The Relationship between Reading Comprehension and Reading Strategies Used By the Students

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the relationship between reading comprehension and reading strategies used by the students. Specifically, it sought to answer the following problems (a) how is the reading comprehension of the students described in terms of, understanding vocabulary in context, noting details, getting the main idea and determining story structure; (b) how often do the students use strategies before, during and after reading stages; (c) there a significant relationship between reading comprehension and reading strategies of the students; and (d) what is the implication of the findings to English reading instruction.

The study made used of the descriptive correlation design. To find out their reading comprehension level, they were given test items on understanding vocabulary in context, noting details, getting the main idea, and determining story structure. To identify the reading strategies employed, they were asked to answer a check list of questionnaire on reading strategies. There were 267 respondents of students who were enrolled at the college.

The research findings revealed that the students had a hard time in understanding vocabulary in context as well as in getting the main idea, but they excelled in noting details and determining the story structure of the story. The frequently used strategy in pre- reading was previewing the text, during reading is the thinking about the topic of the story and visualizing the text information and for the post reading, was the checking for fulfillment of the purpose of reading.

The students did not grasp immediately the gist of the text that they read and they did not give so much attention in looking for the meaning of the words unfamiliar to them. They did understand the details of the reading passage and they determined story structure. To comprehend the text, students previewed it before reading; thought about the topic and visualized the text information while reading; and check for fulfillment after reading.