THE READING DIFFICULTIES OF GRADE III PUPILS IN

DISTRICT IV IN THE SCHOOLS DIVISION OF MANILA

______________________

A THESIS
Presented to
The Faculty of the Graduate Studies and Research
Philippine College of Health Sciences, Inc.
Manila, Philippines

___________________

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts in Education (MAEd)
Major in English

__________________

by

MELANIE P. UMALI
July 2016
 Chapter I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Introduction

Learning to read is an essential part of basic education. Reading, after all, is

an important gateway to the other disciplines. It has been said that reading is the

primary avenue to knowledge (Stern and Gould, 1995). It is the cornerstone of

education and the foundation of lifelong learning. It unlocks the unknown and

carries the reader to new discoveries and learning. It equips the person with

varieties of knowledge which he can use in his daily living. A person who loves to

read understands any phenomenon easily. He is well-informed, educated and well-

adjusted to the events around him.

In Edward William Dolch’s 1951 book “Psychology and Teaching of

Reading”, reading was defined as “imagining, thinking and feeling about ideas and

thoughts made from past experiences that are suggested by perception of printed

words. ” (p.9) Reading, as asserted by the author, is an activity that requires the

different capabilities of the mind, as the reader processes words and their

meanings.
 The improvement of this reading skill as pointed out by Dolch, is highly

essential, because a basic level of reading ability is generally “not enough to

master a quantity of assigned reading in a special field” (p.329) in college. He also

mentions that fluency in reading is especially required for English Literature

subjects.

Reading is not only beneficial in terms of academics, though, as Dolch

explains. It can also help in the improvement of relationships with other people

across interests and cultures, as readers come across books that “put on into the life

and feelings and experiences of men and women of all occupations” (p.303).

According to Aikat(2007), reading plays a very important role in enhancing

the minds of young individuals, developing their “capacity for focused attention”

as well as their “imaginative growth” (p.699). Past research has shown a positive

relationship between people’s reading habits and their active involvement in other

endeavors.

Aikat (2007) also cited Louise M. Rosenblatt, an influential professor of

literature and “scholar of reading”. Aikat stated that “the act of reading is a

dynamic ‘transaction’ between the reader and the text” (p.700), an idea taken from

Rosenblatt’s 1978 book, “The Reader, The Text, The Poem” .

According to the aforementioned book, there are two kinds of reading—

reading for leisure, called Aesthetic Reading, and Efferent Reading in order to gain
information. Efferent readers read for the purpose of the facts they will learn,

while aesthetic readers read for the reading experience, making it easier for them to

“connect emotionally” to the text.

Hence, in the life of a child, reading is very significant tool to use to

discover basic knowledge about the world he lives in. Reading is not just however,

an innate thing that originates with the child. It is a set of skills that gradually

develops as the child is subjected to formal education by the school as the

responsible institution for the child’s formal education.

A child who fails to develop his reading skills at a certain level of his

education finds reading boring, and difficult to achieve (Mondero, 1995). If

children are not independent readers by the end of the third grade, it is unlikely that

they will be able to be successful in the middle grades and beyond and most likely

they rarely able to “catch up” with their peers. This phenomenon of reading failure

makes the child inattentive, irritable and passive. Therefore, his failure in this area

hampers him to achieve academically in other content area subjects. This may even

lead to negative attitude towards schooling.

This undeniable reality urges schools to consider reading as a very

significant factor to the success or failure in every educational endeavor. The

Department of Education as the responsible department of the government in all

educational events in the countryhas institutionalized the implementation of the

ECARP or Every Child a Reader Program which aims to mobilize national goal of

producingliteracy and numeracy- skilled and independent citizens. One of its

salient features is the additional time allotted to the development of the basic 3Rs:

reading, writing and arithmetic in the lower grades. This effort aims to alleviate

problems among mediocre graduates of elementary and secondary schools.

In line with this effort, the DepEd made the Communication Arts period

longer in terms of contact hours in which reading is integrated. In the case of the

private elementary curriculum, reading is taught as a separate subject to give

enough time for the development and acquisition of the basic reading skills.

The Grade 3level is generally regarded as the preparatory period to a more

challenging phase of an intermediate education in the elementary level. It is

therefore at this grade level where all the reading skills are expected to have been

developed fully from the primarygrades to the more shaped intermediate pupils

where taught reading skills should have been learned. And it is also in this grade

level that reading difficulties are apparent where there is still time for remediation

and correction. The following traits are associated with children in the third grade

level: (1) acquiring a wholesome concept of self (2) beginning to have separate

group in terms of sex (3) starting to develop intellectual capacity of mastering

concepts required for daily living (4) developing personal independence and (5)
developing new skills and refining acquired ones (McInerney and McInerney,

1994)

Hence, if third graders fail to develop the pre-requisite skills, they cannot be

expected to work independently with third grade reading materials. Hence, this

study is done to systematically identify the reading difficulties of grade three

pupils of the six public elementary schools in District IV, Division of Manila.

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework of the study attempts to visualize the existing

reading difficulties among grade three pupils as perceived by the reading teachers

who are mainly the respondents in this research. The four reading skill categories

are namely: Vocabulary Skills, Comprehension Skills, Literary Appreciation

Skills, and Work Study Skills.

The essential components of this framework are the reading theories, socio-

demographic variables of pupils and teachers, perceived reading difficulties of

pupils by the teachers in the four reading skills cited.

This study starts with the theories that are relevant to the problems under

scrutiny. These theories form the basis or the foundation of the study.

The teachers with the help of the theories can create a learning atmosphere.

This atmosphere can be established by the teachers’ background, which includes

their socio-economic status and teaching experiences. The teaching processes they
employ can create positive or negative outputs to the pupils. Negative outputs are

characterized by difficulties of pupils in performing reading skills when dealing

with printed and oral language.

Reading difficulties are given more attention, as shown in the paradigm

bythe teachers. Teachers who establish the learning environment have the

opportunities to see how each pupil perform. On the other hand, the pupils who

learn certain skills can evaluate themselves to what degree each skill is acquired.

As shown in the diagram, the teachers and pupils are open systems which

receive inputs from the environment around them. These inputs affect the

atmosphere of teaching and learning. They affect how the theories are utilized by

the pupils and teachers.

The results of the teaching and learning process can be difficulties in the

learning process of the pupils.The pupils and teachers eventually identify the

learning of the pupils. Learning that are minimal in nature, can produce skills that

are not totally developed by the pupils so they need attention for re-teaching and

relearning. Deficiency in learning as identified cooperatively by pupils and

teachers can be the basis for instruction.

With the set-up mentioned above, both teachers and pupils can come up with

agreement or disagreement on the degree of acquiring the reading skills. The

common denominators of reading difficulties can be used as basis for a reading

instruction program.

Figure 1.The Conceptual Framework of the Study

Vocabulary

Skills

Literary Teaching
Appreciation Strategies
Skills
Reading Level
Of
Pupils

Work
Study
Skills

Figure 1.The Related Skills and Characteristics of Effective Reading Practice. Based on the specific skills as

indicated in the reading curriculum, this figure represents the coherent system for teaching reading and the related

components necessary for assuring teaching effectiveness in reading (Umali, 2016).

Statement of the Problem :

This study aims to answer the following questions:

1. What is the socio-demographic profile of the teachers in terms of

a) age

b) gender

c) civil status

d) highest educational attainment

e) number of years in teaching profession ?

2. How may the reading difficulties incurred by the pupils be described as

perceived by the teacher – respondents , such as;

a) vocabulary skill difficulties

b) comprehension skill difficulties

c) literary appreciation skill difficulties

d) Work-study skill difficulties?

3. Is there a significant difference in the reading difficulties incurred by

Grade 3 pupils from the different public elementary schools in District

IVsuch as; vocabulary skill difficulties; comprehension skill difficulties;

literary appreciation skill difficulties and work-study skill difficulties?

Hypothesis

There is no significant difference inthe reading difficulties incurred by

Grade 3 pupils from the different public elementary schools in District IV suchas ;

vocabulary skill difficulties ; comprehension skill difficulties; literary

appreciation skill difficulties and work-study skill difficulties .

Scope And Delimitations

The study was conducted in the sixselected elementary schools in District

IV,Division of Manila during the school year,2016-2017. The focus of this study

was on the reading difficulties of the Grade 3 pupils. 450 pupils were selected by

randomsampling method as subjects of the study.Nine teachers handling Grade 3

classes were the respondents from the different public elementary schools in

District IV. These teachers were also assigned as teachers to handle to reading

program of the schools.

For identifying the reading difficulties of the Grade III pupils, the checklist

on Oral Reading Difficulties was administered to the reading teachers which were

accomplished based on their day to day observations.

Research Locale

This study was conducted in six selected public elementary schools in

District IV in the Division of Manila during the School Year 2016-2017.

(Mam Melanie, Please insert here the history of your city.)

Importance of the Study

The result of this study will be great help to teachers, pupils, parents,

administrators, and researchers.

Teachers. The result of this study may provide teachers with basic

information that all instruction involves continued on-going evaluation of the child.

The giving of the pencil and paper test must be based on thorough diagnosis which

is the most essential procedure in treating disability. The results will likewise help

them improve as well as to modify the behavior problems of their pupils through

proper instruction and guidance in the formation of desirable traits. It is only

proper understanding of the causes of the pupils reading disability and through

harmonious relationship with them that effective teaching would result.

Pupils. Indirectly, it would be helpful for the pupils if they would be

discovered earlier as reading retardates. Their being identified early in the school

year may help them overcome traumatic or embarrassing situations in the

classroom. The experience of failure often leads to frustration and

discouragement. According to Dreikurs, (2006) as cited by Lindgren (2008),

misbehavior is discouragement which is detrimental to the intellectual growth of

children.

Parents. The findings would be very beneficial to parents who would be

better informed of the aspects of behavior disorders of their children. Parents

would be in better position to cooperate more effectively with the school in

facilitating optimum growth and development of their children. They could

provide appropriate parental guidance through proper advice and a supportive

home environment.

Administrators. The results may help the researcher understand better her

role and the behavior of pupils with reading disabilities that would be serve as

basis in giving proper instruction and guidance to the pupils.

Definitions Of Terms

The following are the operational definitions of terms for better

understanding and clarity.

Academic Performance. It refers to the pupils’ achievement as

reflected by the generalrating in each of the basic subjects.

Comprehension. This refers to the act of understanding the meaning of

printed or spoken language as contrasted with the ability to perceive and

pronounce words without reference to the meanings.

Comprehension Skills. Is a multifaceted process affected by a variety of

factors: experiential, background, word recognition capability, language ability and

reading purposes.
 Readers employ a number of types of comprehension in order to understand

fully what they read. The following types which have direct bearing on this study

are:

1. Literal comprehension is to take ideas that are directly stated in the

passage. The skills involved are the ability to restate the author’s material. This is a

pre-requisite to higher comprehension.

2. Interpretation level is reading between the lines or making inferences. It is

the process of deriving ideas that are implied rather than directly stated.

3. Critical level is evaluating written material as right or wrong through

characters’ reactions and emotions.

3. Application level is going beyond the material presented by the authors.

This involves identifying problems presented and relating it to real life

situations.

Hesitation. This is the reading difficulty, in which the child hesitates to

read, which may be attributed to non-recognition of words or printed symbols.

Language. It is a structural system of arbitrary vocal sounds and

sequences of sound which is used in interpersonal communication

and which, rather exhaustively, catalogs the things, events, and processes of

human experiences.
 Literary Appreciation Skill. It is the capability of the reader to see the

aesthetic part of printed language. This is clearly illustrated in poems, stories, verse

and others.

Oral reading ability. This refers to the reading skills acquired and

applied in the vocalization and articulation of printed symbols at a reasonable

rate and with clarity of expression to be understood by an average listener.

Reading. Experts in reading instruction around the world agree upon the

common sense proposition that there are two major acts to be performed in the

reading process: (1) recognizing the printed word on the page and (2)

understanding and dealing with the meaning intended in the passage.

Reading Difficulty is defined in this study as the deficiency of skills

acquired by fourth graders in four reading skill categories namely: Vocabulary

Skills, Comprehension Skills, Literary Appreciation and Work Study Skills. Based

on the adjectival rating of responses, 4 is considered difficulty.

Repetition.It is an act of reading a word for the second time or more due to

non-recognition of the next word or limited eye span in reading.

Reversal. This is a kind of reading difficulty wherein a child has

directed his attention to theend of the word, thus the word is read in the reverse

order.
 Stammering. This is another kind of reading difficulty wherein the reader

repeats the first syllable of the word or even more, before reading the next syllable

or the whole word.

Substitution. This refers to the reading difficulty wherein the reader the

child changes a word with another word, or sometimes a mere guessing because of

non-recognition of the word.

Vocabulary Skill. Vocabulary terms are clusters of concepts or

Words grasped from experiences in reading and other forms of communication

which the person can use independently. The ability of the person to use these

concepts and words confidently in any form of communication illustrated his

vocabulary skills.

There are four kinds of vocabulary words:

(1) Recognition vocabulary is a word for which the reader has general

understanding as it is used in the context.

(2) Recall vocabulary is a word for which the reader can distinguish the

correct synonym or definition.

(3) The vocabulary word with multiple meanings which the reader can use

and understand in the different contexts in different ways.

(4) The vocabulary word to which the reader can give a deeper semantic

interpretation in a given context.

 Word for word reading.A reading difficulty which is characterized by the

long pause between words due to non-recognition of the next word at a glance.

Work-Study Skill. Integrated reading skills that allow the child to do an

independent study and work. They are concretized in the capacity of the child to

study frequently, independently do researches in the library and to use reference

materials such as encyclopedia, atlas, map, periodicals and others.

 Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presents some relevant literature and studies which are closely

related to the present study. The researcherwas properly guided in formulating

problems and hypotheses based from the studies herein cited which are supported

by studies local and abroad.

Moreover, this part also presents the concepts of reading and literacy, the

benefits of reading and its possible effects on students' academic performance.

Sources and past studies related to this research study, which seeks to determine

the reading difficulties of learners, will be cited and discussed.The areas of concern

are the different reading skills namely: vocabulary skills, comprehension skills,

literacy appreciation skills, and work-study skills.

Related Literature

The 1992 survey on the achievement rates of Elementary School education

revealed that the low achievement rates of 60% of elementary school pupils was

below the desired 75% achievement rate. These figures imply that there was a

deficiency of skills acquired by the elementary graduates.

On the other hand, On December 2013, The NSO's 2010 Census of

Population and Housing (CPH) showed that of the 71.5 million individuals who are
10 years old and above, 97.5 percent or 69.8 million were literate or could read and

write. This is higher compared to the literacy rate of 92.3 percent recorded in the

2000 CPH. The 97.5% literacy rate is quite an impressive figure but if we will take

a look at the result of the National Achievement Test (NAT) ON 2012, Grade 3

students got a Mean Percentage Score of 54.42% in English reading

Comprehension and 58.61% in Filipino. This figures shows that 3rd grade Filipino

children are considered as average readers in general. It also shows that Filipino

3rd grade students have problem understanding what she/he is reading whether the

text is written in English or Filipino.

According to Juan Miguel Cruz (2007), despite our supposedly high literacy

rate, many Filipinos can barely read and write. This is true especially of those

living in remote areas as well as the slum areas of the country. Someone once

remarked that we are not a nation of readers; we are a nation of storytellers. Ours is

a culture of oral history passed on by word of mouth not through the written word.

Many educators believe that failure of the child in formal education can be

traced to his reading difficulties. These difficulties hinder him to succeed in school

work requiring the reading process. This problem prompted researchers to conduct

studies in reading.

In Edward William Dolch’s 1951 book Psychology and Teaching of

Reading, reading was defined as “imagining, thinking and feeling about ideas and
thoughts made from past experiences that are suggested by perception of printed

words" (p.9).

On the other hand, Aikat (2007) stated that “the act of reading is a dynamic

‘transaction’ between the reader and the text” (p.700), an idea taken from Louise

M. Rosenblatt’s 1978 book, The Reader, The Text, The Poem. According to the

aforementioned book, there are two kinds of reading—reading for leisure, called

Aesthetic Reading, and Efferent Reading in order to gain information. Efferent

readers read for the purpose of the facts they will learn, while aesthetic readers

read for the reading experience, making it easier for them to “connect emotionally”

to the text. In order for readers to attain this connection and fully comprehend the

text they read, Dolch (1951) asserted that the process of reading requires the

different capabilities of the mind, as the reader processes words and their

meanings.

This processing of words and text can also be defined as "literacy" or as

Castello and Charlton (2007) explained, “the cognitive processing of text

information, a motivational attitude toward reading, and the integration of texts

into everyday life” (p.697). The authors asserted that through this cognitive

process of reading, readers learn to apply the meanings of the words and sentences

that they comprehend to their present knowledge.

 Castello and Charlton posited that readers can then incorporate and evaluate

the content of these readings to their own lives and experiences, as well as use the

text as basis for future actions. The readers can then incorporate and evaluate the

content of these readings to their own lives and experiences, as well as use the text

as basis for future actions, as Castello and Charlton explain.

A higher reading fluency, as noted by Castello and Charlton(2007), involves

“a better understanding of the text” (p.698), which is often useful in college, where

students undergo the systematic process of text interpretation and relations.

Reading fluency though, is not only beneficial in terms of academics but is also

useful in the readers’ social understanding and communication, assert Castello and

Charlton(2007).

They also state that young women often use literature “to cope with critical

life situations” (p.699) and are more motivated when it comes to reading than

young men. In fact, according to Aikat(2007), past research has shown a positive

relationship between people’s reading habits and their active involvement in other

endeavors. Aikat also states that reading plays a very important role in enhancing

the minds of young individuals, developing their “capacity for focused attention”

as well as their “imaginative growth” (p.699).

However, "Imaginative growth" as well as a capacity for attention are only a

few of the benefits of reading and literacy. Another possible benefit may be the
development of writing skills. In her work Theories of Literacy, Stewart (2006)

explained the relationship between reading and writing, stating that they are two

skills that are “so interrelated that one cannot be understood without the

other”(p.618) so that students are able to “draw on their skills in one to develop the

other as they build proficiency in both” (p.618).

Stewart also presented yet another benefit of reading--a proficiency in the

oral language, taken from the theories of Michael Halliday in the 1970’s, which

compared the two and stated that they were both “social” forms of communication.

Aside from these assertions, Stewart went on to say that literacy and reading in

general also applies to students' academic performance in other fields, such as in

language arts, mathematics, the sciences, the arts and computer technology.

Several studies have affirmed Stewart’s (2006) assertions. In

RitzelMontalban’s 2010 research entitled The Correlation Between Reading

Comprehension and The Performance In Math Problem Solving of The Selected

Second Year HIgh School Students Of The Sisters of Mary School-Boystown,

Montalban conducted studies to verify her hypothesis regarding the relationship

between students’ performance in problem solving and their corresponding

abilities in reading comprehension.

Some of the researchers cited by Montalban(2010) included Sutton &

Krueger , who asserted that “reading, writing, and mathematics are, or should be,
inseparable”. Montalban also quoted Hiebert& Wilkinson, who suggested that

“most reading and thinking strategies should be taught in the content areas, rather

than isolated reading lessons.”

In general, the findings of the study show that there is in fact a relationship

between reading, vocabulary, academics and reading abilities, although “this

relationship is by no means simple and straightforward” (p.166).

The importance of this relationship was stressed by Miller and Moores in

their 2006 work on Literacy, which regarded the “acquisition of reading and

writing skills—especially reading” (p.790) as an “important element” of education.

The issue of low levels in this development in literacy has been a large concern in

the past, according to Miller and Moores, causing conflicts known as the “reading

wars” or the “great debate” (p.792).

The aforementioned reading wars consisted of three different ways of

addressing the problem of literacy among students, the first being the “top-down”

model, the second being the “bottom-up” model, and the “interactive” model as the

third, state the authors.

The “top-down” model, as explained by Miller and Moores (2006), is a form

of “look-and-say” (p.792) instruction that focuses more on the text and its content

and meaning, and less on the technical aspects such as subject-verb agreement,

spelling and punctuation. On the other hand, the opposite “bottom-up” model
emphasized “phonics” and the technical aspects of writing and reading, explained

Miller and Moores. The third “interactive” model unites both models. According

to Miller and Moores, the interactive model is built on the fact that writing

involves bout the “bottom up (text based) and top-down (cognitively based)

processes that interact with and complement each other” (p.792).

Miller and Moores (2006) stated that in teaching real children, it has been

“widely reported” that teachers “tend to utilize elements of both top-down and

bottom-up models, hopefully approaching the idea of an interactive system”

(p.792).

On the other hand, these two models by Miller and Moores(2006) do not

take into consideration other possible factors that may influence a students’ or

childs’ reading development. In a 2012 study entitled Factors affecting Second

Year UP Cebu High School Students Opinions on Reading, the researchers

GenevicHabagat and GerianneRizon attempted to determine these factors that may

affect high school students’ opinions on reading, particularly those of the Second

Year students in the University of the Philippines Cebu High School.

The importance and subject matter of this study was clearly explained

through Habagat and Rizon's well-organized Review of Related Literature that

focused on the concepts of "reading, its history, benefits and importance in a

Philippine setting" (p.6). The review thoroughly critiqued methods employed by

other institutions that might not be effective, such as Mountain Crest High Utah's

"MC Story Night' which involves thrice-a-year reading sessions between high

school and elementary students. On the other hand, the researchers also cited other

programs that could be beneficial regarding the study, such as Valerie Lee's

research programs based on "The SSR" handbook, which mentions multiple factors

in reading development, namely: "(1) access, (2) appeal, (3) conducive

environment, (4) encouragement, (5) staff training, (6) non-accountability, (7)

follow-up activities, and (8) distributed time to read." (Lee; as cited in

Habagat&Rizon, 2012, p.8).

Foreign Literature.According to Strong, et al (1997), reading is a tool

subject, without knowing how to read the pupil cannot learn and progress in other

subjects like mathematics, science, social studies and etc. Reading therefore, is

fundamental to the pupils’ success in the different subject areas mentioned.

Likewise, the pupil will progress in other fields of endeavor if he knows how to

read. He will be able to deal with his environment and perform his daily activities

in life. As a result, this will enable him to adjust emotionally and socially to

different situations making him a useful and productive citizen of his country.

Everyone has a need to learn to read. Reading is a tool in all aspects of

learning. The child who has not learned to read well in the elementary school runs
the risks of becoming an adult handicapped in the many phases of living (Gray,

1993).

According to Harris and Sipay (1995), attempts to remediate reading failure

date back to the beginning of the seventeenth century. Morgan, a British

Ophthalmologist, published the first report of a case of reading disability in 1896.

He used the term “congenital word blindness”, to describe a 14-year old boy who

had not learned to read, although he seemed to be intelligent. Many investigations

began in Europe regarding these problems but these attracted relatively little notice

from psychologists and educators in Great Britain.

The same author reported the first report, published in the United States in

1916, was an attempt to diagnose individual reading and prescribed treatment.

Like other neurologists, Samuel Orton (as cited by Harris and Sipay, 1995)

studied the causes of delays in learning to read but he was mainly interested in the

reading disability. His works attracted wide attention among psychologists.

Universities and clinics in the United States became the first centers for the

training of reading specialists and remedial teachers. Some secondary schools

initiated remedial reading programs after World War II when they became aware

of a large number of illiterates in the military forces (Harris and Sipay, 1995).
 Educational psychologists seemed to be impressed by a wide range of

educational handicaps that may be seen in poor readers and have tended to favor a

pluralistic theory of causation.

From about 1935 to 1955, many psychologists and clinical psychologists

sought to explain reading disability as a symptom of emotional disturbance and

tended to recommend psychotherapy as the preferred mode of treatment. There is

a little doubt that the great majority of children with reading disabilities who come

to the attention of psychologists and psychiatrists have emotional symptoms and

problems.

In individual cases, however, it is often difficult to determine whether

emotional problems cause reading disability or the result of it. Most of these

theories believed that reading disability was a symptom of some underlying defect

within the learner (Harris and Sipay, 1995).

One of the most common problems attributed to learning disabled

youngsters spend more time teaching reading than any of the academic areas

(Hallohan and Kauffman, 1998).

The characteristics mentioned here were those of the learning disabled

(Vallet, 1999). It is very important to know the characteristics of children with

reading disabilities so that they can best understood for their destructive

personality and needs. These characteristics provide the basis for understanding
their educational needs. These common characteristics are: (a) Repeated failure

experiences. Pupils with reading disabilities have had repeated failure experiences

in their educational pursuits which negatively affect future learning. Many of these

children have failed so often that they are convinced that they cannot learn

regardless of how hard they might try. (b) Physical and environmental limitations.

Many children have a number of reading disabilities which physical anomalies or

limitations. (c) Motivational problems. Largely due to repeated failure

experiences the child with reading disability tends lack interests, drive and

enthusiasm for educational situations. (d) Anxiety. A vague anxiety, usually

stemming from a sense of impending failure is also a characteristic of many of

these children. (e) Erratic behavior. They tend to demonstrate erratic in most

learning situations.

Meanwhile, on test profiles, they are marked by extreme variations of

strength and weaknesses with normal or superior performance in other areas. (f)

Incomplete evaluation. Most pupils with reading disabilities have been

educationally hindered to incomplete evaluation and improper diagnosis. Too

often do we find children who have been labeled as “retarded”, or “emotionally

disturbed” where little or no attempt has been made to thoroughly evaluate and

understand their specific learning problems and needs (g) Inadequate education.

The overwhelming majority of children with reading disabilities have not been
properly educated. A common characteristic found among this group in the lack of

any attempt at special education. Many of these pupils have also been the victims

of poor education including inadequate facilities, untrained teachers and public

difference (Vallet, 1999).

Grant (1992) reported a study on main stress approaches which answer some

of the characteristics exhibited by the reading disabled children.

A mainstream child lives in poor homes, broken homes, and homes with

ineffective parents. These children go to school but they are not able to interact

well with others not prepared to grow and learn, and do not meet the expectation of

the school (Grant 1992).

Grant (1992) cited that the analyst in New HavenSchool suggested that the

key to academic achievement is to promote overall development of students to

encourage bonding in the school. Their task is to create a strategy that understands

the child’s development, and enable them to improve relationship with parents.

The management team is made up of the parents, teachers’ administrators,

and adult caretakers. There were social workers, psychologists and SPED

teachers. It has a mental health team that work together and had a representatives

on the management team. They shared their knowledge with the teaching staff.

As a result the teachers responded in a supportive way to children. The teachers

came to realize that the only difference between children and the children of the
middle income families is that the latter received at home what is necessary to

succeed at school. Out of the realization came the program called Social Skills

Curriculum for the Inner City children and, as a result, the school ranked first and

second in attendance with or without serious reading or behavior problems (Grant,

1992).

Local Literature.

A study conducted by a non-profit organization located in Manila

demonstrates that a short-term reading program that provides age-appropriate

reading material and trains teachers to use it can have a significant effect on the

reading ability of primary school children.

The government has a thrust of building proficiency through language

(Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education) as part of our newly implemented

k-12 curriculum. This trust is considered as another burden to Filipino educators.

There are no available materials in areas of science and mother-tongue based

language. Teacher guides and learner materials (which are usually soft copy) are

all written in English and the burden of translating it into the language /dialect of

the local community is left to teachers. There are no available language books from

kinder-grade IV. Language books which will expose children to written texts are

not available.
 The school experience can be relevant, or boring, frustrating, or fulfilling for

any child. Generally speaking the common responses of reading disabled children

and youth are reactions of frustrations to the educational environment. Frustrations

may be displayed by students’ anger at or passive withdrawal from learning

especially when the tool subjects like reading, writing and arithmetic are so

inadequate that they are unusable for purposes of daily living. More importantly,

academic achievement may be so weak that skill deficiencies actually multiply as

the youth grows older.

As reading-disabled students attempt to learn, and fail, they also cannot meet

their own expectations for achievement. This lowers their expectation for failure

success until a generalized fear of failure dominates their attitudes and behaviors.

Response generalization to other social, academic, and school-related activities is

inevitable and a pattern of learned helplessness results. One of the principal

aspects of that syndrome is that motivation to achieve deteriorates, negating self-

concept and self-reliance (Sabatino, 1991).

The possible causes of reading disability are numerous. A single factor

seldom causes reading disability. The difficulty is due to a composite of related

conditions. Lalunio (1994) classifies the four causative factors or reading disability

into four, namely: physical, external, intelligence, and educational: (a) Physical

deficiencies. Include visual, binocular difficulties, auditory deficiencies, motor,

speech, and glandular disturbances and general health. Visual deficiencies and

hyperopia, myopia and astigmatism. Binocular difficulties occur when the visual

image of words and objects are blurred and when more serious two images of

words and objects are blurred and when more serious two images are seen. The

pupils use many fixations and regressions or backward movements.

Auditory deficiencies include impairment of hearing like inability to hear

sounds accurately. Motor deficiency in the case of reading is poor coordination

which is indicated by unsteady handling of book, and defective way of turning the

pages. Speech defects cause confusion on the sounds of words to be associated

with written and printed words.

The Glandular disturbances include manifestations such as overactive

thyroids, tendency to lose weights, fatigue, and irritability; (b) External factors.

These are emotional maladjustment, environmental and attitudes. Emotionally

maladjusted disabled readers are those who show symptoms in the form of shyness

or retiring behavior, inability to concentrate, lack of self-confidence or nay kind of

aggressive, compensatory behavior.

On the other hand, environmental factors include: neglect of sympathetic

understanding which may cause a child to feel that he is not loved or not wanted,

apparent indifference on the part of the parent or over concern which may cause

anxiety, lack of confidence, and perhaps attention-seeking behavior. Attitudes

which are not favorable may result in reading disability while favorable attitudes

foster progress in learning to read; (c) Low intelligence is not a direct cause of

reading disability. It may only indirectly lead to reading disability when the

reading material during the early years is not adapted to a slow learners’ needs; (d)

Educational causes include administrative policies like promoting children by age

rather than achievement, or over emphasis on the development of reading skills

without giving permission to the development of pupils and lack of reading

readiness where in the child is plunged right away to standard reading program

before he has acquired the readiness which important to his success in classroom

activities. Other is lack of individual differences and methods of teaching.

Related Studies

Foreign Studies. Reading is a complex process. Theories are formulated to

explain this process. Brief discussion of some theories are presented as theoretical

background of this study. The theories to be discussed are bottom-ups theory, top-

down theory, interactive theory, schema theory, subskills theory and

psycholinguistic theory.

The Reading Theories

This study is anchored on the different theories discussed above, namely,

Bottom-up theory, Top-down theory, Schema theory, Interactive theory, Sub skills

theory and Psycholinguistics theory.

 The elements in the whole framework are the reading theories, pupils

learning reading, teachers teaching reading, perceived reading difficulties and the

reading instruction.

The reading theories are the vehicles that can be used by the teachers in her

reading instruction and activities of the students. This mainly depends upon the

needs in terms of teacher-pupil capabilities, instructional materials and teaching

and learning context.

The Bottom-Ups Theory. The Bottoms-up Theory is a text-driven approach.

It suggests that reading is basically a process of translating graphic symbols into

speech during oral or silent reading. Here are the basic features of this theory. The

learner reads text by building from sound-system units to words meaning. Word-

recognition accuracy is important to comprehension. The most effective

instructional materials are phonics oriented. Learners use word-identification skills

to unlock words not in their “ownership” or “sight” vocabularies. (Klein, Peterson

and Simington 1991). Written Language is subservient to oral language. Lower-

level processes are seen as taking place prior to higher-level or cognitive processes.

(Hayes, 1991).

The Top-down Theory. It is opposite to the Bottom-Up theory. Its

fundamental feature is that it is at the schema- end of the continuum. The following

are among its primary tenets: Meaning is vested in the reader not in the text per se.
Comprehension and meaning precede decoding and word attack. Learning

proceeds basically from the whole to its parts and not from parts to a whole.

Instruction is focused on meaning rather than on text structure. (Klein, Peterson

and Simington, 1991). According to this model, the reader plays an active role and

supplies more information than the printed page does (Hayes. 1991).

The Interactive Theory. It is more of a compromise between bottom-up and

top-down theories. This model believes that different processes are thought to be

responsible for providing information that is shared with other processes.

Hypothesis is arrived by means of top-down processing. As such, bottom-up

processing is guided to a degree by the hypothesis imposed by top-down

processing. The information obtained from each type of processing is combined to

determine the most appropriate interpretation of the printed page, Hayes (1991).

Rumelhart (1997) has developed an interactive model which suggests that, at least

for skilled readers, top-down and bottom-up appeared simultaneously.

Schema Theory. This theory gives importance to prior knowledge. It

suggests that knowledge and experiences act to facilitate the acquisition of new

knowledge. It emphasizes the importance of teaching pupils how to comprehend

before reading rather than fixing up understanding after reading, (Hayes 1991).

Rand (1994) hypothesized that having many experiences with well-informed

stories help children develop a story schema. Reading comprehension involves

relating textual information to pre-existing knowledge structures or schema

(Pearson, et al., 1999).

Sub skills Theory. It believes that reading is a set of sub skills that children

must master integrate. This theory explains that good readers have learned and

integrated these skills and they use them automatically. Teaching these skills until

they become automatic and smoothly integrated makes reading meaningful (Burns,

Ross, Roe, 1992). “One of the hallmarks of the reader who learned the sub skills

rapidly is that he was least aware of them at the time, and therefore now he has

little memory of them as separate sub skills” (La Berge and Samuels). This model

illustrates the process by which students master smaller before larger ones and

integrate them into units after mastery.

Psycholinguistic Theory.About ten years ago, the “psycholinguistic model”

of reading began to assert that contrary to this view of reading as a sequence of

skills which one could teach, reading is in actuality a process of predicting

meaning based on the reader’s knowledge of oral language syntax, semantics, and

phonological cues.

In other words, based on the reader’s store of information about how

language works from his knowledge of oral language, a reader already knows

something about how words are ordered and what kinds of meaning words possess

in certain contexts. The early psycholinguistic model is primarily a top down or

conceptually driven model where the emphasis is on prediction of meaning. It is

the concepts which generate a search for the data or words to confirm these

predictions. (Goodman) Within this perspective Smith defines reading

comprehension as making sense out of what you read by using what you know, or

the theory of the world which you have in your head.

Essentially the reader is expected to use prior knowledge and experience

with language to get meaning from print. A characteristic in the development of

both the skills and psycholinguistic theories of reading comprehension is the use of

paradigms or models from computer science. (Goodman; LaBerge and Samuels;

Ruddell) Rummelhart’s information processing model integrates both the top-

down and bottom-up processing concepts into his interactive theory of reading

comprehension. In this view, while the reader is processing features, letters,

spelling pat terns, etc., at the same time he or she is also attending to general

context, syntax, and the semantic and syntactic environment in which the words

occur and from which an interpretation of meaning is made.

These practices are sometimes used by schools, educators, and parents when

a young child developmentally lags behind his or her peers. The young child’s

underperformance is interpreted as the child needing more time to acquire the

knowledge and skills needed to perform at the level of his or her peers. It is based

on the disciplines of psychology and linguistics.

 Kenneth Goodman, a noted psycholinguist points out the importance of the

reader’s ability to anticipate the material she has read. (Goodman 1993). Its salient

features are the following: Learning to read does not require memorization of letter

names, phonicrules or large list of words. Learning to read is not a matter of a

child relying upon instruction because the essential skills of reading cannot be

taught (F. Smith, 1998) Smith, like other psycholinguistics, believes that children

learn to read as they learn to speak, by generating and testing hypotheses about the

reading materials and getting appropriate feedback.

The Basic Skills in Reading

Vocabulary Skills

The rich store of vocabulary words in the readers’ storage of knowledge

allows him to transmit his ideas with precision and imagination. Vocabulary

knowledge or knowledge of word meanings is critical to reading comprehension.

(Klein, Peterson and Simington, 1991). Children with limited vocabulary

knowledge especially those who have not learned techniques and strategies for

inferring the meanings of unknown words will experience difficulty

comprehending both oral and written text (Hayes, 1991).

Vocabulary skills are rapidly developed during the child’s elementary school

years. It has been estimated that the typical child increases his or her vocabulary

rate of about 1,000 words a year (Burns, 1992).

 Vocabulary skills are characterized by the following (1) recognizing known

words that are in one’s understanding but one does not recognize in print (2)

learning new meanings for known words by adding new shades of meanings to

words partly known (3) recognizing new words that represent new concepts (40

clarifying and enriching the meanings of known words in communication

(Heilman, Blair and Rupley, 1996).

In the light of the impact that pupils’ vocabulary has on reading success,

Johnson and Pearson, in teaching Reading Vocabulary (1994) recommended that

teachers set aside time for general vocabulary development. Rouke (1994), as

reported by Hayes (1991), asserted that vocabulary instruction has typically been

viewed in a narrow context.. He recommended that elementary curriculum includes

systematic strategies for vocabulary development.

According to Anderson (1992, a major factor in vocabulary acquisition

after third grade is the amount of independent reading students do. Anderson and

Freebody (1993) stated that when reading independently for 25 minutes per school

day, an average pupil would encounter tens of thousands of words that she or he

did not know.

A number of studies conducted on vocabulary skills are not similar to this

present study. However, their significance are related to this.

 Grambell, Wilson and Gatt (1998) conducted a study using fourth graders.

They found out that while high-ability readers encounter only one unknown word

out of 100 in a typical instructional reading passage, low-ability readers frequently

encounter an unknown word once in every 10 words they do not know.

Eldredge, Quinn and Butterfield (1990) examined the causal relationship

between vocabulary and comprehension. Measure were obtained from 504 second-

grade pupils. A cross-logged panel analysis was used to test for such a pattern.

Findings indicate that reading comprehension has a causal effect on vocabulary

instruction improved reading comprehension.

Mcswain (1994) experimented on the use of free reading as a method for

vocabulary development and comprehension. Findings revealed that a faster

comprehension happened than vocabulary development in the fourth grade

structure group; however, unstructured group had the opposite result which showed

vocabulary development faster than comprehension.

Comprehension Skills

Comprehension is the purpose of reading; without it, there is no reading

(Heilman, Blair and Rupley 1996). It is a constructive, interactive process

involving three factors: the reader, the text and the context in which the text is

read.
 Anderson (1994) viewed comprehension primarily involving the

construction of schema that accounts for the meaning in the text. It is an outline of

script which provides a framework of comprehension. It is described as an internal

mental process that cannot be observed or studied directly, Heilman, Blair and

Rupley (1996). This notion brings out the idea of mental model. This is an

inclusive theory of comprehension which can handle both scripted and unscripted

activities. Two mental models are briefly described. The working mental model is

the construction of present events in the story and the passage mental model is the

k knowledge of the whole story by building links between events.

Readers build up numerous comprehension skills in order to understand

fully what they read. The following types are: the literal comprehension which

means getting ideas directly stated in the passage, interpretation comprehension

which is to read between the lines; critical comprehension which means evaluating

the passage read; and the application which is to read beyond the lines.

A number of research studies about comprehension are not similar to mine,

yet, their relevance can support this existing study.

Spearrit (1992) conducted an experimental study to identify the

interrelatedness of comprehension sub skills using likelihood factor analysis. He

found out that among the seven sub skills he identified, four of which were

differentiated as separate sub skills. These skills are recalling word meanings,
drawing inferences, recognizing author’s purpose and following the structure of a

passage. It was further stressed that although the four skills are distinguishable,

only vocabulary skill is the best differentiated. This supports the category of skills

this study is using. Vocabulary has been solely separated from comprehension.

Research by Matz and Rockwer (1991) supported that poor comprehend do

not suffer from a general comprehension deficit when pictures are accompanied

with auditory version.

Stanovich and Vata-Kassi (1995) found six variables correlating with

comprehension namely: word recognition, speed vocabulary, time and technique in

teaching. They all showed an interdependence of performance to reading. They

further defined that poor readers who read slow and can not decode words create

according to graphic structure. Liberman and Shank (1999) suggested that inability

to recognize words create a working bottleneck that interferes with comprehension.

Styler (1990) reported a result of a project using repeated reading to improve

decoding skills and its impact to comprehension. The result showed that reading

was difficult.

Literary Appreciation Skills

Reading can be entertaining as well as informative. Teachers can help the

child to realize this fact by reading stories and poems to the child and setting aside

a regular time to pleasure reading during which many good books of appropriate
difficulty levels for each child and on many different interest areas are readily

available.

Recreational reading skill helps carry out the enhancement of other reading

skills. Yet, a child cannot read independently when his vocabulary and

comprehension skills are not yet developed. Hence, recreational reading is

dependent on other reading skills.

According to Gunning (1992), recreational reading allows the child to

manipulate his skills and prior knowledge without much pressure from the outside

of the self . He stressed further, that if develops self-concept and independence.

(Burns, Ross and Roe).

It is believed that even before the child enters school, his surrounding which

fosters positive attitude towards reading can influence his interests to read. This is

manifested by members of the family or even the extended surroundings which is

the neighborhood. Cutts (1994), said that the more recreational reading done, the

more chance for skill development.

With the different kinds of materials the researcher read, unfortunately, there

is no existing study made on literary appreciation skill.

Work-Study Skills

“Study skills are defined as skills necessary for acquiring critical

information from a variety of text and media source for differing purposes and
uses. In other words, a person who has mastered study skills knows how to review

and read different kinds of texts and knows what information is important for the

task at hand. Furthermore, the individual knows how to retrieve essential

information and cast it in a format for the purpose, Hayes (1991).

Hayes (1991) stressed that study skills are especially important for students

who are having difficulty learning to read. These skills help pupils improve their

reading comprehension and retain what they have read.

Pupils frequently experience difficulty in content materials. Possible reasons

for this difficulty are the lack of systematic instruction in study skills, difficulty

level of many content material in terms of vocabulary and concepts and lack of

transfer of skills from the basic reading program to study-type materials Heilman,

Blair, Rupley (1992)

Many study skills are only given passing mention and attention in schools.

However, everyone needs systematic, planned instruction and practice to meet the

challenges of content material and to be able to read in order to learn throughout

life. Askov, E.N. and Kann, (1992), recommended that study skills be taught as

part of content area studies to ensure transfer of skills be taught as part of content

area studies to ensure transfer of skills to realistic reading tasks. Incorporating

study skills instruction into content area studies also helps students learn the

content subject.
 Pescosolido, Schell and Laurent (1990) emphasize the need of study skills

applied in a content area. These skills need to be taught to students in a systematic,

direct fashion. If a specific skill is directly taught by the teacher, transfer of the

skill to content area materials will be automatic on the part of the students.

Teachers must not assume students know and can apply the various reading skills

in content areas.

Work-study skills are manifested when the child reads independently to

accomplish an assigned task. It is also done in doing library researches using

references like dictionary, encyclopedia, atlas, maps and globes, etc. The

implication of this work skill is that the child is responsible for his own learning

and that learning can continue without the teacher’s presence.

Student difficulty in content material may be due to the absence of

interesting and varied practice to ensure mastery and application of particular skill.

Factors that Affect Reading Difficulties

There are three factors identified to have great influence on the reading

difficulty of the children as specified in the perceived data. These factors are sex,

educational attainment and economic status.

Educators have long been interested in variables that serve as accurate

predicators of the failure of children in reading tasks. Systematic studies were

conducted to answer this question, Lingele (1999) What influences, the child’s

performance?

Economic Status.Klengele (1998) , in his quest for the answer, conducted a

systematic study on the significant factors categorized under non-instructional

factors that have an impact on the performance of the child. In his study using

fourth graders, emerged the following variables: economic-status of pupils,

economic status of teachers, and economic status of the school. The economic

status of the pupils appeared to be a common denominator that has a great

influence on achievement of children. Halsted (1994) supported the findings of

Klingele when the identified in his study some social factors like economic status

of pupils and teachers. Pupils economic status played a vital role in skill

development.

Halsted and Klengele(2009) study can support this study in the aspects of

economic status of pupils and teachers as factors, that affect achievement

Teacher Factor. Another contributing factor to the achievement or failure of

the child is the teacher. Spache (1993) as reported by Hayes commented on the

importance of the teacher after reviewing the results of Cooperative Research

program in First-Grade Reading Instruction (1997). It was revealed that practices

of the teacher and the kinds of teacher-pupil interaction are important determinants

of pupil achievement.
 McGuire (1994), looked into the teacher as factor of learning. He identified

that the ability of the teacher to talk to each students beyond class session and

firmness on policy implementation affect performance.

Hairekek (1992) identified teacher’s expertise or experience, economic

status and pleasant personality makes learning effective and lasting. Johnson

(1996) supported the findings of McGuire when he investigated the relationship

between students’ growth in reading with teachers experience. Pupils taught by

low experience teachers gain least reading skills. He recommended a training

program for young teachers with the help of the experienced one.

Robeck and Wilson (1994) gave another three classifications or reading

difficulties: (a) lack of word attack skills. It showed simple lack of word analysis

skills when reading orally form context. Fluency errors with stops and

repetitions.Lapsed into some word-by-word reading when recognition errors

accumulated, with substitution and refusal; (b) extreme tension associated with

reading. A tendency to stop after a mistake and continue without correcting.

These are stops after a mistake and make multiple repetitions of the parts of the

sentences they felt sure of. There is nervousness and the rapid deterioration of the

error ratio when committing mistakes; (c) lack of motivation for reading. They

are the reluctant readers, careless readers and active avoiders. A reluctant reader

reads very little; a careless reader is a very poor reader who does not seem to care
whether he improves or not. They are likely to become self-directed avoiders, if

pressed to improve their reading in the absence of improved motivation to learn to

read. An active avoider does not want to try what he knows.

Typically, pupils who lack motivation for reading read in monotonous voice,

are very careless about word endings; sometimes they make up their own phrases

and are not concerned about mistakes; sometimes they correct themselves but not

always correctly and do not really try (Robeck and Wilson, 1994).

Juhoven and Bear (1992) examined the social adjustment of 46 children with

learning disabilities (LD) who were integrated full-time in third classrooms. No

differences were found in the proportions of children with learning disabilities and

children without learning disabilities across accepted and unpopular socio-metric

groups. Two-thirds of children with learning disabilities had at least reciprocal

friend, and more than half had a friendship with a classmate without learning

disabilities. Girls with learning disabilities received the highest number of

negative nominations and were the least preferred. Group comparison of socially

adjusted and non-adjusted children with and learning disabilities to be less socially

and academically competent than adjusted children without learning disabilities.

The results of the study showed that the children with learning disabilities were

generally well socially integrated in the Team Approach Mastery Classroom, 83%

(38 of 46) receive positive nominations (as compared with 87% (38 of 46)
received positive nomination as compared with 87% of the children without

learning disabilities), 67% (37 of 46) had at least one reciprocal positive

nomination with a classmate without learning disability. The results of the study

suggests that children with learning disabilities, particularly boys, are well socially

integrated in Team Approach Mastery Classroom.

Reading disabilities may result from a learning disability or from non-

disability factors such as low general intelligence, missed instructions, poor

teaching, etc. The term “disability” refers to an impairment or lack of normal

function which is severe enough to be handicap. It does not imply a particular kind

of impairment but merely indicated a relative inability to learn and retain. Inability

to learn assumes ample opportunity including some individual instructions by a

competent teacher. Every teacher should consider the nature of reading disability.

A child may be unable to learn by one method but may not be disabled if a

different method is used. Children with reading disability do not all have the same

basis, degree or some of type of impairment, though these are some characteristics

that are common to most cases (Newman, 1999).

Hallohan and Kauffman (1999), gave three causative factors of reading

disabilities: organic and biological, genetic, and environmental: (a) Organic and

biological. Brain injury is at the root cause of reading disabilities. The

neurological evidence was far from convincing defected children were frequently
referred to as “minimal” and changed it to “brain injury”. In addition, the label

“brain injury” often carries with it a note of finality. Often teachers have used the

label a reason not to teach a child. Using learning disabled does not carry with it

connotations of performance.

Samuel Orton (as cited by Hallohan and Kauffman, 1999) developed a

theory on the phenomenon of mixed dominance as indicator that brain pathology

was the cause of reading disabilities. According to the theory “mixedness reflects

an abnormal development of the brain. There is no social evidence to indicate that

all, or most, learning disabled children have brain damage a causal factor in

learning disabilities Bent Feingold as chief emeritus of the Department of Allergy

limits children’s intake of artificial food flavoring and coloring. The few well

controlled studies have known that all best there may be a small subgroup of

hyperactive who respond favorably to the special diet. The studies of Halverson

and Woldrop show that there is a tendency for hyperactive children to possess a

more minor physical anomalies (fine “electric” hair, low seated ears, abnormal

head circumference, webbing of the two middle toss) than normal, such anomalies,

are often associated with congenital defects as Down’s syndrome. The possibility

that some hyperactive children may have some kind of subtle chromosomal

irregularity or may have had an impediment to proper embryological development;

(b) Genetic factors. Learning disabilities tend to “run in families”. Whether this
due to hereditary factors or similar learning environments; (c) Environmental

factors. The children who are environmentally disadvantaged are more prone to

exhibit learning problems. Poor teaching is another factor to learning disability. If

teachers were better prepared to handle the special learning problems of children in

the early school years, any learning disabilities would be avoided.

Another factor in the environment is the socio-economic status (SES) and

the academic achievement. A large proportion of children who do not perform

well academically come from low SES families. Low SES pupils are likely to

experience learning problems; and when they do develop learning difficulties their

academic prognosis is worse than for middle and upper SES student with the same

difficulties (Harris and Sipay, 1995)

The learning of verbal language is so closely tied to the demands of the

environment. It’s with verbal labels that reading disabled children have enormous

difficulty, especially in the early grades. Behaviorally, these children demonstrate

an impoverished of both verbal receptive and expressive labels and failure to learn

sight words, arithmetic facts, sound symbol associations, spelling words, counting,

and the alphabet (De Ruiter, 1992)

Newman (1999) attributed reading disabilities to five causes namely:

mental, physiological, personality, environmental and social, educational factors:

(a) Mental factors. Specific reading disability may be found among pupils with
low, average, or superior intelligence, and slow learning affects all academic

subjects; (b) Psychological factors. Paul Witty and David Kopel concluded that

auditory factors appear to be related to reading only in individual cases where the

defect is great, reasons for poor reader’s deficient phonetic skills may be traced to

speech defects or hearing loss experienced during the earliest years of reading

instruction. Other types of neurological disorders like the brain damage and mixed

dominance have been proposed causes of reading disability while other

investigators believe no relationship exists; (c) Personality factors. Dr. Traxler

has indicated that emotional difficulties are found among retarded readers but

research has failed to define the extent to which personality maladjustment may be

cause or result of reading retardation. Some writers believe that reading disability

is a symptom of basic emotional disorders and that treatment of the reading

problem must preceded or accompanied by attention to the emotional difficulties.

Personality traits that have been suggested as causes of reading failure are:

dependency on one’s mother and lack of responsibility, excessive timidity, and

predilection against reading or against all failure. Continued failure aggravates

those conditions; (d) Environmental and social factors. One of the most

significant findings of Robinson’s study was that maladaptive homes and poor

intra-family relationships existed in 54.5% of the cases. Robinson noted that as the

number of books in the home increases, the percentage of good readers most often
from homes where have reached higher levels of education; (e) Educational causes.

Another possible source of reading disabilities are: (1) lack of adequate

background to perform the reading task set, (2) failure to master the early elements

on which later abilities are based, (3) confusions resulting from instruction not

correctly adjusted to the level and learning rate of the child, and (4) the acquisition

of faulty habits which impede progress.

The cultural and economic deprivation and lack of early opportunity to learn

the English language may prevent the child from learning to read. Failure in

reading, in turn causes anxiety, feelings of inadequacy and inferiority or hostility

which further intensifies the initial handicap, increases the difficulty of treatment

(Gentile, 1995).

George and Spacher (1997) research with first graders shows that

intelligence test results are not highly predictive of early reading success. If the

pupils are arranged on the order of their reading test scores after a period of

training does not neatly parallel a ranking on their intelligence quotient only the

ranks of very superior and mentally retarded pupils to agree in reading and

intelligence.

The third psychological factor is self-concept. According to Cohn and

Kornelly (cited in Lovitt, 1999), a significant positive relationship exists between

reading achievement and self-concept. They maintained that a program of

remediation for a low self-concept can produce positive achievement in reading.

According to Pryor (1995), perhaps the first step toward solving a child’s academic

problem is to change his self-confidence tend to get good readers while poor

readers tend to have negative feelings about themselves.

According to Katz (1998), the idea that children should feel about

themselves is remarkably a relatively modern one. Only one or two generations

ago, praise was withhold from children for fear that youngsters might become

conceited or “swell headed”. Some ideas to consider in developing a healthy sense

of self-concept in children are the following: Evaluation by oneself or others. The

child should experience the feeling of being loved and accepted particularly by

someone interpersonal situation to another. The parents should help a child cope

with occasions or rejection or indifference by reassuring her of their love. Self-

concept is measured on certain criteria within the family. Whatever criteria you

have in your family support your child’s effort to meet them: (a) Socio-economic

factors. Robinson (as cited by Katz, 1998) reported that maladjustment homes

contributed to 54.5 percent of her cases. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

(1991) reported that from 50 to 70 percent of Mexican and black students in the

fourth, eight, and twelfth grades read below the grade level to which they are

assigned. In contrast, only 25 to 34 percent of all Anglo youngsters in those grades

below grade level.

 Brophy (1999) summarized research that evaluates the effects of teaching

behavior on pupil achievement and concluded that teachers’ expectations for

student learning are important. Effective teachers are good classroom managers.

Effective teachers are do not waste time, they provide a maximum amount of

instruction on critical skills, and students receive great amounts of direct

instruction on structured curriculum have the highest achievement.

Another three causative factors of reading disabilities are given by Bond and

Tinker (1990): emotional, intellectual, and educational: (a) Emotional factors.

Reading disability is accompanied by emotional involvement which adversely

influence the personal and social adjustment of the child. This personality

maladjustment may be due to constitutional factors, to one or more of the variety

of pressures in the child’s environment or to failure in reading. The degree to

which disability is a cause or an effect of the personality or emotional

maladjustment is often not clear. Examination of the available suggests the

following: (1) in relatively small proportion of the cases, children are emotionally

upset and maladjusted when they arrive at school. The origin of their personality

maybe something constitutional or may come from unfortunate environment, (2)

The children have formed well-adjusted personalities before they arrive at school.

The frustration from failure to learn to read results in some degree of personality

maladjustment. In these cases, reading disability causes the emotional difficulty,

(3) Emotional maladjustment maybe both an effect and a cause of reading

disability in many cases. The emotional disturbance produce by failure to learn to

read may then become a handicap to further learning. A vicious cycle is formed,

and a reciprocal relationship exists between emotional conditioning and reading

disability, (4) The personal and social maladjustment is due to reading and tends to

disappear in most cases when the child becomes a successful reader; (b)

Intelligence.

Specific reading disability cannot be directly attributed to subnormality of

intelligence, but perhaps it would be more accurate to say that while low

intelligence in itself is not a direct cause, it may lead indirectly to reading

disability. This occurs when reading instruction of the slow learners during the

early school years is not adapted to their needs. The dull child is not ready to read

as soon as the one with normal intelligence and he must of necessity proceed at a

slower pace after he does again.

In the regular classroom situation the slow learner is likely not to learn

enough at each lesson for effective handling of the next assignment. He drops

farther and farther behind as time goes on in the development program; (c)

Educational. Of the factors considered as possible causes of reading disability, the

group of conditions classed as educational stands out as tremendously important.

Any administrative policy which prevents either adjustment of instruction to

individual differences or proper emphasis upon readiness hinder effective progress

in reading. The most important educational cause of reading disability is

ineffective teaching, or his acquisition of faulty learning may block later progress.

Factors which may bring this about maybe such things as too rapid progress in the

teaching schedule, inappropriate materials or methods, unhappy isolation of

reading from other class activities, the wrong kind of emphasis upon a technique or

skill, or treating reading as a product of content studies. Ordinarily two or more of

these factors are involved, and sometimes a physical deficiency as well. In many

cases, the disability arises because the instructional program has failed to maintain

a proper balance in the growth of a large number of skills and disabilities.

Furthermore, Buda, (1990) gave two causative factors of Reading Disability:

environmental and genetic: (a) Environmental factors are classified into two:

biological and sociological risk factors. The biological risk factors are prenatal

complications and congenital infections, while sociological risk factors include

large family size and low socioeconomic status: (b) Genetic factors run in the

family, reading disability frequently assumes a family type. There are number of

instances of more than one member of the family being affected, and the mother

often volunteers the statement that she herself was unable to read, although she had

every opportunity.
 Various writers believe that most disability cases are created and not

inherent. Reading disabilities are sometimes the result of unrecognized

predisposing conditions within the child, but for the most part, they are caused by

element of the child, but for the most part, they are caused by element of the

child’s environment at home, at play and in school. Without appropriate guidance

or without proper instruction given at the right time, the will fail to acquire the

skills needed to develop normal reading disability.

Local Studies. Reading difficulties can be caused by many factors, some

internal and some external (Manalo, 2008). The more precise the description, the

more likely it is to lead to effective provision. In the view of many experts, most

reading problems rooted from decoding comprehension or retention. Decoding

difficulties is the process by which a word is broken into individual phonemes and

recognized based on those phonemes. Someone who has difficulty decoding and

has difficulty in reading easily may not hear and differentiate the phonemes. Signs

of decoding difficulty are trouble in sounding out words or recognizing words out

of context, confusion between letters and the sounds. Comprehension relies on

mastery of decoding; children who struggle to decode find it difficult to understand

and remember what has been read.

Because their efforts to grasp individual words are exhausting, they have no

resources left for understanding. A retention difficulty is a trouble on remembering

or summarizing what is read. Retention requires both decoding and comprehending

what is written. This task relies on high level cognitive skills including memory

and the ability to group and retrieve related ideas.

As pupils progress through grade levels, they are expected to retain more

and more of what they read. It is then with the aforementioned concepts that the

researchers will be utilizing in conducting this study.

The 1992 survey on the achievement rates of Elementary School education

revealed that the low achievement rates of 60% of elementary school pupils was

below the desired 75% achievement rate. These figures imply that there was a

deficiency of skills acquired by the elementary graduates.

Many educators believe that failure of the child in formal education can be

traced to his reading difficulties. These difficulties hinder him to succeed in school

work requiring the reading process. This problem prompted researchers to conduct

studies in reading.

A study conducted in the Philippines by Mondero (1995) looked into the

possible causes of reading difficulties of Grade II pupils in a particular district in

Pangasinan. She found out that reading deficiencies caused by the conditions in the

home was grave. These factors are: poor study conditions, negative motivation and

hostility of parents.
 Banogon (1997) surveyed on teacher’s teaching competencies. Her findings

showed that teachers with teaching experiences were more aware of the reading

difficulties of their children.

Studies on teacher factor relates to my study in a way by which teacher

participates in identifying reading difficulties of their children as influenced by

their children as influenced by their experiences and economic status.

Sex Factor. Sex is a factor considered for the pupil respondents. A study on

relationship between sex and intelligence variables with reading interest of the high

school students as reported by Scharf (1993). Findings revealed that females

tended to read books more frequently than males did. Esmeralda’s (1999) study

showed that girls are better readers than boys.

Chui (1993) investigated the reading preferences of fourth graders according

to sex and reading achievement. The t-test as his instrument revealed significant

sex difference. Girls preferred mystery, humor, adventure, biography, and animal

stories and adventure.

A number of studies were conducted to show the cause and effect of

behavior disorders.

Imelda Espigar (1991) conducted a study on behavior disorders. A problem-

checklist consisting of a 40 item perception scale four categories, conduct

disorders, anxiety withdrawal, immaturity, and socialized aggression was devised

in gathering the data.

The results revealed that West Visayas State University Elementary

Laboratory School pupils to be average in conduct disorders and immaturity, low

anxiety withdrawal and socialized aggression. Significant differences existed

between the perceptions of teachers and student teachers for each of the four

categories of behavior disorders of pupils. No difference was present when the

participants were grouped according to grade level assignment.

Another study was conducted by Autalay (1990) on the significant

relationships between pupil achievement and pupil personal-related variables such

as the size of the family and sibling rank. The study was conducted among the five

school districts in Antique. A questionnaire was used to gather data. The statistical

tool used to analyze the data was the Pearson r. The results indicated that the pupil

personal-related variables were statistically proved as predictors of pupil

achievement such as the size of the family and sibling rank.

Mamon (1990) conducted a study in January National Comprehensive High

School, Januray, Iloilo on the behavior maladjustments characteristics of 50 first

year high school students. The instruments used were the Standardized Oral

Reading Paragraphs to determine the reading level and the Robert Dehaan’s

Behavior Checklist (1968) to be used by the teacher respondents to observe the

student’s behavior characteristics. Remedial reading sessions were conducted for

eight months by the investigator who taught and observed the retarded readers.

The findings showed that retarded readers are slow learners and underachievers

and lag behind normal students in class performance. Readingdisabilities impedes

learning progress in other subject areas and cause maladjustment problems or

increase them.

Gandeza (1999), used 583 public elementary school teachers in the Division

of Guimaras for the school year 1998-1999 for her study. Sixty percent of her

respondents were handling primary grades and 40 percent were teaching in the

intermediate level. The study revealed that the disciplinary practices frequently

used by the elementary school teachers in controlling behavior problems in school

included verbalization, conditioning, manipulating or restructuring the

environmental milieu and body language. Among these are instruction by

illustration, voice or reading, disapproval by oral reprimand or tone of voice,

training through repeated correct practice by the child, restructuring the situation,

and looking at without talking. It is apparent that the same practices were used

consistently in dealing with offenders in the school no matter what behavioral

problem was being exhibited.

Another interesting study on the behavior problems of Grade I pupils was

done by Suma (1998). She identified the social and emotional problems of the
Grade I pupils in Dipolog, Zambaongadel Norte and she applied necessary

guidance procedures to minimize and solve the problems. She used the “Philippine

Personality Inventory Test” the feedback of which she verified by her own

observational studies. Her findings indicated that the common emotional and

social adjustment problems among the fifth grade pupils were dominance,

submission, introversion, extroversion, emotional instability and social immaturity.

He concluded that the possible causes of these problem were: (a) parents’

over protection and unfavorable environment that developed children’s dominance,

(b) children’s lack of time and concentration to study because of home and school

problems which made them submissive and introverted, (c) children’s truancy

which parents did not keep track of the activities with their peer groups and later

developed extroversions. (d) thwarting of children’s impulses and desires for

achievement and recognition which led to frustrations, embarrassment and

withdrawal from the group, and (e) broken homes or bad home conditions caused

by parental disagreements, poverty and sickness that gave rise to emotional

disturbances to the children.

Taneza (1997) conducted a study to find out the problems of the pupils in

the District of Dolores, Division of Abra. The problems were related to teaching-

learning situations, discipline, home and family life, health and physical

development, money and finance, and social relationships. The findings showed
that the problems were traceable directly to adverse conditions obtained in the

homes, such as: Parents’ poor disciplinary methods, parental neglect and lack of

supervision, low household income, malnutrition, unsanitary ways of living,

parents’ vices and quarrels, an poor conditions of life. The problems are also

troubles to unfavorable conditions in the school, like lack of effective school-wide

guidance services, poor class management, difficult lessons and inadequate school

health and medical services.

Macrohon (1993), in his study on the problems of grade seven boys of two

Catholic schools in Manila as revealed by the Mooney Problem Checklist, found

that the problem area considered by the subjects as the most common was on the

area of school. These problems were: (1) not interested in certain subjects, (2) not

spending enough time in study, and (3) worried about grades. It is a significant

that while the subjects exhibited lack of interest in school work, they did not

disregard the positive value of study and the interest of their parents.

The Philippine Guidance and Personnel Association collected, organized,

integrated and reviewed 320 theses and six were on behavior problems.Findings

showed that teachers seemed to be highly sensitive to behavior that disturbed

classroom routine such as irregular attendance, tardiness truancy, discourtesy and

cheating. They were also disturbed by pre-delinquent behavior problems such as

gambling, smoking, stealing and use of obscene language. The generally favored
children were shy and timid or those manifesting withdrawal tendencies brought

about by rigid conformity to standards sets of adults. The only marked difference

between the ratings of the mental hygienists and those of the teachers was the

complete reversal of the ratings with respect to withdrawal as a problem of the

most serious impact to mental hygienist while teachers rated it as the least serious.

Having temper tantrum was at the bottom of the teachers’ list: The mental

hygienist considered it of considerable importance.

There was a relatively close agreement between the ratings of the groups,

with an obtained rank difference coefficient of correlation of .553. Most of the

items rated serious by teachers were regarded fairly serious by the mental

hygienists. Both groups placed disobedience, tardiness, cheating, lying, irregular

attendance and inflicting pain practically on the same level. All other problems at

the head of the teachers’ list such as drinking, gambling, stealing and vandalism

were also regarded as serious by the mental hygienists.

Geronima (1991) in a study of the behavior problems of 500 pupils of Goa

School found the following behavior problems to be prevalent: improper standing

and sitting positions, walking to and fro, chatting with classmates, truancy,

uneasiness when sitting, teasing others and making fun of them, whispering

unpleasantly, discourtesy, tossing pieces of paper and habitual trips to the window

and spitting. She also found that pupils who were truants were also inattentive and
showed lack of interest in schoolwork. The majority of the maladjusted pupils had

many frustrating experiences and adaptability failed to respond to school

situations. They showed fear and uncertainly when given tasks to perform.

According to Matus (1997) in her study on behavior problems of

intermediate grade pupils in Kalibo Pilot Elementary School, that the behavior

problems reported by parents, as exhibited by more than 20% of the pupils were,

from highest to lowest, boisterousness, roughness, violence and turbulence 58.97%

shyness 56.95% absences 23.99% and lying and cheating 20.63%.

As reported by teachers, the following were behavior problems exhibited by

the corresponding number of pupils. Neglecting preparation of assigned lesson,

345 pupils, inability to understand or comprehend, 339 absences, 382 tardiness,

269 inattentiveness, 132 timidity, 176 cutting classes, 143, sensitivity, 131 cheating

and dishonesty in work, 126.

Relationship of the Previous Studies to the Present Study

The foregoing chapter discusses various literature and studies related to the

present study. This relation dwells on the fact that these literature and studies

served as background for analysis.

Detailed studies of the causes, characteristics and needs of children with

reading disabilities and behavioral problems have been discussed.

 Macrohon made a study on the problems of grade seven boys of two

Catholic schools in Manila as revealed by the Mooney Problem Checklist, found

that the problem area considered by the subjects as the most common was on the

area of school

The present study would make teachers aware of the learning characteristics

by the conduct problem and withdrawn children. Thus, teachers must be keen

enough to observe such behavior to gain knowledge as to the learning methods to

be utilized in dealing with deviation.

Matus in her study on behavior problems of intermediate grade pupils in

KaliboPilotElementary School looked into the possible relationship of the reading

disabilities with the schoollocation, sex, behavioral problems, family size and

sibling rank while the present study concentrated on the relationship of the reading

levels and behavioral disorders.

The various readings on historical overview of reading disability,

characteristics and needs of children with reading disabilities, reading problems of

slow learners, classification of behavior disorders, characteristics and needs of

children with behavioral problems, factors associated with behavioral disorders,

and other factors affecting reading and behavior problems like family size, sibling

rank, and location of school and gender have been included as an springboard to

the present study.

 Several studies conducted on reading disabilities and behavioral problems

have shown that there is a significant relationship between emotional problems and

reading disability. This study will likewise include other factors like sibling rank,

family size, school location and sex.

 Chapter 3

RESEARCH DESIGN

This chapter dealt with description, research design, respondents,

instruments, procedures, and statistical tools used in this study.

This study utilized the descriptive method of research which identified the

reading difficulties of grade three pupils in six selected schools of District IV ,

Division of Manila.

Respondents of the Study

This study considered forthis study are the 450 Grade 3 pupils and nine

teachers in the public elementary schools in District IV , Division of Manila as

subjects and respondents of the study. The Grade 3 pupils were the ones enrolled

at the time of the study. The teachers were those who were actually teaching

Reading in Grade 3.

Each school operates with its philosophy and set of objectives which direct

all teaching learning processes. Reading as part of the curriculum was also taught

with deep concern on the achievement of the school’s philosophy and objectives.
 Table 1 presents the respondents of the study.

Table 1

Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Respondents By School

Name of Schools Teachers

District IV F M
Padre Burgos Elementary School 1 1
Dr. Alejandro Albert Elementary School 2 0
Benito Legarda Elwmwtary School 1 1
Graaciano Lopez Jaena Elemtary School 1 0
Antonio Maceda Elemtary School 1 0
Juan Luna Elentary School 1 0
7 2
Total

Table 2 presents the frequency distribution of the subjects of the study.

Table 2

Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Respondents By School

Name of Schools Teachers

District IV F M
Padre Burgos Elementary School 62 38
Dr. Alejandro Albert Elementary School 71 27
Benito Legarda Elwmwtary School 59 41
Graaciano Lopez Jaena Elemtary School 33 17
Antonio Maceda Elemtary School 42 10
Juan Luna Elentary School 35 15
302 148
Total

Research Instrument

The instrument would be mainly a questionnaire to be formulated in a

checklist form and would be converted into a rating scale to have an objective
estimate of the degree of difficulties. Responses were personally recorded by

encircling the number which represents perception. A pre-test was conducted in

each school mentioned above to establish the validity of the questionnaire. The

pre-tested samples were included in the data being analyzed since the

questionnaires were exposed to them once.

The contents in the questionnaire were taken from related books, teaching

guides, curriculum guides that contain the scope and sequence of reading in Grade

3. The four main areas in the questionnaire were the vocabulary skills,

comprehension skills, work-study skills and literary appreciation skills.

The questionnaire consisted of parts:

Part I consists of the personal data sheet which asks for respondents’ socio-

demographic profile such as socio-economic, sex, and educational attainment and

teaching experiences.

Part II consists of the different reading skills categorized under the following

headings: vocabulary skills, comprehension skills, literary appreciation skills, and

work-study skills.

Most of the skills in the questionnaire were taken from K to 12 Learning

Competencies. It is a list behavioral objectives stated in specific types of behavior

that pupils are expected to demonstrate at the end of a learning experience.

Research Procedure

The researcher shall personally administer the questionnaires in thesix

schools of District IV. The survey shall be distributed after given permission by

proper authorities of the DepEd in the district. The teacher respondents will be

given the questionnaire for a week to study and answer.

The data shall be tabulated and interpreted based on the four major skill categories

namely: Vocabulary Skills, Comprehension Skills, Literary Appreciation Skills

and Work-Study Skills.

Statistical Measures

This study shall utilize the descriptive analysis that would make use of the

following statistical tools: percent, the weighted mean and t-test.

The extent of difficulty in a reading skill was interpreted as follows:

Category Weight Interval

Very Difficult 5 4.20 – 4.99

Difficult 4 3.40 – 4.19

Moderately Difficult 3 2.60 – 3.39

A Little Difficult 2 1.80 - 2.59

Not Difficult 1 1.00- 1.79

 Frequencies and percentages shall be used to determine the distribution of

respondents according to age, gender, civil status, highest educational attainment

and number of year teaching experience.

The formula in determining the percentages

P = Part x 100

Whole

Where: part = frequency (f) or actual number of respondents or responses

answered in the specific item.

Whole = the total number of respondents or responses

The Weighted Mean (x). The mean is point on the score scale that is equal to

the sum of the scores divided by the total number of scores. The mean is the index

of tendency that is usually referred to as an average (Polit, 1991).

To find out if there is any significant difference in the reading difficulties

incurred by Grade 3 pupils from sixselected public elementary schools in District

IV suchas; vocabulary skill difficulties; comprehension skill difficulties; literary

appreciation skill difficulties and work-study skill difficulties, the Analysis of

Variance was used .This method is most appropriate to use with three (3) or more

groups of respondents. Yule and Kendall, as cited by Cannu (1999), echoed that

this technique of analysis is used whereas samples of variants can be classified as

group.
 The procedure for obtaining the level of significance to be used for all

instruments. To compare the obtained t-test or F-value, as the case maybe, with a

given value in the corresponding tables used in determining the significance of

statistics, at 0.05 level of significance. The null hypothesis tested, will be

accepted or rejected depending upon the value that was obtained, less or greater

than the appropriate value indicated in the table.