Audio-Assisted Reading and the Reading Comprehension of Grade 7 Students

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Reading Comprehension has been the problem of schools especially in the remote areas where reading materials are so limited. Hence, one English teacher in a school conducted a study titled Audio-Assisted Reading and the Reading Comprehension of Grade7 students which aimed to determine the effect of the audio-assisted reading technique on the reading comprehension of the Grade VII students using the PHIL-IRI materials.

METHODS

A quasi-experimental design was used to the 60 students in two sections who were in the frustration level on their reading comprehension during the pretest. From the 60 students, 30 received an intervention activity (experimental group) using an audio-assisted reading in a form of recorded voice of pronouncing the words, reading the sentences and passages, while the other 30 students, the control group, were exposed to silent reading. The activity was done during their Independent CooperativeLearning Time (ICL) and an assessment test was conducted after the activity.

RESULTS

Test results of the students from the two groups were recorded for comparison and observation. The control group has low results in the performance. From 30 students, only two or 6.67% improved from frustration to independent level and four or 13.3% from frustration to instructional level. On the other hand, the experimental group exposed to audio-assisted reading showed a better performance. From 30 students, eight or 26.67% improved from frustration to independent level and 12 or 40% from frustration to instructional level.

DISCUSSIONS

The results showed that learners will improve their skills if interventions will be applied to their needs. The results proved that students under the experimental group were observed to have developed a greater understanding as compared to the control group. The research has figured that from the non-independent and non-instructional readers originally, class instruction with and without audio assistance helps students in both groups become independent and instructional readers, with a more improved performance observed in the experimental group. It also helps decrease the number of those under frustration level, favoring that of the experimental group.