AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ABOUT THE READING COMPREHENSION OF STUDENTS

USING YELLOW AND PINK HIGHLIGHTERS

Jiemycah Alonzo 1, 2, 3, John Kyle Alegre1, 2, 3, Kent Jean Balistoy1, 2, 3, Danilo Jay-r Dela Cruz1,2,3 Manuel
Jei Diasnes1, 2, 3, Allysa Marie Gatbonton1, 2, 3, Francis Heaven Helira1, 2, 3, Mark Allen Santos1, 2, 3, Errol
Sones1, 2, 3 Ms. Oli1, 2, 3,4

1
Basic Education Program

2
Our Lady Of Fatima University

3
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

4
Research Adviser

1.0 Introduction
 Reading Comprehension is a crucial part of our everyday lives. Reading is the most commonly
utilized mode we use to obtain knowledge. If we are unable to comprehend what we read, then we are
unable to learn the information we read. Regardless of how critical the skill of comprehension is to our
education, there are few known ways to improve our competence in this area.

Highlighting is a popular method among students they feel they need to memorize in order to
perform well in their school. It has been shown that highlighting does not improve comprehension unless
the material is considered difficult, and only when the specific piece of information that is inquired about
is physically highlighted (Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh, Nathan, & Willingham, 2013).

In this research, The researchers choose to study, the reading comprehension of the students with
the use of pink and yellow highlighter, because the researcher wants to know if there is any differences in
the reading comprehension of subjects not like the traditional which single color highlighting method.

The purpose of the current study was to determine if the two colors of highlighter could help to
improve comprehension more than that of the traditional single color highlighting method.

The contribution of this research to a student is to know or to help them in their academics task or
performances whenever if they are having a reading comprehension. In the society is that this can be a
new technique for the teachers to help their students in the topics or to their keywords itself, Through this,
an improvement might be done and in the future researchers for those who desire to conduct a study
related to this topic, this will help as a reference or a guide.

1.2 Research Question:

 The study discussed the reading comprehension of students at Our Lady of Fatima University in
Senior High School Students and also attempts to find evidences to the problems. More specifically it
seeks to find the answers to the following questions:

Research Question no.1: What is the demographic profile of the senior high school students of Our Lady
of Fatima University?

1.1. Age

Research Question no.2: What is the level of students reading comprehension using pink highlighter?

Research Question no.3: What is the level of students reading comprehension using yellow highlighter?

Research Question no.4: Is there a significant difference in the reading comprehension of students under
yellow and pink highlighter?

2.0 Review Related Literature

2.0.1 Reading

Reading is arguably the most utilized method for acquiring knowledge. They say reading is a
point of emphasis in someone’s education since an early age but it is often taken for granted that readers
will absorb what they read.

Relative to the mechanics of reading, there is little focus on instructing young readers how to
understand the information provided in written form. It seems to children grow and their knowledge
increases, so does their comprehension. However, if they are unable to fully comprehend what they read,
then their knowledge may not be increasing at a satisfactory rate.

For example, Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh, Nathan, and Willingham (2013) suggested that
highlighting effectiveness can improve as one’s knowledge in a particular knowledge increases.
Therefore, before a subject matter becomes familiar, it could be more difficult to pinpoint the information
that should be highlighted. Proper training on how to identify important ideas within content areas could
help make highlighting more efficient.

2.0.1 Reading Comprehension

 Comprehension performance was measured by the change between the single-color highlighting
condition and the dual-color highlighting condition. The number of questions the participant correctly
answered for the single-color highlighting condition were subtracted from the number of questions the
participant correctly answered for the dual-color highlighting condition. This new value became the
comprehension performance score for each participant.

According to Ozcelik et al. (2009) color-coding illustrations of the nervous system and color-
coding information in a text that related specifically to that illustration facilitated memory improvement.
Moreover, Peterson (1991) found that comprehension levels improved as long as the information being
highlighted directly relates to the comprehension questions being asked.

Assuming that using two colors to highlight would facilitate the ease of distinguishing between
two separate ideas in a text, comprehension levels should have improved. Highlighting efficiency was
measured by the number of words each participant highlighted in either text contrasted to our ideal rubric,
assuming that the rubric was valid. In accordance with Ozcelik et al. (2009) and Peterson (1991),

HYPOTHESIS:

HO
1. Dual highlighting did not improve or decrease the reading comprehension compared to single color
highlighting of text.

3.0 Research Method

In Methodology, the researcher uses different data from a valid sources through the use of internet
and also done from browsing a reliable existing related literature. The researchers will also give all the
links and citations that they use to prove that the information’s here are approved and all facts. The
answer from the respondents, the researcher of this study will give them the memorization test with no
biases and their answer will be attached here with all honesty, nothing more and nothing less. The word
“Methodology”, According to the Merriam-Webster (1828) Methodology means that the analysis of the
principles or producers of inquiry in a particular field.

3.1 Research Design

The study approached as a Quantitative- Quasi Experimental Research essentially compares

two groups in an attempt to draw a conclusion about them (Richardson, 2009) Quantitative-Quasi
is research that resembles experimental research but is not true experimental research. Although the
independent variable is manipulated, participants are not randomly assigned to conditions or orders of
conditions (Cook & Campbell, 1979).

Because the independent variable is manipulated before the dependent variable is measured,
quasi-experimental research eliminates the directionality problem. But because participants are not
randomly assigned—making it likely that there are other differences between conditions—quasi-
experimental research does not eliminate the problem of confounding variables. In terms of internal
validity, therefore, quasi-experiments are generally somewhere between correlation studies and true
experiments.

3.2 Research Locale

The study was conducted in the Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela Campus is a local
university funded by Jose Olivares and his son-in-law, Dr.Vicente M. Santos. The campus is located at
#120 McArthur Highway, Marulas Valenzuela City.

The researchers have conducted at Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela Campus, where the
students would be the chosen respondents, which is the main target in this study

3.3 Key Informant Selection

Snowball was established in this study. Cole, (2013) it also known as a Chain Referral Sampling.
Snowball sampling is a non-probability sampling technique that is used by researchers to identify
potential subjects in studies where subjects are hard to locate if the sample for the study is very rare or is
limited to a very small subgroup of the population.
This type of sampling technique works like chain referral. After observing the initial subject, the
researcher asks for assistance from the subject to help identify people with a similar trait of interest.
The process of snowball sampling is much like asking your subjects to nominate another person with the
same trait as your next subject. The researcher then observes the nominated subjects and continues in the
same way until the obtaining sufficient number of subjects.(Kalat, 2013)
3.4 Research Ethics

To give the integrity of the participants, the researchers secured a certification from the schools
administration. It is designed to allow autonomy from the participants. For the respect and understanding
in all respondents of this research, the researchers asked each of them if they are willing to be interviewed
with all of their honesty with no biases in their answers. The researchers also ask the consent from their
research adviser to the memorization test that they gave to the respondents. The data about the one who
refused to give their information to public will be discarded and will not put those data to the rest of the
study.

3.5 Research Instruments

We used two one-page passages, (excerpted from Kalat, 2013) Yellow and pink highlighters were
chosen for participants to highlight the articles. A ten-question quiz followed and participants were
instructed to complete the quiz without flipping back and forth between pages to ensure that their
performance would be based solely on the highlighting method and comprehension level. Again, before
completing the quiz the participants were advised that their performance would determine the number of
extra credit points. The packets were randomized among the participants.

Yellow and pink highlighters were selected because the two colors are unlikely to be confused
due to color blindness.

We manipulated the order of highlighting condition so that one half of the participants used the
single-color method to highlight the first article and the dual- color method for the second article. The
other half of the participants used the dual-color method for the first article, followed by single-color
highlighting the second article.

The one text and highlighting colors were alternated to identify any order effects that might have
occurred. Yellow and pink highlighters were used and two different crossword puzzles were alternated
within the packets. The packets were randomized among the participants. The two texts and highlighting
conditions were alternated to identify any order effects that might have occurred this study showed
improved comprehension of color coded material (Oczelik et al., 2009).

3.6 Data Collection

The researchers uses two-one passage containing passages with highlights in some relevant
answer for the10 questions after given to the (100) one hundred respondents from Our Lady of Fatima
University, Valenzuela Campus to gathered answers and by using snowball to gather more data. After the
researchers received all the data this was evaluated and examined. Analysis and interpretation of the data
was done.

3.7 Data Analysis

 The data have been analyzed through The Independent T-Test . Kristin Yeager (2010) define The
Indepent T-Test, also called the two sample t-test, independent-samples t-test or student's t-test, is an
inferential statistical test that determines whether there is a statistically significant difference between the
means in two unrelated groups.

Data Analysis involves actions and method performed on data that helps describe faces, detect
patterns, developed explanations, and test hypothesis. This includes data quality assurance, statistical data
analysis, modelling and interpretation of results. (Capocasa et al,2015) The purpose of the test is to
determine whether there is statistical evidence that the mean difference between paired observations on a
particular outcome is significantly different from zero.