Unpublished, undergraduate thesis

1. CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM: RATIONALE AND BACKGROUND
Reading is the most crucial skill of every learner. It is a vehicle to learn, discover
and to be aware in everything happen in one’s environment.
According to (Howes, 1999), Reading can be one of man’s deepest pleasures. It
extendsone’s experiences, giving glimpse of a world’s excitement, pleasure and wisdom.
It is also subtle and complex process that involves sensation, perception, comprehension,
application and integration.
Therefore, it is also the most significant skill the students must be acquired.
Categorically speaking, in daily life of a teacher in a four-sided classroom they cope up
with the diversity of learners in terms of ability, skills and fluency in reading that teacher
should address their needs and do assistance for them.
Since individual differences areexisted,Coliredge advocatedfour kinds of readers.
The first is like an hour-glass, and their reading being as the sand, it turns out and leave
not a vestige behind.
A second one is like a sponge, which imbibes everything and returns it nearly in
the same state only a little dirtier. The third is like jelly-bag, allowing all that is pure to
pass away and returning only the refuse and dregs.
The last one is like the slaves in diamond mines of Golconda, who cast aside all
that is worthless and retain only pure gems.
Many students read satisfactorily. They read well for their purpose but some do
not read well. They make omissions, reversals substitutions or addition and
Page 1 of 131

2. inversions.Common factors of those reading problems are their motivation, intelligence,
interest, language facility, auditory discrimination, motor-ocular coordination, attitudes
of/toward parents, siblings, teachers and peers and home background. If a student lacks
some of these, one’s reading performance becomes low. Researcher have shown that
pupils who were read to when they 2-5 years often became successful readers. Those who
are under- achiever in reading are usually educationally disadvantaged—those who come
to school far less ready for normal performance because of conditions in their
environment. This group includes students suffering from malnutrition, disease and
inadequacies in the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter. Students with broken
homes, with unstable family ties, with parents who are indifferent to educational goalsor
with limited innate abilities coupled with lack of interest and ambition from remedial
reading. They are also the restricted to those whose reading performance is not below
age and standards but who are judged to be functioning significantly below their own
potential level in reading. It used broadly to designate the slow learners, the disabled
reader, the bright-under achiever, the reluctant reader, and the culturally or socially
deprived learner.
According to the study ofDorotea B. Milo undertaken on 1996 entitled Common
Reading Disabilities conducted at Manila. Diagnostic silent and oral reading tests,
observations, questionnaire, and interviews were used to gather data. The results of the
study shows that the under-achiever readers arethe students that has oral reading
disabilities as follows: inadequacy of phrasing, word-by-word reading, ignoring
punctuation, habitual repetition, omissions, lack of expression, poor enunciation, strained
Page 2 of 131

3. voice,stammering, reversed and confused symbols and substitution of words. (Villamin,
1999)
Statement of the Problem
The main focus of this study is to know the assessment method are used by
English teacher in uplifting the ability of under-achiever in reading students in Grade
Seven students among Private and Public Schools in Catanauan, Quezon.
Enthusiastically, the researcher aims to fully understand the reason of teachers on paying
less attention in the students that are under achiever in reading.
Specifically, the study aims to answer the following sub problems:
1. What is the demographic profile of the respondents in the terms of:
a. age;
b.
sex;
c. marital status;
d. years of teaching English; and
e. educational attainment.
2. What are the factors affects students’ achievement in reading?
3. What are the common problems of English Teachers in assisting under achiever in
reading?
4. What are the assessment methods used by English teachers in assisting under
achiever in reading?
5. What is the reading recovery activity that teacher undertaken to enhance the
performance of under achiever readers.
Page 3 of 131

4. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
Through the result of the study the researcher sincerely hoped to identify and
evaluate the assessment methods used by English teacher in untangling and assisting
under achiever in reading on
Grade Seven students in Catanauan, Quezon
Specifically the researcher should be able;
1. To assess the demographic profile of the respondents in the terms of their;
a. age;
b. sex;
c. marital status;
d. years of teaching English; and
e. educational attainment
2. To recognize the factors that affect students’ achievement in reading.
3. To cite the common problems of English teachers in assisting under achiever
readers.
4. To evaluate the effectiveness assessment method used by English teachers to
struggling readers.
5. To reveal the times were English teachers conduct reading recovery activity
recover
Page 4 of 131

5. IMPORTANCE OFTHE STUDY
As the researcher mentioned in the background of this study; when the
students lack some major factor that affects reading performance that one would be
difficultly having low reading performance or the reader that we may called under
achiever readers. Unfortunately, in the real English classes those groups of students have
been subsisting.
In the conduct of this study the researcher hopes to gather significant data that
could be used as a basis for the improvement of effective assessment methods of English
teachers in handling untangling under-achiever in reading students.
Significantly, the following will stand benefit from the findings of the study.
For the Teachers:
This study would help them in modification of assessment method they
implemented for under achiever in reading. It can also provide assessment methods that
would let teacher reach the meaningful teaching experienced. It may also lead them to
determine the attainability and effectiveness of the present assessment method coupled
with interpersonal relationship. It may also a toolin assessingperformances and to ensure
maximum learning.
For the Students:
This study may encourage them to improve their reading ability and strengthen
Page 5 of 131

6. their skills through avoiding the factors that may affect their reading ability and imply the
suited assessment to assess their reading performance through self-learning
For the Parents:
This study may open the minds of parents that the home support, home
background and the way student’s life go on in the home greatly affect their reading
ability. It can serve as an eye opener to realize that they play very significant role in
teaching and encouraging the students to enhance their reading ability. It may also lead
them to know the effective assessment method used by the teachers in mentoring the
reading skills of the students.
For the Future Researchers:
It establishes the basis for future researchers about the assessment method of
English teachers in reaching the under achiever in reading. It may give the ideas on the
problems of teachers with regards on those students that the reading performance is
below to standard educational levels.
SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
Thestudy focusedon the assessment method used by the English teachers of
private and public secondary schools on untangling and assisting under achiever in
reading. The researcher intends to conduct research study on private and public schools
in Catanauan, Quezon. The researcher’s target respondents are twenty-five English
teachers of the municipality.
Page 6 of 131

7. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY
Zone of Proximal Development
According to Vygotsky (1978), Zone of Proximal Development refers to someone
who has a better understanding or a higher ability level than the learner, with respect to a
particular task, process, or concept.
Although the implication is that the More Knowledgeable than Others (MKO) is a
teacher or an older adult, this is not necessarily the case times, a child's peers or an adult's
children may be the individuals with more knowledge or experience much important
learning by the child occurs through social interaction with a skilful tutor. The tutor may
model behaviours and/or provide verbal instructions for the child.Many children lack of
parental supportVygotsky refers to this as co-operative or collaborative dialogue. The
child seeks to understand the actions or instructions provide by the teacher then
internalizes the information, using it to guide or regulate their own performance.
Page 7 of 131

8. Figure 1. Illustration of Lev VigotskyZone of Proximal Development
The figure I in the previous page shows the important concept that relates to the
difference between what a child can achieve independently and what a child can achieve
with guidance and encouragement from a skilled partner. Cohen (1999), Retrieve from
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/ed416/PP3.html)
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
This hierarchy is most often displayed as a pyramid. The lowest levels of the
pyramid are made up of the most basic needs, while the more complex needs are located
at the top of the pyramid. Needs at the bottom of the pyramid are basic physical
requirements including the need for food, water, sleep, and warmth. Once these lowerlevel needs have been met, people can move on to the next level of needs, which are for
safety and security.
As people progress up the pyramid, needs become increasingly psychological and
social. Soon, the need for love, friendship, and intimacy become important. Further up
the pyramid, the need for personal esteem and feelings of accomplishment take priority.
Like Carl Rogers, Maslow emphasized the importance of self-actualization, which is a
process of growing and developing as a person in order to achieve individual potentials.
Page 8 of 131

9. Figure 2.Maslows Paradigm of Hierarchical Needs
Maslowbelieved that these needs are similar to instincts and play a major role in
motivating behaviour. Physiological, security, social, and esteem needs are deficiency
needs (also known as D-needs), meaning that these needs arise due to deprivation.
Satisfying these lower-level needs is important in order to avoid unpleasant
feelings orconsequences.
Retrieved from (http://umg5.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?rand=2d8dfvj4pjled#mail)
Page 9 of 131

10. Schema Theory
Schema theory was developed by R. C. Anderson, a respected educational
psychologist. This learning theory views organized knowledge as an elaborate network of
abstract mental structures which represent one understands of the world. The term
schema was first used by Piaget in 1926, so it was not an entirely new concept. Anderson,
however, expanded the meaning.Context Understanding some principles from schema
theory can help in your work. Here are some principles to apply: It is important to teach
general knowledge and generic concepts. A large proportion of learner difficulties can be
traced to insufficient general knowledge, especially in cross-cultural situations. Schemata
grow and change as new information is acquired. Learners feel internal conflict if they
are trying to assimilate schemata which contradict their previous suppositions. Here are
some characteristics of schemata according to Anderson (1977:418--419); it is always
organized meaningfully, can be added to, and, as an individual gains experience, develop
to include more variables and more specificity.
Each schema is embedded in other schemata and itself contains subschema.
Schemata change moment by moment as information is received. They may also be
reorganized when incoming data reveals a need to restructure the concept.
Page 10 of 131

11. The Universal Grammar Theory
Noam Chomsky advocate of this theory, he is said to be the best known and the
most influential linguist of the second half of the Twentieth Century. He provokes
number of strong claims about language: in particular, he suggests that language is an
innate faculty, which is to say that we are born with a set of rules about language in our
heads which he refers to as the 'Universal Grammar'. The universal grammar is the basis
upon which all human languages build. If a Martian linguist were to visit Earth, he would
deduce from the evidence that there was only one language, with a number of local
variants. Chomsky gives a number of reasons why this should be so. Among the most
important of these reasons is the ease with which children acquire their mother tongue.
He claims that it would be little short of a miracle if children learnt their language in the
same way that they learn mathematics or how to ride a bicycle. This, he says, is because
children are exposed to very little correctly formed language. When people speak, they
constantly interrupt themselves, change their minds, and make slips of the tongue and so
on. Yet children manage to learn their language all the same. Children do not simply
copy the language that they hear around them. They deduce rules from it, which they can
then use to produce sentences that they have never heard before. They do not learn a
repertoire of phrases and sayings, as the behaviourists believe, but a grammar that
generates infinity of new sentences.
Among theories of language acquisition, Universal Grammar (UG) has recently
gained wider acceptance and popularity. Though noted among L2 acquisition theories,
Page 11 of 131

12. the defenders of UG are not originally motivated to account for L2 acquisition, nor for
first language (L1) acquisition.
However, UG is more of than L1 acquisition theory rather than L2. It attempts to
clarify the relatively quick acquisition of L1s on the basis of 'minimum exposure' to
external input. The 'logical problem' of language acquisition, according to UG
proponents, is that language learning would be impossible without 'universal languagespecific knowledge' (Cook, 1991:153; Bloor & Bloor: 244). The main reason behind this
argument is the input data:
"…Language input is the evidence out of which the learner constructs knowledge
of language – what goes into the brain. Such evidence can be either positive or negative.
… The positive evidence of the position of words in a few sentences the learner hears is
sufficient to show him the rules of a language." (Cook, 1991: 154)
The views and supports the idea that the external input per se may not account for
language acquisition. Similarly, the Chomsky view holds that the input is poor and
deficient in two ways. First, the input is claimed to be 'degenerate' because it is damaged
by performance features such as slips, hesitations or false starts. Accordingly, it is
suggested that the input is not an adequate base for language learning. Second, the input
is devoid of grammar corrections. This means that the input does not normally contain
'negative evidence’; the knowledge from which the learner could exercise what is 'not'
possible in a given language.
Retrievedfrom:(http://www.vobs.at/ludescher/Ludescher/LAcquisition/Nativist/nativist%
20theory.htm)
Page 12 of 131

13. Hilgard Fourteen Principles of Learning and the Reading Process
1.In deciding who should learn what, the capacities of the learner are very important.
Brighter people can learn things less bright one cannot learn; in general older children
can learn more readily than younger ones ; the decline of ability with age, in the adult
years depends upon what it is that is being learned.
2. A motivated learner acquires what he learns more readily than one who is not
motivated. Learning proceeds more effectively and tends to be most permanent when
learner is motivated, that is when he has a stake, as it were, as the activity being
undertaken.
3. Motivation that is too intense maybe accompanied by distracting emotional states, so
that excessive motivation may be less effective than moderate motivation for learning
some kinds of task, especially those involving difficult discrimination.
4.Learning under control of reward usually preferable to learning under control of
punishment. Correspondingly learning motivated by success is preferable to learning
motivated by failure.
5. Learning under intrinsic motivation is preferable to learning under extrinsic
motivation.
6. Tolerance for failure is best thought through providing a backlog of success that
compensates for experienced failure.
Page 13 of 131

14. 7. Individuals need practice in setting realistic goals for themselves, goals neither so low
as to elicit little effort nor so high as to foreordain failure.
8. The personal history of theindividual for example, his reaction to authority may
hamper or enhance his ability to learn from agiven teacher.
9. Active participation by a learner is preferable to passive reception when learning, for
example, from a lecture or motion pictures.
10. Meaningful materials and meaningful task are learned more readily than nonsense
materials an more readily than task not understood by the learner.
11. There is no substitute for repetitive practice in the over learning of skills.
12. Information aboutthe nature of a good performance, knowledge of hisownmistake and
knowledge of successful results, aid learning.
13. Transfer to new task will be better, if, in learning the learner can discover
relationships ofhimself, and if he has experience during learning of applying the
principles within a variety of tasks.
14. Spaced or distributed recalls are advantageous in fixing material that is to be long
retained.
15. Learning is encouraged when it takesplace under condition that enhances the
personality adjustment of the learner.(As cited by Erlinda Galero Tejero, 2010.)
Page 14 of 131

15. In the Section III of Philosophical Perspectives in Education it provokes that the
epistemological frame focuses on the nature of knowledge and how we come to know,
there are four major educational philosophies, each related to one or more of the general
or world philosophies just discussed. These educational philosophical approaches are
currently used in classrooms the world over. This educational philosophies focus heavily
on WHAT educator should teach.
Perennials is educational philosophy is advocate by Robert Maynard Hutchins and
Mortimer Adler, (1963) they state that the aim of this philosophy is to ensure education
that students acquire understandings about the great ideas of global civilization. These
ideas have the potential for solving problems in any era. It’s focus is to teach ideas that
are everlasting, to seek enduring truths which are constant, not changing, as the natural
and human worlds at their most essential level, do not change. Teaching these
unchanging principles is critical. Humans are rational beings, and their minds need to be
developed. Thus, cultivation of the intellect is the highest priority in a worthwhile
education. The demanding curriculum focuses on attaining cultural literacy, stressing
students' growth in enduring discipline.
Essentialism, theproponents of this philosophy is James D. Koerner (1959), H. G.
Rickover (1959), Paul Copperman (1978), and Theodore Sizer (1985). They believed
Essentialists supposed that there is a common core of knowledge that needs to be
transmitted to students in a systematic, disciplined way. The emphasis in this
conservative perspective is on intellectual and moral standards that schools should teach.
Page 15 of 131

16. The core of the curriculum is essential knowledge and skills and academic rigor.
Although this educational philosophy is similar in some ways to Perennials, Essentialists
accept the idea that this core curriculum may change. Schooling should be practical,
preparing students to become valuable members of society. It should focus on facts-the
objective reality out there--and "the basics," training students to read, write, speak, and
compute clearly and logically. Schools should not try to set or influence policies.
Students should be taught hard work, respect for authority, and discipline. Teachers are to
help students keep their non-productive instincts in check, such as aggression or
mindlessness. This approach was in reaction to progressivism approaches prevalent in the
1920s and 30s. William Bagley, took progressivism approaches to task in the journal he
formed in 1934.
Progressivisms believe that education should focus on the whole child, rather than
on the content or the teacher. This educational philosophy stresses that students should
test ideas by active experimentation. Learning is rooted in the questions of learners that
arise through experiencing the world. It is active, not passive. The learner is a problem
solver and thinker who make meaning through his or her individual experience in the
physical and cultural context. Effective teachers provide experiences so that students can
learn by doing. Curriculum content is derived from student interests and questions. The
scientific method is used by progressivism educators so that students can study matter
and events systematically and first hand. The emphasis is on process-how one comes to
know. The Progressive education philosophy was established in America from the mid
1920s through the mid 1950s. John Dewey was its foremost proponent.
Page 16 of 131

17. `Deconstructionism/Critical Theory,social deconstructionism is a philosophy that
emphasizes the addressing of social questions and a quest to create a better society and
worldwide democracy. Reconstruction educators focus on a curriculum that highlights
social reform as the aim of education. Theodore Brameld (1904-1987) was the founder of
social reconstruction, in reaction against the realities of World War II.
He recognized the potential for either human annihilation through technology and
human cruelty or the capacity to create a beneficent society using technology and human
compassion. George Counts (1889-1974) recognized that education was the means of
preparing people for creating this new social order.
Ehri Murray's Interactive Theory
This theory postulates that reading is an interaction involving the reader and text
being read. Meaning is not only on the mind of the person during the reading act nor is it
only on the text being read. It is instead the interaction between the text read and readers
various sources that determine the amount and type of comprehension that take place.
This theory also states the following facts:
Knowledge of language which enables the reader to recognize sentences, syntax
or the way which words are put together to form phrases,clauses,sentences, harmonious
arrangement of parts or elements.
Knowledge of the world background knowledge including both encyclopaedias
and experiential knowledge which supply readers with background for understanding
ideas and filling in parts that are left implicit rather than stated explicitly in the text.
Page 17 of 131

18. Knowledge of the alphabetic-phonemic systems represents speech, including how
to transfer graphemes into phonemes, the smallest unit of sound. Lexical knowledge
refers to the reader’s dictionary of words held in memory including words known by
sight. All of this knowledge can contribute to comprehension. Memory is important for
linking the meaning of a text to previously read text as well as for integrating it with
information from other knowledge source
Conceptual Framework
The researcher prudentlyanalyzed all the theories presented in the theoretical
framework and assured its relevance with the study.
The educational philosophies such as perennials, essentialism, progressivism and
reconstructivismwhich could be serve as the curriculum instructionalpattern of a teacher
in assessing students learning,assessment, and progress. The teacher should flexibly shift
to the four educational philosophies whenever needed to address the needs of students.
Lev Vygotsky Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) theory was linked with the
behavioural problems of under achiever in reading due to the fact that under achiever in
reading students should need someone else that is more knowledge than them that can
guide and encourage them their enhance their reading skill.
Moreover, Maslow’s theory of hierarchical needs congruent to the enhancement
of student’s skills. It strongly shows the concept that the self-actualization of individuals
is use to uplift one’s ability to push to the limit through the use of potentials. The five
basic needs express that individual should be motivated to achieve something through
attaining the progressive level of needs.
Page 18 of 131

19. It also included the R.C. Anderson Schema Theory wherein the teacher can use as
a basis in helping students to build their prior knowledge and make connections between
the past standard skills in reading and the skills that must be attain in the present level.
The Universal Grammar Theory(UG) has generated valuable predictions about
the course of interlanguage and the influence of the first language. Also, it has provided
invaluable information regarding L2 teaching as to how L2 teachers (or educational
linguists) should present vocabulary items and how they should view grammar. As Cook
(1991:158) puts it, UG shows us that language teaching should deal with how vocabulary
should be taught, not as tokens with isolated meanings but as items that play a part in the
sentence saying what structures and words they may go with in the sentence. The
evidence in support of UG, on the other hand, is not conclusive. If the language module
that determines the success in L1 acquisition is proved to be accessible in L2 acquisition,
L2 teaching methodologists and methods should study and account for how to trigger this
language module and redesign their methodologies. The UG theory should, therefore, be
studied in detail so as to endow us with a more educational and pedagogical basis for
mother tongue and foreign language teaching.
The researcher included Murray's interactive theory as because it is clearly
interrelated with this study becausetheory postulates that reading is an interaction
involving the reader and text being read. Meaning is not only on the mind of the person
during the reading act nor is it only on the text being read.It is instead the interaction
between the text read and readers various sources that determine the amount and type of
comprehension that take place.
Page 19 of 131

20. Since this study is about assessment method used by English teachers in assisting
under achieve in reading the researcher strongly relate the Hilgard fifteen Principles of
Learning and the Reading Process is clearly related to this present study because it states
that reading is a process that must be learned. The laws of learning and the facts
concerning such topics as motivation, and conditioning apply to learning to read.
The next page shows the conceptual framework of this study.
Page 20 of 131

21. Research Paradigm
Input
DEMOGRAPHIC
PROFILE OF
Teacher’s
Respondents in terms
of
a. age;
b. sex;
c. marital status
d. years of teaching
English; and
e. educational
attainment.
Analysis of the
demographic profile of
the respondents
Administering Survey
Questionnaire
Tabulating gathered
data through the
following
 Percentage,
 Ranking,
 Weighted
mean,
 Average
weighted mean
Output
Effective assessment
used by English
teachers in assisting
under achiever in
reading among grade
seven students.
Impact Analysis for its
effectiveness
Process
Research Paradigm of the Study
Page 21 of 131

22. The figure on the previouspage represents a foregoing discussion about the
concept that can be derived from study. This emphasizesthe assessment method used by
English teachers in assisting under achiever in reading and output to the effective
assessment method used to assess struggling readers.
Hypothesis of the Study
Ho1 There is confusion for English teachers in stating effective assessment
method to use in teaching under-achiever readers.
Definition of Terms
Artefacts- are collections of records that reflect the reader’s strengths, weaknesses,
growth, and goals.
Assessment is the process of documenting usually in measurable terms, knowledge,
skills, attitudes and beliefs.
Retrived
from:(http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Definition_Assessment_Tools.htmlhttp://www
.selfgrowth.com/articles/Definition_Assessment_Tools.html)
Reading Readiness-refers period when the learners getting ready to read.
Under achiever Readers- those whose reading performances not below age and grade
standards but who are judged to be functioning significantly below their potential level in
reading.It is also called struggling readers.
Retrieved from:(http://www.ldonline.org/article/6354/)
Page 22 of 131

23. CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND RELATED STUDIES
This chapter shows the literature and studies considered because these provide
guidelines for the conduct of the said research.
RELATED LITERATURE
Reading has been value in studying from the earliest writings and subsequent
documents, progress throughout the ages down to the complex uncertain present—how
the backward races are suffering many deficiencies and enduring much hardship which
literate people have eliminated. Similarly illiterate individuals are handicapped because
they cannot read adequately the materials which would refine their lives and improve their
work. Even today, perhaps a million youth, many of these are school dropouts who cannot
read; live in hopelessness because they failed to learn to read meaningfully in school, or
rather because the school failed to teach them to read successfully. Their plight is pitiful
unless students in the school learn to read the pertinent books and materials which
necessary to their work and which enhance the appreciation of our culture, heritage, they
will fall behind their associates and be harassed by failure and disappointment throughout
their live thus value of reading should place on education.
According to (Cassareo, 2006) reading is an interesting past time or hobby for
those who like it. It broadens one’s knowledge. Letters in the books talk to the reader.
Reading teaches a child many things. It may be good or it may be bad. It should be guided
learning.
Page 23 of 131

24. Therefore being an avid reader gives an opportunity to every individual to inform
and entertain through reading.
In the schools, reading as a subject should be given emphasis for it is the
springboard in learning other areasreading in is open to a lot words for learners (Casareo,
2006)
In the real teaching-learning situation students must be skilful reader in order for
them to benefits in the teaching. It is also the fundamental skills of students to cope up in
the complex lessons.
Early childhood cognitive development will not develop building blocks of
language for learners, unless parents know the importance of good reading. Learners,
whose parents are not aware that reading plays a role in the child’s development, are not
disposed to learn reading. Their opportunities in learning are limited.(Casareo, 2006)
Parents plays vital role in teaching their child to read during early childhood.
Otherwise the building blocks of language will slowly develop or else it will not develop.
Reading to every citizen is a new civil right. A child should be ready to get a
clear understanding of what he sees and reads in order to provide him a good early
experience. Early language and early pre-learning reading activities contribute to the
development of feeling of a child. Absence of this development will stifle learning and
understanding sounds, letter, and language. Language in reading is the building block of
speech. (Casareo, 2006)
Likewise, the child’s ability to grasp ideas and sounds has a linkage in learning
to read letters. Knowing how to read is important in interactive learning. It affects the
Page 24 of 131

25. heart and soul of learners. A learner should have strong language and a good pre-reading
education
For learners learning to read is a challenge posed to parents and educators. No
matter how busy parents are, they should have time left their children. Parents should
develop good relationship at their early stage of learning. Education begins before birth.
Thus, the most important word that should be learned and practised by a learner is
credibility according to the First Lady of US President Bush, who was one a teacher
herself. High quality teachers are needed in the classroom to guide and teach students to
learn. One important aim of reading is to learn to choose, analyse, and read good
materials. There are teachers who change a student’s life negatively or positively.
Subsequently, teachers should teach a child to be a worthy citizen in thought, in word and
in deed. To make teaching reading more effective, it should be integrated with subjects
like art and music education, character education, non formal education and all other
subject areas in the school curriculum.
In short, reading is the right key to spiritual, social, intellectual, esthetical,
mental, moral, and academic success. It is also one of simple way for an individual to
become a worthy, responsible and deed. Teachers should be creative in integrating
reading into more interesting ways that can motivate students to read a lot.
Reading is one of the complex tasks accomplished by students. Paradoxically
one can learn to read by reading. One significant point of learning to read is to understand
how written language and oral language correspond. The English writing stem is based
on the alphabetic principle that written words are made up of letters that that have
Page 25 of 131

26. approximate matches with the sounds heard in the words we speak. Therefore, to
understand the alphabetic principle, one must recognize that spoken words consist of a
sequence of sounds and his understanding is called phonemic awareness.
Based on (Kang, 1999) phonemic awareness is not reading. It does not deal
with alphabetical letters. It is not phonics. It does not replace the school’s reading
program and it is not an all-out cure for reading problems. Phonemic awareness is
recognizing sounds within words. It is the ability of the learners to focus on sounds of
words. It is an understanding that speech is composed of individual sound called
phonemes. Phoneme is the smallest unit of speech that carries a definite meaning when
put together.
The phonemic awareness task requires children to analyse, manipulate the units
of speech rather than focus on meaning; and the reader’s task is to understand the
relationship of the letter in the writing system to the phonemes in the language. Readers
should also recognize that speech could be segmented into smaller units—the readers to
become phonemically aware. This gives learners functional practice phonemic
segmentation or breaking word down into component sounds.
The four basic skills of Phonemic awareness rhyme, sounds, matching sounds,
and segmenting words. Such skills are building block for reading. Therefore, in order to
benefit from formal reading instruction, learners must have a certain level of phonemic
awareness. (Yopp, 1992)
Page 26 of 131

27. In short, phonemic awareness is one of the fundamental skills to attain fluency
of reading. In reading instruction students would be benefited if they are achieved
phonemic awareness skills.
In enhancing phonemic awareness of students (Kang, 1999) suggest the
following guidelines in order to become more inclined in practicing phonemic awareness
(a) Skills should be taught in specific lessons.(b) Try to practise phonemic awareness
about 10-15 minutes a day, three to four time a week. (c) The more consistent the lesson
structure is, the more improvement you will observe in or young learners. (d) Regroup
children upon getting to know their skills. Place in one group those who are successful in
phonemic awareness and sustain their skills with lessons once a week.
Phonemic awareness is a possible reason why many learners struggle in reading
(Rasinski&Padak, 2000). It is fact that when we speak we only rarely pay conscious
attention to the sound we make, rather we are simply concerned with getting our messages
across. Therefore, the concept that words are made up of sounds is not necessarily an easy
for students to grasp. Phonemic awareness is not really critical to our purposes in spoken
language but rather central in learning to read.(as cited by Salandangan)
A large body of research conducted in the U.S. and other countries indicate that one
of the most significant discriminator between good and poor readers is poor readers’ lack
phonemic awareness(McCornick, 1999). This holds true regardless of the intelligence level
of socioeconomic status of the students. Phonemic awareness is a cause of reading
disabilities in a large portion of students whose difficulties lie with word recognition.
Page 27 of 131

28. Research studies indicate that one aid to the development of adequate phonemic
awareness occurs when yond children listen to storybook read aloud by their parents, an
advantage enjoyed by some children, but not all.Other suggests that good or poor phonemic
awareness may have a genetic origin. Direct evidence indicates lack of phonemic
awareness is a major cause of word identification difficulties.
According to (McCornick, 1999) phonemic awareness permits students to use
letter-sound correspondences, employ phonic strategies and identify unknown words more
quickly. It also may have a bearing on whole-word learning. In addition, it is prerequisite to
spelling and writing which also require hearing and matching sound.
Further research shown that phonemic awareness is more powerful determiner
than intelligence in predicting whether students will succeed in reading a stronger predictor
of ―general‖ language proficiency (McCornick, 1999) and a very powerful predictor of
later reading achievement (Griffith, et al, 1992).
Phonemic awareness is now viewed as a critical variable in emergent literacy and
beginning reading acquisition.(McCornick, 1999). Recognizing that words can be broken
into phonemes and syllables, and being able to manipulate these, has a high correlation
with reading achievement. Thus, it is a central factor in learning to read and a prerequisite
in learning to read‖ (as cited by Fernandez)
Reading has so many facets that a simple definition cannot adequately cover all of
them. Reading means different things to different people. For example, the psychologist
is interested in reading as a thought process; a semanticist is concerned with meaning and
considers the printed page only as far as it is the graphic representation of speech; the
Page 28 of 131

29. linguist studies the relationships between the sounds of a language and its written form;
the sociologist studies interaction of reading and culture; the lover of literature reacts to
the artistic patterns of the words he reads.
According to Holdanto the reading specialist reading is total response –physical,
mental and emotional that a person makes to printed symbols. It involves one’s attitude
toward and understanding of the material being read. They are concerned with the fact that
the act of reading involves the whole personality; the more or personality grows the more
we like to read. (as cited by Villamin,1999)
Reading is really perceptual, although it starts out sensory process, and includes
more than a mere recognition of words. For example, a student takes a book. His sense of
sight reveals the size, shape, and texture which his sense of touch also confirms. As his
eyes go over the print of the book, he sees graphic which, by themselves, do not mean
anything to him. The words generation gap, for instance, can be read by anyone who has
learned how to spell and read correctly.
However, because reading is actually more than perception of these symbols
because it is more the relating of the graphic symbols to the totality of the reader’s
personality the words encompass entire sociological and psychological concepts. Once the
word is recognized, the reader brings to them the wealth—or dearth of his cultural,
biological and social inheritance, so that the abstract idea symbolized by words generation
gap being concretize in an argument with one’s father about long a college boy may grow.
Each reader has his own unique reaction to each word because no two person are
exactly the same cultural, biological and social background. A student activist may think
Page 29 of 131

30. of generation gap in terms much like the young woman who couldn’t understand why her
mother got so mad when she ―brought home a grocery bag filled with ―molotobs bombs‖.
A sociologist may thinks of it in terms of differences in social orientation. A teenager
react it simply by shrugging his shoulders –attesting to the fact that there is generation
gap. Every reading brings a specific reaction to every word because reading is actually
the bringing of meaning to, rather than gaining of meaning from printed page.
Perception, adorned by reader’s imagination and aided by memory and
association, determines his total response to the material and his reception of what author
is trying to tell him. It is redundant, then, to say that the person who has experienced
more gets more satisfaction in reading, as from other activities in life, because his
interpretation of the graphic symbol is unavoidably richer, deeper and more meaningful.
He is stimulated by the author’s printed words, but he in turn vests with his own meaning,
an interpretation chosen from the many which from the wealth of his experience, he can
give depending on his present mood and other circumstances.
Horn, a reading specialist, points out that the author ―does not really convey ideas
to the reader; he merely stimulates him to construct them out of his own experiences. The
critical element in reading act is this meaningful response to the written symbol.
Reading is a subtle act, a process that must be learned. An understanding of the
laws of learning and the facts concerning motivation, reinforcement, practice,
interference, transfer and conditioning will greatly help one attain greater proficiency and
skill in this important tool. (Howes, 1999)
Page 30 of 131

31. Few adults would question the importance of reading to effective functioning in
our complex, technological world. Educators have long made reading instruction a
priority in the school curriculum, especially in the primary grades. As students enter the
middle grades, their exposure to a systematic approach to reading instruction often
decreases, although it should not. To develop reading strategies and higher-order thinking
skills, students need instruction in appropriate reading skills and strategies at all levels.
Strategies are deliberate actions designed to allow readers to decode and comprehend
text. When repetition of a good strategy occurs enough to makes its application effortless,
a reader has acquired a reading skill.
One task that teachers face is to help students see the importance of acquiring
reading abilities for performing everyday tasks effectively and the value of reading as
source of information, enjoyment and recreation. To accomplish this task effectively,
teachers needs to know something about reading act, some useful principle to reading
instruction, and some of the theories on which instructional practices in reading are
based.
Teachers should understand the needs for a comprehensive balanced approach to
reading instruction and the place of reading instruction in the over all language arts
curriculum. Teacher must be knowledgeable about many approaches and strategies so
that they can much approaches and teaching strategies so that they can match approaches
and teaching strategies to the needs of the students. Research repeatedly that teachers
have more influence in the learning of students in their classrooms than does any
particular method. (Blair,Rupley &Nichols,2008)
Page 31 of 131

32. According (Valle,2003) there are four levels of reading are independent level in
this level the learners needs no help in reading materials. One’s understood the ideas
presented. He pronounces accurately 99% of the words passage. There are no signs of
poor reading habits or tension such as finger pointing, frowning, or lip movement in
silent reading. The reader is fun to enjoy the story content or reflect and evaluate as his
purpose dictates.
Dependent level in these level learners is challenged by new ideas and unfamiliar
words but meet these challenges effective with only moderate help. Understanding of
ideas of presented satisfactorily—75% when measured by factual inferential questions.
He has difficulty pronouncing no more one word in twenty running words. He shows no
signs of interfering tension or poor reading habits.
Frustration level earners has difficulty coping reading task. One’s understanding
of the ideas is limited. He is not pronouncing 10% or range of words. Signs of tentative
and faulty reading habits are inherent. Rate of silent reading is poor. One’s moves his lips
and may do whisper. Oral reading is characterized by word-by-word reading or poor
phrasing. One’s make meaningless, word substitutions, repeat words, insert and words, or
omit words.
Capacity level in this level the learners understands materials read to on this level.
He pronounces the words accurately and uses the words precisely in describing facts.
Learners are able to supply permanent information from his existence. This gives
measures of level which he can hope to comprehensive level.
Page 32 of 131

33. An informal reading inventory can be ―teacher-made‖ from a set mood of reading
books. It is completed by two selections—one for oral and one for silent—at each level of
series. The student reads orally, silently and re-reads to questions posed by the teachers as
this test is given on an individual basis. After the teacher given this type of test teachers
exactly know how well the child and what his different level procedure.
Teachers should flexible to teach every child where he is, challenge and help him
to grow until he reach the full his full capacity level of reading.(Valle,2003:224-225)
Mary Jane D. Bedasua of Old Mirapao Elementary School in Dinas, Zamboanga Del
Sur,enumerated four reading approach in her contribution in the November 2006, journal
issue of Modern Teacher journal entitled Nature of Reading those are the following:
Bloomfield Approach advocated by Dr. Bloomfield because he finds faulty with
the phonic methods on two grounds: (a) the inventor of phonic method confused writing
with speech and (b) Phonics methods isolate the speech sounds.Irregularities of English
demand careful handling to avoid confusion. Regular spelling should be presented in the
early stages before teaching words with semi-irregular patterns like cake, bread, etc. And
those with complete irregularities or irregular forms such as cough, bough.This may be
the complete person of the actual reading phase after learning the letter shapes and
names. Eventually with increasing speed, the child works through the page of the
teaching materials such as bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, rat, sat, vat, pat, a fat cat, a fat rat, etc.
The second approach is dimensional approach it is deals firstly, with the
dimensions of personalities which states that ―No two individuals have the same
personality so we give suited material to each pupil‖. It also deals with several
Page 33 of 131

34. dimensions such as Dimensions of materials, levels of comprehension, literal
comprehension, interpretation and reasoning, critical evaluation, application and
integration.
The third one is language experience approach uses listing language experiences
that promote productive thinking, allows freedom of expression, satisfies curiosity and
promotes personal satisfaction. Some of the language experiences are Listening and
telling the story, developing awareness of common vocabulary and expanding them
reading of variety of symbols, improving comprehension, outlining, summarizing,
integrating and assimilating ideas and reading critically.
The last approach is what we called Fries approach, in this approach basic
concept of reading is pre-dominant. This approach believes Learning to read is one’s
native language is learning to shift, to transfer from auditory signs for the language
signals of the same language. This approach states stages in transforming auditory signs
to language signals.
Transfer stages the transfer from the familiar auditory signals to the graphic or
written symbols of the same language. It suggest alphabetical order, the stroke letters: I T
F L H A N M K Z V W X Y, the letters combining strokes and parts of circles P B R D J
U, the round letters: O Q G and S
Then this is followed by a large amount of practice in the recognition of letter
patterns. Letters combinations in column like visual discrimination test. As IF IF IT FIT
TIF IT IF IT FIT
Page 34 of 131

35. The second stage is the productive reading- this period during which the reader’s
responses to the visual patterns become habits so automatic that the significant features
of the graphic shapes sink below the thresholdconsciousness.
Lastly, the vivid imaginative realization –this begins when the reading process has
become automatic for the reader that he uses reading equally with the live language of
speech in acquiring and assimilating new experiences.
Those approaches in reading suggested above will be useful tool in teaching
struggling readers for any age range. It encourages educators that face reading problems
to their students.
Francis Bacon, a 16th century scholar, foresaw the need for flexibility and
versatility in reading when he stated, ―Some books are to be tasted, some are to be
chewed, and some are to be digested.(Salandangan, 2006)
Bacon stated that could effective and skilled depending on the aim of reader to the
printed materials. The efficient reader know how to adjust and vary his reading
techniques in accordance with his purpose, the nature and difficulty of the reading
material, and his proficiency in manipulating his reading skills with the demands of
printed matters in different ways.
According to (Atilano, 2006) besides being a versatile reader, one’s is also an
independent thinker. They can sense what he wants from the reading material and reads
for their primary purpose. If they find the reading material inadequate, theyknow where
to refer for more comprehensive knowledge on the subject they want.(as cited
The efficient reader reads selectively. He does not limit his reading tastes to one
type of author or subject matter. They can read current events in newspapers, magazines,
Page 35 of 131

36. and weekly periodicals. For personality development, he reads books that inform him on
how to become a better person. At the same time, he does not neglect his academic or
professional growth: one’s reads to keep up with the latest in his fields of endeavour.
When an individual reads there are of course, specific skills which they must
develop through practice. Individuals shouldalways keep in mind the main idea of
whatever they arereading. As one’s read along, they should observe and remember the
important items and related them to the main idea or to significant subordinate ideas.
Further, one’s should go through the mental process of drawing conclusions on the basis
of the facts you have learned. Finally, one’s should relate what you have read to what you
already know about the subject or to what you know about related subjects.(Salandangan,
2005)
If one’s do not apply what you read to the background of knowledge you now
possess, one’s are reading in a vacuum. Skilful reading is really an art. But unlike other
arts, it does not demand an extremely high degree of artistic talent to be successful.
Reading is like the other arts, however, in that more intelligently you practice it, the more
proficient you become.
After one’s finish with the elementary grades, most of individuals never again
have aformal reading lesson and the ability to learn increases with maturity. Therefore,
when one’s you are now a slow reader does not mean that you must remain a slow reader
all your life. If one’s posses strong and determined will to improve, you can. If you are
now good reader, you always become a better reader.(Holdan, 2010)
Here in our country, we have AndressBonifacio who was too poor to go through
formal schooling, but who educated himself through reading. There is no royal road to
Page 36 of 131

37. skilful reading. But there are no instrumental obstacles to it either. Be firm in your belief
that you can really learn to read well and you will achieve success
People young and old, now live in a paced and highly computerized society. The
demands are great and keeping up with them requires greater effort and time. The ability
of man to conquer space and cyber space has grown even more intense as years go by.
However, all these things would not have been possible if people did not know
how to read. Frederick Thomas, who has always been avid readers, said that when he was
in Grade 5, he looked forward to watching the Ateneo children’s presentations of
Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. He said that he got sick that day of the play and had to stay
at home. . His curiosity of the story piqued. When his aunt who was going to the States
asks him what he wanted Tolkien’s trilogy. When his ant came back, he handed him three
books with bright colours of red, blue and green.(Valle, 2003)
Each book had on its own cover paintings, which he assumed were scenes room
the story. He eagerly devoured each volume, and his journey into the realm of fantasy
was launched.Many reading enthusiasts would be thrilled about knowing this fact.
However, simply remains as one of those chores that need to be done in school.
Reading is essential to man’s existence. It is then equalled with air, water, food an
exercise. It is interesting to note that if this is the case, reading gives security,
belongingness, status, and ultimately self-actualization (Chiang,1995).
Chiang may be seeing the world of clearly reality that reading is one of weapon of
human beings to survive in this fastest pre-dominant technology today.
The ability to read and understand printed materials especially these written in
English is an indicator of success. According to (Chiang,1995) students who can read
Page 37 of 131

38. fluently make better progress. Those who have reading difficulties are reminded of this
weakness. Like ordering at the restaurant, following street signs, assembling an object are
all poignant reminders of this experience.
(Gray& Rogers, 1965) expressed this more vividly when they said ―Reading is an
indispensable factor in modern life, interwoven with work, recreation, and other activities
of young people and adults.
If a person wishes to be well informed, enjoy his existence and relationship with
others, he must know how to read. Francis Bacon give emphasis to this when he said that
―Reading makes a full man‖...a quotation that up to this time has become a favourite of
the adherents of the famous sayings.
(Deboer and Dallman, 1965) define reading as an activity which involves
comprehension and interpretation of ideas symbolized by written and printed page.
Hence, it is clear that hand and hand with reading is the necessity to know and interpret
the meaning of the symbols read. This is so in order to appreciate what one reads to bring
him closer to his environment regardless of distance.
Reading does not only entail knowing the meaning of the word by recalling the
meaning of words. It is also an activity wherein the reader tries to organize said
meanings.
According to (Bond, 1994), the organization of meanings is governed by purposes
that are clearly defined by the reader. In short, the reading process involves both the
acquisition of meaning intended by the writer and the readers own contributions in the
form of interpretation and evaluation
Page 38 of 131

39. (Kembo,1996) also states that in reading one has to build concepts of the printed
symbols that he/she reads. This is fortified when skills learned through reading are transfer
to other areas of language such as speaking and writing (Kembo, 1996). That is why when
one reads he/she has to make a lot of associations to comprehend experiences, emotions,
failures and successes shared by the writer.(as cited by Fernandez,2003)
Throughout one’s life, one has to do a lot of reading. It is therefore necessary that
one knows how to apply these reading skills appropriately. Understanding words,
sentences, and paragraphs is essential to comprehending a reading selection. A student
learning a new language like English must be prepared in order to meet the varied task in
the future.
The Ghana Association of French Teachers (GAFT) Report cited in Wright’s
(1993) article, pointed out the students must be encouraged to read and enjoy literary
works so that the habit that acquired may stand a chance of being maintained after formal
studies have ended. (Doctor, 2004:p.237)
The ability to readis vital functioning effectively in a literate society. Many
children come to school with a sense of the importance reading in their lives.
Unfortunately not all students arrive at school with this vision, and those who do not have
this vision need to be helped to acquire it before they wll be motivated to learn. Learning
to read takes effort and children who fail to see the value of reading in their personal
activities will be less likelyto exert this effort than those who do see benefits.
Fortunately, teachers should have little trouble demonstrating to students that
reading is important. Every aspect of life involves reading. Road signs direct travelers to
Page 39 of 131

40. particular destinations, inform drivers of hazards, and alert people to traffic
regulations.Other useful items to read include mens in restuarants, abels on can, printed
advertisement, newspapers and magazines. Reading situation are inescapable. Even oung
children can be helped to see need to read the signs on the restroooms, the labels of desk
in their classrooms, and the labeled areas for supplies. In fact, these young children are
often eager to learn to read and are ready to attack task enthusiastically.(Roe B.& Smith
S.,2012)
Reading task become increasingly complex as students advance through grades,
and continual attention must be given to these task. For example, teacher can introduce
middle-grade students to many needs for literacy skills through career-education activities.
Students can choose occupatioms that interest them and analyze the reading skills that
each occupation requires. Taking field trips to works environments and listening to
resource people speak can help students see how people in different professions se reading
in their jobs. Students may also analyze reading demands in a wide variety of recreational
and functional activities. In many cases, the reading activities involve se of the Internet,
including social network websites, search engines, and email.
Although functional reading is important to everyday reading is important to
everyday living, reading for enjoyment is also an important goal. Tecaher must attempt to
show students that reading can be interesting to them for reasons other than strictly
utilitarians ones. Students may read foir relaxation, vicarious adventure, or aesthetic
pleasure as the emmerse themselves in tales of other times and places or those of here and
now. They may also read to obtain information abotv areas of interest or hobbies to fill
Page 40 of 131

41. their leisure time. ―Putting It into Practice: Reading for Enjoyment provides additiona;
ways teachers can promote a joy of reading in teir classrooms‖(Roe B.& Smith S.,2012).
Learning to read is a complex continous process from the years the child develop
and contining throghout life time. As a basic tool for learning, reading facilitates
difficulty to reason, think, discriminate, judge, evaluate what has been read, and solve
problems. Reading is indeed an encompassed tool in assisting the learners to learn.
It would seem that no single of reading instruction should be advocated, but that
evidence of teacher of reading should seek process which offers the great of assessing
individual’s nique nature and ability. A knowledge of their internal needs and growth
patterns program for individuals is important. The effective diagnosis of the child’s
varied characteristic will determine the time when reading should begin, the materials
needed for a flexible reading program to develop his highest level of achievement
expectancy.The concept of the teacher of instructing reading as a diagnotician is not new
idea. However, it is a view of instruction which need to be manually restated‖. (Valle,
2003)
Mass communication is one of man’s more successful attempts to cope with the
knowledge explosion. But even the most sophisticated mass communications system does
not negate the necessity of knowing how to read. Reading is the primary avenue to
knowledge. The world history of man—the story of creation, his conquest, his
achievements, his ideals, thoughts and aspirations, his hope for the future—is contained
in books. To advance in knowledge, one must constantly learn more, study more, reason
more. Reading helps accomplish this. In college for instance, about 85% of all study
Page 41 of 131

42. involves reading. If, as it certainly does, progress comes through study, then reading is
perhaps the student’s chief means to academic progress.
Reading, in fact, is the first step to any field of study. How do you study algebra
or chemistry or sociology or theology—if not by reading? Reading, too, has a great
influence on personality. Gates, a famous reading specialist, suggests that ―in
wholehearted reading, the reader does more than understand and contemplate: his
emotions are stirred, his attitudes and purposes are modified, and indeed his innermost
being is involved. The act of reading may also have special therapeutic values. It can
mirror life and the reader may come to see himself as others see him. It can, however, be
superior to a life situation in that the reader can accept unsavoury appraisals of his
weaknesses since the mirror image does not directly threaten his ego.
The man who cannot read extensively is deprived of a means for satisfying his
needs for new experiences, for filling his leisure time, for learning more about himself
and others, for promoting his emotional and social adjustment, thus blocking him from
adequate communication with an important portion of his world. A person who reads
more achieves more because he has wider perspectives of life and can easily adjust
himself to different situations which he has previously read or learned about in books.
The man who reads emerge ―the full man‖ (Holdan, 2010).
We all know that reading has to do with process of attaching meaning to certain
written symbols and achievement is a result brought about by efforts or quality and
quantity of a pupil’s work.
Page 42 of 131

43. The teaching of reading involves three distinct entities, the students, the teacher
and the method used. Problems in the teaching of reading may be also be classified into
three categories, the students, the teacher and the method or material involved. For
reading purposes, problems which cluster around the learner will make up one group,
while problems related to the teaching of reading which canter upon the teacher will
make up one group will be those problems related to the materials and the methods in the
teaching of reading.
Socio-Economic level students from home that provide a rich background of
experiences generally are ready to attack the planning stage. These are the children who
come from families of higher socio-economic status. Children who had that experience
with books and magazines tend to develop an interest in reading. Their potential for
concept and meaning is greater than that student who lacks this background, students who
grew up in homes devoid of facilities and opportunities conducive to reading readiness.
Sometimes they do not have books in their homes. These students particularly require
understanding and need guidance in their pre-reading and reading programs.
Environment the student home background has much to do with his predisposition
to reading process. Homes from which children come from differ as to the high socioeconomic status, the youngsters receive affectionate care and come to school with good
habits and listening. They have acquired excellent conversational practices and alert
habits of thinking with care favourable for learning to read. On the other hand, some
students coming from low socio-economic status are left to shift for themselves because
these may parents have insufficient time and energy to help them appropriately. So the
Page 43 of 131

44. greater majority of school students, on the other hand depend to a large measure if not
totally, on the schools for their pre-reading experiences.
Reading is necessary for the enrichment of living in our society. Through reading,
civilization has improved its perspective because individuals have been able to learn
about people of ancient time and of succeeding eras, how the lived, how they worked and
how they struggled to solve problems of environment, hunger, disease, inadequate shelter
and faulty communications.
Language or languages used language skills are basic to express himself is the
concern of first year English teachers. Before the give any formal reading attention to the
development the child, his vocabulary should be attended to first, because of this
particular need of our school learners. Teachers should begin promptly from the first day
of school, to develop the child’s listening and speaking vocabulary.
Finally, it should be borne in mind that no formal reading instruction is to be
given to the beginners until after they have sufficiently developed vocabulary skills
through speaking and listening in anticipation of their reading vocabulary and when they
have acquired the ability to express themselves orally with ease and facility.
Goals of teachers for children one of the goals in the teaching of reading is to help
the child attain the optimum development of his reading ability. Every teacher knows
however those developmental differences occur among children. Students in a class may
differ in mental ability, emotional maturity, language power, and interpretation skills.
Aside from these, they may differ in experiences problems, and needs. All these
Page 44 of 131

45. differences fall on the ability of each student to know how to read, each individual is
expected to grow reading ability at his own rate‖. (Cestina,2006:239-240)
The major reading tasks of word recognition, fluency, and comprehension are so
challenging to some students that they struggle with reading and fall behind their in peers
in achievement. For decades, researchers and teachers have tried to identify the factos
and issues that appear to place some students at risk for reading difficulties. Two
fundamental reasons underlie this search for at-risk factors and issues. The first reason is
based on the belief that if something within the child is an at-risk factor, intervention
could be aimed at fixing the problem.
For example, if poor visual acuity is an at-risk factor, the problem could likely be
corrected through medication, surgery, eyeglasses, or contacts. The second reason is
based on the belief that is something within the child is at-risk factor, and correcting the
visual problem itself is not an option, the child could be taught to read with large print or
Braille books. What researchers and teachers have found is that it is rarely as
straightforward as addressing the issue of visual acuity.
As you consider these at-risk factors, it is important to recognize that the
influence of these factors on reading performance will vary from student to student. We
know that the presence of any one of these factors, let alone several, places the child at
risk for reading difficulty. Alternatively, we know that their presence does not ensure that
the child will have difficulty and that some students who struggle with reading do not
exhibit any of these at-risk factors. Most important, we know that none of these factors
predetermines reading failure.
Page 45 of 131

46. Understanding the potential influence of these factors on reading performance
will enable you to carry out two important activities. The first is to take these factors into
consideration when you assess the student’s reading abilities. The second is to adapt
instruction appropriately.
For example, if poor visual acuity is an at-risk factor, the problem could likely be
corrected through medication, surgery, eyeglasses, or contacts. The second reason is
based on the belief that is something within the child is at-risk factor, and correcting the
visual problem itself is not an option, the child could be taught to read with large print or
Braille books. What researchers and teachers have found is that it is rarely as
straightforward as addressing the issue of visual acuity. (Reed, 2007)
As you consider these at-risk factors, it is important to recognize that the
influence of these factors on reading performance will vary from student to student. We
know that the presence of any one of these factors, let alone several, places the child at
risk for reading difficulty. Alternatively, we know that their presence does not ensure that
the child will have difficulty and that some students who struggle with reading do not
exhibit any of these at-risk factors. Most important, we know that none of these factors
predetermines reading failure. Understanding the potential influence of these factors on
reading performance will enable you to carry out two important activities. The first is to
take these factors into consideration when you assess the student’s reading abilities. The
second is to adapt instruction appropriately. (Red, 2006)
A cognitive factor according to Reed (2007), cognition is defined as the
acquisition and use of knowledge. With this definition in mind, the relationship between
Page 46 of 131

47. cognition and language developments is interdependent. As an aspect of language,
reading development is both dependent on cognitive ability and, in turn, contributes to
cognitive development.
Intelligence is associated with reading ability. That is, the relationship between
intelligence and reading ability is positive. However, lower intelligence does not cause
reading disability just as higher intelligence does not cause reading ability. Students with
lower intelligence are likely, however, to have more difficulty encoding, storing, and
retrieving words in memory. They are also likely to have more restricted background
knowledge to apply to new text topics, a smaller vocabulary, more difficulty with
complex English sentence structures, and less ability to employ cognitive strategies in
reading than students with average or high intelligence
Linguistic factors three linguistic factors are related to reading ability: learning
disability, language disability, and second language learning. Learning disabilities
involve significant difficulties in acquiring, understanding, and using spoken and written
language, reasoning, and mathematical abilities. According to the National Joint
Committee on Learning Disabilities (1998), it is presumed that these difficulties are due
to central nervous system dysfunction. Difficulty with reading is the most common
feature of students with learning disabilities (Kavale&Forness, 2000).
The reading problems of these students are characterized by poor phonological
awareness, inadequate use of letter-sound relationships for identifying words, and weak
performance in a task called rapid naming speed, which is the speed with which the
Page 47 of 131

48. reader can name visually presented letter, numbers, or pictures. (Lovett, Steinbach, &
Frijters, 2000)
The term dyslexia is currently used to refer specifically to children and adults
with exceptional difficulty in developing phonological awareness and who, thus, have
great difficulty mapping letters to spoken words (Shaywitzet.al.2000).
According to (Dykman& Ackerman, 1991; Shaywits, Fletcher, &Shaywits,
1995).Some students with learning disabilities have persistent difficulty in attending to
tasks and are diagnosed as having attention deficit disorder. Others display high rates of
purposeless or inappropriate movement along with difficulty in attending. These students
are diagnosed as having attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In order to be
diagnosed with ADHD, the determination must be made by a physician who uses the
diagnostic criteria found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
(Americal Psychiatric Association, 2000). Symptoms include inattention, hyperactivity,
and impulsivity. Not all students with learning disabilities have ADHD and not all
students with ADHD have learning disabilities. Reading problems can stem from the
reader’s difficulty in giving close attention to reading material and sustaining attention
through extended written passages. Reading disability and ADHD co-occur at relatively
high rate with approximately one-third grade one children and over half of grade nine
students having a dual diagnosis.(as cited by Tejero,2012)
Language disability often accompanies learning disability. The proportion of
students with learning disabilities who also experience language delays and difficulties
may be as high as 80 percent (Wiig, 1994). Language disability may include any or all of
Page 48 of 131

49. the four components of language: syntactic, semantic, phonological, and pragmatic
development.
Semantic development involves learning how morphemes are combined into
words and how words are combined into sentences. The child with delayed syntactic
development will have difficulty comprehending sentence structures and using structural
analysis, analogy, and context for word recognition.
Pragmatic development involves learning how to use language for interacting
with others. For example, learning the ―rules‖ for opening, maintaining, and closing a
conversation are part of pragmatic development. The child with delayed pragmatic
development may have difficulty using cognitive strategies such as predicting, inferring
and interpreting.Students for whom English is a second language, or English language
learners (ELLs), may also experience difficulties in becoming readers.
Research shows that it takes the average English language learner two years or
less to use English easily in conversation but at least five years to be at grade level in
English proficiency (Cummins, 2001). Given that reading material requires English
proficiency rather than simple conversational proficiency, English language learners are
likely to spend at least one-third of their school years with language abilities well below
what is required for reading at grade level. As Cummins, noted, ―Every year native
English-speaking students gain more sophisticated vocabulary and grammatical
knowledge and increase their literacy skills. Therefore students must catch up with a
moving target‖ (Cummins, 2001:120)
Page 49 of 131

50. Social and cultural factorsstudents from socially and culturally diverse
background may experience difficulty in school because of incongruence of expectations
and norms between the child’s home culture and the school environment, which can
result in a mismatch between the child’s preferred learning and interactive style and the
teacher’s (Au, 2000; Barrera, 1995). Culturally responsive teaching involves instructional
practices aimed at affirming the culture of students and reflecting the student’s culture in
the teaching process.
It is clearly states that cultural environment greatly affects reading achievement of
students but teachers have strategies, technique, and approach to address these problems.
According to (Gollnick and Chinn,2009), culturally responsive teaching mitigates
against learning problems because it involves high teacher expectation, reflects students’
cultures in academic subjects, includes multiple perspectives on issues and events,
involves positive and caring student-teacher interactions, and incorporates effective
cross-cultural communication between students and teachers.
―Creating culturally responsive classrooms that include developing culturally
competent teachers is a transformative process of the American educational system. . . .
Assessments that are culturally fair should inform teachers about the quality and integrity
of their instruction and should enable them to make changes for increasing students’
outcomes, a coveted end goal of education in America (Cartledge &Kourea2008)
Teachers are the responsible to create a culturally responsive classroom in order
for the students to cope up with the reading problems due to
Page 50 of 131

51. Carnineand colleagues (Carnin, Silbert, Kame’enui.& Tarver, 2004; Carnine,
Silbert, Kame’enui, Tarver, &Jungjohann, 2006) distinguish between students who
struggle with reading because they have adequate general language ability but
weaknesses in translating between oral language and printed language from students,
largely form families of lower socioeconomic status, who struggle because they have
inadequate oral language and knowledge and literacy-related knowledge.
Educational factors the research on effective reading instruction is extensive.
Thus, it seems obvious to identify inappropriate reading instruction as a reason that some
students struggle with reading. Strategies and materials that are appropriate for one
student may be inappropriate for another. No simple one-size-fits-all reading program
works for every student. The student’s educational program is an at-risk factor is the
same strategies and materials are used regardless of the progress he or she makes.
(Cartledge &Kourea,2008)
Educational factors could be an integral part of learning of students not only in
learning to read but in all learning areas. The teachers must have habitual reflection after
teaching they must ask their selves the following. Have i assessed the student’s abilities?,
Do my instructional strategies and materials make sense based on what I learned about
the student’s abilities and needs through my assessment?, Am I differentiating
instruction?, Are my strategies ones that are evidence-based practices?, Have these
strategies been found to be successful with readers who have similar abilities and needs
as my student?, Am I willing to adapt or change my strategies if the student is not
succeeding?
Page 51 of 131

52. Physical factors three causes of reading disabilities is related to reading ability:
hearing, vision and neurological factors.Similar to intelligence, there is a direct
relationship between hearing loss and reading ability. Degree of hearing loss is correlated
with reading achievement level; the greater the hearing loss, the more likely it is have
lower reading that the child will achievement. The average student who is deaf gains one
third of a grade equivalent change each school year and the average reading level is
fourth grade at high school graduation (Gallaudet Research Institute, 2003).
The cause of low reading achievement appears to be related to oral language
development. For children to learn language, they need a considerable amount of
experience in conversation with adults. Through these interactions, children discern the
underlying rules of the language used by adults.
Children who are deaf and hard of hearing are exposed to inconsistent and
incomplete language models because they do not hear English without some distortion.
The amount of distortion depends on their degree of hearing loos, ability to benefit from
amplification, and use of visual modalities, such as American Sign Language (Schirmer,
2000).
Thus, students who are deaf and hard of hearing are likely to experience difficulty
with phonemic awareness, phonic analysis for word recognition, and English sentence
structures. They may also have less background knowledge than hearing students who
benefit from the incidental information available through overhearing others talking,
listening to the radio while driving in the car, and the myriad other daily opportunities to
hear what is happening without looking.
Page 52 of 131

53. Vision is not directly related to reading difficulties unless a visual problem is
diagnosed. The reading process of students with low vision is not qualitatively different
from the reading process of students with normal vision (Bosman, Gomple, Vervloed,
&VonVon, 2006).
Visual problems is not a problem in reading process, the students with normal
vision and students with having visual problems is not qualitatively different they are
both able to read well.
According to (O’Shea & O’Shea, 1994).Students with blindness and low vision
do not have a higher prevalence of reading problems than students with normal vision
although they are likely to have less background knowledge than students with normal
sight who gain this knowledge from the ongoing stream of visual information within
everyday experiences. They also have difficulty connecting and organizing their
experiences, understanding abstract concepts, and comprehending figurative language
(Kingsley, 1997).―Beyond visual acuity per se, visual perception and visual
discrimination received a great deal of attention by researchers during the last quarter of
perception or discrimination problems cause reading disabilities or that visual training or
visual tracking exercises improved reading ability‖.
Neurological disorders can result from diseases and toxic substances during
pregnancy, birth, and childhood. Other neurological issues have been proposed as causes
of reading difficulties including preferred learning style, dominance of left and right brain
hemispheric functioning, and the concept of multiple intelligences. None of these issues
have been found to have a direct bearing on reading ability and instruction aimed at these
Page 53 of 131

54. domains has not been found to influence reading achievement (McCormick, 2007;
Riccio& Hynd, 2012).
Recent research on brain function, particularly the use of magnetic resonance
imaging technology, has show that individual brain differences are present in many
individuals with reading disabilities but it is unclear whether brain differences cause
reading disabilities or are the result of years of poor reading (Catts&Kamhi, 2005).
New technologies hold great promise for learning about the influence of brain
structure and neural networks on learning to read.
With regards to those factors why students has difficulties in reading there are
also factors that affect teachers in teaching struggling readers specifically in grade seven
students today.
Cestina state that the second problems in the teaching of reading centres on the
teachers. As for personal characteristics, the writer thinks that a teacher must be an
endless patience, a basic fairness, much ingenuity and a sense of humour.
Beside the general characteristics mentioned, the most important characteristic of
a reading teacher is a real liking for learners.
Aside from these characteristics, teacher must have training and experience. As
part of this education teacher should have taken the curses such as psychology of reading,
the techniques of teaching anddevelopmental and remedial reading and guidance. As part
of their experience his experience, they should have served successful as a classroom
teacher.
Page 54 of 131

55. They should have the ability to work well with other people. Then, there are those
who would make every teacher a reading teacher. Certainly, all teachers should help a
student learn to read better—thus, every teacher is a reading teacher.
Teachers will find many helpful suggestions for dealing classroom problems, but
to utilize them most effectively, they must be incorporated into the instructional programs
of the entire school. A place for a definite reading program should be provided in the
curriculum of every school. The initiative for introducing a developing a well planned
reading program comes from the administrator. Besides those programs teachers must
also have an assessment in measuring the ability and competency of students.
Assessment is the process of collecting and analyzing data for the purpose of
identifying and understanding student learning. Assessment is important because it
enables teachers to discover each student’s strengths and weaknesses, to plan instruction
accordingly, to communicate student progress, and to evaluate the effectiveness of
teaching strategies. Assessing student learning is essential for effective teaching and
should be an integral part of all instructional procedures. Assessment should not simply
be equated with testing. It should involve the collection of data from multiple measures –
such as day-to-day observation, student conferences and interviews, and analysis of
samples of student’s work, as well s formal means. Profiles of student’s capabilities than
do single assessments, and they facilitate differentiated instruction for all
students.(Walker-Dalhouse, Risko, Esworthy,Kaisier, and Macllavain, 2009.)
Assessment is simply process of gathering data to uplift the technique used by
teacher and develop more effective approach to produce productive individuals.
Page 55 of 131

56. An understanding of the principles and uses of assessment is essential for all
teachers, and in particular for teachers of reading.(Snow, Griffin,& Burns 2005:179)
Reading assessment has great power to inform researchers, teachers,
administrators, and policy makers. Assessment practices can significantly benefit the
learning environment or they can inflict great harm. Reading assessment therefore, needs
to be treated with great care, attention, and respect. It is used for many purposes, but all
appropriate uses begin from an understanding of the reading construct, an awareness of
the development of reading abilities, and an effort to reflect the construct in assessment
task. It can be assessment can be intimidating and sometimes overwhelming for many
teachers and administrators.
The role assessment in teaching happens to be a hot issue in education today. This
had led to an increasing interest in ―performance-based education.‖ The performancebased education poses a challenge for teachers to design instruction that is tasks oriented.
The performance-based task requires performance-based assessments in which actual
student’s performance is assessed through a product such as a completed project or work
that demonstrates levels of task achievement. Performance-based assessment using
rubrics requires actual demonstration of observable skills in creation of products that are
grounded in real world context and constraints. One example is that psychomotor skills
with a product will be a form of performance-based task among students in their
laboratory classes.
The department of Education (DepEd) and other State and Private Universities
responding to the need for an assessment and evaluation system that truly reflects student
performance are now moving the student evaluation process away from the misleading
Page 56 of 131

57. effects of the transmutation tables towards a performance-based grading system that
provides a more reliable measure of what the students are actually learning in their
classes.
According to (Buns &Griefth, 2007) reading assessments are meant to provide
feedback on the skills processes, and knowledge resources that represent reading
abilities. It is important to note different assessment practices may assume different
theories of reading and reading development. Assessment in general can be categorized
in a number of ways, and all assessment frameworks serve important purposes.
Commonly assessment frameworks serve important purposes. Commonly, assessment
has been categorized in terms of norm-reference and criterion- reference testing,
formative and summative assessment, formal and informal (or alternative) assessment,
proficiency, achievement, placement, and diagnostic assessment. Reading assessment is
organized and described in terms of five basic assessment such as reading-proficiency
assessment (standardized test), assessment of classroom learning, assessment for
learning(supporting student learning is the purpose), assessment of curricular
effectiveness and assessment for research purposes.(as cited by Valdez,2003:232-233).
There is an inevitable overlap among specific test uses across these categories,
nonetheless, serve as a useful framework for organizing reading assessment. There are
several types of assessment used depending on the necessity of the students to be
assessed.
Assessment of reading proficiency is important as a way to understand students’
overall reading abilities (based on some assumed construct of reading) and to determine
Page 57 of 131

58. if students are appropriately prepared for further learning and educational advancement.
Commonly, this type of assessment is referred to as standardized testing, although local
groups and researchers also develop proficiency tests of different types. In most
respects, proficiency assessment represents high-stakes testing because decisions are
often made about students’ future educational goals and opportunities. Alternatively, this
type of assessment may lead to special education or reading-disability designations
labels that, once applied, are hard to remove from a student’s record. Readingproficiency assessment is also sometimes used for student placement, for policy
decisions, for curriculum changes, or for program, teacher, or institutional evaluations
Assessment of reading improvement in classroom settings involves the
measurement of skills and knowledge gained over a period of time and commonly
referred to as summative or achievement testing. Sometimes, proficiency assessment are
used to measure student progress from year to year, but this type of reading assessment
does not capture ongoing student gained made in reading skills in the classroom. Yearend testing actually measures growth in proficiency from year to year rather than
measuring gains reading abilities based on what was taught in class. Much more
commonly, assessment of classroom learning uses tasks that reflect the material taught
in class and skills practiced. Typically the teacher, teacher groups, or curriculum groups
(or textbook material writers) develop these tests, and they are responsible for deciding
what steps to take as a result of assessment outcomes.
Teachers have multiple opportunities to assess student learning at several points
in any semester using common techniques e.g., end-of-unit tests quizzes of various
types, post reading comprehension questions, etc. But some classroom assessment
Page 58 of 131

59. alternatives are less obvious. Informal and alternative assessment options are central for
the effective assessment of learning e.g. student observation, self reporting measures,
progress, charts, engagement and group work, group outcome assessment , interviews.),
an the usually provide converging evidence overtime for the appropriate summative test
at the end of school year. Assessment of learning can be either normative—how students
compare to each other or criterion-based how well the student perform on curriculum
standards and establish goals. These two testing purposes should lead to somewhat
different tests and different scoring. To give simplest example, normative testing would
discourage ever student to receiving an ―A‖ but a criterion-based may include all
students in receiving an ―A‖.
Assessment for learning involves a type of reading assessment that is not
commonly discussed and somewhat innovative in discussions of Language assessment.
This assessment purpose is intended to support and promote student learning, in this
case, the improvement of reading abilities. Performance abilities or a record of outcomes
is not the goal; instead, the goal is to provide immediate feedback on task and to teach
students to engage in more effective learning. In many respects, this approach appears to
overlap with the assessment of classroom learning, but this is true only with respect to
many of reading task performed, not to follow up feedback and interaction between
teacher and the students. Assessment for learning engages students in their own learning
and responds to indicators of no understanding or weak performances with ongoing
remediation and fine-tuning instruction. There are two general type of assessment for
learning practices. One involves the use of recognizable classroom assessment activities
Page 59 of 131

60. to provide helpful feedback for learning; the second involves specific assessment for
learning practices to support students directly in their day-to-day learning.
Houghton C. Mifflivorus and Roe Russ 2010:84-89), describe current educational
trends toward increased assessment of student progress through standardized tests that
attempt to measure attainment of knowledge and skills mandated by state and national
curriculum standards. In addition to these forma assessments we also discuss a wide
variety of informal assessment measures that teachers can use to gather information on a
day-to-day basis.
Formative assessment provides information in a timely fashion so as to inform
and direct instruction. Formative assessment is continuous and ongoing. It provides
relevant feedback for both the learner and the educator (Popham, 2006) useful
information when working with struggling readers, and should include self-assessments
completed by students. Short-term assessments administer at key points provide
immediate feedback and allow for a direct focus on specific strategy implementation or
skill development. (as cited by Borabo,2008)
The connection between assessment and instruction makes it imperative that
teachers not only routinely connect assessment data, but also engage in conversations
with colleagues regarding the analysis of the data.
Summative Assessments are administered at the end of an instructional unit or
time period. The results summarize the progress of students as they complete their
involvement in the learning task. The most powerful summative assessments are
Page 60 of 131

61. supported by results from a number of formative assessments. Formal Assessments are
most often summative. (Anderson, Grant, and Speck, 2008).
The gathering of the results of multiple assessments should be a continuous
process that forms the basis of designing appropriate intervention plans for all students.
Intervention plans address the instructional needs of students, include the conditions of
the learning environment, and are implemented through selected techniques. The
Response to intervention (RTI) approach, described later in this chapter, provides a
framework for creating a classroom environment where continuous assessment and
intervention are merged. A number of appropriate intervention techniques that teachers
can use to address instructional needs are described in this chapter and throughout the
text.
As an authentic assessment tool, a rubric measures student performance or output
(product) based on real-life criteria. Rubric is derived from the Latin word ―red.‖ Long
ago, a rubric was asset of instructions for a law or liturgical service typically written in
red. Thus, rubric instructs people on how to ―lawfully‖ judge a performance. A good
rubric allows a valid reliable criterion reference discrimination of performance. A rubric
then is a printed set of guidelines that distinguishes performance or products of different
quality. A rubric has descriptions that define what to look for at each level of
performance. Rubrics also often have indicators providing specific examples or tell-tale
signs of things to look for in work. Rubrics then are an authentic assessment tool that
measure students’ performance or output based on real- life criteria.(De Guzman,
A.2008)
Page 61 of 131

62. .Holistic scoring is more global and does little to separate the tasks in any given
product, but rather views the final product as a set of interrelated tasks contributing to
the whole. Holistic scoring proves to be efficient and quick. One score provides an
overall impression of ability any given product/work. It is most commonly used with
writing products, but can be used just as effectively with other subject areas. The
disadvantage of holistic scoring is that it does not provide detailed information about
student performance in specific areas of content or skill
Analytic scoring breaks down the objective or final product into component parts
and each part are scored independently. In this case, the total score is the sum of the
rating for all of the parts that are being evaluated. When using analytic scoring, it is
necessary to treat each component or part as segment to avoid bias toward the whole
product.
A rubric may be qualitative or quantitative. It is qualitative if its sole purpose is
to provide feedback to the students. If the teacher intends to use a rubric in giving grades
or scores, quantitative rubric is appropriate. The teacher may assign scores or weights to
the different gradations of performance of each particular task or criterion.
First teachers need to define the learning outcome or objective that students are
expected to achieve. From that point, begin to work backward defining possibly
demonstrate. These levels wound range from the possible highest performance to the
lowest performance that can be expected from the students on any given task and
wouldprovide descriptions of performance for each level. Each level should be directly
observable.
Page 62 of 131