EXPOSURE TO CONTEXT CLUES AND LEVEL OF COMPREHENSION SKILLS

AMONG SELECTED ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS OF UM PANABO COLLEGE

A THESIS

Presented to

The Faculty of UM Panabo College

Panabo City

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirement of the subject EdRes

(Educational Research)

Clarito, Louela

Landiza, Joana

Ongcoy, Michael

July 9, 2010
 Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING PAGE

Background of the study 1

Statement of the Problem 3

Hypotheses 4

Review of related literature 4

Theoretical and conceptual framework 21

Significant of the Study 23

Definition of term 25

CHAPTER 2

METHOD

Research Design 26

Research Subject 27

Research Instrument 27
 Data gathering procedure 28

Statistical Treatment of the Data 29

REFERENCES
 Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Background of the study

Every individual begins to store schemata in his brain at the time of conception.

This is possible through his traveling experiences, reading activities, and mingling with

other people. But in terms of encountering an unknown terms in reading, this schemata

is not enough to figure out the meaning of it. Then, the use of context clues here is

being signified. Context clues are another way of recognizing the meaning of unfamiliar

words. It also served as “hints” that can be seen within the structure of the word in a

sentence. These hints include pictures, syntax, text format, grammatical constructions,

mode or tone, mechanics and surrounding words that provide synonym, antonym, logic

or examples clues.

And to most of intermediate, middle, high school and college teachers, teaching

context clues means helping students consciously identify and apply strategies to

comprehend the unfamiliar words surrounding the text

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading process).

A wide vocabulary is the key to good reading comprehension. However, if the

context clues are being applied, then the need of consulting the dictionary will be

lessen. So therefore, the use of context clues as a technique in getting the meaning of
difficult word means that the reader should think about, think through and think with all

the words in the sentence or in the paragraph (Baraceros, 2005).

Eventually, the researchers believed that the students will become better reader

when they learn how to unlock word meaning using context clues. And also they expect

to the students that in applying it the need of a dictionary and help from the teacher will

be lessen.

Statement of the problem

The purpose of this study is to determine the extent of the exposure of context

clues and semantic interpretation among the selected English Major students of UMPC.

More specifically, it seeks to the answers of the following:

1. What is the level of exposure of context clues among the English Majors of

UMPC in terms of:

1.1 Synonyms

1.2 Antonyms

1.3 Comparison or analogy

1.4 Sense of the sentence?

2. What is the level of Level of Comprehension Skills in terms of:

2.1 Literal

2.2 Interpretive

2.3 Critical Evaluation

2.4 Integrative

2.5 Creative?

3. Is there a significant difference in exposure of context clues when analyzed by:

3.1Gender?

4. Is there a significant difference in the level of Comprehension Skills when

analyzed by:

4.1Gender?

5. Is there a significant relationship between the exposure of context clues and

Level of Comprehension Skills among the selected English Major students of

UMPC?
Hypothesis

This research used a null hypothesis (Ho) that means a denial of existence of a trait,

quality or value correlation of the study. There are three form related hypothesis based

on this research:

1. There is no significant difference in exposure of context clues when analyzed by

gender?

2. There is no significant difference in the Level of Comprehension Skills when

analyzed by gender?

3. There is no significant relationship between the exposure to context clues and

Level of Comprehension Skills in selected English major students of UM Panabo

College .

Review of Related Literature

This section includes different theory, concepts and other related materials that

will provide a clearer framework to the study.

Context clues
 The first way to figure out the meaning of a word is from its context.

The context is the other words and sentences that are around the new word. When you

figure out the meaning of a word from context, you are making a guess about what the

word means. To do this, you use the hints and clues of the other words and sentences.

You won't always be right, but many times you will be. You might not be able to guess

the exact meaning of a word, but you may be close enough to get the meaning of the

sentence it is in. A basic strategy for unlocking the meaning of an unfamiliar word is to

search the context of the sentence in which a new word appears for clues. Sometimes

this can be easy to do because the author may have provided a definition or

a synonym right there next to or near a term that you can use to unlock its meaning.

A definition is a statement giving the meaning of a word. A synonym is a word that

means almost the same as another.

(http://academic.cuesta.edu/acasupp/AS/511.HTM).

In fact, according to Goerss (1995), a study examined the training of students to

use context clues more effectively. Subjects were five fifth and sixth grade remedial

students identified as low verbal students. The subjects were met with individually for 9

sessions of approximately 30 minutes each, prior to or following the school day. Two

sessions were devoted to testing and seven sessions to training. Between 6 and 12

training items were used in each session and a variety of context types, difficulty level,

function in sentence, and clarity levels were presented. Training tasks consisted of five

steps: read/paraphrase; query/discussion; identification/rationale; other possible word

meanings; and inferences of meaning. Results indicated that all five students improved

on every component--improvement ranged from impressive to dramatic. Qualitative

analysis revealed three situations characteristic of students' initial approaches to

context: limited use of the context; confounding the meaning of the target word with that

of the entire context; and going beyond the limits of meaning set by the context to

hypothesize a situation into which a meaning might fit. Findings suggest that four of the

five students appeared to internalize the training task, as demonstrated by their ability to

think aloud about their own reasoning and correct themselves when they realized their

reasoning was faulty. The training task is a useful tool to help students develop a more

productive process for dealing with contexts. A follow-up study conducted with 16 fifth

grade students yielded similar results and reinforced earlier findings.

In addition, Pennington (2009) states that, to most intermediate, middle, high

school, and college teachers, teaching context clues means helping students

consciously identify and apply strategies to figure out the meaning of unknown words

through hints in the surrounding text. These hints include pictures, syntax, text format,

grammatical constructions, mood or tone, mechanics, and surrounding words that

provide synonym, antonym, logic, or example clues

Many of these teachers would also label the structural analysis of the unknown

word itself as a context clue. Using morphemes (meaningful word parts, such as Greek

and Latinates), syllabication strategies, grammatical inflections, and parts of speech

also can help students figure of the meaning of unknown words. Some teachers would

also include using hints outside of the text, such as prior knowledge or story schema in

their definition and application of context clue strategies.

 Another author, Anderson et al., ( 1995) children's natural learning of word

meanings while reading was investigated in a study involving 447 American and

Chinese children in third and fifth grades. The children read one of two cross-translated

stories and then completed a test on the difficult words in both the story they read and

the one they did not read. The results showed significant incidental learning of word

meanings in both grades in both countries. In each country, incidental word learning

appeared on both easy and difficult test questions and among children of all levels of

ability. For children from both cultures, the strength of contextual support in the stories

and the conceptual difficulty of the words affected learning. The morphological

transparency of words influenced word learning among Chinese fifth graders, but not

among American children in either grade. Considering the many differences between

China and the United States in language and culture, the results imply that incidental

acquisition of word meanings while reading is a universal in written language

development.

Moreover, Fries-Gaither (2008) research tells us that proficient readers use their

own experience as well as the literal text to construct meaning. Yet this process of

making inferences is not an intuitive process. Students need explicit instruction and

opportunities to practice this meaning-making process. Modeling, teacher think-aloud,

and the use of graphic organizers support students as they learn to make inferences.

One way that readers make inferences is by using context clues to figure out the

meaning of an unknown word. By first making a prediction about the unknown word's
meaning and then reading to determine if the context clues found in the text support the

prediction, students can make inferences and develop vocabulary skills.

It is important to note that the strategy of using context clues is not without

limitations. Some sentences provide little context to assist readers in constructing a

working definition. One often-cited example is "We heard the back door open, and then

recognized the buoyant footsteps of Uncle Larry." This sentence provides little helpful

information in determining the meaning of the word buoyant. When teaching students to

use context clues, it is important to discuss examples in which the context is not

meaningful and provide alternative strategies, such as consulting a dictionary. Use the

following resources to build your knowledge of the process of making inferences and

using context clues. Several resources are indicated as also suitable for use with your

students.

Furthermore, in this naturalistic study of 2nd, 4th, and 6th grade students Josephine

Goldsmith-Phillips put to test Stanovich's Interactive-Compensatory Model. The test

relies on an oral reading error analysis technique which has been said to yield the best

potential to measure the importance of word and contextual based language cues

(Goldsmith-Phillips J., 1989). The students were given one narrative passages and one

science passage that were at a low frustration level with a 90% accuracy rate. The

children read individually to an examiner who taped the readings for later analysis. The

results of the analysis are presented in the diagram below. There are three distinct

factors. Factor 1 is labeled context factor which include semantic network, syntactic

acceptability, semantic acceptability and meaning changes. Looking at the diagram it is

at this stage that you find both the second and fourth grade arrows strong because of

the students' initially attempt to make sense of the word using context clues. Factor 2,

comprehension monitoring contains correction and regression. At this stage the second

grade arrow is growing weaker; this is where the student gives up trying to correctly

decode the word or the attempts they are making don’t make use of any particular

strategy. On the other hand the 4th and 6th grade arrows are still very strong. This is

where good readers will make various attempts to decode the word and in most cases

either guesses correctly after using effective comprehension strategies or come very

close to getting the right answer. The last factor is factor 3 decoding which contain

both phonemic similarity and graphic similarity. It is at this point that the interactive-

compensatory model is most supported in its theory that good readers use effective

decoding strategies. It is at this factor that students have the data-driven abilities

necessary to work through phonemic correspondences of unknown words rather than

relying on a more time-consuming strategy of guessing word identities from

context (Goldsmith-Phillips J., 1989).

As a result, the readers use information from text to decipher unfamiliar words.

They examine clues from the selection to define unfamiliar words and phrases. They

first doing it by making predictions about the unknown word’s meaning and then

reading it to dtermine if the context clues found in the text support the prediction. And

it is important to know that the strategy of using context clues is not without

limitations. Some sentences provide little context to assist readers in constructing a

working definition. One often-cited example is “ We heard the back door open, and

then recognized the bouyant footsteps of uncle Larry”. This sentence provides little
 helpful information in determining the meaning of the word bouyant. When teaching

students to use context clues, it is important to disscuss examlpes in which the

context is not meaningful and provide alternatives strategies, such as consulting a

dictionary. Use the following resources to build your knowledge of the process of

making inferences and using context clues. Several resources are indicated as also

suitable for use with your students.

Synonyms.

Some lexicographers claim that no synonyms have exactly the same meaning (in

all contexts or social levels of language) because etymology, orthography, phonic

qualities, ambiguous meanings, usage, etc. make them unique. Different words that are

similar in meaning usually differ for a reason: feline is more formal than cat; long and

extended are only synonyms in one usage and not in others (for example, a long arm is

not the same as an extended arm). Synonyms are also a source of euphemisms. The

purpose of a thesaurus is to offer the user a listing of similar or related words; these are

often, but not always, synonyms. Synonyms occur when two words have the same

meaning, or nearly the same, and can be substituted for each other; for example, ‘catch’
means much the same as ‘capture’, while ‘animal’ means something like ‘beast’. Thus, if

the original author wrote ‘he caught the animal’, you can paraphrase this as ‘he

captured the beast’. "The search for synonyms is a well-established classroom exercise,

but it as well to remember that lexemes rarely (if ever) have exactly the same meaning.

There are usually stylistic, regional, emotional, or other differences to consider . . . Two

lexemes might be synonymous in one sentence but different in

another: range and selection are synonyms in what a nice - of furnishings, but not in

there’s mountain side -."

(David Crystal, How Language Works. Overlook, 2006)

Vocabulary is an important part of nearly any subject. Students need to develop their
vocabulary base to fully communicate and comprehend a topic. As they learn how to
use more vocabulary properly, you will see an improvement in their writing and
speaking. The default way of explaining vocabulary is to give a definition, but this does
not always work efficiently because of the lack of context clues. Synonyms can be
effective since they build on words and phrases that students already recognize.
Adjectives often have several symptoms, and phrasal verbs will usually have a non-
phrasal verb equivalent. Use caution that you do imply that all the words have exactly
the same meaning, since different words often are used for different connotations or to
imply different meanings.

http://www.worksheetlibrary.com/teachingtips/teachingvocabularywords.html

Teaching noun synonyms and verb synonyms will give students a tool to make the best
word choice for their writing. Word choice is imperative in a polished piece of writing.
Students need to learn to evaluate their words and the power or lack of power it has on
their writing. Synonyms are a wonderful aid to finding the best word choice for any piece
of writing.

http://lesson-plans-materials.suite101.com/article.cfm/lesson-plans-on-noun-and-ver
Antonyms

In lexical semantics, opposites are words that lie in an inherently incompatible

binary relationship as in the opposite pairs male: female, long: short, up: down, and

precede: follow… (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonyms).

The notion of incompatibility here refers to fact that one word in an opposite pair entails

that it is not the other pair member. For example, something that is long entails that it is

not short. It is referred to as a 'binary' relationship because there are two members in a

set of opposites. The relationship between opposites is known as opposition. A member

of a pair of opposites can generally be determined by the question what is the opposite

of X? The term antonym (and the related antonymy) has also been commonly used as a

term that is synonymous with opposite; however, the term also has other more

restricted meanings. One usage has antonym referring to both gradable opposites, such

as long: short, and (non-gradable) complementary opposites, such as male: female,

while opposites of the types up: down and precede: follow are excluded from the

definition. A third usage (particularly that of the influential Lyons 1968, 1977) defines the

term antonym as referring to only gradable opposites (the long: short type) while the

other types are referred to with different terms. Therefore, as Crystal (2003) warns, the

terms antonymy and antonym should be regarded with care. Though the word antonym
was only coined by philologists in the 19th century, such relationships are a

fundamental part of a language, in contrast to synonyms, which are a result of history

and drawing of fine distinctions, or homonyms, which are mostly etymological accidents

or coincidences.

Languages often have ways of creating antonyms as an easy extension of

lexicon. For example, English has the prefixes in- and un-, so unreal is the antonym of

real and indocile is of docile. Some planned languages abundantly use such devices to

reduce vocabulary multiplication. Esperanto has mal- (compare bona = "good" and

malbona = "bad"), Damin has kuri- (tjitjuu "small", kuritjitjuu "large") and Newspeak has

un- (as in ungood, "bad"). Linguists identify three types of antonymy: (1) Gradable

antonyms, which operate on a continuum: (very) big, (very) small. Such pairs often

occur in binomial phrases with and: (blow) hot and cold, (search) high and low. (2)

Complementary antonyms, which express an either/or relationship: dead or alive, male

or female. (3) Converse or relational antonyms, expressing reciprocity: borrow or lend,

buy or sell wife or husband." (Tom McArthur, "Antonym," The Oxford Companion to the

English Language. Oxford Univ. Press, 1992). In comedy, antonym pairs need not fit the

dictionary definition of an antonym perfectly. As long as the suggestion of an opposite is

inferred, the humor can work. 'This administration brags that it has developed a new

balance of trade: Young people go south of the border to buy drugs, and senior citizens

go north of the border to buy drugs.'" (Mel Helitzer and Mark Shartz, Comedy Writing

Secrets. Writer's Digest Books, 2005).

Level of comprehension
Comprehension skills

Comprehension skill is the ability to use previously acquired information to constructs

meaning for a given text. The best source of information are books and other printed
materials and these will require reading and though these they’ll be able to comprehend
the sentence. Comprehension is one of the most crucial areas of reading assessment
Modern teaching journal 2000

Pearson (2001) cited that what a person reads that he usually understand, is

functionally literate. Beyond the recognition of letter and words is the knowledge and

understand that the leader must bring to the written words to be able make sense of

them. The message is clear- the most important thing about oral reading is

comprehension. It is difficult and often confusing process, a challenging task for a

teacher. He added that reading comprehension is an interactive process involving the

reader, the next, and the context.

Moreover, comprehension in reading has historically been measured through

examining students oral responses to questions but reading selections examining these

responses may offer useful in sight into their reading ability as well as their ability to

think about the meaning of the text

(http/www.nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/studies/ors/components.gsp).

Julian (2002) noted that comprehension is a complex process which involves

meaning and understanding. I f a reader comprehends a writer text, he must know what

the next means and he must be able to understand what is written. It is how the

students understand the meaning not only of the single word and sentence also of the

interrelationship among sentences. It also involves full grasps of the author’s, making
judgments, predicting outcomes, sequencing events, drawing conclusions following

directions, and finding cause and effect (Alcantara et.al.,1996).

Togerson (2002) cited that comprehension ability and word identification skills. It

must include the assessment of student reading skills and remediation in area of skill

deficit.

As Block et.al.2003 cited that reading is searching for a seeking to create an

understanding of what is being read, thus, it is a creative experience around

comprehension. A reader does not suddenly comprehend what is being read or studied

in a snap miraculously comprehension needs to be worked, forged by those who read.

There is necessarily a relationship between the level of control in a book and the

reader’s actual level of development or comprehension. The comprehension of what is

read is tied to this relationship strategies in which they summaries, generate questions,

retell stories or other content, aid learn to monitor their own comprehension.

In addition, comprehension is the process of understanding and constructing

meaning from a text passage, reading comprehension difficulties become most

apparent. It may also be affected by reader’s familiarity with the subject matter, the

difficulty of the text, among other factors (http/www.readingsuccesslab.com//reading

comprehension.html).

Espejo (2001) also stressed that reading with comprehension is the key to unlock

the door of greater and better opportunities.

 Meanwhile, Castigador (2004) cited five levels of comprehension, which are

literal, Inferential, critical, integrative and creative comprehension.

Tagadiad 2006 cited that comprehension is a part o reading process. The reader must
know not only the meaning when combined in phrases, sentences, and longer
groupings. It is also the ability to create meaning from a text.

Literal Comprehension

Literal Comprehension. Guthrie 1997 stated that literal comprehension understanding of

surface meaning or ideas that are explicitly stated in the reading materials. It requires
simple recall and recognition of facts. It is concerned specific information and sequence
of ideas.

Castigador 2004 explained further that literal comprehension is the basic understanding
of reading materials manifested by knowledge of details that are directly stated in the
text.

According to Webb 2002, literal comprehension is understanding of text presented and

often consist of verbatim recall from a text or simple understanding of a single word or
phrase which requires students to receive or recite facts or to use simple skills or
abilities.

It has also been described that literal comprehension means to understand facts
or ideas, which convey exact meanings (The Learning Skills Lab, 2001). It also entails
recognizing information and ideas presented explicitly in passages.

Literal comprehension requires a student to recognize details or fats, a sequence of

events, a comparative relationship, or the referent for which a word or group of words
has been substituted in the passage /http;//www.gsv.ed.2004/

Literal comprehension involves the use of number of cognitive skills. at this manner,
skilled readers automatically recognize letters and words, and they automatically
activate and settle on a specific meaning of word or
words(http;//www.readingsuccesslab.com//readingomprehension.html).

Literal

According to Castigador ( 2007) that literal comprehension is the most basic level of
understanding and is the first step in the complex process of reading comprehension.
For instance, watching a favorite movie would not be enjoyable and complete until you
know the important information such as the character, what the character did, what
happened, how the movie happened, and other important related to the film. Similarly,
you need to get information that would you with the important details in understanding a
reading material.

In addition, literal comprehension is directed at the author’s words and how you
understand hem. The basic skill one has to develop is to be able to understand the
meaning of the text from the given facts, vocabulary, dates, time, location and
character.

Interpretive

According to Castigador ( 2007), interpretive comprehension requires higher order

thinking skills because it involves finding information that is not explicitly stated in, but
are suggested by the text. It entails referring ideas from the text. This may also be
called “ reading between the lines”. This is because as you read something, you derive
some insights or ideas in relation to what you are reading.

For instance, if you are reading a passage that describes a lady who is wearing a
ragged and almost worn-out dress, perhaps you may conclude that she is poor and
uneducated. So while the terms “ poor” and “ uneducated” were not written to describe
the woman in the passage, you were able to draw these inferences by reading between
the lines.

This is very important in understanding because effective reading and learning for that
matter, is not simply knowing the passage but also making inferences out of what you
have understood.

Inferential comprehension; on the other hand, according to Krantz and Kimmelman

2002, inferential level of comprehension is done through putting details together and
sensing relationship that are not explicitly expressed but merely implied by the author is
an important aspect or reading called inferences. They also added that most of the
reading a person do each day, readers of printed media or non-verbal signs and
symbols require the ability to infer. Our daily survival spends on our ability to infer.

Inferential comprehension is explicitly stated that in the text to identify implied

meanings. Readers at this level hypothesize or conjecture based on information, logic,
and personal experiences (Rivera 1998)
Study further revealed that when reading a piece of given information, the reader must
decide whether a previous concept is indeed being referred to. To make inferences,
readers mentally highlight information that they might need later in order to link
concepts. Efficient readers remember enough that don’t have to continually search back
in text to link new sentences to previous information. They retain every single detail or
generate specific hypothesis at every turn (scientific learning, 1999-2006).

Inferential level also involves higher level cognitive process such as relating what you
are reading to what you already know, and creating inferential bridges to span between
things that are written and things that your experience tells you must be true (reading
success lab, 2004-2006). It also means understanding the possibility of other meanings
in addition to literal interpretations. Without the ability to interpret inferentially, much
poetry and literature makes little or no sense at all.

Theoretical and conceptual framework

This part of researchers’ manuscript is the theory which we anchored our studies:

Our study is anchored to the theory of Kintsch and Van Dijk (Van Dijk & Kintsch,

1983). This theory describes the complete reading process, from recognizing words

until constructing a representation of the meaning of the text. The emphasis of the

theory is on understanding the meaning of a text. Kintsch continued working on the

theory. In 1988, it was extended with the so-called construction-integration model

(Kintsch, 1988), followed by a completely updated theory in 1998 (Kintsch, 1998). This

theory is often used as a starting point for constructing own models and theories, which

several authors have done.

When a reader reads a text, an "understanding" of the text is created in the reader's

mind. The process of constructing a situation model is called the "comprehension

process". Kintsch and Van Dijk assume that readers of a text build three different mental

representations of the text: a verbatim representation of the text, a semantic

representation that describes the meaning of the text and a situational representation of

the situation to which the text refers. The propositional representation consists initially of

a list of propositions that are derived from the text. After having read a complete

sentence, this list of propositions is transformed into a network of propositions. If the

text is coherent, all nodes of the network are connected to each other. The situational

representation is comparable with the mental models described by Johnson-Laird. Text

comprehension can be improved by instruction that helps readers use specific

comprehension strategies. (Source: Chun, M. (1997). Research on text comprehension

in multimedia environment, Language Learning & Technology 1 (1): 60-81.)

Conceptual framework

The conceptual model systematically presents the variables of the study. The

independent variable is exposure to context clues with its indicators which are

synonyms which means a word that has the same meaning, antonyms which means a

word that has opposite meaning, comparison or analogy which means knowing the

similarities and differences of a certain word, sense of the sentence which means the

thought of the sentence. The dependent variable is level of comprehension skills and its

indicator the literal which means the meanings are found out in the dictionary,

interpretive which means the deeper understanding of a meaning more than just a

simple meaning, critical evaluation which means the students can create a judgment

based on what he read, integrative which means and creative which means the student

can apply and construct out from what he understand.

Moderator

 L e v

Independent variable

Context clues

▪synonyms

▪antonyms
 Figure 1 shows the different

variables with its indicator.

Significance of the study

The essence of this study is to

provide essentials and helpful

insights to the following:

Teachers- this study will contribute

another strategy to the teachers and

new insights on what are the things

they should focus and give consider

to lessen the hardships of the

students when it comes to

encountering unfamiliar terms in

reading or during class discussion.

Students- the students will be

learned how to interpret the difficult

terms without looking in the

dictionary and they will appreciate

and get excited to discover more

uneasy terms through learning and

using context clues.

Administration/ Program Heads-

through this study they will be able

to plan or formulate an activity or

program that will strengthen and

boost the students’ interest in

encountering new words.

Chapter 2

Method

Includes in this chapter are

the research design, research

subject, research instrument, the

data gathering procedure and the

statistical treatment of data.

Research Design

The study will employs the

descriptive- correlation method. It

needs to determine the relationships

among two or more variables and

sought to investigate the extent to

which one or more relationships or

type exist (Fraenkel 2003). In wholly

view, it is descriptive because it

deals on the present condition with

the purpose of finding new truth that

may have different forms of new

generation. It is also descriptive

because it assayed the learning of

exposure to context clues and the

level of comprehension skills among

the selected English major students.

It was also a correlation research

because it determined the

relationship between the

independent variable, exposure to

context clues, and the dependent

variable which was the level of

comprehension skills.
Research Subject

This study will particularly

concerned to the selected English

major students of UM Panabo

College who were enrolled in the 1st

term, 1st semester, S.Y. 2010- 2011.

Table 1

Distribution of Respondents

Year level

2nd year
3rd year
Total
Research Instrument

This

research study made use of the

descriptive method. A questionnaire

was given for determining the level

of comprehension skills in relation to

learning context clues. The result of

the test is a basis if they really pass

the subject as their performance is

concerned.

This

scale was applied to both of the

variables:

Scale Descriptive

Equivalent

Interpretation

8.10- 10.00

Excellent This

means that the

 students

got

a score of 9- 10 out of 10

items

6.10- 8.00 Above

Average This

means that the students

got the score of 7- 8 out

of 10 items

4.10- 6.00

Average This

means that the students got the

score of 5- 6 out of 10 items

2.10- 4.00 Below

Average This means

that the students got the score of 3-

 4 out of 10 items

1.00- 2.00 Poor

This means that the

students got the score of 1- 2 out of

10 items

Data Gathering Procedure

These

were the procedures followed by the

researchers in gathering the data of

this study:

1. Preparation for the

research instrument.

The

validated researchers- made

questionnaire was administered

to the respondents.

2. Seeking permission to

conduct the study.

Letters of

Permission were submitted by

the researchers to the Director of

UM Panabo College and to the

individual subject teachers as

well. The researchers were

coordinated also with the subject

teacher and personally

conducted the test to the

respondents.

3. Selection of Research

Respondents.

One of
the most essential steps in the

study was the selection of

respondents. The researchers

were selected the 1st year, 2nd

year, and 3rd year English Major

Students of UM Panabo College

Panabo City . Table 1 presents

the distribution of respondents.

4. Administration of the test

questionnaires.

Questionnaires were

administered in a day scheduled

by subject teacher during the

subject class time.

5. Collection of Data.

The Data

was checked, tailed, classified,

and submitted to the statisticians

for computation, tabulation and

interpretation.

Statistical Treatment of the

Data

In interpreting the

result of our study, we used this

kind of statistical tools:

Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).

This was used to determine the

significant difference of

Exposure to Context Clues and

Semantic Interpretation when

analyzed by level.

Product Moment Correlation

Coefficient (Pearson r). This

tool was used to determine the

relationship between Exposure

to Context Clues and Semantic

Interpretation.