NAMES:

AQUINO, RHODESSA BELLE F.

CABUCOS, CHRISTY L.
PONGASI, FAYE T.

Functional Practices of Teachers and Reading Comprehension Level of

Elementary Students in Upper Tambler Central Elementary School

INTRODUCTION
There are many reasons why knowing how to read is important. In order to function in
today’s society one must know how to read. Understanding instructions on a medicine
bottle, filling out job applications, reading road signs, writing and responding to emails,
and even following a map are some of the normal day-to-day activities that involve
reading. Reading is required in order to find a substantial job. Reading is required for
reading reports and memos, responding to employees, and accomplishing tasks.
Failure to master reading skills will lead to slower job performance (Davis, 2014).
In our country, Bilingual Education as promulgated by our Constitution’s sections 6 and
7 of Article XIV, there has been a “negative impact on students’ acquisition in English”
(Malbago, 1996) due to constraint in understanding the contextual meaning of the text
by using and/or translating English texts into native language. Even Ascabano (1997)
noted that, “because of our language problem, pupils have difficulty in grasping
concepts introduced by teachers in school” hence, affects reading comprehension of
learners.
There is that 10 to 15% of the general school population had experienced difficulty in
reading. Reading experiences strongly influence a student’s feeling of competency. If
not achieved, there could be reading failure that may lead to misbehavior, anxiety, and
lack of motivation in comprehending any of the reading materials in English, noted in
Paz, (2018).
With this, the researchers are to conduct a study to know the significance between a
teacher’s functional practices and reading comprehension level of Grade 6 students in
Upper Tambler Central Elementary School, since failure to address such will undermine
both effectivity of teacher’s performance and students’ evaluation.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
1. What are the functional reading practices of teachers applied in Upper Tambler
Central Elementary School, in terms of:
1.1 Top-down
1.2 Bottom-up
1.3 Interactive
2. What is the reading comprehension level of Grade 6 pupils in Upper Tambler
Central Elementary School, in terms of:
2.1 Literal
2.2 Interpretive
2.3 Critical
2.4 Application
3. Is there a significant relationship between teachers reading approaches and
reading comprehension level in Grade 6 pupils in Upper Tambler Central
Elementary School?
4. What intervention programs can be proposed based on the result of the study?
 Review of Related Literature

Functional Practices of Teachers in Teaching Reading Comprehension

Reading develops the mind. The mind must have opportunities to practice.
“Understanding the written word is one way the mind grows in its ability. Teaching 2
young children to read helps develop their language skills” (Davis, 2014, p.1). Reading
is a contributor to listening and communication. “A person who knows how to read can
educate themselves in any area of life they are interested in. We live in an age where
we overflow with information, but reading is the main way to take advantage of it”
(Davis, 2014, p.2).
Knowing how to read leads a child to success in the world economy. Proficient readers
are more likely to obtain post-secondary degrees, which are required in order to
compete in global America. Proficient readers will be able to obtain new skills needed
for the fast-changing global marketplace (Casey, 2010). “Analyses of data from the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development indicate that the United
States will need 60% of its population to possess a post-secondary degree or credential
by 2025 to remain globally competitive” (Casey, 2010, p. 11).
Bottom-up Reading is a learner’s adaptability to read a certain text by having a full
grasp of letter-knowledge, semantic knowledge and pragmatic knowledge (Gough,
1972) cited in Yumul, 2015.
Top-down Reading is a ‘freestyle’ way of understanding a text through allowing its
readers to understand what is the book all about than to break each part in bits first,
before understanding the whole (Yumul, 2015).
Interactive Reading, as developed by David S. Rumellhart (1977), is a combination of
top-down and bottom-up reading strategies (Yumul, 2015). It allows the readers to bring
their own background knowledge to reading and to interact with others to build meaning
and memory from the text.
Level of Reading Comprehension
As observed, the demand for English proficiency through reading among students is
rising. Reading comprehension levels (literal, interpretive, critical, and application) cited
by Bernardo (2009), in Bejar, 2014 have to be introduced to students for deeper
understanding and better usage of the appropriate texts read [5]. This attracted
considerable attention in the present study. Despite the student’s mastery of the basic
elements of English such as grammar and vocabulary, their reading comprehension
levels still need improvement.