PHINMA UNIVERSITY OF ILOILO

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Iloilo City

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Academic Experiences of SHS STEM Students in
Mathematics and Science Subjects in an Active Learning Set Up

A Research Proposal

Pacquiao, Manny C.; Pacquiao, Jinkee C.; Duterte, Rodrigo D.

Grade 12 UI-FA1-STEM12-1
October 2022

Chapter 1
Introduction to the Study

Chapter 1 consists of 8 parts: (1) Background and Rationale of the Study, (2)
Statement of the Problem, (3) Objectives of the Study, (4) Theoretical Famework of the
Study, (5) Conceptual Framework of the Study, (6) Definition of Terms, (7) Significance
of the Study, and (8) Scope and Delimitation of the Study.
Part One, Background and Rationale of the Study, presents the overview of the
study.
Part Two, Statement of the Problem, expresses the general problem and specific
research questions that this study is designed to answer.
Part Three, Objectives of the Study, presents the corresponding goals and
purposes in answering the study’s general problem and specific questions.
Part Four, Theoretical Famework of the Study, lays down the foundation and
support to the existence of the problem or the research topic.
Part five, Conceptual Framework of the Study, presents the necessary items and
their relationship in the course of the conduct of the study.
Part Six, Definition of Terms, includes the conceptual and operational meanings
of the significant terms used in the study.

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SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Iloilo City

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Part 7, Significance of the Study, enumerates the significance to which this study ˺
is proven beneficial through its findings.
Part Eight, Scope and Delimitation of the Study, lays down the coverage of the
study.
Background and Rationale of the Study
In the teaching and learning of English as a Second Language (ESL) or Foreign
Language (FL), the acquisition of the four language skills of reading, writing, listening
and speaking are considered important. However, reading is by far one of the most
important skills for many second language (L2) students (Carrell, 1998; Eskey, 1973)
particularly for higher level students.
Reading is an active process. It involves efforts from the readers to understand a
text, to come up with new meaning based on what is being read and tailor fit it with
what is already known or one’s schema and according to Akyol (2007: 15), it is an
opinion exchange between a reader and a writer which takes place in a suitable
environment. Reading is a process more than just making s mense of the letters which
symbolize sounds in the brain (Kilinc, H. & Yenen, E., 2015). It is a demanding process
requiring the readers to submit to different kinds of mental processes such as attention,
perception, or understanding of the reading materials. Additionally, embedded also is
that they are not only needed to give extra attention to the knowledge of the foreign
language, but also to the cultural background of the target language community.
Statement of the Problem
Generally, this study aims to investigate the reading anxiety level of SHS Grade
11 Adolescent Struggling Readers and to determine which of the three domains
(linguistics factors, personal factors and cultural items factors) contributed most towards
the learners’ anxiety level and sex as a variable.
Specifically, this study is sought to answer the following research questions:
1.) What is the reading biography of each of the research participants?
2.) What is the reading anxiety level of the research participants who are
adolescent struggling readers in terms of linguistic, personal, and cultural items
domains?

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 PHINMA UNIVERSITY OF ILOILO
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Iloilo City

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3.) What is the significant relationship between the reading anxiety level of the ˺
research participants who are adolescent struggling readers and sex as a variable?
4.) What are the adolescent struggling readers’ suggested teaching approaches
in reading to reduce anxiety?
Objectives of the Study
The following are the objectives of the study.
1.) To describe the reading biography of each of the research participants;
2.) To determine the reading anxiety level of the research participants who are
adolescent struggling readers in terms linguistic, personal, and cultural items domains
through Foreign language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) developed by Saito et al.,
(1999);
3.) To determine the significant relationship between the reading anxiety level of
the research participants who are adolescent struggling readers and sex as a variable;
and
4.) To describe adolescent struggling readers’ suggested teaching approaches in
reading to reduce anxiety.
Theoretical Framework of the Study
There are several proofs about the emergence of reading anxiety. They
deliberately explained it profoundly. Hinton, Miyamoto, and Della-Chiesa (2008)
discussed that the creation of reading anxiety undergoes the process of classical
conditioning between reading and fear. In detail, an initially neutral stimulus is paired
repetitively with a negative unconditioned stimulus (e.g., teacher judgment, peer
ridicule). Consequently, the learner develops an association between reading and
negative emotions. As an example, in an English class, a child who is still not proficient
in reading is called up by the teacher to read a certain passage. Hinton et al. (2008)
explained that the task activates the amygdale, the part of the brain which elicits an
immediate sense of fright. At the same time, a “slower, cortically driven cognitive
appraisal of the situation is occurring: various thoughts converge to a cognitive
confirmation that this is a threatening situation,” (p. 91) which, according to them,
causes a rising sense of alarm. Clearly, this first source of reading anxiety involves the

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SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Iloilo City

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contribution of the social surrounding of the child. The learning and reading ˺
environment itself feeds negative emotions which in turn creates a phobia.
Conceptual Framework of the Study
The study will operate on the investigation of the emergence of reading anxiety
among learners, the roots and causes, levels and the perception of the struggling
learners towards the reduction of anxiety. It may lead to discover and define
approaches on how to deal with the phenomenon inside a second language classroom.
Through the research’s data source and focus with a certain degree of interest and
weight for discussion relating to the chosen theory and approach, these data will then
be intensively examined and analyzed. Further, the analysis will then be guided by a
research framework to attain the outcome or the end result.
Figure 2. Conceptual Framework of the Study
Definition of Terms
To achieve clarity and precision in the key terms to be used and for
comprehensive understanding of the study, the following terms are conceptually and
operationally defined.
Reading. Reading is a process of thinking actively in order to unlock or
understand the idea an author portrays (Shihab, 2011). It involves connecting an
author’s idea to what one already knows and appropriately coordinating all the ideas for
usage. Interpreting, connecting and organizing both the author and reader’s ideas
require skills and ability on the part of the reader. Reading therefore, could be defined
as a receptive skill, which involves the ability to interpret or decode, printed symbols
(Akubuilo, 2015). This may be what McGrath (1995) highlights in subscribing to reading
as the active thinking process of understanding an author’s ideas, connecting those
ideas to what you already know, and organizing all the ideas so you can remember and
use them.
In this study, reading refers to the the kind of activity given to Grade 11 SHS
students wherein recognition and interpretation of words, content and meaning in a
given passage will be observed to check on indicators of reading anxiety.

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 PHINMA UNIVERSITY OF ILOILO
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Iloilo City

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Significance of the Study ˺

The findings of the study will benefit the following:
Students or Struggling Learners. This study may provide struggling learners
the explanation of their current state about participating in a reading task and to cope
with their issues on reading anxiety.
Scope and Delimitation of the Study
This study will concentrate on the reading biographies, reading anxiety and the
level and sex a variable and perceptions on recommended approaches on how should
language teachers teach reading to students to reduce anxiety. These students who will
be the subject for this study are the SHS Grade 11 learners taking the subject Reading
and Writing Skills at PHINMA University of Iloilo.

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SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Iloilo City

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Chapter 2
Review of Related Literature

Chapter 2 consists of conceptual and related literature relevant to the study. It is

divided into three (3) parts:
Part One, Reading, Anxiety, and Reading Anxiety, presents the elaboration and
the essence of three significant concepts that this study accentuates.
Part Two, Foreign Language Reading Anxiety and Research, presents the
rationality of the research topic.
Part three, Reading Anxiety Studies in 2010's, deliberately discusses in detail
underlying volume of interests in the midst of sensitivity in reading issues specifically
reading anxiety.
Preview on Reading Anxiety
The concept of reading anxiety has been seriously and carefully studied by
educational researchers. Hence, this section adopts current perspectives on reviewing
reading anxiety studies relevant to this research and due to the recency of the
phenomenon. However, in order to grasp the pattern of researches done so far, the
previous studies are classified accordingly as reading anxiety in 2010's as the very
highlight of this section. Foreign language reading anxiety will be introduced initialy to
rationalize the research topicand eventually will transition to reading strategies use to
incorporate views on how to deal with the phenomenon.

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 PHINMA UNIVERSITY OF ILOILO
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Iloilo City

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Chapter 3
Research Design and Methodology

Chapter 3 includes three (3) parts: (1) Research Design, Instrument, Research
Participants and Analysis, (2) Data Gathering Procedure, and (3) Ethical Considerations.
Part One, Research Design, Instrument, Respondents and Analysis, restates the
purpose and focus of the study and the details of the research design, tools for analysis,
research particpants and the data analysis procedure to be employed in the study.
Part Two, Data Gathering Procedure, discusses the procedure on how the
researcher will collect the data and information needed in the analysis.
Part Three, Ethical Considerations, the steps to be taken by the researcher to
establish consent from the data sources.
Research Design, Instrument, Research Participants and Analysis
The study will operate under the usage of mixed method in conducting research
(qualitative and quantitative research methods). This study will employ a descriptive
survey model in order to identify students’ reading anxiety with regards to certain
variable which is sex. With the study, the existing state will be presented as it is and
student views will be described accordingly to domains of reading anxiety – the
linguistic, personal, and cultural domains. A set of questionnaire will then be developed
based on the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS). The questionnaire
consists of two sections: A) background information - 23 items (see example below)
and B) second language reading anxiety scale - 2- items (see example below).
According to Ghonsooly and Barghchi (20011), the FLRAS is a scale that specifically
assesses learners’ reading anxiety by measuring their level or degree of anxiety over
various facets of reading and asking questions that are subjective in nature. For
example, the learners are asked about their general attitude toward reading tasks, the
relative difficulty of such tasks in comparison to the other sorts of activities they are

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SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Iloilo City

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required to engage in, the learners’ reaction to the reading task when they confront a ˺
comprehension problem, and the role that cultural familiarity can play in the
comprehension of L2 texts. The reading process becomes perplex due to factors such as
linguistic competence, cultural awareness, and even motivation (Lee, 1999; Sellers,
2000). The learner’s personal responses to these questions are used as the basis for the
overall assessment of how anxious he or she feels when doing reading activities. The
theoretical range of scores on this measure is 20 to 100. The FLRAS consists of 20 items
in which five-point values in Likert Scale were used from “strongly agree” to “strongly
disagree.” An additional 10 items were included to further elaborate the factors related
to reading anxiety and add to the reliability of the instrument. These ten additional
questions will be used for Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and to the gathering of
biographical narratives. The 20 items in the questionnaire revolve around the general
feeling of reading anxiety and also the factors that could contribute to L2
reading anxiety.
In general, this study will investigate and expose results on the reading anxiety
level of SHS Grade 11 Adolescent Struggling Readers and to determine which of the
three domains (linguistics factors, personal factors and cultural items factors)
contributed most towards the learners’ anxiety level and sex as a variable an dthe
perception on how deal with the phenomenon correctly towards reduced reading anxiety
level.
References

Abdulwahed, A. and Ismail, A. (2015). “Secondary School Students’ Reading Anxiety in

a Second Language English Language Teaching.” Canadian Center of Science
and Education. Vol. 8, No. 11; 2015 ISSN 1916-4742 E-ISSN 1916-4750.
Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v8n11p28.
Ahar, M. (2012). “An Instrument for EFL Reading Anxiety: Inventory Construction and
Preliminary Validation.” The Journal of Asia Tefl. Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 31-56, Spring.
Akubuilo, F. (2015). “Reading Readiness Deficiency in Children: Causes and Ways of

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Improvement.” Journal of Education and Practice ˺

www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.6, No.24,.
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