Assessment of Oral Reading Ability of Grade 7 Students in Bauan Technical High School: Basis for a Proposed Reading Intervention Program

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Reading is one of the basic skills a child needs to learn and to succeed in life. Developing good reading ability is essential to a child's future academically and professionally as well as in his/her everyday life. Since the old times, educators have searched for effective ways to overcome difficulties in reading. The researcher decided to conduct this study to assess the oral reading ability of the Grade Seven students in Bauan Technical High School. The Phil-IRI result will be the baseline data for determining the status of the oral reading ability of the students. The outgrowth of the study will be the reading intervention program.

METHODS

This study utilized the descriptive method of research to gather information about prevailing conditions or situations for the purpose of description and interpretation. This design was deemed as the most appropriate for this study as this intends to assess the oral reading abilities of Grade 7 students. Aside from the data gathering, the Reading Intervention Program was designed following the three phases namely the input, throughput, and output.

RESULTS

The Oral Reading Ability of the 1166 Grade 7 students, the respondents of the study, fell under the frustration level as a result of the PHIL IRI administered at the beginning of the school year. Reading quickly to get overall meaning, reading carefully to understand a text, and identifying key ideas were the problems mostly encountered by the students. A Reading Program was developed to improve the students' reading prowess and ability by maximizing different alternative resources. Grade 7 students underwent a regular reading remediation program to develop their reading skills.

DISCUSSIONS

The researcher retrieved the evaluation form and the results were tabulated, analyzed, and interpreted with the utmost confidentiality. The results of the PHIL IRI Oral ReadingTest for the school year 2018-2019 were taken from the Grade 7 English teachers of BTHS. Aside from this, the problems met by the students in oral reading, such as identifying key ideas, reading quickly to get over-all meaning, working out meaning of difficult words, taking brief/relevant notes, identifying supporting ideas/examples, understanding organization of a text, reading quickly to find information, using own words in note taking, reading carefully to understand a text, as well as the Action Plan, were presented.