Presenter

Vasty Pangapo
This section outlines the nine main components of chapter one in research proposal. The sections
are as follows; 1.1 introduces the overview of the study, 1.2 discusses the context/background of
the study, 1.3 describes the main issue or statement of the problem, 1.4 outlines the purpose of the
study, 1.5 emphasises the significance of the study, 1.6 consists of the research questions, 1.7 states
the delimitations of the study, 1.8 explains the limitations, 1.9 defines the key terms, 1.10
summarizes the chapter.
Introduction
Reading comprehension is a thinking process by which a reader selects facts, information, or ideas
from printed materials, determines the meaning the author is trying to transmit, decide how they
relate to previous knowledge and judge their appropriateness and worth for meeting the learner’s
own objective (Veerravagu, et, al. 2010).

Although, many children can read, the act of reading and the act of comprehending what has been
read are two different things. Reading requires the fluent parsing and blending various phonetic
sounds to create words. Reading comprehension on the other hand involves thinking about the
words that were just read and deriving a meaning for just those words and the text as a whole.

Reading Comprehension is the ability to understanding written passage of a text. It is essential for
rich academic, professional and personal life. (De Bruin, et,.2015). Meniado, (2016), stated that
without reading and comprehension skills, children will struggle to grow academically, as reading
is the foundation to all academic subjects. This influences the ability to write good English at the
primary level.
Background of the Study
Reading comprehension in English is a key achievement in academic studies (Hellertein &
Yezekiel, (2017). Reading comprehension is crucial as it increases the enjoyment and effectiveness
of reading and helps not only academically but professionally and in a person’s personal life.
Comprehension skills are fundamental to English fluency and are necessary for students’ success.
It is part of subject children learn and these skills are imperative to their advancement in school.
Studies have shown that reading makes difference to student’s educational performance and
evidence also suggests that children who read for enjoyment everyday not only perform better in
reading test but develop a broader vocabulary, increased general knowledge and a better
understanding of other cultures. A lack of strong reading comprehension skills affects a child’s
success at school, as academic progress depends on understanding, analysing and applying
information gathered through reading (Torgensen, 2000).
Statement of the Research Problem
Reading and comprehending text is a major problem with students in the fifth grade of Mahli
Primary School. Reading is a basic life skill and the hindering factors of reading comprehension
has greatly affect student’s success in school and consequently through life. As David (2000),
clearly states that reading with comprehension is the foundation of all content areas, therefore, it
is vital that delivering needs relating to reading comprehension should be met by identifying the
hindering factors and implementing effective reading strategies. The suggested main factors that
are hindering comprehension skills include the School Factors, Social Factors and Personal
Factors.

The home environment under social factors is significant to the achievement of a student. Students
coming from rural primary schools usually encountered more problems in Reading
Comprehension compared to urban schools, as they are coming from a home with little or no
exposure to English Language. Additionally, with social factors, the society or community where
the students exist affect the learning strategies and behaviour and are learned and shared by all
members of the society where they are passed down to new generation (Murdock, 1965) &
London, 1978). This is generally accepted in the case of most children in Drekikier and also PNG
that the only time children are given the opportunity to read or spend time with books is during
school time. Technology is another social factor that affects reading such as mobile phones, videos,
internet and others have replaced books. It seems that a good number of children today are not
interested in reading and it is just another boring act. The era does not allow students to have
constant interactions with printed materials including books.
Purpose of the Study

The Purpose of the study is to:

● Identify and analyse social factors that hinder reading comprehension;

● Analyse school related factors that affects reading comprehension;

● Analyse and identify personal factors which hinders reading comprehension.

Research Questions

Key Question

What are the factors that hinder reading comprehension in primary schools?

Subsidiary Questions

a) What are the school factors that hinder Reading Comprehension?

b) What are the Social Factors that mainly affect and hinder reading comprehension?

c) How does Personal Factors affect Reading Comprehension?

The study is of paramount importance because it has the potential to transform educational
practices and outcomes. By identifying specific obstacles in various areas of focus including
school, social and personal can help shed light on why students struggle with reading.
Understanding these factors enables educators and policymakers to develop targeted interventions,
improving teaching methodologies, and create supportive learning environments conducive to
literacy growth. Additionally, addressing these challenges is vital for fostering a generation of
confident readers who can engage meaningfully with texts; ultimately enhancing their academic
performance and critical thinking skills. Investing in this study not only contributes to the
individual success of students but also promotes broader societal benefits, including reduced
educational disparities and improved overall literacy.
Delimitations and Limitations

Research delimitations refer to the boundaries the researcher sets, defining the focus and scope of
the study, such as the specific population, geographical area, or time frame (Jansen, 2022). These
choices are intentional and help streamline the research process, ensuring that the study remains
manageable and relevant to its objectives. On the other hand, limitations relate to the validity and
reliability of the study. Limitations encompass factors that may negatively influence the research
findings, such as sample size, methodological constrains, or external biases (Robson, 2011).
Acknowledging these limitations is crucial, as it provides transparency and helps readers
understand the context in which the findings should be interpreted (Maxwell, 2013). Recognizing
both delimitations and limitations is essential for enhancing the study’s validity and guiding the
future research (Schmid & Schmid, 2020).
Delimitation

The study on reading comprehension is delimited to grade five (5) students of Mahli Primary
School. Due to time, funding and the geographical environment, the research will focus
exclusively on the fifth grade to ensure a targeted analysis. Additionally, it will focus solely on
three primary factors hindering reading and comprehension such as school, social and personal,
setting aside other areas ensuring the research remains manageable and offers insights tailored to
the targeted group of students.
 Limitations of the Study

The study will identify the possible factors that cause hindrance with regard to the phenomenon
that most students faced but is based on the fifth grade due to time, money and accessibility to the
population studied in that selected school. Additionally, proposed strategies for improvement may
not be thoroughly tested within the study, leading to uncertainty about their effectiveness in
addressing the identified hindrances. The data will be collected from the grade five students of
Mahli Primary School. Further studies could utilize larger and randomly selected samples of
different age-group to be able to fully understand the hindering factors.

Definition of key terms

Decoding - is the ability to apply your knowledge of letter – sound relationship, including
knowledge of letter patterns to correctly pronounce written words.

Encoding - is the process of using letter/sound knowledge to write.

Enrichment Activities – activities done to improve something by adding something else.

Fluency – the ability to speak accurately and correctly.

Reading Comprehension – the ability to process what is read by understanding and interpreting
it.
Summary
Reading comprehension is a thinking process by which a reader selects facts, information, or ideas
from printed materials, determines the meaning the author is trying to transmit, decide how they
relate to previous knowledge and judge their appropriateness and worth for meeting the learner’s
own objective (Veerravagu, et, al. 2010). The suggested main factors that are hindering
comprehension skills include the School Factors, Social Factors and Personal Factors. Therefore,
this study will help the students, teachers’ administration and parents to know where their strengths
and weaknesses are in order to help the students achieve their educational goals.
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
This section outlines the literature review on Reading Comprehension. The purpose of this review
is to link between reading comprehension theory from literatures and the main objectives of the
study. The section reviews the research on the related problem in 2.1 as the Literature Review, 2.2
School Factors hindering reading comprehension, 2.3 Social Factors that hinder reading
comprehension and 2.4 Personal Factors hindering reading comprehension.
Introduction

Reading Comprehension enriches both academic and professional life of a person. Reading enables
students to become independent in comprehending text structures while improving their
proficiency in academic and professional skills. De Bruin et al, (2015) clearly outlined that reading
comprehension skills help in all areas of academic success and translate into real world abilities
and critical thinking, which are valuable skills a child needs to be successful in both academic and
professional settings. More on that, Meniado (2016), pointed out that a lack of strong reading
comprehension skills affects a child’s success at school, as academic progress depends on
understanding, analysing and applying information gathered through reading. Lack of
understanding makes reading a meaningless activity or simple word calling exercise. It is estimated
that 80% of students experience specific difficulties with reading (Cortiella & Horowitz, 2014).
This simply means of all academic skills, reading is the one which poses the most difficulty for
many students with learning disabilities.
School Factors
Reading comprehension is one of the most essential skills that should be developed and nurtured
in a child at home and in school because it is fundamental to success in academic life and beyond.
Reading is a major problem in the fifth grade as well as the whole school and therefore, more time
is needed to overcome the issue. When we think of reading issues, we often imagine children who
struggle to decode the letters and turn them into spoken language. However, there are many
students who sound like they are reading but have difficulty with understanding vocabulary and
figurative language, interference, verbal reasoning, grammatical development and oral expression.
Lazarus & Ige (2017), reported that students with poor read ing comprehension skills is often
caused by the lack of rich vocabulary and the inability to apply evidence-based reading strategies
during reading.
Most classrooms do not have classroom libraries thus hinder reading comprehension skills.
Classroom libraries help in developing reading skills. Reading comprehension is an important
reading skill that can be developed through easy access to reading materials. The establishment of
classroom libraries quickly increases the availability or reading materials and gives children
continual exposure to books and other printed reading materials. The classroom libraries can be
managed by classroom teachers with close supervision of students with special reading needs like;
encoding and decoding of words and reading comprehension difficulty. More on that it provides a
child- friendly environment where students can easily borrow books to stimulate reading beyond
the classroom (Global Partnership for Education, 2019).

There is an evidence of the link between availability and accessibility of reading materials with
reading habits (Elley,1996). Reading materials include; books, magazines, comics, newspapers,
poetry, pamphlet, posters, charts, story boards and other printed informative sources. The
availability of reading materials and their accessibility create a conducive reading environment
which promotes reading habit (Mokatsi, 2004). If students possess good reading habits, they can
increase their understanding on written text and ultimately have better academic outcomes.
Teacher and Teaching Strategies
Literature revealed that teachers when teaching reading, spend more time focusing on the
mechanical skills of decoding rather than on meaning and comprehension (Verbeek, 2010; Murris,
2014). This implies that learners are disadvantaged by the lack of focus on reading comprehension.
In addition to this, Pretorius and Klapwijk (2016) assert that to be effective reading teachers,
teachers need to have training on how to teach reading using variety of strategies and they need to
be skilled readers themselves who are familiar with different genres of text. Some teachers do not
have the skills or practice different strategies in teaching reading and might give up entirely on
trying to teaching a child to read, and instead simply everything to the child. Moreover, from
literatures and by experience, most teachers do not have enough printed materials displayed or
placed in and around the classrooms. Teachers need to draw students’ attention to printed materials
and fully utilize these prints as young children develop language and literacy skills through
modelling and regular practice. Prado and Plourde (2011), believe that children need to see reading
strategies modelled and be led through guid ed practice before they are given time to practice
independently. More on that, modelling and guided reading practices enhance reading
comprehension (Huang & Nisbet, 2012).
THANK YOU