“Factors affecting the

reading comprehension of
Grade 10 St Francis Xavier
students of St. Joseph
Academy”
 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in
comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences and paragraphs that decode meaning. The reader
uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what the meaning is.

Nowadays, one of the biggest problems that the students face is the inability to comprehend. There are
three mainly causes of poor reading comprehension. First, if the person has a language problem. Language
plays a vital role in reading, if the language used is not known by the student, reading will be poor thus, result
to poor comprehension. Second, if the foundational skills in reading is not yet automatized, the student will
unintentionally divide his attention to the context of the message and the word itself. He will therefore speak
haltingly and with great difficulty.

Lastly, the inability to decode the written word. If the students would not be able to decode the written
word, reading comprehension is impossible because it is the important aspect of reading act.

Without comprehension which is considered as the heart of reading, it will be just following words from
left to right without derivation of meaning from the words. It should be bear in mind that reading
comprehension is essential to the ability to learn, perform well on tests and ultimately succeed in school and
in career. This study seek to identify factors affecting reading comprehension among students of Grade 10
St. Francis Xavier of St. Joseph Academy.
 CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Gunning (1996) identifies three main theories of reading comprehension. These theories are Schema
Theory, Mental Models, and Proposition Theory where he defines

Gunning (1996) defines a schema as the organized knowledge that one already has about people,
places, things, and events.

Gunning (1996) describes Preparational strategies as those that activate prior knowledge about a
particular topic. This method is used to get students thinking about the topic they are about to work on. It
is much easier to retain knowledge about a subject when the student is familiar with the subject area.
Gunning (1996) identifies predicting as a type of Preparational strategy which involves previewing parts of
the text to be read. The portions of text, which are helpful in previewing, can be pictures, titles, or the
cover of the book. As the students are thinking about what will happen based on their knowledge of the
subject and the book, they focus their thoughts on the assignment to come, which leads to better
comprehension.

Gunning (1996) describes Organizational strategies as the process of selecting important details and
building relationships from them. These strategies include: identifying the main idea and topic sentences,
classifying information, deciding which information is relevant, sequencing and summarizing. Each of these
strategies is complex and methods for improving them need to be taught starting from basic ideas and
gradually getting more difficult. Summarizing, in particular, has been identified as a difficult skill to
develop.
 Gunning (1996) refers to elaboration as an additional processing of the text, by the reader, which may
increase comprehension. It involves forming connections between the text and the reader’s background
knowledge of the subject. Making inferences, picturing images and asking questions are all types of
elaboration strategies.

Gunning (1996) defines monitoring as being aware of one’s own mental process when reading.
Monitoring is an advanced technique that involves a great deal of independent thinking. Monitoring occurs
when a reader is aware that they do not understand what was just read. The act of monitoring is knowing
how to go back and find a way to gain understanding of the topic. Monitoring is knowing when to use the
three other types of reading comprehension strategies.

Kitao (1990) says the schema theory involves an interaction between the reader’s own knowledge and
the text, which results in comprehension. This schema, as Gunning defined, can be very broad, such a
schema for natural disasters, or more narrow, such as a schema for a hurricane. Each schema is "filed" in
an individual compartment and stored there. In attempting to comprehend reading materials, students can
relate this new information to the existing information they have compartmentalized in their minds, adding
it to these "files" for future use. Based on the Schema Theory, depending on how extensive their "files"
become, their degree of reading comprehension may vary.
 Another major theory we would like to discuss is the Mental Model. This model can be thought of as a
mind movie created in one's head, based on the reading content. Gunning gives a detailed description of
this process, stating that a mental model is constructed most often when a student is reading fiction. The
reader focuses in on the main character and creates a mental model of the circumstances in which the
character finds him or herself. The mental model is re-constructed or updated to reflect the new
circumstances as the situation changes, but the items important to the main character are kept in the
foreground according to Gunning, (1996).

Perkins (1991) identifies that sometimes misconceptions about important concepts reflect
misleading mental models of the topic itself or the subject matter within which it sits. There are,
however, interventions the teacher can do to help the reader to stay on track and create a more
accurate picture. One suggestion is for the teachers to ask the students to disclose their mental
models of the topics in question, through analogy, discussion, picturing, and other ways. This
information gives the teacher insight on the student's knowledge gaps and misconceptions,
therefore allowing them to help students reconstruct a more accurate picture.

The final explanation of comprehension we would like to discuss is the Propositional Theory.
This involves the reader constructing a main idea or macrostructure as they process the text. These
main ideas are organized in a hierarchical fashion with the most important things given the highest
priority to be memorized (Gunning, 1996).
 Katims (1997) stated that learning strategies are techniques, or routines that enable students to learn to
solve problems and complete tasks independently. A strategy is an individual’s approach to a task. Gunning
identifies four main types of comprehension strategies, which include Preparational, Organizational,
Elaboration and Monitoring.

Huffman (1998) identifies K-W-L as an elaboration strategy, which connects background knowledge to
the topic to be addressed. K-W-L is an acronym for the three steps of the procedure: describing what we
Know, what we Want to know, and what we Learned. The first two steps are completed before the project has
begun, to assess background information, and the third step is completed afterward to make the
connections.
It is believe that a child will make use of all three major theories as a means of reading comprehension,
through the strategies, which are the responsibility of the educator to teach. The four main types of
strategies can be extremely useful, and should be taught from the beginning of a student’s school career.
Teaching of the strategies should start out at a simple level and increase in difficulty as the student masters
it.

In order for the Schema theory to be effective, the student must have knowledge of the subject they are
to discuss. It may assume that if a child has little background knowledge on a subject, they will have
difficulty in comprehending readings regarding that subject. Students sharing with the class their own
schemas could alleviate this. If a student had no prior knowledge of a subject, they could begin to build their
schema based on their classmate’s experiences.

The Mental Model theory seemingly relies the heaviest on the Spatial Intelligence area in Gardner’s
Multiple Intelligences theory (Armstrong 1994). Therefore, this model may not be as affective for non-spatial
learners. Teaching the process of how a mental picture is formed could develop this skill. Taking information
about the main character as it comes through the readings and writing descriptive pieces on that character
 The Proposition theory works hand in hand with Organizational strategies such as remembering only
the relevant information, or identifying the main idea. These are skills widely taught throughout schools
as well as seen on standardized tests.

Evidence of preparational strategies had been seen being used throughout all elementary grades.
Pre-readers can comprehend a story by looking at the pictures. A teacher might show a book to
beginning readers before the actual reading begins to give them a focus for their reading. In the fifth
grade, students are asked to record their predictions about what will happen in the next chapter of the
novel that they are reading. After they have read the chapter, they can revisit their predictions to see
how accurate they were.

Students cannot help making use of Elaboration strategies when they are reading a piece about
family. They naturally tend to relate what they are reading to their own family experience, comparing
and contrasting aspects from the story to their own lives. Being able to do this increases one’s
comprehension, because the reading material becomes relevant and meaningful. Take for example, a
child who has to read a piece on making cornbread but they had never tasted or seen cornbread before.
The reading would not have as much relevance to them.

Being able to form a picture in one’s head of the setting or situation would also make the reading more
interesting to a student, therefore increasing comprehension. For example, if a student had no concept of
what it would look like to fight a battle, they would have a harder time keeping their interest level up
when reading about an important historical battle scene.
 Monitoring strategies involve awareness that the purpose of reading is to derive meaning. If
someone is just reading to get the words right, comprehension will be very limited. When students are
able to monitor themselves and check their own understanding of the text, comprehension will increase.
Teachers promote monitoring strategies with the use of worksheets that students fill in as they read a
piece. When the question asks the student to provide examples of a section of the story, which has a
conflict, they have to think back to see if they understood a conflict was going on. If they don’t
remember, they will go back and find that spot. Eventually, this skill should become second nature to a
reader. When they come to the resolution in a story, but the reader wasn’t clear on the conflict, they
should go back on their own to clarify what is being resolved.

It would be beneficial to do further research on what type of strategy work most effectively at each
grade level. In addition, we are interested in examining which theories and strategies apply most
accurately to each content area.
 CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY

A. Research Method
Qualitative research method was used in this study. This type of research methods involves describing
in details specific situation using research tools like interviews, surveys, and Observations.

B. Respondents of the study

Because of the new curriculum that focuses more on the student’s ability to comprehend requires
them to improve their comprehension skills before they turn into senior students. Since grade 10 students
are the pioneers of the senior high school under k-12 curriculum it became the focus of the study. The
respondents of the study are the students from Grade 10 St. Francis Xavier of St. Joseph Academy.

C. Research Instrument
Subjects read short articles and answered implicit and explicit comprehension questions. If the results
of the scores are 7 or below respondents will undergo another survey. They were scored by percentage
which indicated the level of comprehension (vocabulary, background, and motivation to read) they resided
at. This instrument was a valid tool in determining reading comprehension levels.

D. Data Gathering
The researcher administered test that will determine the reading comprehension of the respondents.
Student’s that scored 7 or below will undergo a few survey questions about their vocabulary, background,
and their motivation to read. After the survey questions enough data were gathered that determined the
factors affecting reading comprehension of grade 10 St. Francis Xavier students of St. Joseph Academy.
 CHAPTER 4
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

Table 1.1

Results of the test questionnaires

Students who passed the test Students who didn't reach the passing score

45%

55%
Table 1.2

Factors that aff ects the reading comprehension of grade 10 St

Francis Xavier students.
Vocabulary Motivation to read Background
27%
32%

41%
 CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
A. Findings
The researchers found that 22 out of 49 students had comprehension problems.

B. Conclusion
It is evident that based on the test questionnaires and survey results that almost half of the students had
comprehension problems. Many students get bored immediately after seeing the length of the article they are
going to read. Students didn’t even bother to finish the story because it’s too long. Some students had problems
in their vocabulary they are not familiar in the words used in the selection. Sensitive students cannot read well if
there are too much noise in the background.
All in all this study indentified the factors that affects the reading comprehension of Grade 10 St. Francis
Xavier students of St. Joseph Academy.

C. Recommendations
 
1. For other researchers
Conduct more research on how to improve students' reading comprehension which will help them cope up
on the emerging trends of the curriculum which will prepare them to be globally competitive individuals.
 
2. For educators
Formulate activities or programs that will enhance or improve students' reading comprehension.

3. For the students

Internal motivation will be of great help in combating difficulties when it comes to comprehension.