Action Research on Improving Reading Comprehension Using Save (Simplifying Activity on Vocabulary Enrichment) Approach

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The annual administration of the Oral Reading Proficiency Test for 7th-grade students clearly manifested their poor comprehension ability thus this needs appropriate strategies to address the problem and to increase their proficiency level on comprehension. This specific struggle of the learners greatly affects their learning process in the classroom and teacher-student interaction since the free-flow of ideas must not only come from the teacher but from the students as well. Based on the result of the pretest of the ORPT conducted last SY 2017-2018, it was found out that the main reason for this problem is the poor vocabulary skill of the learners. Hence, the SAVE approach is introduced to improve the reading comprehension level of the students.

METHODS

The record of the ORPT during the pre-test of the school year 2017-2018 showed that there were 14 out of 33 students or 42% belonging to the frustration level in comprehension. This set of students were the respondents and were given the SAVE strategy. The data of the students who in independent, instructional and frustration level were analyzed before the said strategy was conducted and after the intervention was implemented.

RESULTS

It was revealed in the data that out of 14 respondents who have undergone the intervention, 8 of them remained in the frustration level but the other 6 students proceeded to the instructional level. The poor vocabulary skills of the students served as the primary reason for their low level of comprehension, giving the students difficulties in understanding what is being read. When the intervention was applied, varied reading selections were used namely: short stories, poems, and essays. Unlocking difficult words in varied ways was made to simplify the activity and to help them easily grasp the text being read. Thus, the utilization of the said approach greatly helped the grade 7 students to improve their comprehension level.

DISCUSSIONS

With the analysis of the result in the post-test of the ORPT made after the implementation of the SAVE approach, it showed that from 14 respondents who were in the frustration level before the implementation of the intervention, only 8 of the learners remained in the category. This means that the progress of students' comprehension level was evident. The sustainability of this intervention minimized the rate of the students at the frustration level.