I was flabbergasted upon reading the answers of tertiary level students who either did not read carefully or did not absorb well the instructions in a grammar and language functions quiz I gave them online.
The instruction was very simple: write the comparative or superlative forms of the adjectives inside brackets to make the given sentences grammatically correct. But instead of converting the adjective “coward” to its correct comparative or superlative form, some students wrote the adjective’s synonym instead.
When I asked one of the students who wrote the wrong answer, where they got the term that was unfamiliar even to her, she replied, “I searched it online”. The word was “pussilanimous”, which means showing lack of courage or determination, which according to her she got from the Oxford online dictionary.
Clearly, they did not bother to read carefully and digest the instructions. The incident is not an isolated case. Since we went back to holding face-to-face classes, we educators have observed reading comprehension difficulties among students, even in the tertiary level. To me, this is worrisome.
Among main reading comprehension problems encountered by students in my classes, both in major and minor subjects or courses are confusion about the meaning of words, inability to connect ideas in a passage and relate learnings to realities of life, difficulty in distinguishing significant information from minor details and the lack of focus or concentration while reading. Most students jump into answering questions right away without bothering to read and understand the instructions, the reason why they often get very low scores, or worse, zero.
I remember mentioning the words “superfluous”, “rickety ladder” and “shanty” while doing a lecture in a major subject I was teaching in a tertiary level institution that made students’ jaws drop and foreheads crease. Some were quick to admit the terms were foreign to them. This is not just worrisome but alarming because incidents like this reveal how shallow the vocabulary of students and more importantly, in a couple of years, these students will be graduating and will be competing for jobs in the global labor market yet, evidently, they lack competitive advantage in this aspect.
Even before the pandemic that forced us to hold virtual classes, Caraig and Quimbo (2016) assessed the reading comprehension difficulties in core science subjects of senior high school students in a private school in the country and their study revealed that in terms of reading comprehension result, only 7 percent of the total number of respondents are classified as Mastery Level readers or those with 75 percent and above correct answers. “The result is trifling compared to the 49 percent near mastery level (50 percent-74 percent correct answers) and 44 percent poor mastery level,” stated the authors’ abstract.
Imagine going over the content of a vital document such as a housing agreement however, you cannot understand what you are reading. How about taking an examination but cannot understand the instructions. That is how vital and valuable reading comprehension skills are.
In the third quarter of 2019, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) raked the Philippines above its Southeast Asian neighbors in terms of literacy with 97.95 percent of the total population able to read, write and count. The country even surpassed more economically advanced nationals like Singapore according to a CNN Philippines report.
However, many Filipinos, even those who finished education at the tertiary level still struggle in the global workplace where workers from other countries like India and Vietnam have far outshone Pinoys in terms of competence. The reason? It is not just a question of being able to read and write according to Frederick Perez, country president of the Reading Association of the Philippines (RAP).
The 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) Report released in December 2019 stated that high school students in the country got lower scores in reading comprehension, mathematics and science than most of those surveyed in other nations, citing the country’s overall score in reading was a measly 340 points. China, which ranked first, received 555 points. The findings pointed out that over 80 percent of Pinoy students around the age of 15 did not reach the minimum level of proficiency in reading.
In a media interview, Perez said that in terms of literacy and reading comprehension, the country is struggling, citing the results in the National Elementary Achievement Test (NEAT) and the National Secondary Achievement Test (NSAT) that reveal that students really get low scores in standardized tests.
Furthermore, he finds it ironic since in the 80s and 90s, the national curriculum according to him contained a rich variety of materials for improving one’s ability to read and understand the written word as workbooks were attuned to specific skills such as reading comprehension, literacy appreciation and grammar. He added that by extension, students would be instructed to read between the lines, to make inferences as to the main themes of texts by analyzing details, including graphs and charts. But these skills, he underscored, many students today do not seem to possess.
As the demands of literacy have evolved, literacy instruction in the Philippines must also graduate from mere narratives and evolve into 21st century learning where students are exposed to expository texts that deal with information, he explained. Students must be trained to process information through information gathering, data verification and cross-checking of facts, including the interpretation of graphs and charts.
Look at social media, the prolific posting of unverified content and disinformation spreading like wildfire via messaging apps only show that Filipinos “cannot seem to read beyond the narrative,” the reason why many fall prey to misinformation and disinformation.
Perez strongly recommends that the PISA results be thoroughly analyzed – verify, check and see where the country can improve in order to turn the situation over. A good start according to him is to begin from the four basic elements of reading which are word recognition, vocabulary, fluency and reading comprehension. It makes perfect sense to me.*
