CONTEXT AND RATIONALE
eading is a lifelong activity
that we engage in on a
regular basis. People read for
a
variety of reasons, including
entertainment and enjoyment,
as well as knowledge and
information. Reading is an
important part of the
teaching-learning process for
students. It will
be difficult for learners to
comprehend ideas and
concepts if they lack reading
skills. Through
its many reading
enhancement programs, the
Department of Education has
placed a strong
emphasis on the development
of reading abilities among
Filipino students
eading is a lifelong activity
that we engage in on a
regular basis. People read for
a
variety of reasons, including
entertainment and enjoyment,
as well as knowledge and
information. Reading is an
important part of the
teaching-learning process for
students. It will
be difficult for learners to
comprehend ideas and
concepts if they lack reading
skills. Through
its many reading
enhancement programs, the
Department of Education has
placed a strong
emphasis on the development
of reading abilities among
Filipino students
Reading is a uniquely human activity characterized by the translation of symbols,
or letters into words and sentences that communicate information and mean something
to the reader. Reading is fundamental in helping us find and convey information (Adele
Keyser, 2021). Reading is a lifelong activity that we engage in on a regular basis. People
read for a variety of reasons, including entertainment and enjoyment, as well as
knowledge and information.
Reading is the key to skillful learning and better living. The learners who read
well develop better understanding and effective adjustment towards life’s situations.
When the learners understand what they read they could identify, classify, build,
organize, synthesize, make adjustments and arrived at proper decisions. Reading
enhances empathy and social understanding in individuals (Djikic, M., et al., 2017).
Reading is an important part of the teaching-learning process for students. It will
be difficult for learners to comprehend ideas and concepts if they lack reading skills.
Reading therefore is one of the potent areas where the learners must be placed under
and where an appropriate design may be addressed or utilized to assure the learners to
learn effectively the basic skills in reading. A reading intervention must be designed
(Chard, D. J., Harn, B. A., Sugai, G., & Park, Y., 2017).
Through its many reading enhancement programs, the Department of Education
has placed a strong emphasis on the development of reading abilities among Filipino
students. Recent results of the reading inventories in Grade 7 shows high percentage of
non-readers and frustrated readers among the learners as revealed by the standardized
tool known as Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI). The outcome is
concerning, given that they are in Grade 7 and a Junior High School student,
respectively, and are not reading at their grade level.
Poor reading performance is one of the various problems that a teacher
encountered as she teaches. While such problems could be attributed to some causes
such as social, economic, environmental or psychological factors. It is then a vital task of
all concerned especially the teachers to improve the quality of instruction to help the
slow readers and readers at-risks acquire the basic knowledge and skills in reading
which could be utilized as avenues to undertake other subject areas prescribed in the
curriculum. However, if the problem is not addressed properly and promptly, it will have
a negative impact on students' learning and achievement in other subjects due to their
poor reading skills. They are struggling to comprehend the teachings in several learning
areas, as comprehension is required in all disciplines and without such abilities, they are
barred practically from learning effectively and meaningfully to the other subjects in the
curriculum. In other words, reading skill is very crucial to be mastered by language
learners (Bab, 2018).
Remedial reading measures would then be expected if the students could not
come up with their expected performance. This is one way of knowing and meeting the
needs of pupils. It is through remedial teaching and implementation of interventions
which will help the pupils in achieving better reading skills and comprehension. The
interventions are targeted strategies and activities that best fit the students’ needs. One
such intervention is noontime reading program through phonics approach. When
students are given assistance, encouragement and challenges that one intends to
improve performance, they will be inspired to study that would enable them to perform
better than they ordinarily do. A study found that the program significantly improved both
reading performance and comprehension skills (Heewon Yang, Yoonhee Hwang, and
Jeongsook Eo, 2016).
Knowing the importance and the benefits of reading, it is in the juncture that the
proponent will conduct this action research study entitled “Improving the Reading Skills
of Slow Readers and Readers-at-Risk in Grade 7-Tulips of Bayugan Comprehensive
National High School Through NRS using Phonics Approach”.
