Luận Án Năng lực đọc hiểu và hứng thú đọc tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm nhất Đại học Thái Nguyên: Cơ sở cho việc phát triển hệ thống tài liệu đọc tiếng Anh bổ sung cho sinh viên Đại học

READING PERFORMANCE AND READING INTERESTS OF COLLEDGE FRESHMEN OF THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY: BASIS FOR DEVELOPING COLLEGE SUPPLEMENTARY INTERGRATIVE READING MATERIALS A Dissertation Presen

READING PERFORMANCE AND READING INTERESTS OF COLLEDGE FRESHMEN OF THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY: BASIS FOR DEVELOPING COLLEGE SUPPLEMENTARY INTERGRATIVE

READING MATERIALS

A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of Graduate School

Batangas State University

Batangas City, Philippines

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

TABLE OF CONTENTS i

LIST OF TABLES iii

LIST OF FIGURES v

CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM 1

Introduction 1

Statement of the Problem 7

Scope, Limitations and Delimitations of the Study 9

Significance of the Study 9

II REVIEW OF LITERATURE 13

Conceptual Literature 13

Research Literature 49

Synthesis 78

Theoretical Framework 83

Conceptual Framework 86

Hypothesis 88

Definition of Terms 88

III RESEARCH METHOD AND PROCEDURE 90

Research Design 90

Subjects of the Study 93

Data Gathering Instrument 95

Data Gathering Procedure 97

Statistical Treatment of Data 98

IV PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA 99

V SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 132

Summary 132

Findings 134

Conclusions 137

Recommendations 138

BIBLIOGRAPHY 140

APPENDIX 148

CURRICULUM VITAE 177

LIST OF TABLES

Table Title Page

1 Distribution of Participants 93

2 Percentage Distribution of the Students’ Demographic

Profile in Terms of Gender 99

3 Percentage Distribution of the Students’ Demographic

Profile in Terms of Type of High School Graduated from 100

4 Percentage Distribution of the Students’ Demographic

Profile in Terms of Living Accomodation 101

5 Percentage Distribution of the Students’ Demographic

Profile in Terms of Monthly Family Income 101

6 Percentage Distribution of the Students’ Demographic

Profile in Terms of Educational Attainment of Parents 102

7 Level of the Students’ Reading Performance in English 104

8 Relationship Between Demographic Profile and Reading

Performance of the Students’ 106

9 Reading Interests of Freshmen Students with Regards to

Music 108

10 Reading Interests of Freshmen Students with Regards to

Food and Health 112

11 Reading Interests of Freshman Students with 114

12 Regards to Sports and Games 114

13 Reading Interests of Freshmen Students with Regards to

Science 116

14 Relationship Between the Reading Performance of the

Students’ and Reading Interests of Freshmen Students 118

15 Proposed Supplemental Reading Materials 120

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Title Page

1 The Conceptual Model of the Study Using the

Input-Process-Output Approach……… ……90

CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM

Introduction

The importance of education could hardly be denied by every one for it is not the quality alone that most educators are after, but most of all, an effective English language teaching instruction especially in non-native English speaking countries like Vietnam This world is now in global competition where teaching college English emphasizes not only theory but more on practice in order to compete communicatively with other countries It is now the concern of English teachers to apply language learning into useful, meaningful and worthwhile classroom engagements and create career advantage in life

As English is the language of academic instruction, the success

of students depend on their communication ability which is anchored on their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills in English But recent studies show that the performance of the college students have fallen short of the standard output expected while there is an increasing complaint of the college professors that most college students are disabled readers Most of the college students are no longer fluent in speaking, reading, and writing the English language

With the advent of new technology, students nowadays spend more of their free time enjoying with their gadgets, mostly for games rather than with their reading materials No matter how hard educators push the campaign of reading among students, most of them would prefer not to participate

One of the most important skills being taught to students today is reading This is the foundation for which the individual builds new skills, expands knowledge, and drives great satisfaction Perhaps, the most complex process the students experience is the skill in reading The teacher, whether in elementary, secondary or even in college, needs to guide the students properly in the acquisition of basic skills to be able to read with understanding

Development of reading skills is vital most especially for students Reading is a multifaceted process that develops only with practice There are certain aspects of reading, such as fluency and word recognition, which can be learned in a few years These basics must be mastered but at the same time reading comprehension should be emphasized in the process Students can parrot words on a page all day long but if they don’t have the necessary comprehension skills they will not be able to make predictions about what will happen next, monitor their understanding of content, sequence or characters, clarify

confusing parts of the text, or connect what they’re reading to their own experience or prior knowledge (Marshall, 2012)

The model of what “reading” is has changed quite dramatically from an earlier model where reading was mainly a process of decoding the words on the page (Mather, 2003) The current view about reading

is that it is a complex cognitive process; a bottom-up process in which the pre-existing knowledge structure of the reader is brought to bear on the text Silvertain added that there are two kinds of background knowledge They are formal schemata, which involve knowledge of rhetorical structures and conventions, and the content schemata which involved knowledge of the word beyond text In this contemporary view

of reading, the teacher’s role is to assist in developing an appreciation schema during the reading process

Nowadays, in Vietnam, English is considered as a basic subject

It is being taught in most of the universities, including Thai Nguyen University

Reading in English is very interesting because it helps the learner not only to study English well, but also to understand more about the outside world The learners will be informed the events, culture, people, and others in foreign countries through English newspaper, magazines

or books Reading is the key that unlocks the door in the world of enlightenment and enjoyment However, the input or the information

ones gets through reading depends on his interpretations about similar things that he reads Each person is unique individual trying to put meaning to an author’s message

Learning to read is one of the most important accomplishments that can be achieved during ones formal schooling However, reading is

a complex process that causes students a lot of troubles

According to reading specialists, many students do not become good readers when they have poor reading habits and negative attitudes toward reading Usually they are those who have numerous unrelated, disorganized and incomplete pieces of words floating in their memories and more often than not, they become the disable readers and the poorest individuals in the class

A disabled reader is not an exemption from those who are termed

as slow learners He is one and the same as those who experience difficulty within the learning situation in connection with mental ability If this is the case, the teacher must set specific attention to the disable readers or slow learners although it is believed that the overall curriculum must be the same for all students Whether each student reads well or poorly, the teacher must be to make an analysis for each case and the teacher should determine the learner’s points of strengths

or weaknesses before giving intelligent assistance

The goals of reading are to understand written text, integrate new ideas, and generalize from what is read Reading comprehension depends on several interrelated skills: understanding oral language, decoding the printed word, reading fluently, and using strategies to increase comprehension No matter what the student’s age is, it’s important his skills develop in all areas because significant difficulty in any one of them can cause a breakdown in the whole process of reading (Baumel, 2003)

Reading is a process of extracting meaning from print It involves both visual, perceptual and linguistic processes Good readers know and understand the processes involved in reading and consciously control them This awareness and control of the reading processes is called metacognition, which means “knowing about knowing” Some students do not know what they are reading They continue to red even though they do not comprehend Poor readers tolerate such confusion because they either don’t realize that it exists or don’t know what to do about it Poor reader focuses on facts whereas good readers try to absorb details into a larger cognitive pattern

The reading problem and comprehension of the college students must really be given priority so that they will be able to cope up with the demands of both academic and professional endeavors To see better development, the researcher decided to tap the freshman students of

Thai Nguyen University so that in the end, a reading program will be proposed to enhance the reading skills of freshman students

As a college instructor in English courses, the researcher too, have a notion that the first year college students enrolled in the different programs of Thai Nguyen University could be the main concern of this academic issue Despite their having finished the secondary level, they

are still deficient in the basic communication skills especially in reading

Hence, the problem in skill acquisition that prevails among the first year college students has to be identified and given attention to The researcher really wanted to come up with a concerted effort among English instructors of the different colleges of this university– to lessen,

if not eradicate the reading weaknesses of the students Such effort however, is an expectation for better quality of today’s college graduates

Likewise, the need for this study is really on call since it should always be the concern of the English teachers to know the abilities, interests, needs and characteristics of the students under his control and at the same time discuss the weaknesses of each student in reading as well as give the corresponding measure As one goes up the ladder of education, this student has to learn to read extensively in order to improve his level of achievement He has to develop the basic skills in reading The researcher wanted to emphasize the need for

reading skills because she believes that success in reading is success

in school, thus, success in future life It is even obvious that the ability to read is vital to learning because access to knowledge in the various disciplines is made possible through reading This eventually prepares the youth for both local and global competitiveness

Since this should be the focus of tertiary education, a very alarming finding proved that there is a need to refocus attention to the reading program in the college level because reading is a primary avenue to knowledge To advance in knowledge, one should forever learn more, study more, and reason more Likewise, reading is the most important task of learning and all the lessons and subjects in the academe need the skills in reading A student who has developed the basic skills in reading loves to read well As he goes up the ladder of education, he has to learn to read extensively in order to improve his level of achievement The researcher at this point wanted to become an instrument in developing college supplementary integrative reading materials that will assist each individual learner to attain his reading potential as a student

Statement of the Problem

This study will attempt to determine the reading performance and

reading interests on of freshman students of Thai Nguyen University

Specifically, it seeks answers to the following questions:

1 What is the demographic profile of college freshman students of Thai Nguyen University in term of::

1.1 gender

1.2 type of high school graduated from

1.3 living accommodation

1.4 monthly family income

1.5 educational qualification of parent?

2 What is the level of the students’ reading performance in English?

3 How does reading performance relate to the demographic profile

4.5 Food and health

5 How do the profile variable relate to reading performance and reading interest?

6 What supplementary integrative reading materials may be prepared?

Scope, Limitations and Delimitations of the Study

This study will focus and is limited to the reading performance of freshman students of Thai Nguyen University

It will also deal with the survey of reading interests of students along literature, science, sports and games, music, food and health The study will be conducted in the school year 2013-2014 among 400 freshman students of TNU

Significance of the Study

The Thai Nguyen University is a tertiary institution that is committed and accountable for providing classroom instruction with positive results which is being manifested in high performance level with regards to student learning outcomes Teachers are dedicated to the well-being of the students and communities they serve, taking into account their cultural diversity, group aspirations, and what is valued in education

With the good intention of the researcher, this study will be in a way benefiting directly or indirectly to the following who are involved in the educational system most especially those concerned with the English courses or even other tool subjects where the medium of

instruction is English The researcher believe that this study would be beneficial to the following

The Students of TNU The useful and relevant information

acquired from the study will encourage them to keep on using English

as their second language They would even realize that learning reading skills would enable them to easily change the printed words and symbols into ideas or thoughts, thus, reflects on their significance, relates with them and sees their implications With this, becoming grammatically competent will make the students speak English with confidence, as well as their improved performance in language tests The acquired skills in reading would help the students in their active participation in recitation, reporting and investigation projects, in explaining mathematical solutions, and campus writing

To add, this would challenge them harder to improve their weak points and enhance their strong points of the reading skills

The English Teachers The results of this study could provide

them insights on how they will address the needs, problems and constraints toward the concept of reading The results could even enrich their English syllabus design and content as well as instructional development They would be encouraged, too, to think of additional creative techniques of the reading activities in their classes to improve students’ reading skills particularly on scanning, vocabulary and study

aids More so, they could be able to understand better the attitudes, interest, comprehension skills and problems of the pupils as regards reading

The Language Department of TNU The findings would serve as

an indispensable basis in revitalizing and intensifying English as well as the Reading Program The results too, would give them ideas of integrating a well-planned reading activities in English and developmental Reading subjects

School Administrators This study would be instrumental in the

performance of the school as far as students’ development is concerned With an improved grammar, the school would be well represented in inter-schools and community activities Moreover, the output of the study could be considered as supplementary to the reference materials provided in the school library This could also encourage them to further intensify the school’s both English and Reading Programs

More likely, the findings would motivate the administrators to implement a reading program that could assist English teachers to discover students’ strengths and weaknesses in reading skills

Parents The program to be proposed in the study would be

easily appreciated, since the end beneficiary in any educative process

is the student They would be proud knowing that their children are

being developed in school in terms of language particularly reading proficiency As a result, they will not hesitate to extend their full support

to whatever school activities their children are involved in In addition, the findings will make them more aware and cooperative of the reading program that the school implements because they are vital in the educative process of their children

Other Higher Education Institutions It is also perceived that

the data collected would likely be useful for the teachers of other higher education institutions who have limited English proficient students The fact that reading is a complex process, these institutions could motivate and challenge their own organization to boost the manifold skills and abilities needed in the successful reading act

Syllabus Designers This research study could make the

syllabus designers find a place for reading competencies in the course

of activities for lessons they have to make This would give them the realization that reading should not be taken for granted and that it needs

to be involved in their design This would prompt them to continue developing materials that will enrich the students’ reading competence

The future researchers This could provide them insights on how

to help individuals improve their reading skills deficiencies to work

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This chapter presents the review of conceptual and research literatures which are related to the present study They provide insights

of facts and discussed as basis of the study

Conceptual Literature

Characteristics of Freshmen College students Gardner and Lambert

(2000) defines ‘attitude’ as the persistence shown by the learner in striving for

a goal Brown uses the term ‘attitudes’ to refer to the set of beliefs that the learner holds towards members of the target language group and also towards his own culture Gardner and Lambert have investigated a number of different attitudes which they consider relevant to L2 learning Stern classifies these attitudes into three types: (1) attitudes towards the community and people who speak the L2 (i.e ‘group specific attitudes’); (2) attitudes towards learning the language concerned; and (3) attitudes towards languages and language learning in general (Ellis, 2010) All these types of attitudes displayed by language learners appeared in the survey questionnaire

The attitude of the reader is an important factor in constructing meaning Because of an unfriendly teacher long ago in a high school physics class, one adult finds any article about physics almost impossible to understand However, warm memories of a chemistry teacher make this

subject more readable Many students with reading problems are literary afraid of books Nine-year-old Kenisha experienced a magical feeling achievement after she overcame her fear of books and read and enjoyed her first hardcover book For those who teach students with problems, developing positive attitudes toward reading is an extremely important and sometimes challenging task (Richek et al 2002)

In developing positive attitudes in language learning, several steps may

be helpful in this regard First, the teacher will want to establish positive relationships with students It may be helpful for the teacher to have an understanding of the students’ cultural backgrounds and the values they bring

to school Once positive relationships and open communication have been established, students accept the teacher as a role model and as a model of literate behavior Second, to serve as a good model of literate behavior, teachers must demonstrate the kind of literacy they want to show Teachers must see themselves as readers and writers if they want their students to read and write (Au, 2002) The teacher also plays a vital role in developing positive attitudes in language learning though students play the central role

Education Secretary Br Armin A Luistro, FSC (2012) quotes that it is important to assess the reading capability of students because reading is the foundation of all academic learning He added that if a pupil fails to master basic reading skills at the outset, it will be a constant struggle for them to get through other disciplines successfully, thus depriving them of the chance to become literate and productive individuals

Reading Performance One of the most important skill that a person

can acquire is reading It helps the learner to understand the world by enabling them to learn about the past and plan for the future (Grove et

al, 1982) For academic success, reading is important since it is also considered a critical skill In the educational system reading is well integrated that either educational or academic success is considered synonymous to reading success

In term of reading skills, the ability to read is essential to the ability to talk Without this ability, one can find this modern world a confusing place to live in It will be difficult to find one’s way about a strange city without help

One must be able to read if he desires to talk or write in such a way as to interest, convince, or persuade other people Through reading, he will learn, not only what other people thought, felt, dreamed

of, or believed in; but also have those people expressed their ideas, emotions, dreams, and beliefs

In academic setting, reading is the central means for learning new information and gain access to alternative explanations and interpretations Reading also provides the foundation for synthesis and critical evaluation of skills It is the primary means for independent learning wherever the goal is performing better on academic tasks, learning more about subject matter, or improving language abilities

Reading as pointed out by Beber (1995) is a process by which information is extracted from written or printed texts Since reading is a complex process there are critical aspects of which it is dependent and these are the written format of the word and the reader’s ability to decode the phonetic relationships between the letters of the page and the sounds of the spoken language and a semantic or syntactic process that has to do with meaning of the words which are being pronounced Reading as one skill in language performance is basically about making sense of a text and is the receptive skill of the morphologic form of the language It is astoundingly complex cognitive process It has cognitive consequences that extend beyond its immediate task of lifting meaning from

a particular passage (www.csun.ed/know/ands/content/Academic Resource/Reading) Dauzat (1981) on the other hand states that reading

as a process involves mental ability embedded in other communication abilities and converts graphic stimuli into meanings It is an act of reconverting symbols into language with which the individual is already familiar For reading and academic success, strong vocabulary skills both expressive and receptive are critical Vocabulary depth is significant because it supports reading development Reading can also help us develop our own ideas about relationship as well as the world of thoughts and emotions

Reading has to be considered in the role of language because according to Anderson (1985), it is a basic life skill and creates almost limitless possibilities for achievements Much of the learning takes place

in the form of reading in spite of other medium of instruction used whether it be in the form of a textbooks or a written work In conveying information and new knowledge, reading plays a pivotal role

The National Reading Panel in Washington D.C (2000) noted the interaction between a reader’s ability to recognize the meanings of individual words in printed text (vocabulary comprehension) and that reader’s skill at comprehending the larger meaning of a passage (text comprehension) Vocabulary instruction should be taught to students both directly and indirectly Children learn vocabulary items better if given repeated exposure to those items (e.g., in regular vocabulary review sessions) Students who are just learning to read or have delayed reading skills often benefit from having a more accomplished reader listen to their reading and correct any reading mistakes immediately

As noted by Guthrie and Wigfield (2000), student attitudes toward reading are identified to be the central factor affecting reading performance People generally believe successful individuals are formed by these three reasons: ability, effort, or luck Highly successful people tend to believe that they succeed because of ability and fail due

to lack of effort (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001) Rasinski (2003) calls this the “Michael Jordan effect.” To get where he wanted to be professionally, Michael Jordan had to undergo many long hours of tedious practice to become an expert in his sport, and was self-motivated to do so Therefore, attitudes in achieving a particular goal could matter

Reading performance is watered down into the detailed presentation of the reading process For readers to easily process what they read, Samuels (2002) have identified steps that readers use whenever they read These are decoding, comprehension and attention Decoding is the ability to pronounce the words printed on the page When we see the letters d-o-n-k-e-y, we say “/donkey/” Word meaning

is not an essential element in decoding; only the ability to say the word

is required Comprehension is a process in which meaning is constructed using information from the printed page and the knowledge stored in the head of the reader as the building materials To decode and comprehend text, attention is required Attention is the cognitive energy used in mental processing tasks such as decoding and comprehending It is a resource that is available in limited quantity, and the processing demands required in reading may exceed the amount of attention that is available All these steps must be present to deliver a successful reading performance among learners

Reading process can be successful through the guidance of metacognitively sophisticated reading teachers who should know that good readers know, can use, and do use decoding comprehension strategies when they are needed They should know that it is important for students to read, read and read excellent books, for fluency depends

on extensive reading and development of background knowledge depends on quality reading (Pressley, 2002) Duke and Pearson (2002) suggested 16 characteristics of good readers in developing reading comprehension These are as follows (1) Good readers are active readers (2) From the outset they have clear goals in mind for their reading They constantly evaluate whether the text, and their reading of

it, is meeting their goals (3) Good readers typically look over the text before they read, noting such things as the structure of the text and text sections that might be most relevant to their reading goals (4) As they read, good readers frequently make predictions about what is to come (5) They read selectively, continually making predictions about their reading – what to read carefully, what to read quickly, what not to read, what to reread, and so on (6) Good readers construct, revise, and question the meanings they make as they read (7) Good readers try to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and concepts in text, and they deal with inconsistencies or gaps as needed (8) They draw from, compare, and integrate their prior knowledge with material in the text

(9) They think about the authors of the text, their style, beliefs, intentions, historical milieu, and so on (10) They monitor their understanding of the text, making adjustments in their reading as necessary (11) They evaluate the text’s quality and value, and react to the text in a range of ways, both intellectually and emotionally (12) Good readers read different kinds of text differently (13) When reading narrative, good readers attend closely to setting and characters (14) When reading expository text, these readers frequently construct and revise summaries of what they read (15) For good readers, text processing occurs not only during “reading” as how it was traditionally defined, but also during short breaks taken during reading, even after the “reading” itself has commenced, even after the “reading” has ceased (16) Comprehension is a consuming, continuous, and complex activity, but one that, for good readers, is both satisfying and productive

Pure reading performance is most directly linked to a child's success with five early literacy skills phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension (Anderson, 2014) For high school students, the later three are the major concerns He has

described the scope of each ‘Fluency’ involves the accuracy and speed

of a student's reading A fluent reader is able to read text correctly, quickly and with appropriate voice tone Gaining fluency makes reading

a more pleasurable and less stressful experience for students Fluent

readers are usually able to read almost effortlessly This allows them to concentrate their efforts on comprehension and vocabulary as opposed

to decoding and recognizing words For a student to become a proficient reader who gains meaning from text, she must first become a

fluent reader Next, ‘vocabulary’ involves gaining meaning from words

while reading Essentially, a student cannot comprehend or construct meaning from text without understanding the words within the passage

A child with strong vocabulary knowledge is able to read more fluently and with more purpose A child's vocabulary grows daily through conversation, reading, direct instruction and life experiences Reading aloud

to children everyday and explicitly teaching selected words help nurture

strong vocabulary knowledge Lastly, ‘comprehension’ involves constructing

meaning from what is being read Reading truly has no purpose without comprehension In order to comprehend text, a reader must actively and intentionally think about and analyze meaning while reading Good comprehension requires strong abilities in all four of the other fundamental literacy skills Students must consider many bits of information while reading

to comprehend the text such as genre, text structure, the author's purpose and familiar and unfamiliar words Strong comprehension encourages self-directed learning and lifelong reading

Anderson’s (2014) measures of reading performance are presently part of the content standards followed by the K+12 curricula

for high school in the Philippines The seven content standards are as follows: listening comprehension, oral and reading fluency, vocabulary development, reading comprehension, writing and comprehension, grammar awareness and structure, attitude Other than those mentioned by Anderson, attitude as a content standard and one of the variables of this research notably performs a significant role

Social status of the family is a factor in creating a community of readers with average reading performance “Reading skills are essential to function in the society." This is according to Duane Alexander who is the director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development when he spoke before a congressional subcommittee in 2002 Alexander stated that many children living in poverty lack the skills that will allow them to become lifelong readers A person with low reading ability may not be able to read signs, understand medical information or prescription directions, or apply for jobs that require basic skills tests Originally, the type of school (public

or private) where the respondents have graduated from was not included in Clark’s National Literacy Trust Survey of (2012) where the instrument of this research was patterned However, in reading Alexander’s point, it seems that it could be a factor in delivering reading performance

Continually improving reader’s performance is vital The Commission on Adolescent Literacy of the International Reading Association asserts: Adolescents entering the adult world in the 21stcentury will read and write more than any other time in human history They will need advanced levels of literacy to perform their jobs, run their households, act as citizens, and conduct their personal lives They will need literacy to cope with the flood of information they will find everywhere they turn They will need literacy to feed their imaginations

so they can create the world of the future In a complex and sometimes even dangerous world, their ability to read will be crucial Continual instruction beyond the early graders is needed (Vacca, 2002)

Reading performance is partly measured by standardized tests In the Philippines, National Achievement Test (NAT) is annually done to test grade six and ten students The students' knowledge and mastery over the subjects English, Mathematics, Science, Filipino, and Hekasi are measured using a multiple choice type test The examination is administered by the Department of Education's National Educational Testing and Research Center (NETRC) There were not much available data online about the results of NAT However, one site posted by the Philippine Statistics Authority last May 2007 which compared NAT results in three consecutive years (S Y 2003-2006) It showed a generally deteriorating performance of the students From the NAT

results of high school students in English of 50.7% in S Y 2004-2005, it went down to 47.7% in S.Y 2005-2006 With all subjects combined, only 1.1% of the students are in the Mastery Level, 33.2% of the students are near mastery and sadly, 65.6% of the students are in low mastery Focusing on the high school students’ mean score, CALABARZON (Region IV-A) ranked 13th among the 17 regions in the Philippines

It is not yet too late to aid this circumstance Teachers and students can still work hand in hand to battle the deterioration in NAT results According to Gisler et al (2014), reading as a teen leads to success When teens read more than just their classroom assignments, research clearly shows that they generally do well in school First of all, the extra reading expands their vocabularies It also shows them how different writers put down their thoughts leading to better writing skills And teens who read more serious literary works gain skills in handling complex ideas The more teens read, the more information they pick up This leads to a solid core of knowledge that is useful in a wide variety of classes For example, the teen who reads biographies has a better understanding of prominent people studied in history classes

Another big dividend of reading as a teen is a good score on the verbal section of a college admissions test No other activity builds the

vocabulary and comprehension skills needed to do well on these tests

as well as reading

Besides helping teens do well in school, reading also helps them expand their horizons as they learn more about people and the world Plus, reading can show teens that everyone has problems in his or her life and may even help teens see solutions to their own problems Finally, reading is enjoyable It can bring a great deal of pleasure to teens

Parents often wonder what can be done to improve their middle

or high school student's reading speed and comprehension skills It is not done simply - like most complicated things in life The recent report

of the National Reading Panel had a whole chapter on reading fluency And that is really what reading fluency and automaticity is about -directly linked to comprehension When a learner thinks about it, in order to comprehend, one must have all his attention focused on the meaning If a learner is reading slowly and struggling with individual words, sounding them out, even if he is sounding them out correctly, all

of his mental attention is wrapped up in the actual decoding So the learner is not paying attention to the point of reading, which is obviously the meaning Then, this concludes that fluency and automaticity are a very big deal (Feldman, 2013)

Richard Allington (2014), a professor of education at the University of Tennessee, argues that readers improve when they read high volumes of accessible texts written at, or even a bit below, their reading level If a text is accessible, the student will able to accurately decode 98 percent of the words Most of the assigned reading in school will be at or above the frustration level for struggling readers causing them to miss too many words to build meaningful comprehension By reading a high quantity of accessible texts, high school students can build the word recognition, fluency and background knowledge that are necessary for better comprehension

Repeated readings, another form of reading practice, is one of the most powerful ways to increase reading fluency (Dowhower, 1994; Kuhn & Stahl, 2000; NICHD, 2000; Rasinski & Hoffman, 2003; Samuels, 1979) Through repeated readings of a particular text, students increase their fluency and comprehension of the passage practiced What is more important, however, is that the repeated readings also lead to gains in fluency, comprehension, and overall reading on other passages not previously encountered In other words, student practice on certain passages generalizes to improved performance across all reading

A second proven method for developing fluency has been termed assisted reading (Kuhn & Stahl, 2000; NICHD, 2000; Rasinski &

Hoffman, 2003) That is, students read a passage while simultaneously listening to a fluent oral rendering of the same text by a person or persons or on a previously recorded version of the reading Choral reading is certainly one way to provide assisted reading Another is for the less fluent reader to read along with a more fluent partner That partner could be the teacher, a tutor, a classmate, or a parent Teachers might also tape record selected passages for less fluent readers and ask them to read the passage while listening to the tape repeatedly until they feel that they can read the passage independently (Rasinski et al., 2005)

Reading attitudes and beliefs about reading competency are thought to affect reading frequency, and thus exert an indirect influence

on reading achievement The downward trend in reading attitudes documented in previous studies of elementary school students does continues through grade eight, but then a plateau is reached, marking

an essentially stable level of attitudes throughout the rest of the secondary school years Results on the development of self-efficacy over time are roughly the same as those conducted previously on self-concept, with stability across grade levels and a slight increase in the upper grades, particularly among girls, as they move from adolescence

to the transition to adulthood (McQuillan, 2013) In short, as the students develop their reading attitudes and beliefs on reading

competency in upper grades, they tend to read more The three dimensions of reading fluency include accuracy in word decoding where readers must be able to sound out the words in a text with minimal errors In terms of skills, this refers to phonics and other strategies in decoding words The second is automatic processing where readers need to spend as little mental effort as possible in the decoding aspect

of reading so that they can use their cognitive resources for making meaning And lastly, prosodic reading where readers must parse the text into syntactically and semantically appropriate units This includes expression in the reader’s voice, sense of phrasing, observance of punctuations and knowing what word needs emphasis among others (Caiga and Javier, 2005)

Reading comprehension basically has a general meaning but researcher have come up with significant findings that shed light on the real meaning of reading comprehension The mere recognition of word does not constitute the complete art of reading, unless the readers understand what he is reading Word recognition and comprehension should be considered as two major skill areas in reading Porto (2006)

Reading comprehension difficulties can cause by Lack or poor use of strategies According to Chia (2001), some students report that they have no problem with understanding both words and sentence structures of the paragraph, but they can not reach satisfactory

interpretation of the text In fact, most of students rely too much on bottom - up processing individual words and analyzing sentence structures, but not do apply top - down processing for the overall view of the text This may result from the lack of appropriate instruction and practice in applying reading strategies According to Oxford and Crookall (1989), strategies can be operationalized as learning techniques, behaviors, and problem-solving or study skills that enhance learning more effectively and efficiently In the light of second language learning, however, it is crucial to see the difference between strategies that enhance learning and strategies that improve comprehension For their study, reading comprehension strategies are the main focus and are seen as comprehension processes that enable readers to construct meaning from the printed page most effectively In other words, those strategies show how readers tackle a reading task, how they interpret their reading and what they do when they do not comprehend Brantmeier summarizes these strategies as follows:

“The strategies may involve skimming, scanning, guessing, recognizing cognates and word families, reading for meaning, predicting, activating general knowledge, making inferences, following references, and separating main ideas from supporting ideas” (2002, p.1) Furthermore, the reading strategies can consist of evaluating content, such as agreeing or disagreeing, making an association with

prior knowledge or experience, asking and answering questions, looking

at the key words, using sentence structure analysis such as determining the subject, verb or object of the sentence, skipping and rereading (Almasi, 2003; Sugirin, 1999) Clearly, not all strategies are of equal effectiveness due to the different types of reading texts and tasks, and reading strategy use by each reader

Reading comprehension can be described as understanding a text that is read, or the process of constructing meaning from a text (NRP, 2000b, p 4-5) Why do those who have studied reading comprehension describe it as a process of "construction" or "making meaning?" First of all, reading comprehension involves all of the elements of the reading process, described in earlier sections of this review, acting together As comprehension takes place, words are decoded and associated with their meanings in the reader's memory, and phrases and sentences are processed rapidly or fluently enough so that the meanings derived from one word, phrase, or sentence are not lost before the next is processed

Second, the writer who composed the text being read put together a whole, hopefully coherent, network of thoughts for the reader This more

or less coherent whole is recreated as needed, piece-by-piece, in the reader's memory without the benefit of live conversation, relying only on what is derived from the text and the reader's own prior knowledge or

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past experiences, also stored in memory This complex network of ideas that represents a text in memory is constantly modified as the reading progresses Problems in creating this representation, or understanding a specific text, may be encountered as the text is processed Recognizing these problems and reasoning through and resolving them is a part of the comprehension process Comprehension

is an active process and the reader must interact and be engaged with the text for it to work well

Shehadeh (2002) strongly concluded that reading proficiency is closely related to scholastic success When students do not comprehend in reading, they will usually do one of three things: continue to pass their eyes over the page while thinking of other things; give up or find something else to do; or, search for ways to understand the text Some students will instinctively reread, ask someone for help,

or turn to resource, such as dictionary or clarification Others need help

to stay updated; they need someone nudging them into making connections to other information into using context and clues or other strategies Sometimes this is because they haven’t have enough exposure to the process of reading This concept is true because students will have adequate time to fully ingest new learning and ideas without being weighed down by the fast learners Students who could

not easily “catch up” to the things taught in a single sitting could have more time to understand and learn the lesson at hand

For James Russell Lowell (2003), reading is the key which admits mankind to the world of thought, fancy and imagination; enabling them

to see with the keenest eyes, hear with the finest ears, and listen to the sweetest voices all times Reading means many things to many people, expanding their horizons and making it possible for them to partake of man’s accumulated experiences and achievement through the ages He explained that reading is an active dialogue between the author and the reader It is a skill that helps man to discover the answers to question about existence and enables him to acquire a clearer, deeper understanding of reality Reading experts explain that reading is a subtle and complex process that involves five stages: sensation, perception, comprehension, application, and integration It is a process

of thinking, evaluating, imagining, reasoning, problem solving The expected reader is expected to be able to perform these mental activities with reasonable proficiency Since the heart of the reading act

is comprehension, it would be rendered useless unless one understands the meaning of what he is reading Bloomfield and Fries (2001) view reading as essentially a decoding process, where the learner has to master the printed code of a spoken language Essentially, they see it as an association of speech sounds with

appropriate reading symbols They also believed that it is important that

in the teaching of reading, the materials are important to be confined to what the learner has already learned orally, as speaking and listening are also important aspects in developing language skills in reading how

to read It was found out, too that emphasis on the mastery of the printed code produces better results in word recognition and spelling

Like what Cook (2008) emphasized, reading is not merely an individual’s act of reciting something written also a decoding process in which one orally interprets the meaning of a word, a phrase, a clause or

a sentence It is the practice of knowing and of understanding the meaning of printed words or written symbols as explained by Barnes (2001) More so, he said that reading is also a process that connects man to the reservoir of all forms of information on any subject anywhere

at any time It is a bridge of wisdom that facilitates understanding and learning in all areas of knowledge Thus, for both Cook (2008) and Barnes (2001), one therefore, who does not know how to read eventually becomes a victim of ignorance and a prisoner of fate in meaninglessness In their ultimate analysis, reading is basically, understanding If one can interpret what an act implies, he can read If one can follow what a particular graphic sign purports to show, he can read If one can translate in to action what printed matter postulates, he can read Thus, they conclude that reading is plain comprehension

Wiener (2001) emphasized that a student’s success in reading is evaluated by the ability and extent of understanding the content that is being read He asserted, too that comprehension and learning area are one of the same process, and that this process is one in which new experiences are associated with what student already knows or believes In his investigation, two findings support beliefs about the need for directed teaching of reading in the early years: those adults who value reading had the reading habit established in early childhood and their initial stimulus to reading came through the efforts of another person rather than as a self-initiated activity

Reading interests of College students Naturally, all individuals are

different with their respective potential to read and understand the information In academic setting, reading is the central means for learning new information and gain access to alternative explanations and interpretations Reading also provides the foundation for synthesis and critical evaluation of skills It is the primary means for independent learning wherever the goal is performing better on academic tasks, learning more about subject matter, or improving language abilities

People read for a variety of purposes such as get the main idea They read to locate specific information like scanning for a name, data,

or term They read data to learn information and sometimes, they are expected to synthesize information to multiple texts, or from a longer