Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Introduction

Reading comprehension is one of the fundamental skills in teaching and

learning of the English language. Students must have the ability to read to gather

data and information that is needed in their learning. Having the ability to read is

not always the case. Most of the learners today know how to read but have

difficulties in comprehension. Reading without comprehension cannot be

considered as reading. It is very important for the learners to understand each

material that they must use in developing their own idea of things. According to

Oxford Languages1, comprehension is the action or capability of understanding

something. Another meaning presented by C.E. Snow (2010)2 is reading

comprehension as the process of simultaneously constructing and extracting

meaning through interaction and engagement with print. The success of a

comprehension event depends on a good match of reader skills, text difficulty, and

task definition. This skill plays an important role in learning as the students are

required to understand each lesson that they have by means of reading.

On the memorandum released last November 22, 2019, by Department of

Education3 No. 173, s. 2019 “HAMON BAWAT BATA BUMASA (3B’s Initiative)”

continuously fulfilling its mandate to produce productive and responsible citizens

equipped with essential competencies and skills for lifelong learning. To make

every learning a proficient reader, school across the country are tasked to help
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learners develop their reading skills. However, such initiatives are still not enough

based on the recent results of national assessments for students learning. The

overall results of the national assessment reveal the following:

• There are still many early grade learners struggling to meet the learning

standards in early language, literacy, and numeracy.

• Low achievement levels in English, Math, and Science appear to be caused

by gaps in learners reading comprehension. This means that there are

many low performing learners who could not comprehend (read and

understand) Math and Science word problems that are written in English.

Hence, they were unable to demonstrate their knowledge in these content

areas.

• Elementary and high school learners are still deficient in literacy skills both

in language and content areas, more so in reading.

Similarly, in 2018, A Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)

by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)4

revealed that the Philippines was the lowest in reading comprehension among 79

countries. The country has consistently dropped from 13th place in 2016, the

Philippines slid to 15th spot in 2017, to 14th place in 2018, and then to the 20th

spot in 2019. According to Frederick S. Perez, current president of the Reading

Association of the Philippines (RAP), the students do not know how to process the

text. A lot of young people today just pass on the materials they see on social

media; they just pass it on without thinking. There is no process for verifying
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information and that leads to misinformation. These facts intensify the program and

strategies used in teaching and learning reading comprehension.

Evidently, we are having reading comprehension struggles in the country.

The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines Article XIV (Education,

Science and Technology, Arts, Culture and Sports)5 Section 2 No. 4 hereby

encourage non-formal, informal, and indigenous learning systems, as well as self-

learning, independent, and out-of-school study programs particularly those that

respond to community needs. In response to this, one strategy that is use in

developing reading comprehension is Peer Tutoring. Peer tutoring6 is a teaching

strategy that uses students as tutors and this paring might work on academic,

social, behavioral, functional, or even social skills. Peer tutoring7 includes a range

of approaches in which learners work in pairs or small groups to provide explicit

teaching support. There are two main types of peer tutoring: same age and cross

age. In cross-age peer tutoring, an older learner takes the tutoring role and is

paired with a younger tutee or tutees. There are also several same-age

approaches such as Reciprocal Teaching, where learners alternate between the

role of tutor and tutee, and Peer-Assisted Learning. The common characteristic of

all these approaches is that learners take on responsibility for aspects of teaching

and for evaluating the success of their peer or peers. Since peer tutoring is an

instructional strategy that consists of student partnerships, linking high achieving

students with lower achieving students or those with comparable achievement for

structured reading, this study provides the effect of peer tutoring. Furthermore, the

purpose of this study is to identify the significant change of peer tutoring to reading
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comprehension of selected grade-10 students of Tiwi-Agro Industrial School after

the intervention. It determines the effectivity of peer tutoring to the reading

comprehension skill of the learners.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The study aims to determine the effects of peer tutoring in the

development of reading comprehension of selected grade-10 students of Tiwi -

Agro Industrial School.

The following specific questions are ways to guide the study:

1. What is the performance level of the students in reading

comprehension during pretest?

2. What is the performance level of the students in post-test?

3. Is there a significant difference between the pretest and post-test

in reading comprehension skills of the subject?

4. What recommendation does the result suggest to teachers and

administrators?

Assumptions

1. The performance level of Grade 10 students is varied.

2. The performance level of the students in post-test are higher

compared to their pretest scores.

3. The effects of peer tutoring in the development of inferential skills of

students are also varied.

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Hypothesis

1. There is no significant difference between the pretest and post-

test of the students.

Scope and Delimitation

The scope of this study will be on the effects of peer tutoring in the

development of reading comprehension of selected grade 10 students of Tiwi-Agro

Industrial School. The researchers selected 17 subjects. The research covers the

subjects’ reading comprehension status. The study focuses in the development of

inferential skills of the students that is one specific skill under reading

comprehension.

The tutees will only undergo cross-age tutoring session. A cross-age peer8

tutoring intervention works by pairing students from different grades and ability

levels to work on an academic skill together. The older/higher ability students are

the tutor; and the younger/lower ability students are the tutee. The students work

together to practice a skill. The researchers as an older/higher ability students will

act as the tutors, and the selected grade 10 students are the tutees. This is

beneficial for both the researchers and the subjects. The students and researchers

used English language as the medium of instructions and no other languages is

within the scope of the study. The researchers selected from grade 10 section

Marcos learners of TAIS as subjects in the study.

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Significance of the Study

Findings may help other teachers consider peer tutoring as an instrument

in developing reading comprehension among students. This study serves as a

reference for further research on language subject. Furthermore, this research

study will be able to provide information about the effects of peer tutoring to the

reading comprehension of the students. The result of the study will not only yield

useful facts but also beneficial to the following groups of people:

The Learners: The students will have a better understanding on the effects of peer

tutoring in reading comprehension particularly the Grade 10 students. They will be

knowledgeable on how peer tutoring an effective strategy in reading

comprehension. This will inspire them to tutor their peers that are also a way in

improving their reading comprehension. On the other hand, it will be beneficial to

the tutee by enriching their comprehension through peer tutoring.

The Educators: The result of the research study will provide teachers specifically

the language teachers with verifiable information that they may need in the effects

of peer tutoring in reading comprehension of the students. They may take into

consideration this strategy in improving the learner’s reading comprehension.

Future Researchers: The findings of this research will be a reliable reference to

the future researchers who might have a related study on similar field particularly

in language research.

School Reading Coordinator: This study will help them understand that peer

tutoring is an effective way on the development of reading comprehension. They

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may include this technique in the program since peer tutoring has a significant role

in improving reading comprehension.

Parents: This study will help them realized that peer tutoring will be effective in

improving their children’s reading comprehension. They may be able to let their

child be tutored by their peers for the comprehension development.

Setting of the Study

The researchers chose Tiwi-Agro Industrial School (TAIS), located in

Bagumbayan, Tiwi, Albay as the research locale. It is a DepEd manage school

with an ID no. of 301880. The school offers both Junior and Senior High.

TABLE 1.1
Map of the Setting
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Definition of Terms

Peer Tutoring9 – is an instructional strategy that consists of students’

partnerships, linking high achieving students with lower achieving students or

those with comparable achievement, for structured reading and math study

sessions.

Reading10 – the action or skill or reading written or printed matter silently or aloud.

Comprehension11 – the knowledge gained from the process of coming to know

or understand something.

Reading Comprehension12 – the process of simultaneously constructing and

extracting meaning through interaction and engagement with print.

Skills13 – the ability to use one’s knowledge effectively and readily in execution or

performance.

Inferential14 – being or provable by reasoning in which the conclusion follows

necessarily from given information.

Inference15 – an opinion arrived at through a process of reasoning.

Intervention16 – to infer with the outcome or course especially of a condition or

process.

Students17 – one who attends school. Attentive and systematic observer.

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NOTES

¹Oxford Learning Never Stop Learning. Reading Comprehension and the

Classroom https://www.oxfordlearning.com/reading-comprehension-and-
the-classroom/ Time Taken 12:25 pm
2C.E. Snow, 2010. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/article
/preventing-reading-difficulties-young-children-executive-summary
3DepEd Memorandum No. 173, s. 2019 https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-
content/uploads/2019/11/DM_s2019_173-1.pdf
4Marga Manalapig . What’s to blame for the low reading comprehension of the
Filipinoyouth?CNNPhilippinesLife. https://www.cnnphilippines.com/
comprehension-problem.html
5 https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/constitutions/the-1987-constitution-of-the-

republic-of-the-philippines/the-1987-constitution-of-the-republic-of-the-
6Bethany Calderwood. Peer Tutoring Concept and Purpose. Study.com
https://study.com/learn/lesson/peer-tutoring-concept-purpose.html
7Evidence for Learning. Peer Tutoring. https://evidenceforlearning.org.au/the-
toolkits/the-teaching-and-learning-toolkit/all-approaches/peer-tutoring/
8College of Education and Human Development University of Missouri
https://education.missouri.edu/ebi/2011/03/30/cross-age-peer-tutoring/
time taken 10:33 am
9https://www.google.com/search?q=Peer+Tutoring+definition&rlz=1C1UEAD_en

PH946PH946&oq=Peer+Tutoring+definition&aqs=chrome...69i57j69i60l3.
10680j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
10Oxford Languages
https://www.google.com/search?q=reading+definition&rlz=1C1UEAD_enP
H946PH946&sxsrf=APq
11Merriam Webster Dictionary.
12Catherine Snow Reading Rockets.
13-17Merriam Webster Dictionary. Time Taken 1:33 pm