Reading Competence of Grade 12 Senior High School Students of Tagaytay City National High School: Basis for Enhanced English Competency Model

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

English has increasingly become the medium of every domain of communication, both in local and global contexts. Teaching and learning English is crucial for communicative purposes to meet the demands of global economics and to cope with the growing local, national and international demands for English skills which is first developed through exposure to and understanding reading materials that serve as a basis for the development of vocabulary skills needed for a more proficient exchange of ideas. It is with this premise that the researcher focuses her study on the level of Grade 12 students' reading competence to propose an enhanced English Skills Competency Model for the use of the G12 in Tagaytay City National High School.

METHODS

The main objective of this empirical investigation is to assess the performance of the Grade 12 students of Tagaytay City National HighSchool so that an enhanced competency model may be proposed; hence, the descriptive method of study was utilized. This study is also normative in nature since it is diagnostic and describes the prevailing conditions at the time the 134 G12 students and the chosen administrators of City College of Tagaytay were conveniently and purposefully chosen as respondents.

RESULTS

The researcher after a thorough analysis found out that Grade 12 students of Tagaytay City National High School performed poorly in the pre achievement test, but made a marked performance in the post achievement test as they performed, on the average, a gain of 10.09. The study revealed that many Grade 12 students encountered difficulties in many aspects of communication due to poor reading, indicative of the need to further the teaching of reading. Most of the students encountered difficulty in the study of communication in English. Hence, the use of the ten-chapter content validated Manual in English was recommended.

DISCUSSIONS

Tapalla (2001) mentioned that the power of effective communication comes easily when one has good command of the language for learners to express their thoughts and opinions in a compelling persuasive manner. Findings of this study revealed that much is still to be done to enhance the reading skills of the students -the aspect of the language found to be the weakness of the Grade12 students of Tagaytay City National High School. With these situations and problems, the researcher deems it significant to study the students' level of reading competence and propose an enhanced competency model.