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