CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Being able to read is an avenue for personal and social growth. A child can fully

view ever winding horizons and explores areas in the world of people, things, and

events through reading. Indeed, the key to success is through reading; hence,

proficiency in reading is vital to the continuous growth and development of the child.

Corollary to this, as early as Grade 7, the child must already be exposed to various high

level but interesting reading materials that will capture his interest, motivate him to turn

the pages, and later develop his love for books, and start to read. Obviously, highly

contributes to the development of the child, especially in acquiring knowledge and the

most needed learning that will help him become more competitive and language

literature.

In school, reading is the most important subject to be learned by the child. For

this matter, a child will learn little in today’s world if he does not learn to read properly. In

fact, Reading is both a subject of instruction and a tool employed towards effective

teaching- learning process. It cannot also be denied that every teacher is in cognizance

that skilful handling of Reading as a school subject is very vital and important specially

to beginning readers to avoid frustrations in the end. Truly, the significance of Reading

as a school subject cannot be refuted and underestimated. This made clear that

proficiency in Reading is directly related to academic success. Furthermore, skills in

reading is considered a fundamental factor, a must, a need, which enables, helps,

and in his life as a whole.

Nevertheless, despite all efforts exerted by the teachers in their desire to help

their students read and comprehend, many just cannot cope and could hardly decode

the printed words. Thus, this inability to read becomes one of the major causes of failure

among them which leads to other problems that are either behavioural or personal in

nature. Furthermore, to a student, the inability to read may lead him to nowhere, as

disability in reading affects his achievements in school. He may find himself left out of

school activities which make him inferior almost all the time. His socialization skills are

also affected and he fails to appreciate the beautiful things life offers. Furthermore, as

he grows older and progress through the grade, more interactions are founded greatly

through the medium of being able to read the printed materials, however, with such

reading disabilities emotional problems may crop up and lead to the pupil’s dropping out

from school.

In addition, when a student does not learn to read at the time it is expected of

him, he suffers not only from the failure itself, but from the difficulty with all other

subjects and activities in school that depend on reading competence.

For this matter, Hasentah and Laughton (2002) suggested that diagnosing pupils

properly especially those with reading disabilities is very important. According to them,

evaluation and assessment will provide the teachers significant information that will

assist them in the development of strength and remediation of weaknesses of their

students. Corollary to this, Phil IRI is a very good material for diagnosing reading
abilities and difficulties of elementary grade pupils especially those in Grade 7.

However, their instrument must be prepared to assess both the reading and other

factors emanating from the home, the environment and other biological factors.

Foremost, the teacher must exert all efforts to explore everything she can, to help

her students with reading disabilities, cope and overcome their failures, because all

academic tasks can never be achieved when they perform ineffectively in reading. For

this reason, a functional PHIL-IRI program becomes imperative to properly address the

problem.

This prompted the researcher who is suffering from the same problem every year

to conduct the study.

Background of the Study

In the Junior High School in Quezon district particularly in Grade 7, the presence

of students with reading difficulties remain a problem to teacher and often times lead to

frustrations. Reading, being a potent tool for understanding and mastery of other

subjects and school activities must be the immediate and major concern of the

teachers. However, despite teachers’ effectiveness, concerns, and dedication, it cannot

be denied that there are really students who are retorted in reading and are usually

educationally disadvantaged because of certain problems emanating from home, as a

result of biological factor. A poor reader therefore becomes a poor learner, and all

academic tasks can never be achieved whenever a pupil performs ineffectively in

Reading. In fact, survey shows, according to Andasan (1996) in his study that more
likely, non- readers are those that become delinquent, unemployed, and misfit in the

society. This is indeed very alarming and has to be seriously and properly addressed

not only by the teachers, but by the entire educational system in the country.

While it is true that if ever there is one fulfilment classroom teacher’s desire, it is

to find out that every student in her class will be able to read and comprehend.

Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that each student is unique, whose personality,

potential and capacity differ from other pupils, hence, the presence of slow and non-

readers, at times, become equally significant to those who are able to read. Cognizance

of these, teachers often complain about students who go through Grade one to six

without learning to read. When students do not learn to read at the time expected of

them, they are unable to profit exactly from the classroom interaction they received. It

therefore becomes impossible to teach students to read without sufficient understanding

of how students actually learn to read.

This poses serious problems among teachers with non-reader students since,

they know that Reading seems to be the culprit in the low academic performance of the

students. Furthermore, considering that proficiency in Reading is the royal road to

knowledge acquisition, and essential to success in all learning areas, reading teachers

in this district are now placed in a seemingly unpleasant situation because the complaint

now is that “our pupils could hardly read English” and not only” our students could

hardly speak English”. This perplexed the researcher who is also a reading teacher in

one of the schools in Quezon district, DepEd Quezon.

Statement of the Problem

Academy’s Reading Program for grade 7 Learners, during the school year 2020-2021.

Specifically, it tried to answer to the following questions:

1. What is the profile of the Grade7 teacher in terms of:

1.1 age,

1.2 sex,

1.3 civil status,

1.4 highest educational attainment,

1.5 major field of specialization,

1.6 present position,

1.7 years in service, and

1.8 number of seminars attended in Reading?

2. What is the extent of the implementation of Phil –IRI Program in Grade 7?

3. How may the following factors affecting reading skills of Grade 7 learners in

Tayabas Western Academy be described in terms of:

3.1 parent factor

3.2 home factor

3.3 learner factor, and

3.4 teacher factors?

4. Is the Phil-IRI program significantly related in identifying the performance of

the Grade 7 learners?

performance of Grade 7 learners??

5.1 profile of the Grade two teachers,

5.2 extent of implementation of Phil-IRI in English, and

5.3 factors affecting reading skills of Grade II pupils.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

The study focused on the extent of Evaluation of Tayabas Western Academy’s

Reading Program for grade 7 Learners, during school year 2020-2021.

It included the item statements on the extent of evaluation of the Tayabas

Western Academy’s Reading Program among Grade 7 students. It also included the

factors affecting the reading skills of Grade 7 students described in terms of parent

factor, home factor, pupil factor and teacher factor.

Likewise it included the profile of the teacher respondents in terms of age, sex,

civil status, highest educational attainment, major field of specialization, present

position, years in service, and number of seminars attended in Reading.

The performance of Grade 7 students are also included.

The respondents of the study are the Grade 7 teachers and their learners with

reading disabilities.

Significance of the Study

disabilities which they may use in formulating guidelines and remedial measures to help

them.

Result may also yield significant information as regards the extent of the

evaluation of Tayabas Western Academy’s Reading Program and the effects of the

parent, home, pupil and teacher factors to the performance of grade 7 students, hence,

remedial measures maybe instituted.

Findings of the study may also serve as basis for in-service trainings of teachers

to further upgrade their competencies.

Results may also redound to a better and more sympathetic understanding

between parents and teachers as regards their children with reading disabilities.

More importantly, results may benefit the Grade 7 students with reading

disabilities because their problems will be properly and timely addressed.