Sci.Int.

(Lahore),31(3),561-568 , 2019 ISSN 1013-5316;CODEN: SINTE 8 561

READING COMPREHENSION LEVEL AMONG INTERMEDIATE LEARNERS

Manilyn Vegare Miñoza1, Marites Atilano Montero2
College of Teacher Education1, Integrated Laboratory School – Elementary Department2
Western Mindanao State University1,2
Normal Road, Baliwasan, Zamboanga City, Philippines1,2
[email protected], [email protected]
For correspondence: [email protected]
ABSTRACT : The data of this descriptive correlational- study revealed that there is no significant difference in the level of
comprehension in silent reading, between males and females. Moreover, in terms of the level of comprehension in oral reading,
there is gender difference with females outperforming the males. In the first language, no significant relationship was drawn
as both p-values are greater than alpha = 0.05. Interestingly, on socio-economic status,this influences the level of reading
comprehension in SR (p-value = 0.000) as the p-value is less than alpha= 0.05. Moreover, the post hoc analysis using the
Tukey test showed a significant difference between groupings, for the comprehension level in silent reading, between
respondents of high SES and average and low SES with better SES outperforming those with lower SES. Likewise, a significant
difference in the level of reading comprehension on SR was also revealed between those with average SES and low SES
favoring those who have claimed to belong to average SES. However, there is no significant relationship between the level of
comprehension in OR and the variables SES and Parental Involvement (PI) as shown by their respective p-values (0.280,
0.057) which are greater than alpha = 0.05. For the relationship between the dependent variable reading comprehension in SR
and the independent variable SES, no significant relationship was drawn as shown by the p-value (0.728) which is greater than
alpha = 0.05. Furthermore, for the influence of PI on the level of comprehension of the respondents in SR, a significant
relationship was drawn as provided by the p-value (0.004) which is less than alpha = 0.05. Moreover, the relationship is
characterized to be a low positive correlation. In addition, there is no significant difference in the level of comprehension in
OR across SES.
Keywords: Reading Comprehension, Silent Reading, Oral Reading,
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY At this juncture, it is noted that problems relative to reading
Formal Education’s most important outcome is to produce comprehension among young learners area perennial
learners who could read and understand the texts being read concern. For the reason the reading comprehension is closely
[1]. In a similar vein, [2] pointed out that to make learners related to achievement, the achievement gap among students
proficient in reading is one of the essential goals of the can be addressed when a gap in reading proficiency is
educational system. Also, [3] noted that it is of a key role in resolved [10].
the teaching of not several but all academic skills. Because of Considering the importance of reading and comprehension,
its importance, reading comprehension has become a subject educators has been called to ascertain that support must be
of researches conducted in the field of language learning and given to children develop functional literacy determined by
teaching [4]. the country’s standard [8]. However, it is contended that the
However, it must be noted that reading comprehension is not goal of making students proficient readers must not be seen
an easy process hence not an easy skill to teach, on the part as a load be carried alone by educators. It is a concern of the
of the teachers, and acquire, in the case of students [5]. A learners themselves, parents, teachers, school administrators
similar contention was claimed by [2] when they maintained and practically every citizen. The task of making students
that reading comprehension is ‘one of the most complex read and not just read but proficiently read should not be left
behaviors we engage in daily (p.73)'. This assertion resonates to the teachers alone. That each teacher must decide on
with previous authors view that nothing is plain and simple his/her own and make his/her approach – not sustainable. It
about reading comprehension as a skill and ability that has been claimed that ordinary teaching is insufficient when
learners must possess to succeed in their personal and the case of failing readers are accounted [11]. Moreover, the
academic lives. In the same light, researchers [6]; [7] have same authors maintained that the need for a reading specialist
claimed that reading comprehension is noted to be a result of comes to rise. This implies that at-risk students can be helped
not a few but of several linguistic and cognitive processes. through an intervention program that is structured [12] and
Moreover, [4] explained that reading comprehension apart focused [13].
from involving a complex process is as well influenced by Hence, various programs were conceived. [14] reviewed the
various factors. different programs. One of which is the Aural-Read-
Great dire consequences await learners who have not attained Respond-Oral—Write (ARROW) which gives premium to
reading proficiency. [8] contended that if students fail to practice of the child hearing his/her voice as an essential key
master reading and effectively comprehend, social and in reading and spelling words. Added to the list is the
economic progress would not come easy. Concerning this, AcceleRead and AcceleWrite intervention program. Although
researchers [9] claimed that those young learners who have the program was originally developed for dyslexic children,
not attained proficiency in reading according to their level by it is now commonly used for children with less successful
grade 4 are most likely the ones who would experience readers. In the said program, learning assistants work with
academic problems in high school and college. individual students for 20 minutes every day for over four
weeks. Children are given a card containing words. The

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children are allowed to read the words as many time as 1.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
he/she needs until he/she is confident in reading the words This current study purposed to determine the comprehension
and typing the same with the cards faced down. Another one level of the respondents and to identify the teaching reading
is Better Reading Support Partners. It is a ten-week program practices of the teachers to draw implications for the
of three fifteen-minute sessions. The program employs a one- development of a reading program in the Integrated
on-one scheme with a partner who is provided with an in- Laboratory School – Elementary Department of the Western
school link by the teacher. Mindanao State University. The following specific questions
In the Philippines, policies supportive of the contention that guided the present study:
reading is an essential skill to develop in children were 1. What is the level of comprehension of learners in terms of:
provided. One example is the No Read, No Pass Policy a. Silent Reading;
stipulated in National Capital Region (NCR) DepEd b. Oral Reading;
memorandum order number 67, series of 2014. This stringent 2. Is there a significant difference in the levels of
measure stipulates that because reading is a learning tool comprehension in Silent Reading and Oral reading when data
promoting students, with reading skill falls short of their are grouped according to:
grade level, it does more harm than good to students. a. Sex;
Assessment of the reading skills among grade 1 students is b. Socioeconomic status;
conducted before they are promoted to grade 2. Should c. First Language.
students perform poorly and not meet the set proficiency, the 3. Is there a significant relationship between the levels of
learner is retained in his/her previous grade. However, comprehension in Silent Reading and Oral Reading and
criticism exists that despite this policy many students who a. Socioeconomic status; and
are reaching high school remain to know not how to read or b. Age; and
are struggling readers. c. Parental Involvement
Besides, the digits are showing the view about the landscape 2. METHODOLOGY
of literacy that the country is currently in. Data shows that by 2.1. RESEARCH DESIGN
the time children graduate from elementary and promoted to The current investigation utilized the descriptive correlation
high school one-third are identified to ‘frustrated readers' and research design. As [17] explained cited in [18] that when a
another one-third are ‘instructional reader’[15]. These levels study incorporates to gather, compute and tabulate data
are both below the desired and expected reading level for the which is significant to the present condition or trend is
grade and age of the learners. described as descriptive design. Furthermore, this research
Also, as reported in 2003, Metro Manila was determined to work is considered cross-sectional and non- experimental. As
have the highest literacy rate while the Autonomous Muslim mentioned by [19] in [20] a study can be considered cross-
Mindanao (ARMM) was with the lowest rate (68.9%.) which sectional when the data gathered was being completed in a
was a decline from the 1994 rate of 73.5% [15]. For ten short span of time. Moreover, [21] mentioned that non-
years, 9 out of 15 regions showed a decline in the literacy experimental study is referred to as a study that does not
rate – two of the Visayan Region (VI and VII) and all of the involve utilization of treatment nor of intervention.
regions in Mindanao. This disturbing report has not remained This study also involves the utilization of a reading
true in 2003. In 2014, the DepEd Literacy Council reported comprehension assessment tool, the PhilIRI, for the
based on their ‘literacy mapping’ that 9 out of the 10 top gathering of data relative to respondents’ level of
illiterate barangays come from Mindanao [16]. comprehension in oral and silent reading; and the
If it takes a village to raise a child, it must always take the demographic profile to identify categorical variables like
whole educational system to make children read. This means gender and first language, ordinal variables like age and
that a concerted and directed effort must be put in place to socioeconomic status. Furthermore, a research tool was used
support sustain opportunities and practices aimed at making to determine the extent of scale variable parental
children proficient. However, there is a scarcity of studies on involvement.
reading comprehension and the utilization of the same to 2.2. PARTICIPANTS OF THE STUDY
inform the creation of reading programs for elementary Student-respondents, in total, two hundred seventy 271
school students in Western Mindanao State University. This intermediate students were sampled for this study upon
is the impetus for the conduct of this research investigation. employment of Total Population Sampling or also known as
Complete Enumeration sampling which a type of purposive
The study intends to probe and provide essential baseline
sampling technique that investigates the whole number of
information concerning intermediate students reading
population as long as the members share a common
comprehension level. Addedly, the study intends as well to
characteristic.
supplicate the quantitative data with qualitative ones to
To provide a bird's eye view about the demographic
provide description and characterization of the reading
characteristic of the sample size, the frequency count has
development practices of the reading teachers. These data
employed to detail the profile of the respondents. Table 2
shall be joined to extrapolate implications serving as a guide
presents the distribution of the respondents across categories
for the creation of a reading program
of sex, SES, age and first language.

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Table 2: Profile of the Respondents the most numbered are Tausug. Furthermore, in terms of age
Demographic Percent grouping, across the first language grouping, most of the
Category Frequency
Details (%) respondents identified their age group as 11.
Male 138 50.9
Sex Female 133 49.1 2.3 RESEARCH INSTRUMENT
The quantitative data, on the respondents’ level of reading
Low 112 41.3
comprehension in silent and oral reading, the source of data
Socioeconomic Average 102 37.6
Status High 57 21 was taken from the administration of the reading inventory
determining students’ reading performance level in both oral
9 66 24.4 and silent reading known as the Philippine Informal Reading
10 88 32.5 Inventory clipped as Phil-IRI [22]. The instrument was
Age
11 117 43.2 developed to support the Every Child A Reader Program
(ECARP) of the Department of Education (DepEd). The test
Chabacano 55 20.3 is a diagnostic in nature determining students' level before an
Tausug 120 44.3 appropriate reading level for students can be designed. This
First Language
Bisaya 83 30.6
test was determined to be standardized hence was not subject
Others 13 4.8
to validation and reliability testing.
As shown in Table 2, although there are more males than
For the determination of parental involvement in reading, the
females respondents in the study, the difference is negligible.
researcher adopted the Parental Reading Involvement Survey
Moreover, as regards the SES of the students, there is an
Questionnaire of [23]. The questionnaire was of six items
almost equal number of respondents who belong to low and
with four continuous scales ranging from Never (1) and
average SES. However, respondents who reported to belong
Always (4). The instrument was claimed to have acceptable
to a high SES are least. In terms of age, nearly half (43.2%)
reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.78).
of the respondents are aged 11 and those who aged 9 are
2.4 PROCEDURE
least in number. About the first language spoken, nearly half
Upon approval of the panel member, the paper was sent for
(44.3%) are Tausug speakers almost one third (30.6%) of the
Ethics Clearance as an institutional procedure and process
total respondents are Bisaya speakers and less than a quarter
before data gathering. After the clearance was provided by
(20.3%) are Chabacano. The least are noticeably those
the committee, a letter of request was sent to the school
reported to speak languages like Tagalog among others.
principal of the research site.
For a clearer perspective, the demographic profiles of SES
The data-gathering phase was directed to students. After
and age are cross-tabulated with the profile gender and the
approval of the request was received, a schedule was set for
first language is spoken.
the administration of the research tool to determine the extent
Table 2.1 Cross tabulation of Repondents’ Demographic Profile of parental involvement. The questionnaire was provided
Socioeconomic Status Age with the preliminary part (the demographic profile). The
Profiles Categories
Low Average High 9 10 11 administration was set on a specific date. On average, the
Male 54 57 27 37 37 64 students completed the demographic profile sheet and the
Gender
Female 58 45 30 29 51 53 parental involvement questionnaire around 10 minutes.

Chabacano 22 26 7 10 14 38 2.5 METHOD OF ANALYSIS

First Tausug 55 36 29 38 40 42 For determining the extent of parental involvement in
Language Bisaya 38 36 17 14 28 41 reading, responses were coded as follows: 1 for never, 2 for
Others 5 4 4 4 6 3 sometimes, 3 for very often, and 4 for always. The highest
possible score is 24 while the lowest possible score is 6.
Table 2.1 shows the demographic characteristics of the
Table 3 provides the scale and interpretation used to give
respondents cross-tabulated. The data reveals that for the
meaning to the mean value. Moreover, the range of means
demographic profile gender, an almost equal proportion
was developed through the employment of equal interval
belongs to low and average socioeconomic status and the
with a computed range of 0.75.
male respondents with high SES are the least numbered. Table 3. Extent of Parental Involvement in Reading
Moreover, in terms of age, most of the females and males are Range Description Interpretation
aged 11. Although, in the case of the females a difference of 3.25 – 4.0 Always High Parental Involvement
two is noticed between the respondents who reported to be 2.5 – 3.24 Very Often Somehow High
aged 10 and those who claimed to be older. However, for the 1.75 – 2.49 Sometimes Somehow Low
male respondents, an equal number of participants belongs to 1.0 – 1.74 Never Low Parental Involvement
two age groupings (9 and 10) – the most number of
For the level of comprehension in silent reading, the highest
respondents, similar in the case of female respondents,
possible score is 16 and the lowest possible score is 0. The
belong to the oldest age grouping (11).
computed mean values were given interpretation through the
Moreover, the information presents that most of the
following developed scale: 0 – 5.33 = Low, 5.34 – 10.67 =
respondents, categorized according to their first languages,
Average and 10.68 – 16 = High.
have reported being of low SES. However, it can be noticed
that for the respondents who claimed to belong to high SES
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For the level of comprehension in oral reading, the highest scores in silent reading are more dispersed as compared to
possible score is 8 and the lowest possible score is 0. their scores in oral reading.
Computed mean values were given interpretation using the 3.1.2 SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE IN THE LEVELS
following scale: 0 – 2.67 for low, 2.68 – 5.35 for average and OF COMPREHENSION IN SILENT READING AND
5.36 – 8 for high. ORAL READING WHEN DATA ARE GROUPED
For statistical treatment, the data of the comprehension ACCORDING TO SEX; SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS,
scores for the silent and oral reading and the raw data from AND THE FIRST LANGUAGES SPOKEN
the parental involvement in the reading questionnaires were To determine the difference in the levels of comprehension
computed and tabulated. Moreover, the different statistical in the two types of reading in terms of sex, SES, and the first
treatments were used to analyze the data and answer the language spoken, the raw scores for SR and OR were
different research questions: computed and tabulated. For the sex difference on the levels
To determine the levels of comprehension of the respondents of comprehension for the two reading types, the inferential
in oral and silent reading, descriptive statistics, specifically statistics independent sample T-test was used to analyze the
mean (M) and standard deviation (SD), were used. data. For the difference on the levels of comprehension
To determine the significant difference in the level of across SES and first languages are spoken, one-way Analysis
comprehension of the respondents in silent and oral readings of Variance (ANOVA) was used. The p-value and
in terms of sex, independent sample t-test was the statistical interpretation are presented in Table 5
treatment used. Table 5 provides the difference in the levels of
To determine the significant difference in the levels of comprehension on the two types of reading the variables sex,
comprehension of the respondents in silent and oral readings socioeconomic status and first language spoken. The analysis
in terms of socio-economic status and first language, one- of the data revealed interesting results. On the account of the
way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was the inferential level of comprehension in SR, the data revealed no
statistics employed. significant difference between males and females as the p-
To determine the significant relationship between the levels value of 0.434 is greater than alpha = 0.05. This means, for
of comprehension in of the respondents in silent and oral the case of the respondents of this study, gender does not
readings and the variables socioeconomic status, age and impact the level of comprehension in SR. It further means
extent of parental involvement, Pearson Product Moment that gender is not a factor influencing the level of
Coefficient also known as Pearson r was utilized. comprehension in SR. This finding contradicts claims that
the gender gap exists on reading and reading comprehension
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
performance [19] ; [20]. However, these cited investigations
3. The levels of comprehension of learners in terms of
have not specifically noted whether this comprehension and
Silent Reading (SR) and Oral Reading (OR)
reading performance are in SR or OR. This result of non-
To determine the levels of comprehension of the respondents
significance may have been influenced by the anxiety
in silent and oral reading, the raw scores of the respondents
involved in the taking of the comprehension questions. Note
were analyzed using descriptive statistics (M and SD). Table
that in the study there are 16 items for SR while there are
4 presents the mean values and interpretations.
only 8 items for OR.
Table 4: Levels of comprehension of the respondents in oral and However, in terms of the level of comprehension in oral
silent reading reading, the p-value = 0.000 is determined to be significant at
alpha = 0.005. There is a sex difference in the level of
Standard comprehension on OR with females outperforming the
Variables Interpretation
Mean Deviation males. This result echoes the established claims that in terms
of key educational outcomes boys are outperformed by
Level of females [21]. This also implies that the benefit of hearing
Comprehension for 3.165 1.800 Average
Oral Reading
one's voice as an essential aid in spelling and comprehension
Level of which [14] contends to be present in oral reading or read-
Comprehension for 8.822 3.246 Average aloud activities benefit more the female than the male
Silent Reading respondents of the study. Moreover, another reason seen to
Scale for OR:0-2.67 for low,2.68-5.35 for average and 5.36 – 8 for explain the better performance of females over boys is
high; relative to findings of [21] that there is a preferentiality of
Scale for SR: 0 – 5.33 = Low, 5.34 – 10.67 = Average and boys for male teachers and girls for females teachers on
10.68 – 16 = High. matters that relate to emotion and personal issue. This claim
Table 4 gives the data on the level of comprehension of the suggests that females can relate well to their emotions and
respondents in oral and silent reading. It can be noticed that personal concern with teachers who are females too and the
for the two types of reading the respondents are both at the same happens to boys with their male teachers. This
average level of comprehension as provided by the mean contention is used to support the result in the sense that oral
values for oral reading (M-3.165, SD-1.8) and silent reading reading task which involves not only the uttering of the
(M-8.822, SD-3.246). This suggests that the respondents are words but also expressing the semantic and emotional tone of
performing relatively similar in terms of comprehension in what is read is performed well by girls with female teachers
two types of reading; however, it must be noted that learners' and boys with male teachers.

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Table 5: Difference on the levels of comprehension in OR and SR across gender, SES and
first language (L1)
Sex SES L1
Variables Males Females p- p-
p-value
M SD M SD value value
Level of Comprehension in 8.1 3.2 9.5 3.1
0.000* 0.063 0.065
Oral Reading 20 54 00 02
Level of Comprehension in 3.2 1.8 3.0 1.7
0.434 0.000* 0.052
Silent Reading 39 10 67 93
*Significant at alpha = 0.001

It thus implies that the hesitation of fully reading out loud Table 5.1: Post Hoc Analysis
well happens within females when their reading teacher is Socioeconomic Mean
male and the same goes with male students having female Variable Status Difference p-value
reading teachers. This claim supports the gender difference (I) (J) (I-J)
on comprehension level favoring females because of the case Comprehension Average 2.007 0.000*
High
Level in Silent Low 1.630 0.000*
of the respondents most of their reading teachers are females. Reading Average Low 1.376 0.000*
On the account of the first language as a variable, the *Significant at alpha = 0.005
analysis of data revealed that for both SR (p-value = 0.052 )
and OR (p-value = 0.065) no significant relationship was As shown in Table 6, the post hoc analysis using the Tukey
drawn as both p-values are greater than alpha = 0.05. This test, a significant difference between groupings were
means that the first language of the learners is not a factor determined. For the comprehension level in silent reading,
influencing their levels of comprehension across types of there is a significant difference between respondents of high
reading. One main reason for this is the medium of the SES and average and low SES with better SES
reading materials in both OR and SR which is English ( a outperforming those with lower SES. Moreover, a significant
second language) an Indo-European language which belongs difference in the level of reading comprehension on SR was
to the Germanic group. However, the L1 of the respondents also revealed between those with average SES and low SES
which are Tausug, Bisaya among others are under the favoring those respondents who have claimed to belong to
Malayo-Polynesian group of the Austronesian language average SES. This means that as the respondents move to
family. Moreover, for the L1 Chabacano also spelled as higher SES the better their silent reading comprehension is.
Chavacano, it is a Spanish-based creole. These This result mirrors the claim of [26] that SES influences
characterization points to one thing that as these languages students reading ability. The reason is that parents with low
do not share essential commonality and the absence of which SES are less likely to be able to purchase and provide
is seen as the result for the non-existent of a significant reading materials and create and reading resource enriched
difference across the first languages of the respondents; homes. In the case of the respondents of the study, it is
hence, it is noticeable across literature on reading, assumed that those belonging to higher SES are provided
comprehension and other variables relating to reading with books and other reading resources that they use and read
comprehension the language investigated is L2 (English) at home. It then provides golden opportunities for the
which is the medium of the texts or reading material [22, 23, practice of silent reading event outside the school. This,
24, 26]). however, is not the case for those of lower SES. Others [26]
Interestingly, on the account of the variable SES, the data explained that parents of lower SES were found to
showed that for SES as a variable influences the level of significantly differ in terms of material investments provided
reading comprehension in SR (p-value = 0.000) as the p- to their children. This is a logical perspective as of lower
value is less than alpha= 0.05. However, there is no SES would prefer to ascertain the purchase of necessities
significant difference in the level of comprehension in OR (food, rent, bills, clothing, education among others) before
across SES. This means that, for the case of the respondents the investment on resource materials such as storybooks and
of this study, those belong to different SES do not others that are not necessarily part of the offering of the
significantly differ in their comprehension level when school curriculum. Moreover, it is claimed that the
performing OR. This further suggests that the comprehension significant impact of SES on learners reading ability is
level in OR SES is not a factor influencing significant related to the personal investment that parents with high SES
differences. could afford their children [26]. In the study, it was revealed
However, a significant difference was drawn on the reading that parents with high SES are found to spend child-parent
comprehension of the respondents across economic time more likely than those with low SES. This suggests that
grouping. This means that SES influences the levels of because parents of high SES are able to allocate and spend
comprehension of respondents performing SR. time to do activities with their children , and this is taken to
To further probe and determine the significant difference in imply that these parents are able to do meaningful tasks that
the level of comprehension in SR across economic supplement at home such as reading a story, performing play
groupings, Post Hoc analysis using Tukey test was with lexical tokens as some of the examples – the activities
employed. Table 5.1 present the analyzed data. serve as a supplemental to the instruction in school which
parents of low SES may be able to perform due to a more

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Table 6: Correlation Matrix between Levels of reading comprehension across types of reading and the variables SES, Age,
and Parental involvement.

Comprehension Level in Silent Comprehension Level in Oral

Dependent Variable Reading Interpretation Reading Interpretation

p-value r-value p-value r-value

SES 0.728 -0.022 Not Significant 0.280 -0.066 Not Significant
Parental Involvement 0.004* 0.173 Significant 0.057 0.116 Not Significant
Age 0.000* 0.305 Significant 0.222 -0.074 Not Significant

*Significant at alpha = 0.05

demanding and rigid nature of work they have as compared 0.173). This result concurs with findings of researchers like
to those with better SES. Supportive of this is the finding of [28] which maintained that parent's involvement in school
[27] that parents of low SES were noted to perform the lesser has been found to result in positive outcomes and [29] who
reading activity and lower quality of reading the discussion. claimed that parental involvement is a major predictor of
This then is taken to mean that parents with high SES can literacy development and reading success. However, what is
conduct quality reading activities with their children more interesting with the results found in this study is that PI
often compared to those with lower SES. The study habit is impacts the level of comprehension of the respondents only
composed of three subscales in this study. These are access when they performed SR and not OR. This result can allude
to notes, scheduling and the ability to concentrate. Table 4 to the practice of reading realized at home. Oral reading or
gives M and SD of the subscales. read aloud encourages discussion about the reading material
3.2 SIGNIFICANT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE which includes answering the open-ended question [21].
LEVELS OF COMPREHENSION IN SILENT Because of this complexity that requires parents to ask
READING AND ORAL READING AND THE questions and let the same be answered, most parents do not
RESPONDENTS’ SES, AGE AND PARENTAL practice this with their children at home. It is inferred that
INVOLVEMENT what is most likely to take place at home is SR, and parents
The raw score for the comprehension in SR and OR were provide essential support in many forms – in providing the
computed and tabulated. To determine the significant reading material, in giving the time to be devoted to reading.
relationship between the levels of comprehension across It is opined that SR is supported greatly by parents when they
reading types and the variables SES, Age and Parental provide internet connection and access to their children at
involvement, the Pearson Product Moment Coefficient was home. In this era of social networking and blogging which
the inferential statistics used. Table 6 presents the result of when access by children allows the practice of SR, and this
the relationship analysis. serves as a practice supplementing those provided at home.
As it can be gleaned from Table 6, the data exposed that Besides, for the variable age analysis of the data showed that
there is no significant relationship between the level of for the comprehension level in oral reading there is no
comprehension in OR and the variables SES and Parental significant relationship drawn as the p-value (0.222) is
Involvement (PI) as shown by their respective p-values greater than alpha = 0.05. This suggests that sex is not a
(0.280, 0.057) which are greater than alpha = 0.05. This factor influencing the oral comprehension level of the
means that the level of comprehension in OR is not students. However, for the silent reading comprehension, the
influenced by SES and PI. data revealed that there is a significant correlation as
For the relationship between the dependent variable reading provided by the p-value (0.000*). This means that as the
comprehension in SR and the independent variable SES, no respondent increase in their age their level of silent reading
significant relationship was drawn as shown by the p-value comprehension becomes better. This implies that age is a
(0.728) which is greater than alpha = 0.05. This means that factor influencing silent reading comprehension. It is noted
SES, in the case of the respondents in the study, does not that silent reading is a form of independent reading.
significantly relate to the level of comprehension in SR; Therefore, this type of reading is performed by learners
therefore, SES is not a factor influencing comprehension without or with less supervision and assistance from their
level in SR of the respondents. teacher, their parents or other supporting individuals [30].
However, for the influence of parental involvement on the [31] claimed that learners are accumulating skills over the
level of comprehension of the respondents in SR, a years and it varies according to different factors. It is pointed
significant relationship was drawn as provided by the p-value that in this study that as students' age and mature they can
(0.004) which is less than alpha = 0.05. Moreover, the acquire certain skills. This explains the significant
relationship is characterized to be positive which means that relationship of age with comprehension in silent reading. As
respondents with high PI have a high comprehension level in the respondents' age, they can competently perform silent
SR. Conversely, those with low PI are noted to be the ones reading as an independent task. This is seen to result in yo
with low comprehension levels in SR. Furthermore, the better performance in the said reading type.
relationship between the variables is noted to be ‘low' (r-
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