extent
( ) c- no