Factors Affecting the Reading and Comprehension Skills Among Grade-V Pupils

Reading means many things to many people. It can be one of the most rewarding, preoccupation of the individual his horizons and making it possible to partake of means accumulated experience and achievements through the ages. It is an active dialogue between the author and the other reader and it is the basic tool for learning in all subjects. It also plays a vital role in ones’ success in school.

Reading is one of the most important skills in English than an individual must need to master. It is a toll subject for it is prerequisite of all learning areas. It serves as a gateway to every child to learn the different subject because a child has a difficulty in reading, he may encounter also difficulties in all subject areas.

At the same time where the technology becomes an advance pupils and students have become addicted to these modern facilities or gadgets. Many of them prefer to play video games, text, chat in the internet rather than reading. Too much engagement caused pupils to have poor level of reading and comprehension.

Comprehension is reading with understanding. It is decoding meaning from the printed text not only in single words or sentences but also of the interrelationships among the sentences in discourse.

One of the many problems of the Grade-V pupils of Dulangan Elementary School is how to improve their reading speed and comprehension skills. Pupils cannot answer questions about the subject matter he has read or he cannot tell what he had read. It is necessary therefore for the teachers to provide as many opportunities as possible to discover some factors that affect the reading speed and comprehension in many lessons.

Statement of the Problem
Generally this study was conducted to determine the reading and comprehension level of the Grade-V pupils at Dulangan Elementary School. 1. What is the reading speed of the Grade-V pupils at Dulangan Elementary School? 2. What is the reading comprehension of Grade-V pupils at Dulangan Elementary School?

Objective of the Study
1. To determine the reading comprehension of Grade-V pupils at Dulangan Elementary School. 2. To determine the reading comprehension of Grade-V pupils at Dulangan Elementary School.

Scope and Delimitation
This study was limited only to the level reading speed and comprehension skills of Grade-V pupils of Dulangan Elementary School. The scope of the pupil’s profile was limited to the age, gender, parent’s monthly income and parent’s educational attainment.

Significant of the Study
The result of the study would be beneficial for the pupils and the teachers for this would serve as their basis to find out strengths and weaknesses of the learners.

Definition of Terms
Reading speed – refers to how slow or fast the reader is. Comprehension – capacity of the mind to perceive and understand Education – is the aggregate of all process by which respondents develop ability, attitudes and other form of behavior Abilities – natural or acquired attitudes; a power or capacity to do or act. Attitude – manner disposition or feeling with regards to a person or thing.

RELATED LITERATURE

Heibert, et.al. (2001) reports that whie 77% of the students in their early intervention project were reading at a primer level at the end of the first grade, only 18% of a comparison group who participated in a traditional title/program achieved that level proficiency. While most half (47%) of the students in the conventional title/program remained non reader at the end of the first grade, on the 7% of the early intervention students were non-readers. Thus, a growing body of evidence suggests almost all reading problems are preventable.

Taylor, et.al. (1999) takes yet another approach regular first and second grade classroom teacher works for an extra twenty minutes with five or six students who are encountering the greatest amount in skills in learning to read. Provision is also made up for these students to practice their reading for additional five or ten minutes each day by rending individually or in pairs to the teacher’s aside, a volunteer.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

It deals with the study area and respondents of the study.
Study Area
Dulangan Elementary School is located in Dulangan, Pilar, Capiz. The school is accessible to pupils because it is along the national highway. It has many buildings mostly used as classrooms. The school has a complete elementary level (Grade I-VI).

This school was chosen by the researcher because she was an alumnus of the school. She believes that this study could somehow help her Alma Mater in promoting quality education in its clienteles.

Respondents of the Study
The respondents of the study involved 30 intermediate pupils of Dulangan Elementary School. The pupils were randomly selected from Grades V and VI classes. There were 35 pupils from the Grade v and 36 from Grade VI.