FILAMER CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL GRADUATE OF STUDIES

Roxas Avenue, Roxas City, 5800, Philippines
Tel. No. (036) 6217-317/Fax No: (036) 6213- 075
Website: http://www.filamer.edu.ph

Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension Skills

of Grade 9 students at St. Joseph’s Academy
of Malinao, Aklan, Inc.

Bepril R. Retuba

CHAPTER I

Introduction to the Study

This chapter includes five parts: (1) Background and

Theoretical Framework of the Study, (2) Statement of the

Problem and Hypotheses, (3) Significance of the Study, (4)

Definition of Terms, and (5) Delimitation of the Study.

The introduction and justification for the study's

necessity are presented in Part One, "Background and

Theoretical Framework of the Study." It provides the

theoretical framework that this study will rely on as its

starting point or point of reference.

The objectives of the investigation and the general and

particular difficulties that serve as a framework for the

study's examination are described in Part Two, "Statement of

the Problem and Hypotheses."

 FILAMER CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL GRADUATE OF STUDIES
Roxas Avenue, Roxas City, 5800, Philippines
Tel. No. (036) 6217-317/Fax No: (036) 6213- 075
Website: http://www.filamer.edu.ph

The third section, "Significance of the Study,"

describes the goal and significance of the research as well

as how it will help the study's intended audience, which

includes parents, instructors, school administrators,

students, and anyone else who can benefit from the findings.

The terminologies utilised in the investigation are

defined in Part Four, "Definition of Terms," both

philosophically and practically.

The problem's scope, the respondents' character, their

number, and any restrictions on the population, instruments,

and references are all described in Part Five, "Scope and

Delimitation of the Study."

Background and Theoretical Framework of the Study

Reading comprehension allows the integration of

knowledge that facilitates training processes and successful

coping with academic and personal situations. (UNESCO,

2009). Students in junior high school faced this difficulty

in comprehension in every subjects of the class. Brandon

(2021) stated that comprehension refers to the ability to

understand written words. It is different from the ability

 FILAMER CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL GRADUATE OF STUDIES
Roxas Avenue, Roxas City, 5800, Philippines
Tel. No. (036) 6217-317/Fax No: (036) 6213- 075
Website: http://www.filamer.edu.ph

to recognize words. Recognizing texts on a page but not

knowing the meaning or idea does not fulfil the goal of

reading, which is comprehension. It adds meaning to what is

read. This occurs when words on a page are not just mere

words but thoughts and ideas. Comprehension makes reading

enjoyable, fun, and informative. It is needed to succeed in

school, work, and life in general.

Learning vocabulary is vital; it poses several

problems, especially, to non-native students of English.

Students with a low vocabulary knowledge show weak academic

performance in different subject areas related to language,

literature, and even word problems in Mathematics. This

study, in particular, aims to investigate the problems faced

by Grade 9 students in learning the vocabulary at St.

Joseph’s Academy of Malinao, Aklan, Inc. Vocabulary is one

of the most essential parts, along with phonetics,

pronunciation and grammar, required to learn a foreign

language. Furthermore, vocabulary knowledge is an integral

part of the language; it is central to communicative

competence. Low vocabulary knowledge poses severe problems

to its learners, which impedes the learning of English

language.
 FILAMER CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL GRADUATE OF STUDIES
Roxas Avenue, Roxas City, 5800, Philippines
Tel. No. (036) 6217-317/Fax No: (036) 6213- 075
Website: http://www.filamer.edu.ph

On the other hand, Richards & Renandya (2002) stated

that the language of human beings depends on the vocabulary

used or gained. Thus, without vocabulary, the learners will

be de-motivated to use language. This is very present to the

respondents of Grade 9 wherein they are having a hard time

in most of their subject areas. The need to search the

meaning of unfamiliar words in order to fully understand the

topic is always a priority to both teachers and students.

Not only that, there is also a need to consider knowing the

translation of each word in tagalog that is why the allotted

30 minutes for classroom instruction is not enough. As

discussed by Chall & Jacobs' 2003 research, students' word

knowledge is closely correlated with academic achievement

because children with large vocabulary sets comprehend new

ideas and concepts more quickly than students with small

vocabulary sets. Reading comprehension will be impacted if

students don't appropriately and steadily increase their

vocabulary knowledge, according to the strong association

between word knowledge and reading comprehension found in

the research literature.

The rationale of this study is to address the

difficulties of the respondents when it comes to their

 FILAMER CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL GRADUATE OF STUDIES
Roxas Avenue, Roxas City, 5800, Philippines
Tel. No. (036) 6217-317/Fax No: (036) 6213- 075
Website: http://www.filamer.edu.ph

vocabulary and reading comprehension skills whereas also to

find a cure or remedy to the problem. As mentioned by Sedita

(2005) there are four significant obstacles encountered by

students in developing the vocabulary and comprehension

skills: Students with limited knowledge or no knowledge of

English; students who do not read outside; students with

reading and learning abilities; and students who enter

school with limited vocabulary knowledge.