Reading Comprehension Proficiency Research Articles

Enhancing Reading Comprehension Proficiency of Grade 10 Students: Input for Supplementary Reading Materials

This present study investigated the reading comprehension levels of the Grade 10 students, their levels of macro and micro reading comprehension skills, and the different reading activities provided to them by the teachers. Considering the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Grade 10 students’ acquisition of reading comprehension skills has been affected. Consequently, assessment of students’ reading comprehension is essential to collect information and make inferences about the level of their reading comprehension skills which would help the Grade 10 teachers determine the underlying problems in students’ reading skills and eventually guide them in the crafting of the most appropriate reading interventions and well-designed remediation plans. The instrument used to assess the student’s level of reading comprehension skills was categorized into two based on Douglas Henry Brown’s micro and macro reading skills and an interview for teacher-respondents on the activities provided to the students in teaching reading. The results of this study indicated that the student’s reading comprehension proficiency was at a proficient level and yet more intensive reading comprehension activities should be given, well-designed supplementary reading materials be provided, and varied and effective learning strategies be employed by the teachers to improve their reading comprehension.

Reading comprehension and students’ academic performance in English

Aims: The main goal is to identify, examine, and recommend techniques for enhancing academic performance and reading comprehension abilities. The ultimate goal is to significantly aid students' overall achievement in their academic endeavors. Study design: The design used in this study is descriptive research. Place and duration of study: Nicolas L. Galvez memorial national high school Methodology: Grade 7 students of Nicolas L. Galvez memorial national high school consisting two hundred eighty nine (289) students were the chosen respondents of the researchers. Results: There is a significant difference between the students’ reading comprehension proficiency and academic performance, as the results showed that most of the respondents’ struggled comprehending the text affected the academic performance. In addition to that, reading comprehension is essential as it helps them to understand any instruction resulting in independent readers. Conclusion: There is a significant difference between the students' reading comprehension and academic performance.

The effectiveness of English literature reading in improving reading skills and reading comprehension

 This research aims to explore the ways in which reading English literature enhances the reading skills of Chinese college students in the language. A questionnaire was used to carry out the study with 36 students. The pilot population of this study is first-year to fourth-year students at Liaoning University. The study puts emphasis on the effectiveness of English literature reading in improving reading skills and reading comprehension. Sixty students participated in the study by means of an experiment. In the experiment class, the teacher uses reading skills to teach English literature, however, in the control class, the teacher uses a traditional literature teaching method. SPSS version 29.0 was offered to test whether the experimental students’ literature reading grades have risen with reading skills. SPSS is a software package used for statistical analysis in social science research and other fields. A wide range of abilities for data management, data analysis and data documentation are available with IBM's SPSS programme. Researchers and analysts use SPSS to perform various statistical analyses such as descriptive statistics, inferential statistics and multivariate analyses. The study indicates that teaching English literature reading skills enhances college students’ reading comprehension proficiency and grades.

How lexical quality predicts L2 reading comprehension in early bilingual education

ABSTRACT This study investigated the impact of second language (L2) lexical quality on L2 reading comprehension in bilingual primary education. The participating children were taught in the L2 English for 30-50% of the time and the remaining time in their L1 Dutch. Seventy-three pupils from four different schools were assessed in the L2 on vocabulary, lexical specificity and phonological awareness in kindergarten, vocabulary, lexical specificity and decoding in grade 1, and reading comprehension in grade 3. L1 reading comprehension was tested in grade 2. Results showed that lexical specificity in kindergarten had a direct effect on L2 reading comprehension in grade 3, and phonological awareness in kindergarten had an indirect effect on L2 reading comprehension via L2 decoding skills in grade 1. These effects remained significant after taking L1 reading comprehension skills in grade 2 into account. The lexical specificity task, measuring specificity of phonological representations, had a more profound impact on reading comprehension than vocabulary. This highlights the importance of examining the specificity of phonological representations when it comes to studying L2 reading comprehension proficiency and implies that teachers should focus on L2 lexical specificity in bilingual kindergarten to build the foundation for L2 reading comprehension in grade 3.

The Impact of Vocabulary, Inferencing, and Metacognitive Strategies on Second Language Reading Comprehension

This study aims to explore exploring the predictive factors of second language (L2) reading comprehension scores, specifically focusing on L2 vocabulary knowledge, first language (L1) syllogistic inferencing, L1 reading comprehension, and L2 reading metacognitive strategy use. The study involved 90 Korean EFL university students. Their L2 vocabulary knowledge, L1 syllogistic inferencing, L1 reading comprehension, L2 metacognitive reading strategy use scores were collected and analyzed for their influence on L2 reading comprehension scores. A path analysis was conducted for data analysis. The findings revealed that both L2 linguistic knowledge and proficiency in L1 reading comprehension had a positive impact on L2 reading comprehension scores, underscoring the significance of language-specific and crosslinguistic factors, respectively, in the comprehension of L2 reading. The results also indicated an indirect effect of L1 syllogistic inferencing skills on L2 reading comprehension through L1 reading comprehension. This implies that L1 syllogistic inferencing may boost L1 reading comprehension, subsequently benefiting L2 reading comprehension. Furthermore, the study brought to light the potential adverse effects of L2 support reading strategies on L2 reading comprehension. Overall, this study adds to our comprehensive understanding of L2 reading comprehension by shedding light on the intricate interplay of linguistic, cross-linguistic, and metacognitive factors.

FLIPPED CLASSROM FACING ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS: THE CASE OF THE STUDENTS FROM THE CIENCIAS MÉDICAS Y CLÍNICAS FACULTY, UDELAS, SANTIAGO HEADQUATER

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of Flipped Classroom to help improve the English language skill of UDELAS students at the Santiago headquarter.
 The researcher decided to carry out an action research under the quantitative paradigm.
 Two test were applied: a test prior to the start and a test at the end of the last week of classes, after treatment (Flipped Classrom).
 After the intervention, the researcher was able to notice that the use of the Flipped Classrom teaching model had a positive effect on the languafe skills of the students.
 Nearly all students went on to have very good proficiency in reading comprehension in English. Most od there students significantly improved their language proficiency in their conversational strategies, their vocabulary, as well as their grammatical proficiency in English. More than half of these students managed to significantly improve their listening comprehension skills.

Difficulty of Reading Comprehension and the Proficiency of the Grade 10 Students of Aloran Trade High School, Philippines

In the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Philippines ranked the lowest among the 79 countries participating in the assessment. This study aimed to determine the proficiency of the grade 10 students at Aloran Trade High School and the difficulty of reading comprehension. The instruments used in this study were adapted reading materials from PISA assessments with questions needing subjective answers, categorized according to the different comprehensions proposed in Barrett’s Taxonomy. The researchers collected data from 40 grade 10 students who were selected randomly using a random sampling technique. Item analysis (item difficulty and item discrimination) and descriptive analysis (mean and standard deviation) were used to analyze the data. After tabulating the data gathered, the researchers determined that the students have low proficiency in reading comprehension. Furthermore, no comprehension has an easy difficulty with the proficiency of grade 10 students. Literal and reorganizational comprehension have moderate difficulty, while inferential and evaluative comprehensions are difficult among the students. These imply that students need to be proficient in understanding a text’s explicit and implicit information. It is therefore recommended that interventions be made to address this issue.

The Relationship Of Interest In Reading To The Comprehension Reading Ability Of Grade V Students In Elementary School

This study investigates the association between reading interest and reading comprehension ability among fifth-grade students at BalongGabus Candi State Elementary School. Employing a quantitative correlational approach, data collection involved questionnaires and comprehension tests for 23 students. The computed correlation coefficient (r = 0.756) demonstrated a robust relationship between the two variables, signifying a 57.15% connection strength. This significant finding suggests that reading interest greatly influences reading comprehension prowess in this cohort.
 Highlights: 
 
 
 Strong Correlation: A robust correlation coefficient (r = 0.756) highlights a substantial and positive relationship between reading interest and reading comprehension ability among fifth-grade students.
 
 
 Influential Factors: The study underscores the significance of reading interest as a determining factor in enhancing reading comprehension skills among young learners.
 
 
 Quantitative Insights: Employing a quantitative approach with a sample of 23 fifth graders, this research provides valuable insights into the interplay between reading engagement and comprehension proficiency.
 
 
 Keywords:Reading interest, Reading comprehension, Fifth graders, Correlation, Quantitative approach

Students’ Needs on English Reading Comprehension Materials in Indonesian Higher Education

This study aims to determine the needs of students related to English reading materials at the university level. The total number of students who became the research sample at Muhammadiyah Parepare University was 46 students. This study used a quantitative method by means of which students filled out a questionnaire with three assessment indicators namely frequency, interest and level of proficiency in reading comprehension of English. The findings of this study indicate that reading articles from magazines and newspapers, e-mail, and online articles, reading English manuals or booklets, reading reports, textbooks, and book references, understanding and interpreting the meaning of graphs, tables, and figures, understanding specific information, understanding general information, and identifying main ideas are materials needed by students in teaching English in reading comprehension skills

English Text Readability and Reading Comprehension Performance of Grade 11 Senior High School Students

The study explored the significance of English text readability and reading comprehension proficiency of grade 11 senior high school students. English teachers validated the 45-item reading comprehension test and the reading comprehension intervention materials. Fifteen subjects of the study (who got the lowest pretest score) were selected from the class who got the lowest mean score in the pretest. It made use of the quasi experimental method where the subjects undergone reading comprehension lessons with English texts of varied readability level (high, fair, and low). Pretest and posttest scores are compared. Results indicated that there is a considerable increase in the mean score in the posttest (13.13) as compared to the pretest mean score (10.53). Further, there is significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores (p < 0.05) and that English test readability has substantial effect on reading comprehension.

English Text Readability and Reading Comprehension Performance of Grade 11 Senior High School Students

The study explored the significance of English text readability and reading comprehension proficiency of grade 11 senior high school students. English teachers validated the 45-item reading comprehension test and the reading comprehension intervention materials. Fifteen subjects of the study (who got the lowest pretest score) were selected from the class who got the lowest mean score in the pretest. It made use of the quasi experimental method where the subjects undergone reading comprehension lessons with English texts of varied readability level (high, fair, and low). Pretest and posttest scores are compared. Results indicated that there is a considerable increase in the mean score in the posttest (13.13) as compared to the pretest mean score (10.53). Further, there is significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores (p < 0.05) and that English test readability has substantial effect on reading comprehension.

Reader Attributes, Task Attributes, and Reading Comprehension Proficiency: The Relation Revealed by Two Analytic Approaches

This paper describes the benefits of a psychometric analytic approach when studying students’ ability to comprehend texts. A reading comprehension measure consisting of four text passages with 32 questions was developed, and analyses using a mean-based approach and linear logistic test (LLTM) method were performed. According to ANOVA, eighth-grade students (n = 160) tend to comprehend texts well with the measure when the texts are familiar and interesting to them and expository. According to the LLTM analysis, readers are likely to comprehend texts well when they are familiar with and interested in the texts, when the texts are narrative, and when the items are text based and nontemporal. This suggests developing comprehension assessments by integrating reader attributes and task attributes in the measurement and analysis of comprehension proficiency.

Paragraph Comprehension from the Perspective of Conjunctions and Structure under Structuralism

People frequently struggle with comprehending the text they read and require more intensive support to develop proficiency in reading comprehension. Some find it perplexing observing all the elements and constituents of the paragraph theory. Good readers, however, can understand what a paragraph is by studying the conjunction relationships between sentences and group of sentences in the paragraph and can also understand the organization of the text by analyzing the conjunction relationships in a paragraph or a text when they deal with a written text. Such analysis of the conjunction relationships in a paragraph or a text can be used as a basis for understanding how the author organizes and presents materials. The inspiration of structuralist view of education is that students need to learn and discover the structure of knowledge. The research methods of the paper are ones of knowledge, experience, observation, logical reasoning and keen analysis of English examples or materials. This paper provides guidance for the skills of logical relationship comprehension, text structure determination and main idea dentification, and introduces some practices of using the skills. These skills have brought us some findings: We can use the conjunction relationships between the sentences in a paragraph to determine the structure of the paragraph, whether they are signaled or unsignaled, including finding the main idea; The contextual clues can be adverbs, pronouns, nouns, verbs, and preposition groups besides conjunctions; Items in one type of relationships are of equal weight and one sentence in another type of relationships is given more importance than the others; There is a relationship between the type of conjunction relationship involved and the location of the topic sentence; The role of the main idea or topic sentence is not in whether it always provides important information, but in its organizational function. These findings guide readers to apply the knowledge of paragraph organization system to help them deal with English texts.

The Relationship between Test-Taking Strategies and Thai Students’ Reading Comprehension Test Performance

Tests are often applied to evaluate students’ academic performance in all educational contexts. In order to be successful in the tests, students are required not only to possess the knowledge of the subject, but also test-taking strategies which enable them to gain higher test score. The present study was aimed at investigating the relationship between the students’ test-taking strategies use and their reading comprehension test performance and the types and frequency of the test-taking strategies used among high and low proficiency students. This research employed the mixed-methods approach. A total of sixty eight university students at an international university in Thailand took part in this study. They were asked to take a reading comprehension proficiency test and a questionnaire to find out about their use of the test taking strategies during the test. The results revealed that the test-taking strategies had a significantly positive influence on students’ reading comprehension test performances. Although high proficiency students used the test-taking strategies more frequently than those in low proficiency group, both groups of students were found to similarly employ a variety of techniques to cope with the challenges in the reading test. The findings of this present study not only empirically verified the benefits of the test-taking strategies, but also emphasizes the necessity of the formal instruction of the strategies used in the English tests, especially the ones considered most effective for tertiary students, to ensure their greater academia success.

Differentiated instruction effectiveness on the secondary stage students’ reading comprehension proficiency level in Jordan

<p><span>Differentiated instruction (DI) is a teaching approach involves several strategies in which teachers adapt, modify, adjust and change instruction to respond to students’ diverse individual needs in heterogeneous classrooms. The study aimed at exploring the effectiveness of DI on secondary stage students’ proficiency level. The study followed the quantitative quasi-experimental design in which data were collected from the pre/post achievement tests administered at the initiation and the completion of the intervention. A total of 80 grade 11 students from both genders participated in the study. A number of (N=40) males and (N=40) females from four public schools in Jordan were distributed into (N=40) for the experimental group and another (N=40) from both genders for the control groups. The experimental group received education using DI strategies of homogeneous groups, tiered assignments and tiered instruction in the areas of content, process, product and learning environment. Conversely, the control groups received education through the one-size-fits-all method. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) results showed that DI affected reading comprehension scores positively, and the respondents of the experimental groups outperformed their counterparts of the control group. Moreover, the above-average respondents statistically outperformed the other proficiency levels. However, the findings indicated no statistically significant difference related to gender.</span></p>

METACOGNITIVE AWARENESS IN THE READING COMPREHENSION OF LITERARY TEXTS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY BASED ON METACOGNITIVE READING STRATEGY

This article establishes a connection between students' metacognitive awareness and success in reading comprehension. Reading is a cognitive process that directs students to interact, predict, form hypotheses about the literary text. Reading also involves synthesizing information and critically analyzing a text in a literary context. Metacognition implies "cognition about cognition". The use of metacognitive strategies for reading purposes is interlinked with the attainment of advanced levels of literacy. Metacognition is a complex aspect of thought that involves both linguistic and cognitive activities. Recently the identification of strategies used by readers on tests of reading comprehension is of foremost interest. Using strategic knowledge or metacognition while monitoring the comprehension process is an important aspect of skilled reading. A focus on reading strategies assists researchers regulates the extent to which readers understand the purpose of reading. Readers' proficiency level is highly influenced by the strategy applied. This study has an experimental design involving a conventional group and an experimental group with whom a metacognitive reading strategy is implemented. This article documents a small-scale investigation of how effective implementation of metacognitive reading strategy directs students to a higher level of proficiency in reading comprehension. From the result of the study, we sum up that the participants exposed to metacognitive reading strategy exhibit better understanding and proficiency level than those who are not exposed to metacognitive reading strategy. The participants’ performance reveals an important implication about the development of reading comprehension through short stories.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0988/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Neurofunctional basis underlying audiovisual integration of print and speech sound in Chinese children.

Effortless print-sound integration is essential to reading development, and the superior temporal cortex (STC) is the most critical brain region. However, to date, the conclusion is almost restricted to alphabetic orthographies. To examine the neural basis in non-alphabetic languages and its relationship with reading abilities, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in typically developing Chinese children. Two neuroimaging-based indicators of audiovisual processing-additive enhancement (higher activation in the congruent than the average activation of unimodal conditions) and neural integration (different activations between the congruent versus incongruent conditions)-were used to investigate character-sounds (opaque) and pinyin-sounds (transparent) processing. We found additive enhancement in bilateral STCs processing both character and pinyin stimulations. Moreover, the neural integrations in the left STC for the two scripts were strongly correlated. In terms of differentiation, first, areas beyond the STCs also showed additive enhancement in processing pinyin-sounds. Second, while the bilateral STCs, left inferior/middle frontal and parietal regions manifested a striking neural integration (incongruent > congruent) for character-sounds, no significant clusters were revealed for pinyin-sounds. Finally, the neural integration in the left middle frontal gyrus for characters was specifically associated with silent reading comprehension proficiency, indicating automatic semantic processing during implicit character-sound integration. In contrast, the neural integration in the left STC for pinyin was specifically associated with oral reading fluency that relies on grapho-phonological mapping. To summarize, this study revealed both script-universal and script-specific neurofunctional substrates of print-sound integration as well as their processing- and region-dependent associations with reading abilities in typical Chinese children.

Reading and Listening Comprehension in Individuals With Down Syndrome and Word Reading-Matched Typically Developing Children.

The purpose of this study was to explore the reading comprehension and listening comprehension performance of English-speaking children with Down syndrome (DS) compared with word reading-matched typically developing (TD) children. Participants included 19 individuals with DS (M age = 17;2 [years;months], range: 11;1-22;9) and 19 word reading-matched TD children (M age = 7;2, range: 6;6-8;1). Participants completed three norm-referenced measures of reading comprehension and three norm-referenced measures of listening comprehension. Dependent variables were raw scores on each measure, with the exception of scaled scores on one reading comprehension measure. Independent-samples t tests with Bonferroni-adjusted alpha levels of .008 revealed a significant between-groups difference for two of three reading comprehension measures. The mean raw scores were lower for the DS group than the TD group, with large effect sizes. Independent-samples t tests with Bonferroni-adjusted alpha levels of .008 revealed a significant between-groups difference for three of three listening comprehension measures. The mean raw scores on the three measures were lower for the DS group than the TD group, with large effect sizes. The DS group, despite being matched on word reading to the TD group, demonstrated reduced reading comprehension skills as compared with the TD group. Thus, as individuals with DS acquire word reading skills, it appears that they are unable to translate word reading success to achieve reading comprehension at the expected level (i.e., as indexed by typical readers). The between-groups differences in listening comprehension suggest that deficits in listening comprehension likely are a barrier to reading comprehension proficiency for children with DS. Listening comprehension may be a malleable factor that can be targeted to improve reading comprehension outcomes for individuals with DS.

Romance languages and EFL: friends or foes? A study on the effects of romance intercomprehension training on plurilingual competence and EFL reading skills in young learners

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the effects of a 21-hour Romance Intercomprehension (RIC) module on the plurilingual competence in Romance languages of no prior knowledge and EFL reading comprehension skills of a group of Italian schoolchildren aged 10–11. Data were collected pre- and post-training through a simple language identification and comprehension questionnaire (within subjects, n = 19), and an EFL reading comprehension test (between subjects, RIC group n = 15; control n = 23), to answer the following questions: 1) What type of plurilingual reading strategies and competence can a short RIC module develop in a school con-text? and 2) Do the competences and strategies acquired through such a RIC course affect proficiency in EFL reading comprehension? Comparisons of pre- and post-test results indicated not only that the RIC-trained group did develop an initial level of plurilingual competence in Romance languages, but also that their EFL reading comprehension skills improved more than those of the control group. Further research is needed to substantiate these data and confirm this strategy transfer. However, alongside validating Intercomprehension methodology for quick development of plurilingual reading competence, this study seems to indicate that such competence can be extended outside a language family even in young learners.

Usage of reading comprehension to enhance word problem solving skills in mathematics

Thailand’s national tests, O-NET, are administered at the 3rd, 6th, and 9th grade levels. Mathematics is one of the tests. Achievement levels in Mathematics are consistently low. Several studies have shown that there is a link between Mathematics achievement and reading comprehension proficiency. Because previous studies were carried out in other jurisdictions, this study aims to correct this situation.  Random sampling was used to select the population from a field of 66 grade six students who were enrolled in a special English programme in a private school, Bangkok. 21 students met the sampling criteria. They sat for a pretest and a posttest test in reading comprehension and in word problem-solving skills in mathematics. Treatment was carried out over a period of 8 weeks. Results showed a high positive correlation between reading comprehension skills and achievement in word problem-solving skills in Mathematics. The results can serve as an encouragement to teachers and their supervisors to focus more directly on improving the reading comprehension skills of students as a means to increasing students’ scores on mathematical word-solving tests.  
 HIGHLIGHTS:
 
 This study provided the results that these two-skill were positively related and the improvement on reading comprehension skill could induce the development in word problem-solving skills because they both were affected by working memory as an essential key factor.
 Providing stress-free reading environments and activities could be an interesting option to improve student’s word problem-solving skills in Mathematics.