common problems of students in reading comprehension specifically the Grade 7 section A students of San Roque National High School

Chapter 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING
Introduction
The main objective of this study is to know the common problems of students in reading comprehension specifically the Grade 7 section A students of San Roque National High School. Reading comprehension is one of the problems faced by learners nowadays. Goodman defined reading as “ a receptive psycholinguistic process wherein the actor uses strategies to create meaning from text” (Goodman, 1998). In a classroom setting, reading is one of the effective ways for learners to catch up with the lesson at ease. But in some cases, students find difficulties in the reading process and cause them to understand a certain text. Anderson and Freebody (1981, 1983) stated that vocabulary knowledge of a certain individual makes an important contribution to reading comprehension. Therefore, this is also the fact that makes the students of San Roque National High School (Grade 7) find difficulties in reading comprehension. Walker (1946) stated that “reading is an active process in which reader shift between sources of information (what they know and what the text says). The means of interpreting the text and responding to what they have read will be the factior also of the common problems in reading comprehension of San Roque National High School. The coginitive ability in reading comprehension contributes to the factors which may help the students to overcome the problem of reading comprehension of Grade 7 students in San Roque National High School.

Statement of the Problem
Specifically it sought to find answers to the following questions: 1. What are the difficulties in reading comprehension of Grade 7 section A students of San Roque National High School according to the following factors: a. Gender

b. Age
c. Family Income
2. What are the causes of reading comprehension difficulties of Grade 7 section A students of San Roque National High School according to the following factors: a. Gender
b. Age
c. Family Income
3. This study will help the researchers to determine the ways to overcome the ways to ovcrcome the difficulties of reading comprehension of Grade 7 section A students of San Roque National High School according to the following factors: a. Gender

b. Age
c. Family Income
Basic Assumptions
1. This study will help the researchers to determine the difficulties in reading comprehension of Grade 7 section A students of San Roque National High School according to gender, age and family income. 2. This study will help the researchers to determine causes of difficulties in reading comprehension of Grade 7 section Astudents of San Roque National High School according to gender, age and family income. 3. This study will help the researches to determine the ways to overcome the difficulties in reading comprehension of Grade 7 section A students of San Roque National High School according to gender, age and family income. Significance of the Study

The writers believe that the result of this study will be of great importance to the persons involved in the field of education such as: The Students. This research will help the students be aware of their problems in reading and find solutions. The Teachers. This research will guide the teachers on how to help their students understand their reading problems and provide them solutions. The Future Researchers. This will serve as a source of information and reference on the related field of their studies. Scope and Delimitation of the Study

This study is concerned on the common problems in reading comprehension of Grade 7 students in San Roque National High School, academic year 2013-2014. Grade 7 section A.

Definition of Terms
Difficulty. The quality or state of being difficult.
Reading Comprehension. Understanding what is being read.
Comprehension. The art of understanding.
Family Income. The amount of such gain received in a period of time of a family.
Economic Status. The condition of the person in relation to consumptions of goods and services.
Receptive Psycholinguistic Process. Process wherein the actor uses strategies to create meaning from text.
Vocabulary. all the words used by or known to a particular person or group, or contained in a language as a whole. Interpreting. to establish or explain the meaning or significance of something. Responding. to act or do something in reaction to something else.

Cognitive ability. relating to the process of acquiring knowledge by the use of reasoning, intuition, or perception.

ENDNOTES

Chapter 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Related Literature
Reading comprehension is the capacity to identify and understand meanings communicated by the text. Once an individual understand the different letters that create words, and they can use their knowledge to identify words and then comprehend a message that a compilation of words will make.

Walker (1946) explained that reading is an active process in which readers shift between sources of information, elaborate meaning and strategies, and check their interpretation and use of the social context to focus their response.

Wardhaugh (1974) seems to agree that reading is an active, productive, and cognitive activity. He also pointed that reading involves an active search for information and interaction with the text.

Anderson (1981) and Freebody (1983) said that vocabulary knowledge of a certain individual makes an important contribution to reading comprehension.
In connection with the idea of Anderson (1981) and Freebody (1983), Hirsh and Nation (1992) and Laufer (1989) also stated that in order to gather greater vocabulary knowledge, reacting with the use of L2 (second language) should be acquired,

Villa (2002) suggested that the student must be provided with basic skills in the use of the language as a tool for learning and for communicative competencies in business, science and technology.

Related Studies
Reviews of studies in the area of problems in reading comprehension revealed that researchers in this area concentrated on: (a) the “simple review” of reading, (b) strategy of using standardized test in reading accuracy, (c) causes of poor reading comprehension.

Hoover and Gough’s analysis (1990) centered on the “simple review” of reading. Reading comprehension comprises two sets of skills, those concerned with decoding linguistic comprehension are necessary and neither skill on its own is sufficient if successful reading comprehension is to follow.

Nation and Snowling’s study (1998) found that poor comprehenders read nonwords as quickly as control children. This experimental finding is confirmed by observations that poor comprehenders perform at age-appropriate levels on standardized tests of nonword reading accuracy. Nation and colleagues have used the strategy of matching poor comprehenders to control children on nonword reading.

Another study conducted by Perfetti (1985) found that poor comprehension is a consequence of inadequate processing, lack of knowledge, or some combination of both processing and knowledge-based weaknesses.

Synthesis-of-the-state of the Art
The synthesis-of-the-state of the art presents the differences and similarities of the previous and the present studies.
The present and previous studies have differences in the area of provlems in reading comprehension that the researchers studied. The study of Perfetti (1985) focused on the causes of poor reading comprehension. The study of Nation and Snowling (1998) focused on poor comprehenders on nonword reading. And Hoover and Gough’s analysis (1990) focused on the reading skills.

Almost all studies identified the problems encountered by the respondents, the most prevalent one was the problem in reading comprehension.
Walker (1946), Wardhaugh (1974), Anderson (1981), Freebody (1983) and Villa (2002) studies focused more on the contribution of reading comprehension to the individuals. Walker (1946) explained that reading is an active process that was agreed by Wardhaugh (1974) and said that reading is an activity, specifically, productive and cognitive activity and that reading involves an active search for information and interaction with the text. Anderson (1981) and Freebody (1983) focused on the vocabulary knowledge that makes an important contribution to reading comprehension that was seconded by Hirsh and Nation 1992 and Laufer (1989) that in order to gather vocabulary knowledge, the use of L2 as a second language should be required. While Villa (2002) that students must be provided with basic skills in the use of language as a tool for learning and for common competencies in business, science and technology.

It may be observed that in the discussion of the studies stated above, in reading comprehension the thinking capabilities of students are a great factor in conducting the study.

Theoretical Framework
G identifies three main theories of reading comprehension. These theories are:

Based on the schema theory, depending on how extensive their “files” become, their degree of reading comprehension may vary. Schema is the organized knowledge that is already has about people, places, things, and events. 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.

The mental modes can be thought of as a mind movie created in one’s head, based on the reading context. This model is reconstructed or updated to reflect the new circumstances as the situation changes, but the items important to the main character are kept in the foreground.

The proposition theory 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.

Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework is based on the systems approach, which shows the interplay of the four major elements such as the Input, Output and Feedback.
Input is made up of the profile of the 30 students of Grade 7 in San Roque National High School who serve as the respondents of this study in terms of age, genders, family income and the common problems in reading comprehension of the respondents.

Process is the distribution and retrieval of survey questionnaire, analysis and interpretation of data.
Output is the determining of the problems in reading comprehension of Grade 7 students in San Roque National High School.
Feedback is the response and goal of the research which determine the common problems in reading comprehension of Grade 7 students in San Roque National High School.

FEEDBACK

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Chapter 3
METHODOLOGY

Research Design
The researchers used the descriptive method in analyzing and revealing the common problems in reading comprehension. The causes of reading comprehension difficulties and the ways to overcome the difficulties in reading comprehension of Grade 7-Ruby student in San Roque National High School S.Y. 2013-2014. The Subject

The respondents of this study were the Grade 7-Ruby students of San Roque National High School. The Research Instruments
The researchers used a questionnaire to determine and collect accurate information that identify the common problems in reading comprehension of Grade 7-Ruby students of San Roque National High School, and the possible ways to overcome the difficulty. Data Gathering Procedure

Survey questionnaire was given twice to the students for the dry run and finalization. The data’s and information from the survey questionnaire will be used in the summary of the study. Statistical Treatment of Data

To facilitate the analysis, interpretation and the presentation of data, the appropriate statistical tools were chosen and applied. In this study, frequency, percentage distribution and ranking were used.

Below is the formula used in computing the percentage.

P(%) = f/n x 100
Wherein:
P = unknown
f = frequency
n =

ENDNOTES

CHAPTER 4
COMMON PROBLEMS IN READING COMPREHENSION OF GRADE 7 SECTION RUBY STUDENTS IN SAN ROQUE NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
This chapter dealt with the presentation, analysis and interpretation of data gathered through the use of a survey questionnaire. The discussion and analysis of data are focused on the common problems in Reading Comprehension according to Gender, Age and Family income, causes of the problem, the ways to overcome the problems and same with the profile of the respondents.