Believe it or not, there are still nonreaders in the high school. In my several years of my teaching experience, I have encountered some of them and I realized some of its causes. I am doing some of the remedial measures, but there are some factors which re beyond the eachers control.
Why has reading disability still exists in some of our high school students both in English and Filipino language? This seems to be a major problem in many schools today. For me, to answer this question, we have to consider the facors that affect a child’s reading performance. The child is both a product of both heredity and environment and while we can do something about his environment, there is nothing we can do about heredity. Some school-related factors make up a big part of his environment. According to Cutiongco (2005), school-related factors fall under two categories :inadequate instruction and improper instruction. Inadequate instruction is caused by any or all of the following: I) lack of skill instruction; 2) inflexible program; 3) changing teachers; and 4) interruption in the reading program.
Some children either cannot read well at all because they were never taught the reading skills needed. The teacher may have failed to reach particular children with specific needs in reading. One reason for such failure is an overcrowded classroom. It is physically impossible for a teacher to monitor the reading progress of fifty or more4 children and prepare varied acdtivities to cater to the different groups of learners in the class.
Another reason why students fail to master the needed reading skills is the presence of the wide range abilities in a classroom. In a class composed of a handful of bright students, a majority of average-ability students and several poor readers, the tendency is for the teacher particular lessons for the students with average ability. Very often the bright students find the lessons too easy so they get bored while the poor readers find them incomprehensible. This inflexible reading program in the classroom may cause problems even the regular learners because their needs are not met in the classroom.
The frequent changing of teachers in a class can also lead to reading failure. While the learners take time adjusting to the ways of a new teacher every now and then, the teacher also waste a lot of time trying to know its learner’s needs and by the time she begun to know them, she has to leave for another aswseignment.
Interruption in the school program can likewise cause problem. Teachers often spend so much time doing other chores that so little time is left for actual teaching.
Improper instruction is caused by untrained teachers lack of systematic program, use of a single method of instruction and inadequate diagnosis of learners problems.
Cutiongco further stressed that another cause of the emergence of the reading failure is the lack of a systematic reading program Every child develops reading skills by stages and a reading program that offers a step-by-step sequence of learning these skills insures success of every step. Unfortunately, some teachers because they don’t know any better teach reading in a haphazard way.
Most importantly, a teacher must remember that each student has his own unique style in learning if his primary aim is to teach reading properly.
Reference:Cutiongco, E.C.Reading In Today’s School, A Paper Read in he RAP Convention (2005).
By: Lilian L. dela Rosa | Teacher III | Samal National High School | Samal, Bataan
