READING PROFICIENCY LEVEL OF GRADE 7 STUDENTS IN HERCOR COLLEGE

HIGHSCHOOL DEPARTMENT

JOHN LLOYD CHRISTIAN M. BARNUEVO

EMILY ANNE MICHELL S. ALLER

CARL ANGELIE L. BRINOSA

GRACELL BETH C. FLORES

MARY GLODEN V. ABOOL

DIANAFFE D. MARANAN

CHRISTIAN G. BANZON

DARWILYN A. ANONOY

MARIFE B. PENALOSA

WENNA JANE BACTOL

GERALD T. PLAZA

A thesis presented to the faculty of Hercor College High School

Department on partial fulfilment to the subject Reading and

Writing Skills.

2020
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter comprises of the several Microsystems combined

as for the pursuit of this study. The following subsystem are

analyzed accordingly to further understand the study effectively:

(1)Background of the Study, (2) Statement of the Problem, (3)

Hypothesis, (4) Theoretical Framework, (5) Paradigm of the Study,

(6) Significance of the Study, and (9) Definition of Terms.

Background of the Study

Reading is a skill needed to have while a person is learning

throughout his/her life. Through reading a person acquire

information that adds up to the knowledge of a person which

he/she can use as he/she lives. Reading is not just all about

speaking out the words as person sees, it involves understanding,

comprehending and reflecting unto something that you read.

Reading is the most important component in learning process and

social interaction because, first, reading is an indispensable

communication tool in a civilized society. Second, that the

reading materials produced in any period of time in history most

influenced by social background. Third, developments, that over

the period of the recorded history of reading has led to two very

different poles. (Grey in Tarigan, (1957:1099).

(http://eprints.umpo.ac.id/1440/2/2CHAPTER%20I.pdf) Reading is

bringing meaning to and getting meaning from printed or written

material (Finochiaro and Bonomo in Tarigan, 1973:119). In a

technological age, most people are expected to possess basic

skills in reading, writing and arithmetic. Nobody could translate

one’s vision of a nation free from illiteracy without these basic

skills. Information and knowledge nowadays constitute power and

the skills required from a person to be able to access, interpret

and process information (Wille, 2006). Reading will be a way to

develop a person through obtaining information from reading. The

ultimate goal of independent reading is to achieve reading

proficiency, which facilitates knowledge acquisition and

dissemination (McPike, 1995) and leads to holistic development of

the individual. Reading can be for academic purposes or leisure,

either way a student can still learn and reflect through it which

can help them to widen ones vocabulary and comprehension. Reading

is vital for a person. Everyone can read, but not everyone are

able to understand and comprehend sentences and words that they

read, if so, some are slow at comprehension and understanding.

Recently it was known that the Philippines, among 79 countries

ranked the lowest at reading comprehension, this influenced the

researchers to conduct this study. Reading proficiency includes

having to understand the text, read fluently and can comprehend

and reflect on the text that is written.

Statement of the Problem

This study will determine the reading proficiency level

of the Grade 7 students of Hercor College High School Department.

Specifically, this study sought to answer the following

questions:

1. What are the academic performances encountered by the

participants that can enhance reading proficiency related factors

in terms of quarterly examinations, essay and quizzes?

2. Is there a significant differences in the academic

performances that can enhance the reading proficiency of the

participants in terms of quarterly examinations, essay and

quizzes?

3. Is there a significant relationship in the academic

performances that can enhance the reading proficiency of the

participants in terms of quarterly examinations, essay and

quizzes?

Hypothesis
1. There is no significant differences in the academic

performances encountered by the participants that can enhance

reading proficiency related factors in terms of quarterly

examinations, essay and quizzes.

2. There is no significant differences in the academic

performances that can enhance the reading proficiency of the

participants in terms of quarterly examinations, essay and

quizzes.

Theoretical Framework of the Study

A theory closely related to this study is Walter Kintsch’s

theory of reading. In 1998, Kintsch and Van Dijk developed their

first processing model, which is based on the assumption that

during reading, a text is transformed into several semantic

units, called propositions. Comprehension is only possible with a

certain degree of coherence. According to the construction-

integration model, this coherence is established by arranging the

propositions into a propositional net to create order (cf.

Kintsch 1988: 166). Propositions are designed to capture those

semantic relations that are most salient in text comprehension,

whereas natural language serves many purposes other than the

expression of meaning and hence is often less suited for our

purposes than a representation that is focused on meaning

(Kintsch 1998: 69). What Kintsch means by saying “natural

language serves many purposes other than the expression of

meaning” is that propositions, among other things, do not contain

information about “tense, aspect, voice, and the determinacy of

the nouns” (Graesser 1997: 169). They concentrate solely on the

meaning, which is exactly the information needed for a text

analyses. (https://m.grin.com/document/114251)

Conceptual Framework

The schematic diagram in figure 1. Shows that relationship

between the variable are the demographic academic performances of

the students of HERCOR COLLEGE Junior High School grade 7

students, covered in the study, showing the relationship between

the reading proficiency of the students as an independent

variable and academic performances of the students as the

dependent variable.
Schematic Diagram

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Academic Performance of
Students:
Reading Proficiency of Quarterly Examinations
Students Essay
Quizzes

Figure 1. A schematic diagram showing the relationship between

the independent variable intervening and dependent variables.
Scope and Limitation of the Study

This study conducted by the researchers focuses on the

Reading proficiency level of students specifically the Grade 7

students of Hercor College Junior High School Department in the

academic year 2019-2020.

Significance of the Study

This study aspire to know the reading proficiency of the

grade 7 students in Hercor College High school Department. This
aims to study the level of proficiency for the purpose of giving
information about the situation of reading proficiency to the
following:

Grade 7 Students – This study is significant for them to be aware

about their level of reading proficiency. This can raise
awareness for them to improve their skills in reading.

Teachers – The results of this study may get the attention of

teachers and do appropriate approach to help the students improve
the level of their reading proficiency.

Parents – Parents will be knowledgeable and will know how to

improve the reading skill of their children.
Future researchers – this study can also help the future
researchers as a reference for any related study.

Definition of Terms

The following terms which are used in this study are

conceptually defined:

Knowledge acquisition- is the process used to define the rules

and ontologies required for a knowledge-based system.

In this study knowledge acquisition explains that if

students has a developed reading skill they are more likely to

acquire knowledge.

Reading - is defined as a cognitive process that involves

decoding symbols to arrive at meaning.

In this study reading allows the reader to use what he or

she may already know, also called prior knowledge.

Proficiency - foreign language comprises the aspects of being

able to do something with the language ('knowing how') as well

as knowing about it ('knowing what').

Operationally proficiency refers to the fluency of a reader

and his/her capacity to comprehend written texts effectively.

Reading Comprehension - is the ability to process text,

understand its meaning and to integrate with what the reader

already knows.

In this study it is how a reader can understand the meaning

of a concept or an idea on a written text.

Development - development creates growth, progress, positive

change or the addition of physical, economic, environmental,

social and demographic components.

Operationally, development refers to the growth of a student

as a reader.
 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

In this section the researchers will address the studies and

literatures that have informed explicitly foreign and local

literature or studies with formally cited sources to perform this

analysis. The following articles are from the respective

information and all referenced references are with formal

recognition and accreditation.

Foreign Literature

According to (Bender, 2012) as none of the students fail in

elementary education, the students having reading difficulties

pass their classes; yet, they cannot perform reading at the level

expected of their grade; hence, they experience various problems

such as anxiety and depression throughout their schooling. They

are usually tagged as unsuccessful students throughout their

education. Moreover, they cannot get the help needed to resolve

their problems and they experience adaptation problems in their

classes.(Bohn-Gettler & Rapp, 2011; Katzir, Lesaux, & Kim, 2009)

stated that many students begin to dislike reading because they

struggle to gain meaning from what they read. While research

supports a strong correlation between reading engagement and

reading ability, students often do not read well because they do

not spend time reading. A cycle of reading apathy begins, which

makes it more challenging to support struggling readers.

Independent reading simply refers to the ability of students to

read on their own without anybody necessarily instructing them to

do so. This also involves selecting books of interest, time as

well as place to read, which is likely to have a positive

influence on their reading comprehension and adoption of

strategies aimed at enhancing reading strategies (Denton et al.,

2015; Scott & Shearer-Lingo, 2002). According to (Cimmiyotti,

2013) to be competent in subjects such as math, English, and

science, an elementary school child must display proficiency in

reading. Zunguze (2011) pointed out the factors such as levels of

education of parents, child entry at school, reading habit at

home, family family socio-economic status, preschool experience,

language of initial instruction, and the language spoken at home

are encountered as aspects that may contribute to low reading

level. This lack of interest in reading is an issue that should

be duly addressed, as a research conducted by Gaona and Gonzalez

(2010) further affirmed the positive relationship between reading

habits and academics.

Kirsch (2012) asserted that achieving proficient reading

skills is imperative since this is essential to the achievement

of lowerand upper secondary students but after seven or eight

years of elementary education, many students will lack sufficient

proficiency as readers, and many adolescents continue to perform

an unacceptable level. According to Cain and Oakhill (2011 when

poor readers read, they choose books that do not increase their

word reading and comprehension abilities. It is understood that,

as a person reads, they are exposed to more words. With that

exposure, knowledge of morphology and spelling increases. Words

used in print are often vastly different than those used while

speaking, and when students do not read avidly, 44 they are not

exposed to complex words that may not be part of the student’s

typical lexicon. Reading is an integral part of every educational

process as all the subjects taught at all levels of the

educational system involve reading (Cimmiyotti, 2013) According

to Cain and Oakhill (2011), Reading influences vocabulary

Development; however, when students do not read fluently or

regularly, their vocabulary skills are impacted. Davidson, Tina

Osenga (2019) The Simple View of Reading is a formula

demonstrating the widely accepted view that reading has two basic

components: word recognition (decoding) and language

comprehension. Research studies show that a student’s reading

comprehension score can be predicted if decoding skills and

language comprehension abilities are known.

Local Literature

Frederick S. Perez (2019) stated that reading ability is

developed through practice. We can only develop fluent readers if

we provide them with text, print and digital, and we practice

them through teacher modeling, shared practice towards

independent practice. According to Cabasan (2011) In the

Philippines, a study conducted revealed that of the 33 students,

only two college students (6%) were categorized in the

independent level, 11 college students (33%) were in the

instructional and 20 college students (61%) were in the

frustration level. Only two college students that could read with

through understanding of the materials presented to them without

assistance. Moreover, more than half of the students are in the

frustration level known as the struggling readers. Martizano

(2017) investigated the Reading Difficulties of Grade 7 students

of Prosperidad National High School and found out that inferring

meaning and drawing conclusions, using phonetic analysis,

vocabulary idioms and figurative anguage, finding the main idea

and supporting details, using context clues, using parts of the

book, using dictionaries, encyclopedia, and other references

books and following directions were the least mastered reading

skills. Villaume & Brabham (2013)found that explicit teaching

reading or imparting new information to students through

meaningful teacher – student interactions and teacher guidance of

student learning will improve reading ability as well as pupils

‘academic achievement’. National Reading Panel (2010) revealed

that using the student generated questioning strategy and

integrated text segments thereby improve reading comprehension.

Teposo (2016) discussed in her study that the significant

difference exists on the students’ exposure to reading materials

as an affecting factor to the students’ reading proficiency

level. There is also a significant difference on the status of

the implementation of the reading program on the reading

proficiency level of the students.

 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this chapter the researchers provided a detailed

discussion of the methodology and its microsystems to acquire the

research objectives. The subsystems are: (1) Locale of the Study,

(2) Purpose of the Study, (3) Research Design, (4) Respondents of

the Study, (5) Instrument of the Study, and (6) Data Gathering

Procedure.

Locale of the Study

This study will be conducted in Hercor College Junior High

School Department at Brgy. Lawa-an, Roxas City, Capiz during

Academic Year 2019-2020.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the researchers is to know the level of

reading proficiency of Grade 7 students of Hercor College High

School Department. The researchers assumes that this study will

help the said students to improve their reading skill. More

specifically if the students have problem at reading

comprehension and fluency.

Respondents of the Study

The participants of this study were the grade 7 students of

Hercor College Junior High School for school year 2020 – 2021.

Instruments of the Study

The study can be achieved through giving out reading

materials with structured questions which will be deployed

answered by the participants.

Data Gathering Procedure

Before the conduct of the study a letter of permission will

be sent to the school’s administrator and dean first upon

approval, the respondents will be oriented on the purpose of

instruments and its importance. The questionnaire will be

distributed upon orientation.