The study determined the level of reading competence and the factors associated with it of the freshmen students in selected secondary schools in Region III. It also determined if the learners' socio-demographic characteristics; the psychological characteristics in terms of reading interest and learning style; and the home, school, and teacher factors affect their reading performance.
The respondents were composed of 225 freshmen students and 51 English I teachers from 15 schools in Region III. The sample schools and the student respondents were identified using random sampling. A total enumeration of freshmen English teachers was employed.
Data collection was done through the use of structured questionnaires which were personally administered by the researcher. The Standardized Reading Test was administered by the examiner from the Center for Educational Measurement in Makati.
Among the socio-demographic characteristics of the learners, the annual income of the family and the occupation of parents were found positively significant to the reading performance of the learners.
Findings showed that the top reading interests of the student-respondents were adventure (24.4%), science (23.6%), comic books (9.3%), romance and exploration (7.1%) and humor (5.8%). The learners reading interests and their reading performance have no significant correlation. In terms of learning styles, there were tactile-kinesthetic learners (39.6 percent), auditory-tactile-kinesthetic (24.4 percent), and trimodal (14.7 percent). Findings also showed that the learning styles have no significant relationship with the scores obtained in the reading tests.
Media available at home such as television, video and computers were negatively correlated to students' reading performance.
Among the socio-demographic characteristics of teachers, only marital status was found positively correlated to the students' reading competence. The strategies employed by the teachers were oral reading, silent reading, pair/peer reading, skimming, scanning, informal reading inventory and bilingual approach. The problems cited by the teacher-respondents stemmed from lack of reading materials in school, poor study habits of the students, lack of interests in reading, lack of reading rooms, no definite program in reading and lack of parents support.
In terms of reading performance, the total mean score of the research schools was 40.67 percent. This was based on the five major contents and specific reading tests on Scanning, Vocabulary, Points of View, Comprehension and Study Aids. The assessed Instructional Reading Level (IRLs) was 88 percent YR1 which is one step lower than the normal reading proficiency for first year students. Only 12 percent got the Instructional Reading Level of YR1 which represents the success rate of the examinees.
The different divisions have highly significant differences in the reading test.
