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Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

Introduction

The ability to read is the gateway to knowledge; it is the gateway to understand

ourselves and the world around us. Without the ability to read, life can be almost impossible.

The futures of today’s students depend on how well they can comprehend and thoughtfully

use a wide variety of texts. It also depends on their ability to use reading skills to think

critically and to convey their thoughts and opinions orally and in writing.

Reading is also one of the important skills for the students in learning English since

they can train their understanding on English language and improve the mastery of

vocabularies. Through reading, the students are able to use the information in the text, to

understand the sentences, utterances, paragraph, evaluate the written ideas, and apply the

ideas to actual situations. They also improve their knowledge and English proficiency by

reading some books or textbooks related to their need. Therefore, they have to understand and

comprehend what they read. If they do not know what they read, they will not get a point. In

fact, the students will get the problems if they do not have adequate reading skill in learning

language, especially in comprehending a text. Thus, in order to get the information and

knowledge from the text, the students have to understand and comprehend it.

What is the aim of reading? The aim of reading is comprehension; therefore, it can be

noted that comprehension is the reason for reading. If comprehension does not follow

reading, it cannot be called reading. Mayer (2008) claimed that understanding the printed

materials in a text was regarded as an important academic activity and provided the ground

for the learning of academic subjects (cited in Teng, 2009).

There are four main component processes in reading comprehension suggested by

Hannon (2001). The first process includes retrieving relevant knowledge from long-term
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memory. The second one refers to integrating accessed knowledge with information from the

text. The third process is making inferences based on information in the text, and the fourth

one is recalling newly learned text from memory. However, it is not very easy to

appropriately describe and elaborate on reading comprehension in such a brief fashion.

Day and Park (2005) believe that it has been several decades that the theories and the

models of reading have changed from receptive process to interactive process. Similarly,

according to Birch (2002), reading can be viewed as a number of interactive processes. The

first process refers to different processing strategies such as top down and bottom up along

with the knowledge base. These processes interact with each other and lead to reading

accomplishment. The second one involves the interaction between the reader’s mind and the

written text and the result will be the comprehension of the message by the reader. The third

process is concerned with the interaction between the reader and the text writer indirectly

through time and space, because it is the writer who is sending information to the reader, but

it is the readers job to grasp the information from the writer.

As far as language teaching and language learning are concerned, reading is one of

the significant skills playing an increasingly important role in learning a language. The skill

of reading has its own modes two of which are oral reading and silent reading. Many studies

have been conducted on reading orally and reading silently with inconsistent and equivocal

results (McCallum., 2004).

According to Rasinski (2011), Oral reading is widely used to carefully watch

students’ reading performance in the early elementary grades due to its strong empirical

relations with reading comprehension. Most research reveals that there is a robust and

significant relationship between reading comprehension and oral reading fluency in different

grade levels. However, given the literature about reading comprehension and fluency, few

studies have empirically examined the components of reading fluency, and much less is
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known about silent reading fluency (Wagner, & Foster, 2011) since oral reading fluency

draws more attention to monitoring students’ reading progress in early elementary grades

levels (Ridel, 2007).

An appropriate response to the observed overemphasis on oral reading practice in the

past decade in classrooms is not to overreact by moving in the opposite direction and

eliminating oral reading in favor of silent reading. Oral and silent are not competing forms of

reading. Rather, they are complementary forms of reading that reflect students'

developmental growth as readers. When reading educators revisit the topic of silent reading

in a decade or two, we would expect to see particular kinds of oral and silent reading

practices used in classrooms in developmentally responsive ways (e.g., oral, repeated reading

with younger, less proficient readers and silent, wide reading with older, more proficient

readers). It is clear that most adults read silently whereas younger readers initially enjoy

reading aloud to show off their new and emerging abilities as readers.

The research aims to compare the silent reading and oral reading comprehension

performance of the Grade 11 Students of Angoyao National HighSchool. It will attempt to

introduce or at least reinforce these different modes of reading in terms of silent reading and

oral reading comprehension.

Theoretical Framework

The anchors of the study are the following theories, concepts, and principles on

language acquisition theories, language learning, and language development conceptualized

which give support to the main subjects which is the reading comprehension skills. These

theories, concepts and principles includes Process Approach, Schema Theory and Mental

Model Theory.
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Process Approach

Reading was believed to be a passive skill where readers aimed at decoding the text in

order to appropriately comprehend it. Reading was also believed to be made up of a

hierarchical list of word recognition. In this view, reading was assumed as a product rather

than a process so that getting the intended message of a writer sufficed (Zhou, 2008).

In contrast to this view, Yang (2000) maintained that the process approach considered

reading as a successful phenomenon when a complete extraction of meaning in a text was

performed. Unlike writing and speaking skills, which are viewed as creative and productive

skills, reading and listening are regarded as both receptive and recreative skills. According to

Chastain (1988), the reader ought to activate his/her prior and linguistic knowledge to receive

the meaning of the text.

McNeil (1992) proposed four presumptions regarding the process approach. The first

one included the influence of readers‟ prior knowledge on what they are going to learn from

the text. It can be inferred that there is a direct relationship between their background

knowledge and its effect on learning. The second assumption referred to the strategies called

top-down (concept-driven) and bottom up (data-driven).

The application of the first strategy (top-down) is concerned with reader’s goals and

expectations which influence reading comprehension. The application of the second strategy

(bottom-up) includes three dimensions: a) activating schemata b) applying schemata while

setting expectations for reading c) bridging gaps by means of obtained information in the

text.

The third assumption includes the capability of a reader in processing a text. The

more capable he or she is in processing a text, the more successful he or she will be in

understanding, storing, and recalling the text.

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The fourth issue is the context in which the action of reading takes place and that will

affect recall. In addition, the readers‟ purpose of reading and perception influence his or her

beliefs regarding the significance of the text principle.

Schema Theory

According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (William,

1976), the word process means “a system of operations in the production of something‟‟.

Chastain (1988) stated that there are three key words in the sentence above, which are very

significant for second language learners. The key words include system, operation, and

production which can be found in the dictionary definition. He noted that the word operation

suggested a process containing some activities which are systematic and these systematized

activities lead to a product.

Also, he pointed out that the process of reading could be inferred as an operation

which is activated by the cognitive system as well as linguistic knowledge. One not only

receives information from the printed text, but also recreates the meaning of the text. The

theory regarding this view of communication is schema theory.

Schema theory is one of the theories concerned with how people read. According to

Harris and Hodges (1995) schema theory is described as an integration of new knowledge

with prior knowledge. Therefore, it can be said that schema theory considers the new

information and links it to the relevant information already in the mind so that a meaningful

relationship can be created through this occurrence and the result will be comprehension of

the text or message.

Additionally, Gunning (1996) as cited in the study of Domato and Pagayocan (2014)

defines a schema as the organized knowledge that one already has about people, places,

things, and events. The schema theory involves an interaction between the reader’s own

knowledge and the text, which results in comprehension. This schema, as Gunning defined,
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can be very broad, such a schema for natural disasters, or narrower, such as a schema for a

hurricane. Each schema is "filed" in an individual compartment and stored there. In

attempting to comprehend reading materials, students can relate this new information to the

existing information they have compartmentalized in their minds, adding it to these "files" for

future use. Based on the Schema Theory, depending on how extensive their "files" become,

their degree of reading comprehension may vary.

Sankarakumar (2012) proposed that the role of schema has been found to be crucially

influential in the top-down approach of reading comprehension process. Swaffar (1988)

emphasized the role of schematic knowledge as more effective in comprehension

performance rather than linguistic knowledge. Moreover, the role of schema has been

recognized in making the reader aware of the interaction between the text and prior

knowledge to enhance comprehension (Nassaji, 2002).

Regarding the specific categories of schema theory, Carrel (1983) maintained that

there were two types of schemata which people as language processors possess. The first type

is known as formal schemata which is claimed to be background knowledge about the

“organizational structures of text” (p. 84). On the other hand, the second type of schemata

refers to content of schematic knowledge in which the reader is required to be more familiar

with the content area of a text. The examples for this type could be one about using a

computer or the history of television.

Mental Model Theory

The next model is Mental Model. This model can be thought of as a mind movie

created in one's head, based on the reading content. Gunning gives a detailed description of

this process, stating that a mental model is constructed most often when a student is reading

fiction. The reader focuses in on the main character and creates a mental model of the

circumstances in which the character finds him/herself. The mental model is re-constructed or
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updated to reflect the new circumstances as the situation changes, but the items important to

the main character are kept in the foreground according to Gunning (1996).

Perkins (1991) identifies that sometimes misconceptions about important concepts

reflect misleading mental models of the topic itself or the subject matter within which it sits.

There are, however, interventions the teacher can do to help the reader to stay on track and

create a more accurate picture. One suggestion is for the teachers to ask the students to

disclose their mental models of the topics in question, through analogy, discussion, picturing,

and other ways. This information gives the teacher insight on the student's knowledge gaps

and misconceptions, therefore allowing them to help students reconstruct a more accurate

picture.

Conceptual Framework

Based on the theories and discussions mentioned above, the researcher has

conceptualized a diagram that shows the relationship of variables. This research will aim to

compare the silent reading and oral reading comprehension performance of the Grade 11

Students of Angoyao National High School. The comparison will be used to determine

whether any differences in the respondents’ comprehension performance between the reading

modes namely silent and oral reading in general. The first variable of the study includes the

personal profile of the respondents in terms of their age, sex, language used at home, and the

available reading materials at home. The other variables of the study include silent reading

and oral reading comprehension performance which is measured based on Barret

Taxonomy’s level of reading comprehension.

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Oral Reading Silent Reading

Comprehension Comprehension
Performance Performance

Respondents Profile
in terms of:

1. Age
2. Sex
3. Language Used at
Home
4. Available Reading
Materials at Home

Figure 1. A Schematic Diagram of the Conceptual Framework of the Study

Statement of the Problem

The current research aims to compare the silent reading and oral reading

comprehension performance of the Grade 11 Students of Angoyao National High School. It

will attempt to introduce or at least reinforce these different modes of reading in terms of

silent reading and oral reading. Specifically, it will seek to answer the following questions:

1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of:

1.1.Age;

1.2.Sex;
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1.3.Language Used at Home; and

1.4.Available Reading Materials at Home?

2. What is the respondents’ Oral Reading Comprehension Performance in terms of:

2.1.Literal Comprehension;

2.2. Inferential Comprehension;

2.3.Evaluative Comprehension; and

2.4.Appreciative Comprehension?

3. What is the respondents Silent Reading Comprehension Performance interms of:

3.1.Literal Comprehension;

3.2. Inferential Comprehension;

3.3.Evaluative Comprehension; and

3.4.Appreciative Comprehension?

4. What is the highest and lowest observed performance rate of the respondents in Oral

and Silent Reading based on Barrett Taxonomy’s Level of Reading Comprehension?

5. Is there a statistically significant difference between silent reading and oral reading

regarding the respondents reading comprehension performance?

6. Is there any significant difference between females and males in their reading

comprehension when they are engaged in reading text silently and orally?

Significance of the Study

The proposed study can be considered useful in terms of understanding the effect of

reading mode on reading comprehension performance. The findings of this study might be

significant to the following:

Students. This study will help the students to realize on what could be the most

effective approach in reading comprehension, especially those students who are not reading

comprehensively and struggling in their academics because of incapability in comprehending

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text. This may also enable them to evaluate themselves better, and for them to take the

necessary steps to improve academically.

Teachers. This study might give the teachers an idea on how are they going to handle

their students with reading issues. This study will help the teacher to realize individuals’

characteristics in reading and choose the appropriate reading approach to his/her students.

Parents. The study, in one way or another, may help the parents realize the things that

they should do and not to do in helping their students excel in their academic performance

and emotional support that their children would be needing in their studies.

Administrators. This study may serve as guide in understanding why there are

students who cannot cope up with the lessons particularly in reading comprehension. Also,

appropriate measures can be taken to assist students in improving their reading skills.

Future Researchers. The study will serve as the inspiration of the future researchers

and reference materials as well in digging deeper on the study of silent or oral reading.

Scope and Limitations

This study entitled Comparative Study of Oral and Silent Reading Comprehension

Performance of The Grade 10 Students of Angoyao National High School. The comparison

will be used to determine whether any differences in the respondents’ comprehension

performance between the reading modes namely silent reading and oral reading in general.

This proposed study includes the One Hundered (100) Grade 11 respondents of Angoyao

National High School who are taking 21st century literature course.

This study does not aim to create a gap in using Silent Reading and Oral Reading in

teaching reading or in reading activities. The sincerity and the honesty of the respondents are

also considered a limitation of the study since they are beyond the control of the researchers.
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Definition of Terms

For basis of consistency and better understanding, the researchers built a list of terms

defined conceptually and/or operationally.

Reading - is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and text, resulting

in comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences and paragraphs that encode

meaning (Hasibuan and Ansyari, 2007). In this study, it refers to the process of interpreting

written language, symbol, a sign or a measuring device.

Reading Comprehension- is the product of reading a text. This simple idea that the

acquisition of reading comprehension is learning to under- stand writing as well as one

understands spoken language has empirical justification (Velazco, 2009). In this study, it

refers to the identification of the intended meaning of written or spoken communication and

the process of making sense words, sentences, and connected text.

sense words, sentences, and connected text.

Oral Reading – is to pronounce every word and the comprehension of text is the

secondary goal. This process focuses more on the grapheme-to-phoneme rules in sub lexical

route (Snelling, 2009). In this study, is the ability of a student to deliver or read a certain

piece through spoken language.

Silent Reading – is to comprehend and assimilate the meaning of the text which

relies on the grapheme-to-semantic decoding in the lexical route (Van de Boer,2014). In this

study, it refers to a not speaking or making noise while reading written texts.