Sixth Graders' Reading Comprehension Skills Across Text Types: A Localized Reading Material

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

One of the most important skills pupils must learn and develop is reading. It helps people to gain knowledge and it gives enjoyment as well. It is one of the macro skills of communication, which is the process of looking at a series of written symbols and getting meaning from them. The importance of reading is difficult to express in words but can be experienced by people from all walks of life. According to Wardhaugh (2007), reading is an active, interactive, productive, and cognitive activity. It involves active search for information and interaction with text. It requires the constant constructive involvement of reader in what he is doing; and it demands the use of higher order mental abilities.

METHODS

This study was conducted to determine the sixth graders' reading comprehension skills across text types by producing a localized material. Specifically, it assessed the reading comprehension skills of the pupils across different text types with an end view of developing localized reading material. This research made use of pre-test and post-test to 38 respondents who were purposively selected for the study. The questionnaire was also used for the acceptability of material. The data was computed and interpreted systematically, factually, and accurately using frequency, percentage, t-test, and weighted mean as the statistical tools.

RESULTS

Based on the findings, the grade six pupils have low performance in reading comprehension. They are not aware of what they read which made it difficult for them to recognize the text and understand the meaning of idea being presented in the story. Through this, reading material was developed which included different text types: Narrative, Descriptive, Persuasive, Comparison and Contrast, Cause and Effect, and How to Essay. The mean scores of the pupils in the pretest and posttest were 20.08 and 22.24 with amean difference of 2.16. The computed T-value is3.29 at 0.05 level of significance which means that there is significant difference between pretest and posttest scores. The grand weighted mean on the level of acceptability of the reading material is verymuch acceptable.

DISCUSSIONS

The results demonstrate that the use of different text types in doing reading materials were effective for the pupils to have an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the texts. The use of localized reading material can easily boost the interest of readers and can, therefore, be very helpful material in teaching reading in grade VI.