Analysis about the writing of pupils

Reading is the mother of all study skills. It is one of the most valuable skills a person
can acquire. Reading is a complex process. Thus, it can’t be taught in isolation. Moreover,
reading is not merely an ability to recognize written or printed words, but it also refers to
putting meaning to what you read and drawing a unified thought of what is read.

Reading as a field of teaching is considered one of the important areas of teaching if not
actually the most important ever. It is said to be one of the most necessary academic skills.
Besides, it is a major pillar upon which the teaching/learning process is built. The reading
ability plays a central role in the teaching/learning success at all educational stages. Having
any difficulty in this skill will result in variety of consequences on all subjects of study, since
reading includes a variety of sub-skills.

Ozdemir (2009) stressed that reading is that fundamental in getting knowledge as all
the lessons and learning activities are mostly based on the power of comprehensive reading;
indeed, it is really necessary to read comprehensively. In addition, reading comprehensively
really affects a learner’s education and his life as a whole. Learning in any lesson depends on
understanding of the learning instrument of that lesson; thus, a learner who cannot read
comprehensively finds it difficult for him/her to be successful in his or her lessons.

Furthermore, Ono (2004) emphasized that reading has the potential to help English
language learners become better readers and make improvements in other aspects of their
English skills.

The skills such as acquiring the correct meaning, analyzing the authors point of view and
applying what one learns from reading to real- life situations are what constitute reading
comprehension.

Reading comprehension must be the basic consideration of all readers. The ability of
the readers to understand what they are reading; interpret ideas and inject meaning to
printed words is comprehension.

Thus, reading alone is not enough; there must be comprehension so that learners may
not only focus on the text but also on the interpretation of its deeper meanings.

The importance of reading comprehension is emphasized in the education community;

however, everyone may not realize how important reading actually is. Although strong
reading skills can help students do well in language arts and reading class, that is only the
beginning. Students have to use reading skills in every single subject they ever study and in
almost every aspect of life. It is so sad to note that students who struggle with reading
comprehension may fall so far behind in school that they have limited opportunities as an
adult.
 Students are exposed nowadays to different ideas, people and products; and
viewpoints increase as rapidly as the changes in the society. Just about everyone in the
Philippines knows how to read. As a nation, almost everybody enjoys a high rate of literacy.

Unfortunately, however, not every Filipino is a good reader who can derive meaning
from a written material and go on to analyze and apply that meaning. Thus, readers who can
only read facts and nothing more can never be called good readers.

A student, who can read comprehensively, can also be successful in all his or her lessons.
In mathematics lesson, when a learner encounters with a problem, understanding this
problem can help him/her to solve the problem. It is known that in the Philippines, the
university and high school entrance examinations have mostly questions based on testing
learners' ability whether they can read comprehensively and can come up with new
interpretations by making analysis and synthesis on the given data in the many research
tasks.

Teachers therefore have a very important role to play in helping their students get most
out of reading and become good readers. They need to introduce to them extensive reading
and provide them essential guidance as they read comprehensively. While teaching reading
comprehension, teachers must always keep in mind that the goal is to let the students
understand what the author meant.

Moreover, teachers must help students do well in their subject and pass the required
examination. At the same time, they can increase their students‟ competency in English and
help them become fluent readers in English by engaging them in extensive reading. Thus,
teachers in Sagpat Elementary School must be able to identify the level of their students‟
comprehension skills so that they could plan for effective strategies or programs that will
eventually enhance their learners‟ critical thinking skills.

It is in the above premise that the researcher is encouraged to determine the reading
comprehension ability of the Grade VI pupils of Sagpat Elementary School during the school
year 2016-2017.

One’s fluency to speak and to listen with full comprehension is a global need of
communication. However, the importance of reading skill nevertheless is minimized with this
change in global perspective. Rather, it has increased the importance to develop reading skill
manifold. Nobody denies the importance of a properly learnt reading skill for learning of
other language skill.

Comprehension is a part of the communication process of getting the thoughts that

were in the authors mind into the reader’s mind. It is thought a difficult process because the
transmission of an idea through several imperfect media is involved. For example, the author
must have a clear idea in his mind, and then reduce this idea to written language; this will be
printed; and finally the reader looks at the printed word and forms an idea.

Reading comprehension enables the reader to interact with the text in a meaningful
way. For many, there are doors to lifetime of reading recreation and enjoyment. Moreover,
the experiential and cultural background of the ESL reader has a strong effect onreading
comprehension and ESL learners, early in their development of English, can write English and
can do so for various purposes. ("Importance of Reading", 2009).

There are a lot of widespread studies on reading; the National Assessment of

Educational Progress (NAEP) study in 1995 confirmed that there is a tight correlation
between reading fluency and reading comprehension among fourth graders. In conclusion,
it emphasized that reading fluency is a neglected reading skill in many American classrooms,
affecting many students' reading comprehension.

Moreover, the low level of reading comprehension among American students reveals
issues with underlying reading proficiency. A wide variety of studies suggest that as many as
85% of students testing low in core reading skills also have weak underlying cognitive skills
such as auditory and visual processing. Thus, for many students, successful reading
comprehension means a return to the basic mental tools that create a firm cognitive
foundation.

Indeed, reading comprehension is very vital for the learning process as it provides
students with the ability to understand, criticize and interact with the text; it expands
students' trends and experience ; it enhances their commonsense level; it deepens their
thinking and assists them to orientate and monitor themselves while reading; it helps
students comprehend a text self dependently and the teachers develop clear and
successive instructional procedures and it breaks the students' inaction by encouraging
them to get involved in the educational process more actively and effectively. Hence
utilizing strategies that improve reading comprehension level within the students is very
necessary.
Teaching thinking skills at all levels of education is needed. Teachers then should
provide students the atmosphere which gives them opportunities to have deep and
divergent thinking with real life issues. They should therefore use some good reading texts
in all even in grammar lessons; thus, a good lesson plan / model using some good reading
texts from books, magazines, newspapers, etc. should be used.