FACTORS AFFECTING THE READING SKILLS COMPREHENSION OF

GRADE SIX PUPILS OF DON FELIX ROBLES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

S.Y. 2015- 2016

A RESEARCH PROPOSALSUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL

ADMINISTRATORS OF LA CASTELLANA II
DISTRICT OF LA CASTELLANA II
LA CASTELLANA, NEGROS OCCIENTAL

Presented to:

MA. CYNTHIA C. BALASOTE

District Supervisor

Presented by:

RONELY JOY T. AGUIRRE

English Coordinator

Chapter I
Introduction

Reading comprehension is the ability to understand a written passage of text. Its

answering yes to the question, Did you get what you read? Reading comprehension
is what allows the reader to interact with the text in a meaningful way. Its the bridge
from passive reading to active reading -- from letters and words to characters and
contexts. Reading comprehension is the crucial link to effective reading -- a strong factor
in our educational and professional lives. For many, reading comprehension also unlocks
the door to a lifetime of reading recreation and enjoyment. Reading comprehension is a
direct by-product of reading fluency. Without fluency, readers spend their time and effort
decoding words, rather than understanding them.
Considering that Philippines Bilingual Education policy seeks to develop
proficiency both in Filipino and English and since content area texts are in either of the
two languages depending on the domain allocated to them, studies continue to be
undertaken on how best to make Filipino biliterate. Although the issue of developing
initial literacy in ones native language has been settled, the phasing in and development
of reading skill in English needs to be resolved.
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.

Theoretical and Conceptual Framework

Reading comprehension skills increase the pleasure and effectiveness of reading.
Strong reading comprehension skills help in all the other subjects and in the personal and
professional lives. The high stake tests that control advancement through elementary,
middle, and high school and which determine entrance to college are in large parts, a
measure of reading comprehension skills.
There are comprehension exercises which helps students understand how the
strategy that skilled readers approach, read, and interpret text.
Reading comprehension is the result of effective reading. Effective reading is
grounded in strong cognitive skills such as attention, auditory analysis, sound blending,
sound segmenting, memory, processing speed, and visualization. Therefore, the key to
improving weak reading comprehension is to confront and correct weak mental skills in
these cognitive areas.
At Don Felix Robles Elementary School, this difficulty is common among student
and necessary strategies is needed to strengthen reading comprehension.
This research study identified that there are factors affecting the reading
comprehension of Grade Six pupils of Don Felix Robles Elementary School.

A. Parents Educational
Attainment
Phil IRI
B. Attitudes of the students
toward reading

DRA

Pupils
Comprehension

Remedial

C. Teachers Competence

Statement of the Problem

The purpose of this study is to identify factors affecting the reading comprehension of
Grade Six Pupils of Don Felix Robles Elementary School, School Year 2015-2016. More
specifically, it aims to answer the following:
1. Is there a significance difference between the Pupils parents background and
reading comprehension?
2. Is the attitude of the pupils towards reading has a significant effect on their good
reading comprehension?
3. Is the teachers competence on teaching reading has a significant effect on the
reading comprehension of the pupils?

Significance of the Study

The findings of the research may benefit the following:
First, the finding of this study may assist the teachers strength and weaknesses in
teaching Reading to improve reading comprehension and assess their methods,
techniques, strategies and styles in teaching.
Second, this research will be beneficial to the teachers to improve their way of
teaching the said subject.
Lastly, this will help most the students to improve their reading comprehension
and to improve themselves to be more competitive enough.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

This study tries to determine the factors affecting the reading comprehension of
Grade Six pupils of Don Felix Robles Elementary School. The researcher focused on
determining the factors that affects the reading comprehension and strategies of teachers
in teaching reading.
The participants of the study were limited year to grade six pupils who are
enrolled in the said school for the school year 2015-2016. The participants were given
reading selections to measure their reading comprehension.
Finally, since the primary objective of this study is to find out the factors affecting
the reading comprehension of students necessary actions are taken place.

Definition of Terms
For the purpose if clarity and understanding, certain important terms were
defined:
Reading

is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the

purpose of deriving meaning (reading comprehension) and/or constructing meaning. It

means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas.
Comprehension-

perception or understanding. The act or fact of grasping

the meaning, nature, or importance of; understanding.

The sum of meanings and

corresponding implications inherent in a term.

Factors

One that actively contributes to an accomplishment,

result, or process.
Reading Skills

enable readers to turn writing into meaning

and achieve the goals of independence, comprehension, and fluency .

Chapter II
Research Methodology

This section includes the type of research, research design, locale or area of the
study, subjects of the study, time frame, data collection method, data gathering instrument
and data analysis method.

Research Design
The researcher used the descriptive type of research design in which events are
recorded, described, interpreted, analyzed and compared. Its objective is to describe
systematically a situation, condition or area of interest factually and accurately.
Descriptive designs include observations, surveys, interviews and standardized
test ( Castillo, 2002).
Since this study aims to determine the factors affecting the reading
comprehension of grade six pupils of Don Felix Robles Elementary School, the research
design used is descriptive.

In addition, the research includes the selected reading

selections used as an exercises or drills to measure their reading comprehension.

Research Instrument
The researcher uses a survey questionnaire needed for the study which is divided
into two parts.
The first part is the checklist that was used to gather information about the
personal information of the respondents and their parents educational attainment.
The second part is composed of questions to determine the perception of the
students on their teachers competence in teaching reading.

And the reading comprehension was tested separately by using the Philippine
Informal Reading Inventory Tool to ensure reliability and validity.

Locale
The research was conducted at Don Felix Robles Elementary School, District of
La Castelana II, Division of Negros Occidental.

Subject/ Participants
The research target is to identify the factors affecting the reading comprehension
of the grade six pupils of Don Felix Robles Elementary School. The researcher uses
random sampling to get the number of pupils to be tested.
The respondents of the study were grade six pupils of Don Felix Robles
Elementary School, School Year 2015- 2016.
In order to come up with the sample population of the study coming from each
section the following formula was used:

n=

N
1+N e 2

Where:
n = Number of samples

e = margin of error = 0.05

N = Total population
The current population of the grade six pupils Don Felix Robles Elementary
School and its estimated sample base on 5% margin of error is given in the table below.

Table 1
Distribution of the Population with percentage per section and Estimated Samples per
section
Section
Daffodil
Gardenia
Total

Population
53
53
106

Percentage
50%
50%
100%

Estimated Sample
26
26
52

Percentage
50%
50%
100%

The stratified random sampling was used to ensure that the different groups in the
populationare adequately represented in the sample. For the study, the section served as
the stratum. Table 1 presents the distribution by section. The total population for section
Daffodil is 53 that is 50% of the total population; the section Gardenia is also 53 and that
is also 50% of the total population. By using the formula to get the sample, the researcher
came up with the figure of the total sample size. In order to distribute the sample size
evenly by section, The sample size of the section is divided to the total population then
multiplied to by the total sample size. Thus the process gave the following figures or
sample by each section: 26 pupils from Grade Six-Daffodil and 26 pupils from Grade
Six- Gardenia. After obtaining the concrete sample size, the researcher randomly selected
26 pupils each section for the convenience of the study.
Data Collection Method
Permission to conduct this study will be first secured from the office of the
principal of Don Felix Robles Elementary School, La Castellana 2, Negros Occidental.
The researcher will gather the necessary data of the pupils consist of their name, gender

and parents educational attainment. The data will also include the answers of the
respondents on their perception about their teachers competence in teaching reading.
The researcher surveyed 40 out of 209 grade six pupils of Don Felix Robles
Elementary School. They were given survey questionnaire as well as tested their
comprehension through Phil IRI. The tool will eventually assess the level of
comprehension of the pupils in oral reading.

Data Gathering Instrument

This study will be utilizing a researcher-made questionnaire focusing on items
about personal information and parents educational background and also questions that
determine their perception on their teachers competence in teaching reading. The
researcher also prepared the Phil IRI tool for the test in the pupils comprehension.
The researcher made questionnaire will undergo validation check / test of validity
using the test of validation by three English teachers who hold masters degree in
English/Reading. Likewise, the test will undergo pilot testing for the test of reliability.
This will be administered to the Grade 6 pupils of La Castellana South Elementary
School, La Castellana I, Negros Occidental.
A reading text with accompanying answer sheet was used as instrument to gather
data. The procedure procedures were divided into two stages:
Stage One Self- Assessment. The students were given the text and a list of
questions on the separate sheet. They were then asked to read the text, and answer the
questions in multiple choices. After the self assessment task was completed the self-

assessment rating were collected.

The whole procedure was accomplished for 30

minutes.
Stage Two Objective Assessment. This was conducted after following class
session. They asked another set of questions that would determine the factors that affects
their reading comprehension.

The list of data was more of personal and family

background of each student. Upon the completion of the task, the data sheet were
collected.
The third stage is when the Phil-IRI or the test in the pupils reading
comprehension was conducted. An approximate of 2 hours was consumed in the test
which includes the oral reading test and the comprehension check-up test. This is to
determine which level of comprehension a pupil belongs.

Data Analysis Method

The collected data were analyzed, interpreted and the implications were
determined with the use of both descriptive and inferential statistics.
To facilitate the tabulation and tallying of the data gathered, the researcher made
use of the Microsoft Excel 2010 and subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS
(Statistical Package for Social Sciences).
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:

x =

x
n

To determine relationship of pupils reading skills and their parents educational

attainment, it was necessary to come up with a correlation between Phil-IRI test and
pupils parents educational background. The formula for the Pearson Product moment
coefficient of correlation method was used. The formula for coefficient of correlation is;

Where:
denotes the correlation of the set of test
scores in comprehension with their parents academic background

denotes the deviation of the corresponding

test scores from the mean of the scores

denotes the deviation corresponding parents

educational attainment from the mean of the scores

denotes the sum product of the deviations

dx, multiplied by the corresponding dy deviations.

Chapter III

Results and Discussions

Bibliography

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Phoenix Publishing House, Inc.
Calkins, Lucy (1994). The Art of Teaching Reading. New Edition
Davies, Evelyn and Whitney, Norman. 1981. Strategies for Reading. London: Heineman
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Devine, Thomas L. 1986. Teaching Reading Comprehension : From Theory to Practice.
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Wayne State University Press.
Pearson, David and Latham, Ross. 1979. A Modern View of Reading. Melbourne : The
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Villamin, Araceli. 1984. Innovative Strategies in Teaching Reading. Quezon City :
Phoenix Publishing House, Inc.
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