Utilization of Online Oral Reading Test in Determining the Reading Skills of the Grade 6 Pupils in English

Abstract

Reading is every child’s foundation where great learning is involved and evidently proved one’s comprehension. Reading teachers play a vital role in assessing their pupils’ reading skills and administering intervention programs for learners’ reading development. This action research employed the Phil-IRI (Philippine Informal Reading Inventory) Oral Reading Test. This is an informal measure that assesses the pupils’ reading skills, both their reading speed and comprehension. It consists of graded reading passages from Grade I to Grade VI. Each graded passage is followed by 7 comprehension questions for Grades I-III and 8 comprehension questions for Grades IV-VI. The questions are categorized into three dimensions, namely literal, interpretive, and applied. Hence, reading speed and comprehension of the pupils will be classified into three levels as frustration, instructional and independent with the applied criteria given by the Phil-IRI. Furthermore, the results of the study exhibited that the ten groups of pupils demonstrated low reading performance in their oral reading test both in speed and comprehension. The struggle of the online oral reading test was evidently shown through the weak internet connection provided by the internet servers in the country. With this, the researcher designed a reading intervention program through reading remedial class during asynchronous class. This will be administered using the online platform and available reading resources for the enhancement of pupils’ reading skills amidst these trying times of global pandemic, where distance learning has been practised first in the public schools’ setting in the Philippines.