MINI-SURVEY TITLE:

READING COMPREHENSION LEVEL AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF

GRADE 7 STUDENTS OF UNIBERSIDAD DE STA. ISABEL

INTRODUCTION

Reading is one of the important skills in English and it gives many benefits for us.
Reading is the window of the world. By reading, people can get more knowledge
and information from books, magazines, newspapers, and others. Reading is the most important
component in learning process and social interaction because, first, reading is an indispensable
communication tool in a civilized society. Second that the reading materials produced in any
period of time in history most influenced by social background. Third, developments, that over
the period of the recorded history of reading has led to two very different poles. (Grey in
Tarigan, (1957:1099).

Reading is bringing meaning to and getting meaning from printed or written material
(Finochiaro and Bonomo in Tarigan, 1973:119). Through the reading activity, the students can
enlarge their knowledge and it can also make them wise and respectful. Students’ reading ability
must be developed. Teachers have duties to develop their skill and ability. Everything teachers
do in reading class should be designed to build students’ ability to understand increasingly
complex content of the texts. The methods, techniques, and teaching media that is chosen and
used by the teacher will influence the success of teaching learning process and students’
achievement. In the teaching reading activities, a good method, media, and strategy are needed in
this research.

December 2013, the NSO’s 2010 census of population and housing (CPH) showed that of
the 71.5 million individuals who are 10 years old and above, 95.5% or 69.8 million were literate
or could read and write, this is higher compared to the literacy rate of 92.3 % recorded in the
2000 CHP. 97.5% literacy rate is quite an impressive figure but if we will take a look at the
result of the National Achievements Test (NAT) on 2012, grade 3 students got a Mean
Percentage Score of 54.42% in English reading comprehension and 58.61% in Filipino
(Edutopia.com).
 This study aims to determine the reading comprehension level among grade 7 students of
Unibersidad de Sta. Isabel and their academic performances. Furthermore, this study focuses on
the reading comprehension level of the Grade 7 students of Unibersidad de Sta. Isabel and its
interaction to the academic performance in school.

OBJECTIVES

The research’s objectives are as follows:

1. Determine the reading comprehension level of Grade 7 students of Unibersidad de Sta.

Isabel.
2. Determine the academic performance of Grade 7 students of Unibersidad de Sta. Isabel.
3. Examine if there is a significant relationship between reading proficiency level and
academic performance of Grade 7 students of Unibersidad de Sta. Isabel.

HYPOTHESIS

This study contains one primary hypothesis needed for further investigation.

Ho: There is no significant relationship between the reading comprehension level and
academic performance of Grade 7 students of Unibersidad de Sta. Isabel.

Ha: There is a significant relationship between the reading comprehension level and
academic performance of Grade 7 students of Unibersidad de Sta. Isabel.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Table 1. Distribution of Respondents

Grade Level & Section Frequency %

Grade 7-A 28 50.00

Grade 7-B 28 50.00

Total 56 100.00
 The respondents of this study were the Grade 7 Junior High School Students of
Unibersidad de Sta. Isabel for the School Year 2019-2020. As shown in Table 1 (Distribution of
the Respondents), both sections have equal number of students. Grade 7-A makes up twenty-
eight (28) of the total, or 50%, while Grade 7-B makes up the other half. Thus, this research
study had a total of 56 students as student-respondents.

Table 2. Reading Comprehension Level of the Respondents

Grade Level Frustrated Instructional Independent Weighted Verbal

& Section Level Level Level Mean Interpretation

Grade 7-A 3 5 20 2.60 Independent

Grade 7-B 0 5 23 2.82 Independent

Weighted Mean 2.71 Independent

As shown in table 2 (Reading Comprehension Level of the Respondents), It was found

out that the Reading Comprehension levels of Grade 7-A and Grade 7-B are both “Independent”
with the computed weighted mean value of 2.60 and 2.82, respectively. Thus, the Reading
Comprehension Level combining the two sections is “Independent” with the computed general
weighted mean vale of 2.71.

This particular finding implies that the respondents’ Reading Comprehension Level is
Independent. It means that they have adequate background knowledge for the topic and can
access text very quickly and with very few errors. Thus, they are able to read and comprehend
the context or passage without someone helping them to do so.
 The academic performance of the respondents is the General Average in all learning
areas based on the academic requirements using the following criteria: Performance Task,
Written outputs and Quarterly Assessment. The academic performance was obtained using the
mean which was first statistically applied to the numerical rating per class and then in the entire
grade level.

The Level of Proficiency was based on the numerical rating earned by the student-
respondents in a particular quarter and at the end of the school year. Students with numerical
rating of 74 and below are classified as in the Beginning (B) Level, those with numerical rating
from 75to 79 belong to Developing (D) Level, students with numerical rating from 80 to 84are
classified as in the Approaching Proficiency (AP) Level, those with grades ranging from 85-89
belong to Proficient (P) Level and students are classified as in the Advanced (A) Level if their
numerical rating ranges from 90 and higher.

Table 3. Academic Performance of the Respondents

Grade
Weighted Verbal
Level & B D AP P A
Mean Interpretation
Section
Approaching
Grade 7-A 0 7 15 6 0 2.96
Proficiency

Grade 7-B 0 2 7 14 5 3.79 Proficient

Weighted Mean 3.375 Proficient

As shown in Table 3, The Academic Performance of the Respondents, students from

Section A belonged to “Approaching Proficiency” Level with the computed weighted mean
value of 2.96. On the other hand, students from Section B belonged to “Proficient” Level with
the computed weighted mean value of 3.79. The computed general weighted mean value of
3.375 was the strong basis to classify the Academic Performance of total number of respondents
to “Proficient” Level.
 Table 4. Pearson r test results for the relationship between reading comprehension and
academic performance of the respondents

Level of
Compute
Grade Level Tabular Significanc
d df Decision Interpretation
& Section x2 value e
x2 value
(α)
There is a
significant
relationship
between the
Pearson r 0.4245 0.2221 54 0.05 Reject Ho Level of
reading
Comprehension
and Academic
Performance

Weighted Mean 2.71 Independent

Table 4 shows the summary of the result on the relationship between the reading
comprehension level and academic performance of the respondent. Pearson’s product moment
correlation coefficient, or Pearson’s r was used since it is measuring tool to determine whether
there is a linear relationship between two variables – or not. When the r-computed value is
greater than or equal to the t-tabular value, reject the null hypothesis Ho; otherwise, accept the
null hypothesis Ho. Since that the computed r value of 0.4245 is greater than the tabular value of
0.2221, at 5% or 0.05 Level of Significance (α) and 54 degree of freedom (df). The null
hypothesis H0 is rejected.

CONCLUSIONS
 The result revealed that there is a significant relationship between the reading
comprehension level and academic performance of the respondents. Furthermore, the result
revealed that there is week correlation between the variable as it falls under the “small positive”
strength of association.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based from the result of this study, it may be recommended that the school
administration should design programs which can help the students to enhance their reading
comprehension skills. The teachers must be able to device activities to further develop good
reading comprehension skills aligned to the learning competencies. Parents and other
Stakeholders should help the school administration in the implementation of such activities.
Thus, the result of this study may be used for the conduct of future studies parallel to the goals
and objective of the present study.

REFERENCES
Books

Broto, Antonio S. “Nonparametric Statistics (With Computer Aided Solutions)”.

Mandaluyong City, National Book Store. 2008

‘The Power of Reading’ by Stephen Krashen

Electronic/Website

http://www.miamisci.org/tec/introduction.html

http://fla.sagepub.com/content/29/1/65

www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk – Rapid Readers

www.bugclub.co.uk – phonically based reading scheme