Based on some opinions of some researchers and experts above, it can be said that

reading comprehension can influence students’ academic achievement. It is supported by

some experts. Ponkshe (2013) explains that the students with better ability of reading

comprehension are expected to perform well in academics. Bastug (2014) adds that

reading comprehension is a significant predictor academic achievement. Thus, reading

comprehension skills should be emphasized to increase academic achievement.

Bastug M. (2014). The structural relationship of reading attitude, reading

comprehension and academic achievement. International Journal Social Science and

Education, 4(4), 931-946

Ponkshe (2013). English reading comprehension as a predictor for academic

success in first year B. SC. Nursing Course in India. IOSR Journal of Nursing and Health

Science (IOSR-JNHS), 2(4), 28-33

Westwood (2008) defines reading comprehension is often conceptualized as functioning

at different levels of sophistication and referred to. For example, as literal, inferential,

and critical.

Limited Vocabulary Knowledge (Lexical)

If a student has difficulty understanding what he or she is reading, it is worth

considering there is a serious mismatch between the students’ own knowledge of word

meanings (expensive and listening vocabulary) and the words used in the text. The

students may be able to read a word correctly on the page but not know its meaning. For
example, in the sentence “The farmer inspected his crops growing in the next field.” The

child who has never encountered the word “crop” before may think it is particular type of

vegetable or fruit. There is obviously a need sometimes to pre-teach a new vocabulary

before a text is read in order to enhance comprehension. There is also a need to devote

more time to vocabulary development as an integral part of the classroom literacy

program. (Westwood 2008)

New words are seen by students as a great obstacle to comprehend a text. It is

necessary for students to properly comprehend the words or the vocabulary of a written

passage in order to be able to decode the message, thus comprehend it. ( Shehu, 2015)

Ponkshe (2013) investigated English reading comprehension as a predictor for

academic success in first year B.S Nursing course in India. The sample used was seventy

six fresh second year nursing students. It showed positive correlation between English

reading comprehension ability and academic achievement obtained r values range from

0.48 to 0.65 are significantly greater than p-value .30 at 1% level of significance of a

student implying that students with better ability of English reading comprehension are

expected to perform well in academics.

In a study conducted by Anggraini (2017) were seventy students were involved,

he found out that reading comprehension and academic achievement is significantly

related at 0.05 level, 2 tailed.

Reference: The correlation between reading comprehension and academic achievement

of English education study program students UIN Raden Fatah Palembang. Santi

Anggraini (2017) English Education Study Program. Tarbiyah Dan Keguruan Faculty of

Islamic State University.

Shehu, I. (2015). Reading comprehension problems encountered by foreign

language students, case study: Albania, Croatia. Journal of interdisciplinary studies, 4(1),

91-96

Westwood, P. (2008). What teachers need to know about reading and writing

difficulties. Victoria, Australia: ACER Press.

Literal comprehension, the first level of comprehension, requires that a student be

able to extract information that is explicitly stated in a passage (Carnine et al., 2010).

This level of understanding is dependent upon students’ word-level processing skills, or

their ability to accurately identify individual words and understand the meaning created

by the combination of words into propositions and sentences.

Accordingly, developing reading comprehension is one of the great aims of

teaching English. It is reading comprehension that enables students to pursue their studies

and to meet their interests in all fields of knowledge. Thus, reading comprehension

should receive more emphasis throughout the teaching process. (Hussein 2012)

Reference: Analysis of the Real Situation of Teaching Reading Comprehension to

First Year Students at the Department of English Language and Literature at Al-
Zaytoonah Private University of Jordan Basel Al-Sheikh Hussein Assistant Professor,

Department of Language and Literature Al-Zaytoonah Private University of Jordan,

Amman, Jordan E-mail: ibrashihab@yahoo.com Received: November 22, 2011

Accepted: December 19, 2011 Published: April 1, 2012 doi:10.5539/ass.v8n4p237 URL:

http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ass.v8n4p237

The questions which are directed to the students in the classroom should

concentrate not only on practising those skills which belong to the literal level, but also

on the skills that belong to the inferential and critical levels.

Finally, taking into account their English reading comprehension level, students said that

they better understand a text when the information is written in the text (explicit

information) than when they have to talk about aspects that the text does not mention

(implicit information), students argued that in the last one they have difficulties; with

this, it is possible to say that students cannot extract the inferential information as well as

they are not able to give implicit information from the text. In conclusion, ninth graders

are in the literal reading comprehension level and it is necessary to take them to the

inferential level taking into account the aspects that the English curriculum of the school

asks them as it was mentioned before. In brief, the research problem is defined as the

necessity to promote inferential reading comprehension level in English as a foreign

language with ninth graders at Liceo Femenino Mercedes Nariño

Reference: THE THEORY OF THE SIX READINGS: PROMOTING READING

COMPREHENSION IN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. TEACHER

RESEARCHERS: MÓNICA ANDREA CORTÉS ACEVEDO DAVID FERNANDO

FRANCO FORERO. UNIVERSIDAD LIBRE FACULTY OF EDUCATION MASTER

IN EDUCATION WITH EMPHASIS ON FOREIGN LANGUAGES TEACHING

BOGOTÁ, D.C. 2016

Tantillo says that “we must recognize words and decipher unfamiliar vocabulary” (2013,

p. 12), words constitute vocabulary, in which; words are the single unit of language,

while vocabulary is all words in a particular language. The importance of vocabulary is

because “vocabulary knowledge is clearly a key component of the background

knowledge that enables comprehension” (Tantillo, 2013, p. 12), indeed, reader is exposed

to a number of words, De Zubiria names vocabulary as lexicon and defines it as “the

quality and quantity of significant words of a speaker”

Reference: Tantillo, S. (2013). The Literacy Cookbook. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass a

Wiley Imprint.

Educational researchers have found that there is a strong correlation between reading and

academic success (Igwe 2011; Morris & Cobb 2004; Zunshine 2013). Duncan (2010)

points out that people who read a lot possess stronger literacy skills and they also have

larger vocabularies, believed to be one of the predictors for reading comprehension.

2.1.2.1. Literal level Literal comprehension refers to an understanding of the

straightforward meaning ‘or what is actually stated’ in the in the text (Day 2005;

Hammond 2010). This could include facts and dates. Questions of literal comprehension

can be answered directly from the text without the need to read between the lines. It is

the type of comprehension that tests the basic meaning of a text. For example, if a text
says ‘Jane looked at her new broom with admiration, she took it and swept the living

room clean’, the literal meaning here is that Jane has a new broom. Learners can get

this clearly stated meaning without scratching their heads. However, it is necessary for

learners to mature beyond this level if they are to get a deeper meaning of what they read

and be able to comprehend texts in a more nuanced and perceptive way.

Reference: Hammond, K. 2010. Literal comprehension strategies. Research on Reading

Studies, 5: 3-9.

2.1.2.2 Inferential level This is a level of text comprehension where learners go beyond a

mere understanding of a text and reach a general understanding of what is implied.

According to Seiyod (2009) ‘inferential comprehension is when readers make predictions

on what is not clearly stated in the text’. This level of comprehension is associated with

reading between the lines. At this level the learner builds understanding of what is read

by using the facts presented to read between the lines to get a true meaning of what was

meant for understanding (Lin 2010). For example, that Jane liked her new broom is an

inference that can be made from ‘Jane looked at her new broom with admiration’.

Inferential comprehension thus involves drawing conclusions among bits of information

that are not explicitly stated. This level requires making use of background knowledge of

what is read (together with the literal information) to aid comprehension. The following

sentences show how inferential comprehension works: 1. The floor was wet; the girl

walked cautiously. 2. The girl walked cautiously because the floor was wet and she did

not want to slip and fall. 31 To understand the first sentence involves drawing a

conclusion about the relationship between a wet surface and walking carefully, which in

turn relies on background knowledge about the world. The second sentence involves low
level inferencing because the conjunctive ‘because’ explicitly signals the causal relation.

The implication is that walking cautiously helps prevent one slipping and falling on a wet

floor, and the added part of the sentence makes the reasons explicit.

To process meaning at the inferential level, learners need to use a situation-based model.

Kintsch (1998) explains that the situation-based model consists of what the text is

perceived to be about. The situation-based model includes elaborative inferences that

integrate prior knowledge with text based information. Unlike the text-based model, the

situation-model does not normally retain the verbatim text information but supports a

more flexible knowledge structure that can enable the integration of both visual and

verbal representations (Snow 2002; Stull & Mayer 2007). Woolley (2011) opines that in

constructing a situation-model, the reader needs to infer meanings that are often implied

by drawing from their existing background knowledge. The assumption is that the main

difference between text-based and situationmodels is inference making. The text-based

model is inferentially light while the situationmodel is inferentially dense.

Reference: Lin, N. 2010. Vocabulary studies. Reading for studying. Language Matters, 2:

1-8.

Seiyod, D. 2009. The reading teacher. Literacy Learning, 9: 2-10.

Woolley, G. 2011. Reading comprehension: Assisting children with learning difficulties

[Retrieved from www.springer.com].

2.1.2.3 Evaluative Evaluative comprehension is the third level of comprehension and it is

at a deeper level in comparison to literal and inferential comprehension. Lin (2010, 154)

points out that ‘evaluative comprehension involves critical reading where information
and ideas are evaluated’. Evaluative comprehension also includes integration of chunks

of information across texts to get a bigger picture. It occurs when readers use critical

thinking to make judgment about what was read in a text and at this level, learners

compare what they read with their background knowledge and values (Seiyod 2009). It is

the type of comprehension that seeks a reader’s opinion. For example, to achieve

evaluative understanding while reading a text, a reader asks questions such as ‘Why? Do

I agree with it?’ While inferential comprehension is associated with reading between the

lines, evaluative comprehension involves reading beyond the lines. Seiyod (2009) posits

that evaluative comprehension occurs when readers compare information with their own

background knowledge and values. At the evaluative level students may use their opinion

as it relates to the subject matter. The level of understanding at the evaluative level is

measured by the learners’ ability to translate meaning of a text to their own experiences.

2.1.2.4 Appreciative level Another deeper level of understanding is appreciative

comprehension. It requires a personal response to a text and the reader responds to the

text or story based on personal reaction and reflection. At this level the reader also

responds to the author’s purpose (Araujo & Costa 2012). According to Chia (1996),

‘appreciative comprehension occurs when readers engage with a text and get an

emotional response from the text’. This suggests that the appreciative level involves the

students’ feelings towards the material read and it is considered more abstract than any

of the other levels because a readers’ personality and likes or dislikes can affect

comprehension at this level. Lin (2010) suggests that reading or comprehending at the

appreciative level is done to gain an emotional or valued kind of response from a

passage. This kind of reading is especially important when reading literature or poetry,
for example, learners may give their feelings and personal responses in the Macbeth’s

merciless killing of their visitor, King Duncan in the play ‘Macbeth’. It is important for

learners to go through all four levels of comprehension if they are to read with total

understanding and enjoy what they read.

In conclusion, high school reading, which is the focus of this study, needs highly

developed decoding and comprehension skills. In addition, texts at high school level use

academic words or low frequency words (Corson 1997) which are semantically opaque,

(to be discussed in more detail in § 2.2.3). Many learners from various cultural

backgrounds do not always get exposed to these words at school or outside school. As a

result, it becomes difficult for them to understand texts with this academic language.

Contrary to the early stages of learning to read where children learn the alphabetic

principle and letter sound relationships, from about Grade 4 onwards reading should be

well enough developed that it is fast and accurate and can become a tool for learning

(Pretorius 2012). From Grade 4 onwards learners start being exposed to texts with

unfamiliar content and low frequency words. By the time learners enter high school they

need to develop critical reading and thinking skills to be able to read and appreciate

literature and to engage critically with any text they read. To understand texts at high

school level, learners need to be able to process information at the evaluative and

appreciative level as these levels are important for developing critical skills in today’s

world. This study assessed comprehension at the literal, inferential and evaluative levels.

This is because the Cambridge reading test used did not assess comprehension at the

appreciative level.
Reference: Pretorius, E.J. 2002. Reading and applied linguistics –a deafening silence?

South African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 20: 91-103.

Araujo, L. & Costa, P. 2012. Education and evaluation. Journal of Theory and Practice,

21: 5-6.

2.2.1 Knowing words Research shows that word knowledge is more complex than the

seemingly simple question what does it mean to know words? Nation (2010, 47) defines

word knowledge as ‘the ability to recognize the spoken and written form of a word as

well as its meaning’. However, some scholars have argued that this definition of word

knowledge is insufficient as it implies that form and meaning are separate aspects of

vocabulary. As stated earlier, word knowledge involves more than just the link between

meaning and form (Laufer, Elder, Hill & Congdon 2004). Pignot-Shahov (2012, 37)

highlights that ‘knowing a word is being able to recognize it and it has to do with the

By implication, literal comprehension is technically a basic form of reading

comprehension involving understanding those facts and descriptions that are explicitly

stated, not alluded to or inferred in the text. Students need to develop this comprehension

skill because it creates a grasp of literal information and establishes a foundation for the

assimilation of more complex reading skills. To support this view, Goff (2010) asserts

that literal comprehension is a process that involves reading to understand the surface

meaning or identifying information explicitly stated within a passage. It could also be

referred to as thinking within the text. Nevertheless, at this level of reading

comprehension, students’ ability to identify exact meaning of vocabulary used in the

passage (reading for exact meaning at the word and sentence level), read for information.

Literal comprehension deals with and does not go beyond facts and details. Tests

items used to assess literal comprehension include the ‘wh’ questions like ‘what’, ‘when’,

and ‘where’ (Huggins 2009). Thus mastering this component of reading development

means being able to understand literally what the author said.

8. Discussion of Findings The concern of this study has been on students’

attainment in literal comprehension level. The findings revealed that difference in

students’ attainment in reading for exact meaning, reading for information and reading

for gist in a text is significant. Based on research question one, the scores of students

between reading for exact meaning and reading for information is significant by 2.8991.

Whereas, in research question 2, the difference in mean attainment scores in reading for

exact meaning and reading for gist is highly significant at 3.1009. This is an indication

that students’ attainment scores from questions designed for reading for exact meaning

was higher than those questions designed for reading for information.. Also, the

attainment of reading for exact meaning was higher than attainment in reading for gist.

However, the poor rate of mean difference in score reading for gist and exact meaning is

significantly higher. This reveals that students scored too low on questions for reading for

gist than question which reading for information and reading for exact meaning.

Consequently, the SS 2 students are bound to perform poorly in most academic subjects

because they have poor literal reading comprehension level which does not match the

senior secondary curriculum challenge.

 The development of literal level of reading comprehension should start from

primary school so that as students approach senior secondary school they must have

developed the inferential and evaluative reading comprehension levels. Reading materials

used should be such that would consciously develop students’ literal reading

comprehension level. (Wisdom & Ajayi 2012)

Reference: Goff, S. (2010). What are the causes and effects of literal

comprehension? Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/info_12044849.

Huggins, D. (2009). PRAXIS I exams Cram: Reading (2nd. Edition). Retrieved

from http://www.informit.comarticles/aspx?p=

Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN

2222-288X (Online) Vol 3, No 7, 2012 120 Literal Level of Student's Comprehension

in Nigeria: A Means for Growing a New Generation African Scholars Wisdom I. Jude

O. B. AJAYI2 1. Department of Curriculum and Teaching, College of Education, Afaha

Nsit, P.M.B. 1019, Etinan, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria 2. Department of General Studies,

Taraba State Polytechnic, Wukari * E-mail of the corresponding author:

wisppa@yahoo.com

The literal (L) comprehension refers to the memorization of facts in the reading

texts. Students were required to identify and memorize the subject which was discussed

by the writer explicitly in the text and in the excerpt. In other words, the literal

comprehension involved students’ ability to obtain the overt information from the texts.

The literal comprehension needed the low level of thinking which would be the basic for

the higher level thinking (Rubin, 1991).

 The inferential (IF) comprehension refers to the ability of students interpreting

meaning. Students are able to summarize, interpret, and make a generalization, a

conclusion and a prediction. The inferential comprehension needs to use the overt

information together with the intuition and experience (Ismail, Salmah dan Elly, 1992).

Apart from that, the inferential comprehension needs the high level thinking as the

questions involve answers which are not explicitly stated in the text.

The critical-creative (C) comprehension integrates the students’ ability to do

overall evaluation towards a certain information or idea which is read, make a conclusion

about the precision or suitability of the given information or idea, apply the information,

and emphasize the production of a new idea. The critical-creative comprehension needs a

divergent thinking, which is the thinking skill outside the literal and inferential

comprehension (Rubin, 1991), which depends on the knowledge and personal experience

of the students.

Reference: www.sciencedirect.com

The Acquisition of Comprehension Skills among High and Low Achievers of

Year 4 to 6 Students in Primary School Yahya Che Laha , Nor Hashimah Hashim (2014).

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 114 ( 2013 ) 667 – 672

Ruddell (2008) asserts that students activate three categorical level of thinking

skills to actively engage with the text: (1) literal level or read the lines which belongs to

low order thinking and classified as remembering and understanding cognitive process,

(2) interpretative level or read between the lines which belongs to high order thinking

determined as applying and analyzing cognitive process and (3) applied level or read
beyond the lines considered as high order thinking as synthesizing and evaluating

cognitive process.

Their performance was not only poor in the reading test but also in the vocabulary

test. For example, after 12 years of schooling, only urban Schools B and D achieved

mastery of the high frequency words, i.e. the 2000-word level, learners in all the four

schools did not attain mastery of the rest of the word levels. This suggested that they had

weak vocabulary knowledge. The learners should have known the high frequency words

by the end of primary school. The learners also had low knowledge of academic words-

the kinds of words they need to know to understand their content subject’s textbooks.

Vocabulary knowledge plays an important role in reading comprehension. Before

we can examine this role, it is important to clarify what vocabulary knowledge entails,

specifically in relation to second language vocabulary. In this section I unpack this notion

in terms of what it means to know words, the difference between receptive and

productive vocabulary, the relation between reading and vocabulary knowledge as well as

incidental vocabulary learning and explicit vocabulary learning.

Reference: RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN READING ABILITY,

VOCABULARY, READING ATTITUDES AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

AMONG FORM 5 LEARNERS IN SWAZILAND’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS by

MLUNGISI WELLINGTON NXUMALO : APPLIED LINGUISTICS at the

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA: MAY 2016

 Schmitt (2010) points out that as learners read more and become more familiar

with the contexts in which words occur, their receptive knowledge gradually moves

towards productive mastery.

Reference: Schmitt, N. 2010. Researching vocabulary. A vocabulary research manual.

Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

The students’ performance (academic achievement) plays an important role in producing the

best quality graduates who will become great leader and manpower for the country thus

responsible for the country’s economic and social development (Ali et al, 2013). Academic

achievement is an apparent phenomenon in many developing countries like Tanzania since is

measured in final examination (Form Four National Examination), whereby success is measured

by academic performance or how well students meet standards set out by the National

Examination Council (NECTA) and the institute itself. Students’ performance at the level of

secondary has the strong impact on other levels of higher and tertiary education.

Reference: Ali1, S. Haider, Z., Munir1, F. Khan, H. & Ahmed, A. (2013). Factors Contributing to

the Students’ Academic Performance. A case study of Islamia University, Sub-Campus. Science

and Education Journal, Vol. 1 issue8 pp1-10.

Academic performance is one of the facets of student‟s effectiveness. It is the basis of teacher‟s

evaluation and grading and a sort of information on student‟s weaknesses and strengths- the

basis of student‟s learning skills in his/her study.

It is widely accepted that student‟s academic success is influenced primarily by their cognitive

abilities. That is, students with great intellectual potential will often succeed at a higher level of
than will students with lower ability. However, given that correlation between I.Q. and

achievement is typically only in the moderate range. Students may experience pressure and

stressful situation in their study. In their level of cognition, they may sometimes think they

cannot function well or can not do well on a certain assignment, task or requisite in their study.

And when they experienced failure, they may turn out and lose their capability and troubled to

regain in a certain task or job which is considered flaw in their academic performance.

Yet, these situations of high school students in regards to their academic performance may turn

to positive outcomes, when people in their environment give them support, encourage and

persuade them that they can function and do well in a specific task in their performance.

Reference: Academic Performance and Self-

Efficacy of Filipino Science High School Students
on Mathematics and English Subjects
30 Pages Posted: 28 Sep 2012  

Angelo Dullas
Central Luzon State University (CLSU)

Date Written: June 1, 2010

Academic achievement represents performance outcomes that indicate the extent to which a person has

accomplished specific goals that were the focus of activities in instructional environments, specifically in

school, college, and university. School systems mostly define cognitive goals that either apply across

multiple subject areas (e.g., critical thinking) or include the acquisition of knowledge and understanding in a

specific intellectual domain (e.g., numeracy, literacy, science, history). Therefore, academic achievement

should be considered to be a multifaceted construct that comprises different domains of learning. Because

the field of academic achievement is very wide-ranging and covers a broad variety of educational outcomes,

the definition of academic achievement depends on the indicators used to measure it. Among the many
 criteria that indicate academic achievement, there are very general indicators such as procedural and

declarative knowledge acquired in an educational system, more curricular-based criteria such as grades or

performance on an educational achievement test, and cumulative indicators of academic achievement such

as educational degrees and certificates. All criteria have in common that they represent intellectual

endeavors and thus, more or less, mirror the intellectual capacity of a person. In developed societies,

academic achievement plays an important role in every person’s life. Academic achievement as measured

by the GPA (grade point average) or by standardized assessments designed for selection purpose such as

the SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) determines whether a student will have the opportunity to continue

his or her education (e.g., to attend a university). Therefore, academic achievement defines whether one

can take part in higher education, and based on the educational degrees one attains, influences one’s

vocational career after education. Besides the relevance for an individual, academic achievement is of

utmost importance for the wealth of a nation and its prosperity. The strong association between a society’s

level of academic achievement and positive socioeconomic development is one reason for conducting

international studies on academic achievement, such as PISA (Programme for International Student

Assessment), administered by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). The

results of these studies provide information about different indicators of a nation’s academic achievement;

such information is used to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of a nation’s educational system and to

guide educational policy decisions. Given the individual and societal importance of academic achievement, it

is not surprising that academic achievement is the research focus of many scientists; for example, in

psychology or educational disciplines. This article focuses on the explanation, determination, enhancement,

and assessment of academic achievement as investigated by educational psychologists.

Reference: Academic Achievement

Ricarda Steinmayr, Anja Meißner, Anne F. Weidinger, Linda Wirthwein

 LAST REVIEWED: 28 APRIL 2017

 LAST MODIFIED: 30 JULY 2014

 DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780199756810-0108

http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756810/obo-

9780199756810-0108.xml