CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Reading comprehension is one of the most challenging learning processes in

which people participate, making it more difficult to teach, evaluate, and research.

Sometimes students think they can read, but that does not mean they understand

what they read. Teachers are often one of the key factors in attaining this kind of

skill. However, sometimes, they are not enough for the demand of each student.

Learners differ in their attitudes, motives, and characteristics of their strengths and

weaknesses while learning, which all will determine how and why they learn. They

also vary in their academic styles and capacity to learn. One of the challenges in this

area concerns the ways in which reading comprehension is measured (see Paris,

2007, this section).

In this regard, a smart tutoring system has been seen to successfully assist in

the instruction of basic subjects, such as mathematics or grammar. Additionally, a

Smart Tutoring System aims to provide immediate and customized instruction or

feedback to learners, usually without requiring intervention from a human teacher.

According to Ken Koedinger, professor of human-computer interaction and

psychology, Intelligent Tutoring Systems are programmed to monitor student

success in real time, include next step hints, and select practice tasks that help

students develop new skills. The most critical result of formal education is developing

learners who can interpret and comprehend the texts being read in a related manner

and found out that making learners fluent in reading comprehension has become
one of the educational systems key aims. It should also be remembered that it plays

a significant role throughout the education of a few and all academic skills.

Reading comprehension has grown in popularity because of its significance.

Smart tutoring system (STS) research has two main goals: to provide advanced

educational guidance on a one-on-one basis that is superior to standard compute

raided instruction and equivalent to that of a good human tutor, and to build and

assess models of the cognitive processes involved underlying in instruction. This

advancement can lead to an increased learning level of students, especially in terms

of reading comprehension. Reading literacy is characterized as understanding,

evaluating, reflecting on, and interacting with texts to attain ones goals, improve

one’s knowledge and potential, and contribute to society. The Philippines, as one of

the participating countries, got lower scores in reading comprehension, mathematics,

and science than most of those surveyed in other nations. In the Philippines, policies

were put to promote the argument that reading is an important skill for learners. One

example is the No Read, No Pass Policy memo in National Capital Region (NCR)

DepEd memorandum order number 67, series of 2014. This strict policy clearly

states that because reading is a learning medium that promotes success, learners

who come up short of their grade level do even worse than good [10]. To resolve this

problem in the educational process, the STS was an inventive approach, especially

during the pandemic, wherein learners became independent learners. Unfortunately,

most of them are experiencing difficulty in learning in this kind of setup.

 The previous report on reading assessment, many grade seven students are

struggling in their reading comprehension and identified as beginners. In the school

year 2018 -2019, 35% of grade 7 learners are categorized as for beginners. Also,

34% in the school year 2019 2020. This result shows that students need help in their

reading comprehension. As a result, the researchers agreed to develop a smart

tutoring system which is necessary and can be a great tool to enhance the level of

comprehension of the learners of Maragusan National High School especially those

who struggle in this area of learning. With this system, learners can help

comprehend or practice difficult concepts and manage their own learning. The

system can also provide an immediate feedback on errors made by the learners

without requiring intervention from a human teacher. The system will adapt to the

considerable instructional needs of learners from early development to advanced

reading comprehension skills. In addition, the system can help improve the total

number of learners which can be taught by the system in comparison with the total

number of learners a teacher can accommodate,

Thus, more learners can be taught. The learners can use a device and an internet

connection to be able to utilize this system. The development of this STS is

necessary for learners who needs improvement in reading comprehension especially

in this time of pandemic where learners are learning from home, not in school

setting. Moreover, it can also be their long-time partner throughout their learning

stages, therefore, helps them develop knowledge and skills needed to become

globally competent students. The study’s goal is to develop a Smart Tutoring System

to help Grade 7 students of Maragusan National High School enhance their reading

comprehension.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter will focus on studies that will help the researchers attain the

desired outcome and enhance the learners’ reading comprehension by developing a

smart tutoring system. Likewise, these studies will support conceptualizing how or

what the intelligent tutoring system will measure in every learner. Artificial

intelligence (AI) is being used in education in Smart Tutoring Systems. These

systems can be beneficial since it provides digital environments that can immediately

bear on student learning (Robot, 2020) [11]. Furthermore, these systems focus on an

individual’s needs and preferences to improve a learner’s capability.

Reading Comprehension

According to Veeravagu, Reading comprehension is a method of thought in

which a reader chooses facts, detail, or ideas from printed materials; determines the

meanings that the author intended to convey; determine how they relate to previous

information, and assess their suitability and value for achieving the learner’s goals.

Comprehension Skills are essential for a child’s success and are needed for

language fluency. Students will benefit from these skills in English class and all field

soft academic study as well. Ashley Moore (2016) also it is the key ingredient to a

successful life.

In addition to that, according to Elleman and Oslund’s research, instructors

2must provide early and consistent training in knowledge, vocabulary, inference

production, and comprehension monitoring to improve reading comprehension. To

improve teenage reading comprehension, researchers, educators, and policymakers

must work together to forego short-term improvements on measure that target low-

level comprehension in favor of long-term solutions that take years to build.

Smart tutoring System

In 2019, the study was conducted on the effectiveness of intelligent tutsring

systems on K12 students reading comprehension, based on the result of the study

ITSs produce a larger effect size on reading comprehension when compared to

traditional instruction, STSs for reading produce a small effect size when compared

to human tutoring. The effect size of STSs on reading comprehension is inflated

when studies use researcher-designed tests. These results may be of interest to

researchers and policymakers aiming to enhance reading comprehension through

the use of reliable and widely available STSs .Based on the study of Atun, Smart

Tutoring Systems are more effective than the traditional teaching methods in

developing reading comprehension skills, a variety of software used as STS but

Smart Tutoring System for the Text Structure Strategy is the most common one in

studies, and the results have differed in favor of low reading level students. This

study showed that STS affects their level of capability or skills in reading

comprehension. Moreover, the research conducted by Meyer supported that a

structured test and researcher designed interventions showed that an intelligent

web-based tutoring framework for the structure strategy (STSS) enhanced reading

comprehension. The purpose of this research is to determine the efficacy of a web

based smart tutoring system in improving subject area reading comprehension. “The

study was conducted with 128 fifth-grade classrooms within 12 school districts in

rural and suburban settings. Classrooms were randomly assigned to intervention or

control groups within each school. A smart web-based tutoring system for the

structure strategy (STSS) was used for the group’s intervention within 30 to 45 min

each week as a partial replacement for the language arts curriculum for the entire
school year. The structure strategy helps learners interpret and comprehend

expository texts by describing the structure of the text and constructing strategic

mental interpretations of the text. The web based tutoring system provided the

structure strategy training with modeling, practice tasks, evaluation, and immediate

feedback. The control classrooms used the schools language arts curriculum for the

full language arts time .Further, computer aided instruction (CAI) improve the

effectiveness of delivery, assist learner improve learning, provide flexible

assessment and then achieve the purpose of humane education.

Reading process.

In the booklet The Professional Development Service for Teachers 3 (2014),

the reading process is defined as something complex and multi-dimensional. Thus,

teachers who are assertive when fostering reading comprehension in their classes

must know about its complexity. Teachers can make use of a range of teaching

approaches that enable students to be confident and independent readers. Aspects

to consider in the teaching of reading towards recognizing this complexity are the

variety and richness of vocabulary, providing a framework for teaching

comprehension strategies, ensuring that students feel motivated, and finding reading

as something pleasurable. Each aspect is essential because it provides guidance for

understanding how the reading process should be taught. Carter and Long (1991)

explain that these three phases of reading are useful since students have

opportunities to follow a reading passage in a more organized and detailed way.

Also, each phase has a series of strategies that teachers could use in order to help

students understand what they are reading. In the before-reading stage, Paran

(2003) argues that teachers need to motivate students through activities that may

attract their interest (e.g. book talks, dramatic readings, or pictures related to the
text). The goal is to make the text relevant to students in some way. Another strategy

suggested by Paran (2003) is by activating students’ background knowledge and

discussing what students will read, what they already know about the topic, and

about the text organization. In this manner, students might establish a purpose for

reading, identify and discuss difficult words, phrases, and concepts in the text,

preview the text (by surveying the title, illustrations, and unusual text structures), and

make predictions about its content. In the while-reading stage, the teacher takes a

role as a guide. They should encourage students to use comprehension strategies

as they read, and to monitor their understanding. In this stage, teachers ask students

questions to keep track of the reading and to focus their attention on main ideas and

important parts of the text. Also, teachers ask their students to pay attention to parts

in a text that require making inferences, and students summarize key sections or

events. Finally, teachers need to encourage students to confirm the predictions

made before. Pang et al. (2003) proposes other strategies that can be used in this

stage. These include making connections between and among important ideas in the

text, integrating new ideas with existing background knowledge, sequencing events

and ideas in the text, checking understanding by paraphrasing or restating events

found in the reading, and identifying characters, settings, or events in a text. In the

post-reading stage, Toprak (2009) expresses that all the ideas are concluded in this

stage. This is the summary of the reading material. Here, teachers can make a

discussion from the reading, and summarize important ideas as well as supportive

details. Also, students recall and tell important parts of the text in their own words.

Also, students could respond to the reading in a variety of ways (e.g. by writing, role-

playing, music, posters, videos, debate, or pantomime). Other activities that teachers
could apply in this stage are evaluating and discussing the ideas found in the text,

plus applying and contextualizing ideas in real life situations.

Instructional reading strategies

In order to reinforce the use of intensive reading, instructional strategies which

allow students to understand a reading in steps are necessary. These strategies not

only provide students with a framework to work when they start comprehending a

text but also help consolidate information relevant for the text. Stoller et al. (2013)

highlight the importance of using strategies that allow students to understand a text

in a more analytical way. They propose strategies that include activating prior

knowledge, interacting with the text, and paying attention to details such as

vocabulary. In addition, Lewis and Hill (1992) express that it is necessary to activate

students’ reading comprehension by means of activities implemented before going

directly to the reading text. They suggest that teachers should pose questions

related to the text or let students brainstorm ideas about the text. Stricklin (2011)

also proposes four steps to follow when reading a text: predicting, clarifying,

questioning, and summarizing. Therefore, the use of instructional reading strategies

is important because these enable students to know what to do in every reading

stage. The reading strategies implemented in this study are shown below. Know,

Want, and Learn (KWL) chart. This reading strategy proposed by Ogle (1986) helps

students organize their ideas in a more detailed way. This strategy elicits students’

prior knowledge of the topic of the text, establishes a purpose for reading, and helps

students to monitor their comprehension. Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and

Review (SQ3R). This is a five-phase reading strategy in which students can make a
structural process when reading a passage. Biringkanae (2018) explains that SQ3R

helps students understand a text while reading it. Firstly, students need to Survey, it

means that they skim through the pages assigned in order to get a “general idea”

about what the chapter, section, or article is about. In this part, students organize

their ideas about the text and predict what it will be about. In Question, students ask

questions based on the titles, headings, or subheadings surveyed in the first stage.

In the third stage, students have the chance to Read. This stage is the most

important because the goal is to answer the stated questions after reading. In this

stage, additionally, students may highlight unknown vocabulary, jot down relevant

information in the passage, and ask further questions to discuss after reading. Once

students have read the passage, in the Recite stage, students put away their notes

and organize their ideas either on paper or out loud. In this stage, students organize

the information gathered in the previous section on their own. Finally, students

Review the text by using all the information they collected; they also create

something different with the information gathered (e.g. create flashcards, make a

map, table, and diagram, make a timeline

Testing and Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is another challenging endeavor. With reading

comprehension being such an active, multifaceted process, measuring it presents

test developers and teachers with problems. What are some variables that affect the

testing of reading comprehension? Comprehension has been measured by the

ability of students to be able to recall the details of what they have read (Allington,

2001). This type of assessment leads to a student being judged as a proficient

reader because they have the ability to answer factual questions. One concern is
that these types of assessments are measuring the student’s ability to think like we

expect them or want then to think. This is one potential problem with multiple choice

questions. Better readers often over analyze possible answers or are confused when

the possible choices only partial addresses the question. When assessment focuses

on critical thinking and analysis, reader proficiency will often be reduced. Research

has indicated that test-takers with different abilities and skills may be affected by a

test in ways that are different than the ones being tested (Kunnan, 1998). Kunnan

(2004) argued the point that test formats may favor some test-takers over others. A

test should be fair and measure the abilities being tested and not confounded by

variables such as test format (Elder, 1997). Kobayashi (2002) looked at the

relationship between student test performance and two variables: test type and test

format. The three test formats that were utilized were cloze, open-ended questions,

and summary writing. The results of the study indicated that both variables had a

significant effect on students’ performance/ or tell someone else their ideas)Zheng,

Cheng, and Klinger (2007) stated, “The results demonstrated that different tests

formats, including different types of questions in the same format, measured different

aspects of reading comprehension”. There is not one particular form of a test that

can address all assessment concerns. Multiple choice tests are easily scored with

accuracy and objectivity. These types of tests do not place the poorer reader at a

great disadvantage, which an essay question test can do (Chan and Kennedy,

2002). A concern regarding multiple choice tests is with poorly or inappropriate

constructed test items (Paxton, 2000). Another concern is that these types of tests

may be influenced by the subjectivity of the testers which can cause a content

validity problem (Chen, 2010). Even with these concerns, if multiple choice tests are

constructed well, these types of tests can assess the student’s level of knowledge
(Epstein, et al, 2002).

Essay tests require students to use more thinking and analysis skills, which can

present problems to readers. These types of questions require a higher order of

thinking and communication skills. As a result, students may not fair as well as on

other types of assessments. Some other popular types of reading assessment tests

are cloze test (Vacca and Vacca, 2008), Informal Reading Inventories (Flippo,

Holland, et al, 2009), and running records (Ross, 2004). These various testing tools

focus on different elements of reading. Cloze test have been shown to be effective

for students that are struggling with comprehension and vocabulary (Palumbo and

Loiacono, 2009). Informal Reading Inventories (IRIs) uses post-reading questions for

the purpose of evaluating comprehension and IRIs have demonstrated reading

growth (Paris, 2002). Running records are used for assessing reading progress and

have proven to be reliable when utilized with a minimum of three passages (Fawson,

et al, 2006). Most standardized reading comprehension tests are designed to assess

six essentials of reading: phonemic, awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and

comprehension. A major concern does exist regarding using only one tool for the

purpose of determining a student ability to comprehend (Afflerbach, 2005). Utilizing a

variety of different forms of tests can provide a better assessment of comprehension

suggested Dennis (2009). Comprehension and testing are linked by another

variable, background knowledge. Clapham (1996) determined that background

knowledge had a significant effect on text comprehension. The more specific the text

was, the more impact background knowledge had on comprehension. The

development of subject related tests of comprehension need to consider both subject

knowledge and language level of the student. Alderson (2000) stated that both had

impact but language level was the better predictor. Validity, the ability of a test to
measure what it intends to measure, is a concern with any test. Chen (2010)

discussed content validity, which is the degree to which a particular test adequately

and correctly measures a skill or behavior. When considering testing materials these

key points should be considered: avoid culturally laden material, use authentic

material if possible, use a variety of sources such as newspapers, maps, notices,

and others, use new material not something that has been previously read. One

potential bias that a test may have is regarding the form of the English that is used in

the test. For readers that are using non-standards forms of English, tests such as

IELTS and TOEFL may be biased. Most of the forms of English that are utilized for

these standardized tests are American, British, New Zealand, and Australian based.

The concern would be for students that would be taking these tests that are from

Singapore, India, Malaysia and other countries that utilize English (Hamp-Lyons and

Davies, 2008). Similar to the Standard English language concern is another potential

test bias. Most standardized English reading tests favor an American student from

the middle class, standard-dialect, Protestant background and individualistic. Solano

Flores and Trumbull (2008:4) expressed concern for “valid and equitable

assessment” of students from “non-mainstream backgrounds are longstanding.” Test

anxiety was identified by Spiel Berger and Vagg (1995) as being another factor that

can affect reading comprehension. They state that worry, which is manifested as

negative thinking and self-doubts, have been showed to be strongly linked to poor

test performance.

Bachman and Palmer (1996) were concerned with situational authenticity (the extent

to which the test reflect contextual features) and interactional authenticity (the extent

to which test educe cognitive processes). “They proposed a wider descriptive

framework to be used in mapping tasks employed in a test to tasks encountered in

target language domains to which test performance is to generalize”, Green, Unaldi,

and Weir (2010:192). Kobayashi (2002) looked at test methods effects on reading

comprehension test performance. It was found that when tests are clearly structured,

the more proficient students achieved better results in the areas of summary writing

and open-ended questions. In contrast, test structure made little difference to the

performance of less proficient students. This finding suggests that well-structured

tests can help to differentiate between students with different proficiency levels.

Textual cohesion is another factor to consider regarding test construction. Freedle

(1997) found that texts that are judged to be very coherent yield main reading

comprehension points that are easier to understand. Koda (2005) supported this

finding in the reporting of how improving text structure lead to improve

comprehension. Two additional factors are text length and time restraints regarding

testing and reading comprehension. Green et al (2008) found that an intense reading

load done under pressure caused student difficulties. The combination of time

pressure and a long test creates problems for students.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study aims to develop the smart tutoring system in enhancing the reading

comprehension of the Maragusan National High School Students for the school year

2021-2022. Specifically, this study seeks answer