CONTENTS

Chapter Title Page

No No.
I. INTRODUCTION 2
II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 15
III. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM. 20
OBJECTIVES, HYPOTHESES AND
VARIABLE
IV. METHODS OF INVESTIGATION 24
V. PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND 30
INTERRETTION OF DATA
VI. SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS 36
BIBLOGRAPHY 41
APPENDICES
i) Tool adopted for the study
ii) Key to Questionnaire
iii) Certificates from the Heads of
schools related for the study
Chapter – I

Introduction
 CHAPTER – I
INTRODUCTION
IMPORTANCE OF READING

It was some three hundred and fifty years ago that Francis Bacon
wrote. "Reading makes a full man, conference a ready man and writing
an exact man". This aphorism still holds good, even though work
technological advances have brought in many new media of communication.

Reading unifies the related language arts of writing, listening and

spearing. What is written is read and what is read is discussed. Reading thus
integrates and affects the nature and quality of oral and written language.

Reading unifies the related language arts of writing, listening and

spearing. What is written is read and what is read is discussed. Reading thus
integrates and affects the nature and quality of oral and written language.

Reading permeates curriculum and is a major source of knowledge in

every subject field. Therefore, instruction
. in reading becomes an integral

part of instructional experience in every subject.

Reading is an essential aid to personal development and social

progress. It is an indispensable factor in modern culture interwoven with
work, recreation and other personal and social activities of man and woman.

Reading influences emotional growth for educational. Adjustment and

reading achievement bear a significant positive correlation. So the mental
health of children can be developed through reading habits among them.

1
Definitions:
1. Reading is getting meaning from the printed page." Reading skill is a
complex ability and includes visual perception, visual discrimination,
auditor 1, material, linguist ability and capacity for the detailed
analysis of the structure of individual words."
- Lee
2. “There are four main components in the reading act. 1. Word perception.
2. Comprehension of ideas represented by the words 2. Reaction to
these ideas with the previous knowledge of experience. These four steps
are interdependent in a Meaningful use of reading as a problem solving
tool”
- Gray
3. “Reading behavior is characterized by the following special features: 1.
Receiving Communication 2. Making discriminative responses to
graphic symbols 3. Decoding graphic symbols to speech and 4.
Obtaining meaning from the printed page”.
- Gibson
4. “Reading is the process of seeing or perceiving items, of observing and
assimilating their inter relationship and of integrating or grouping them
into main ideas”.
- Shaw
5. “Reading is regarded as a manifold process that involves associating
words with Meanings and letter sounds with the printed symbols.
- Roth strange
6. “Reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game”.
- Kenneth Goodman
By this it is clear that reading is an interactive process between the reader
and the author through the graphic symbols.

2
1.2 ORIGIN OF READING:

The origin of written and printed symbols has its origin in the remote past,
when man first began to use pictures and others characters to transmit messages
and to record events.

The transition from picture writing to the use of letters e presenting

specific sounds came very slowly and as a result of great efforts. As early as
twenty five centuries ago however the Egyptians has analyzed words and
syllabus not sounds and had developed a series of symbols to represent them
though he ingenuity of the Phoenician alphabet ·from ·with developed in turn,
he speech letters and the Roman alphabet.

As the art of writing and reading improve, they acquired an increasingly

board and significant place in the social life and educational programmers of
the more advanced nations. In Greece, for example reading was school
subject of great importance long before battle of Marathon 490 B.C. In a large
part of the world however, the use of reading spread slowly among the masses

1.3 READING A COGNITIVE PROCESS:

Reading is externally guided thinking (Neisser 1967). Readers must rely

on the content and style set by the author. In interpreting words, sentence and
paragraphs the readers must bring their previous knowledge to bear on new
knowledge and to the task of integrating both.

Reading is a cognitive ability end in this cognitive ability there are

different levels. Reading for understanding is the first level ability in which the
reader simply encodes the graphemes into morphemes and understanding and
"accepts" the information, its denotative sense. At higher levels the reader
interprets evaluates the material read and infers from what is read, other implied

3
information.

The presents study focuses on the cognitive reading - ability of the

students in the higher secondary schools and seeks to develop strategies for the
promotion of reading ability in them.

1.4 LEARNING TO READ AND READING TO LEARN:

Learning to re d starts with identification and deciphering of graphemes,

phonemes and morphemes. The student first learns to read and after gaining
skill in reading he reads to learn to learn higher cognitive abilities.

Reading to learn implies moving to higher levels of reading, from

reading for comprehension, to ·reading for interpretation and inference creative
reading is also possible when the readers learns information from the lines,
through the lines, between the line and beyond the lines read and thanks use of
information in getting or saying something new that has not been expressed in
the passage read explicit y or implicitly. Learning to read, therefore, should
cultivate· reading to learn if the reader wants to put reading to the maximum
possible use.

1.6 THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF READING

Reading is a complex mill and a number of factors influence the reading

ability of a person. Reading implies inferring meaning from the graphic symbols
that one reds and this process of inference includes biological, psychological
and cultural aspects which form the foundations of reading.

A. Physiology of Reading:

Seeing is active process in reading and an important aspect of this activity is eye

4
movement i.e., movements of the eye boll and vision.

The movements of the eye balls ore port of the person's active
searching for more information. Eye movements are not specific to reading but
reader makes use of the general e.ye movement abilities to the task or reading.

The processes are the means- by which people the vision on some object
to obtain more information about it. There are two neurological mechanisms
involved in the control of information

Voluntary mechanisms which are used to move one's eyes at will to seek
out something upon which one desires to one's vision, and the involuntary
mechanism which automatically loc s the eyes on the object when it has been
found

This indicates that reading is active searching in which the movements of

the eyes serve the purpose of location appropriate data to increase available
information.

B. Psychology of Reading:

Reading has integrated perceptive from cognitive psychology, linguistics,

cognitive clarity language awareness, schema and cognitive process in reading.

Cognitive clarity refers to clear thinking, clear understanding, reasoning

needed for skill acquisition and problem solving.

According to Vernon when there is a general failure in the development

of reasoning process or a failure to analyze the abstract and generalize linguistic

5
material, that condition is cognitive confusion.

In learning to read children should have clear concept of a "word" and of

a "sentence'' and should be aware of their constituent parts of phonemes,
syllables and phrases

C. Language awareness and skills:

According to Nom Chomsky "language is an abstraction of rules to express

the mind and the children’s cognition of language as a means to express .ideas
(Fillmore) relate to language awareness". Language awareness involves the
monitoring, control and repair of general reflection on language. Language
awareness is a "meta-cognition. It implies reflective abilities, general
development of consciousness.

Language is the chief medium of communication. In learning any language

there are four stages they are:
1. Listening 2. Speaking 3. Reading 4. Writing
Though reading constitutes the third stage often it is of primary importance.
Reading conquers the limitations of space and time thus reading s ills involve.
2. Receiving communication
3. Making discriminative responses to graphic symbols.
4. Decoding graphic sills to -speeches and getting meaning from the printed
page.

1.7 READING COMPREHENSION:

As emphasized in this study comprehension ability is the basic s ill in all

reading. Comprehension depends upon grasping word meanings, grouping.
Words into unitary thought complexes to that sentences and paragraphs.

6
 Reading comprehension requires perceptual foundations and
phonological segmentation, ·but also requires sensitivity to and flexible use of
the structures inherent in the material read and also sensitivity to retention of
content which will permit influence o points not directly expressed in the
material.

According to Francoise Grellet Reading comprehension is understanding

a written text".

Understanding a written text means extracting. The required information

from it as efficiently as possible.

According to Gray understanding is at three levels. "First, the purely

literal responding to the graphic signals only with little depth of understanding,
the second level at which the reader recognizes the author's meaning and the
third level where the reader own personal experiences and judgments influence
his response to the text".

Literally comprehension means holding together. Reading

comprehension means that the readers hold together in his mind the elements
of meaning coded by a writer into print.

A. Components of comprehension :

There are three components in comprehension;

1. Laxical access 2. Sentence comprehension and 3. Understanding.
Lexical access involves locating a lexical item in the mental dictionary and
selecting an appropriate meaning.

7
 In sentence comprehension the reader integrates the word meaning into a
representation for the entire sentence syntactic, semantic and factual
information are involved in sentence comprehension.

In text understanding readers organize the representation of individual

sentences into textual structures. Readers tie together the sentence of a text into
a coherent representation or text base.

B. Comprehending strategies:

Following are the general comprehending strategies at different levels of

processing.
1. Grapho-phonic level which predicts uncommon spelling patterns,
patterns, dialectical variations, foreign language words and phrases,
graphic variation, print variations, format variations.
2. Syntactic level which predicts grammatical function and confirming the
punctuation marks in the passage and repeated substitutions.
3. Semanic level which predicts content and organization, piot sequence of
events, meaning etc. These can be developed through reading
techniques such as skimming, scanning, respective reading, search
reading and receptive reading.

1.8 PACTORS INFLUENCING READING COMPREHENSION:

There are two sets of factors influencing reading comprehension. The fir.st
set pertains to experimental subject, and the second set to the material presented
for comprehension.
1. Factors relating to the experimental subject:
a. Adequately Functioning perceptive and cognitive faculty.
b. Sufficient prior experience related to the coded massages

8
 c. Knowledge of the code of the message and
d. Motivation purpose and interest.
2. Factors relating to reading material:
a. The degree of perceptibility of the coded message.
b. The adequacy and completeness of the coding system.
c. Readability or general comprehensibility and
d. The writer's unstated meanings.

1.9 DIFFICULTIES IN READING COMPREHENSION:

A. Characteristics of a poor Reader
The major characteristics of poor reader are as follows.
1. Inability to read effectively.
2. Inability to identify words.
3. Inability to interpret words in the terms of ideas
4. Inability to evaluate ideas.
5. Alphabet confusions.
6. Inadequate to do satisfactory academic work
7. Limited rate of reading
8. Failure to enjoy reading activities.
9. Lack of interest in books.
10.Inadequate use .of library poor reading sometimes may be influenced by
a. Inadequate experimental background
b. Inadequate language background and
c. Inadequate maturation
Reading disability restricts the adolescent development. A reading
disability or severe retardation in reading has the same profound influence on
educational growth as a severe emotional involvement.

9
 Repeated academic failures caused to reading inability may give rise to
the feelings of inferiority and frustration. Failure in reading may cause
emotional problems and educational disabilities from the same underlying
causes.
Rabinovitch (1959) defines reading retardation as reading
achievement two or more years below the metal age obtain on performance
tests.

The causes of reading disability can never be pinpointed accurately.

They are complex often obscure and always interrelated.

B. Causes for slow reading:

a. The slow reader and also a poor - reader is word - bound that is
taking the words one at the time, rather in groups.
b. The habit of pointing at the words with finger or pencil.
c. The habit of moving the head from side to side rather than using
eye movement. Vocalization mouthing the words audibly
using lip movements. Sub vocalization - pronouncing the
words mentally but not audibly.
d. Perceiving only one word per eye vision.
e. Regression or backward eye movement along a line.

10. NEED FOR THE STUDY:

Reading is one of such basic skills which have been neglected in our
schools. The success of ·any individual in the study of any school subject is
dependent upon. The extent-to which his reading determines the rate learning.
The inability of the students to read well both qualitatively and quantitatively is
common point of criticism.

10
 Before formulating any programme for improvement of reading skills, it is
essential to know the present condition of the students and their abilities to
comprehend. This investigation ·is an attempt to measure the reading speed and
comprehension of the high school students in English. Such a study will be
helpful in identifying the basic factors of the problem.

The purpose of the present’s investigation is .to find out the reading
comprehension level of the pupil5. There are several variable like parents
education level,· occupation of the parents, gender and achievement !n English
which affect Reading comprehension. An attempt was made to Study all
these variables and their relationships to Reading comprehension to suggest
suitable remedial measures.

11
Chapter – II

Review of
Related Literature
 CHAPTER-II
A REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Review of literature widens knowledge, deepens understanding and

builds up ideas and insights for better perspective and therefore is an
essential aspect of research.

The review in this chapter focuses on various researches undertaken on the topic
"reading" and “comprehension”. These studies are classified into different
aspects of reading such as reading comprehension, reading speed, reading
programmers, factors influencing reading ability, poor and good readers etc

Reading Comprehension:

Studies which focused on reading comprehension in terms of factors

influencing or contributing · to reading comprehension are reviewed in his
section.

1. Dewell, Barbara Hac Miller (1980) suggested that newspaper can act
as a positive motivational instructional tools.

2. Wiolliam ( 981) indicated that reading attitudes can be predicted from the
type of the school and resources.

3. Sadoski (1980) suggested a sever. weel:? pilot . programme of sustained

Silent Reading in developing reading attitudes with high school students.

12
4. Renugoswami (1981) revealed that reading interest and comprehension
are related to intelligence, language development and academic
achievement.

5. Edfeldt (1975) indicated that a good reader is capable of adjusting his

reading behaviour to the demands of any text and any reading situation
where m the poor reader is not, will often stick to one and the same rate
of ·reading even if the degree of difficulty of the text .changes which
affects reading comprehension.

6. Gordon Peterson (1980) reveled that Different comprehension skill

exists in word identification and comprehension better readers process
larger units that do the poorer readers, there are a limited number of
distinguishable reading comprehension s ills; cognitive development is
important in reading comprehension; socio-economic factors have an
important affect on reading comprehension.

7. Urmila Vyas (I976) found that the impact of sex, age and educational
level of the pupils have significant effect on their creativity and
insignificant effect with regard to parents educational level, economic
status and occupation.

8. Lira Juan (I980) suggested predicting, locating, organizing,

remembering and evaluating textual material as offering a sound
theoretical framework on which to base active comprehension instruction.

9. Clary, Linda Brown (I980) discussed the importance of meta cognition

to the process of critical reading specially in two areas namely reading for
meaning which involves meta cognitive activity of comprehension

13
 monitoring, reading for remembering which includes identifying
important Ideas, testing one's mastery of material developing effective
study strategies and allocating study time appropriately.

10.Pratta and Wiker (I983) revealed that the impulsivity in responding

appears to function primarily as a relatively specific respondence
tendency, influencing the child's use of comprehension monitoring skills
under certain conditions.

11.The study of Varghese N.V. and Govinda R. (I993) had shown that
within the giver. Contexts, school practices such as the way the curricular
was transacted and the pedagogical practices influenced student
achievement.

12.Kramarski et at., (2001) language Acquisition (Bialystok and Ryan,

(1985) and Reading comprehension (Ring, 1994 salmon et al., 1989.

13.Metacognitive approach has pervaded the field of learning difficulty too.

Research studies of Warner et al., (I982) and Wong I982 reported that
the Reading disabilities children had deficit metacognitive awareness and
executive functioning.

14.Metacognition has generated a new orientation for remedial instruction

especially for students with special needs (Gerber and Hall, I98I;
Kopfer;I993)

14
 15.Metacognitive research has opened up new vistas to develop coping of
behaviour to failure and also to tone up constructivism in the learners
(Cullen and Boersma, I982;Reddy and Shantha kumari; 2002)

16.Beitchman and Young I997, Shanti et al I999· Wicullcutt and

Pennington 2000. Grigorennko 200I, Montagul, Metal 200I, and
Rangaswami 2005), found that 80 of children have reading problem

Conclusion:
Review of these abstracts show that reading rate and comprehension,
reading interest, reading and intelligence, reading readiness, sex differences in
reading, personality factors related to reading are some of the areas in which
research has been conducted.

As yet no special attempts have been made in our country to identify the
causes for poor reading ability of pupils in English. This investigation was taken
up as an attempt to study the causes for poor reading ability in English among
the pupils of VIII standard and individual case histories were studied in depth
according their low achievement.

15
Chapter – III

Statement of the problem

Objective Hypotheses &
Variables
 CHAPTER - III
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM,
HYPOTHESE AND VARIABLES

3.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

The present investigation is designed to study the "Factors Influencing

Reading Comprehension in English of VIII class students".

- The investigation is intended to know the reading comprehension ability

of the VIII class students. It- aims to find out whether there is a relationship
between study habits of students and their reading comprehension. It
is also study the influence of certain factors likes Gender Locality, Parents
occupation etc., on reading.

3.2 FACTORSINCLUDEDINTHESTUDY:

So many .factors influencing the reading comprehension of English are:

1. Gender
2. Locality
3. Economic status
4. Parent1s occupation
5. Father's qualification
6. Mother's qualification
7. Reading activities
8. Home reading facilities
9. School reading facilities

16
3.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The study is conducted by the having the following objectives:

1. To measure the reading comprehension ability of the pupils of VIII class
in English.
2. To know the factors that influences the reading comprehension of VIII
class pupils in English.
3. To examine the gender difference in reading comprehension of VIII class
pupils in English
4. To examine the impact of locality on Reading comprehension of VIII
doss pupils in English.

3.4 HYPOTHESES:

The present investigation is designed to study the following hypotheses:

1. There .is no significant difference in the mean scores of reading
comprehension between boys and girls.
2. There is no significant difference between the reading comprehension
scores of students residing in urban and rural area.
3. There is no significant difference between the reading comprehensions
of the students belonging Govt. and Private Schools.

3.5 SAMPLE

The sample of the present study, comprising of 86 students selected

random from among s VIII high schools in MAHABOOB NAGAR Mandal,
MAHABOOB NAGAR District, T.S Out of total sample were boys and were
girls, both from urban and rural areas From each school 12 boys and 12 girls
were taken. The sample was drawn only among the students of VIII Standard

17
3.6 TOOLS:

The following tools were used in the study:

1. Reading Comprehension Test: Reading comprehension of the pupils
was measured by employing the English comprehension test which
consists of 50 vocabulary comprehension questions and 50 passage
comprehension questions.
2. Personal Data Sheet: Personal data sheet was designed and given to the
pupils to collect data on the variables and hypothesis included in the
study.
3. RESUME OF THE SUCCEEDING CHAPTERS:
Chapter II: It contains a review of related research studies in the
area of reading. Both researches carried out abroad and in
India are described.

Chapter III: It contains Statements of Problem, Hypotheses and

Variables are Described.

Chapter IV: The methods ·of study details of the investigation, sample
selected statistical techniques used in the study in are
described.

Chapter V: It contains the presentation analysis interpretation of data.

Chapter VI: A summary of the findings, conclusions drawn out of the

result Recommendations and suggestions for further
Study are given.

18
Chapter – IV

Methods of
Investigation
 CHAPTER – IV
METHODS OF INVESTIGATION

In this chapter objective, hypotheses, methods in designing the

experiment, sample selected for investigation, variables considered, tools used ·
for collecting the data and the procedure adopted for analysis of the data are
discussed.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The study is conducted by the having the following objectives:

1. To measure the reading comprehension ability of the pupils of VIII
class in English.
2. To know the factors that influences the reading comprehension of the
pupils of VIII in English.
3. To examine the gender difference in reading comprehension of VIII
class students in English.
4. To examine the impact of locality of Reading comprehension of the
pupils of VIII Class in English.

HYPOTHESE OF THE STUDY:

The present investigation is designed to study the following hypotheses:
1. There is no significant different in the mean scores of reading
comprehension between boys and girls.
2. There is no significant difference between the reading comprehension
scores of students residing in urban and rural areas.
3. There is no significant difference between the reading comprehension
of the Students belonging Govt. and Private Schools.

19
VARIABLES OF THE STUDY :
Dependent variables Reading comprehension
Independent variables:

1. Gender:
Gender is an important variable. Students of both sexes are included in
the Study to find out whether there is any significant difference between
boys and girls on reading comprehension.

2. Locality:
Locality is the variable which shows the influence on comprehension.
Therefore students selected from both rural and ·urban areas were
included in the study.

3. Management :
Government and Private school managements.

4.4 TOOLS OF THE STUDY:

The following types of tools were used in the study.
I. Reading Comprehension Tests Reading comprehension the pupils were
measured by employing English comprehension test consisting of 25 multiple
choices Question. One Mark is allotted for every correct answer.

4.4 TOOLS OF THE STUDY:

Reliability is the most indispensable characteristic of any measuring
instrument. Reliability provides the consistency which makes validity possible
The dictionary meaning of reliability is consistency, dependence or
trust.

20
 "The term reliability means the consistency with which a set of scores
measures whatever they do measure".
- Ebel and Frisbie

In measurement reliability is the consistency with which a test yields the

same result in measuring whatever it dies measure. Reliability can be defined
as the degree of consistency between two measurements of the same thing.

Validity has been defined in different ways by different authors.

''The validity of a test may be defined as the accuracy with which it

measures that it is intended to measure or as the degree to which it approaches
infallibility in measuring what is purpose to measure
- Lind quist (1942)
This definition suggests that to determine how valid a test is one ought
compare the reality of what it does measure with same ideal conception of what
is to measure.

SAMPI.E SELSETED FOR INVESTIGATION:

"The sample is a small proportion of population selected for observation

and analysis"

The samples of present Study, Comprising 86 students, were selected

randomly from among 4 high schools.

Out of the total sample boys and girls from both urban and rural areas.

21
 TABLE – 1

Distribution of the Sample:

Sl. Name of the U/R Boys Girls

Total
No School
1 ZPHS Yetham urban 10 09 19
2 ZPHS Rural 11 09 20
Kondropalle
3 Akshra Techno Urban 10 11 21
school,
mahaboob
nagar
4 Sri Swamy rural 12 12 24
narayana
Gurukulam,
mahaboob
nagar
Total 43 41 84

4.6 COLLECTJON OF THE DATA;

The data were collected by using survey method. The final test was
conducted to 86 pupils of VIII class. The permission was taken from the
concerned Head Mistress of the schools, before administering the tests. The
pupils were motivated to table the tests. The importance of research and
necessity of giving correct responses were explained to them. The sample was
divided into small groups and the test was employed.

A. Reading Comprehension 'test:

This consists of 25 questions in objective type. 4 answers were given to
each question with signs A.B.C.D. One mark was given to every answer; 60
min was given to answer 25 bits
22
B. Personal data Sheet:
A personal data sheet was given to the pupils to get information for
the following details.
1. Educational of parents.
2. Occupation level of parents.

4.8 STATISTIC TECHNIQUES USED :

The comprehension .test was administered and a personal data sheet was
given to the students to secure the needed information. They were scored and
tabulated. Mean, Median, Mode, Standard deviation, Quartile deviation,
Skewness, Kurtosis and correlations were calculated for the total scores of their
reading comprehension in English.

To find out the difference between the two groups of the variables the "t,
test technique was employed.

To find out the association between the categories of the variation of

more than two the "Chi-Square, test was used. The obtained 'Chi-Square' value
was tested with the table value at 0.05 level of confidence. To find out the
relationship between the scores of achievement in English and scores of the
comprehension test of students, Spearman correlation was computed.
Chapter – V23

Presentation, Analysis
&
 Interpretation of Data
CHAPTER – V
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND
INTERPRETATION OF DATA

This chapter deals with presentation analysis and interpretation of data.

5.1 DISTRIBUTION CHARACTERISTICS OF READING COMPREHENSION

SCORES.
In this section the frequency distribution and distribution characteristics
of total sample are given.
The frequency distribution characteristics of total sample (N=86) are
shown in

TABLE – 2
The Frequency Distribution of Reading Comprehension Scores
of the Total Sample.
Sl.No C.I M.V F C.F CPF
1 28-32 30 4 4 1.66
2 33-37 35 4 8 3.33
3 38-42 40 5 13 5.41
4 43-47 45 5 18 7.5
5 48-52 50 13 31 12.91
6 53-57 55 27 58 24.16
7 58-62 60 31 89 37-08
8 63-67 65 56 145 60.41
 9 68-72 70 53 198 82.5
10. 73-77 75 24 222 92.5
11 78-82 80 13 235 97.5
12 83-87 85 5 200 100
N = 86
24
Mean = 63.72
Median = 63.55
Mode = 67.45
Q.D = 6.49
S.D = 10.75
S.K = 0.047
Ku = 0.281
Correlation = 0.97

The scores of total sample were distributed normally.

Discussion: It clear from the table that means reading

comprehension scores of the total sample is 63.72. The maximum score one can
obtain in comprehension test is 85. Hence it is clear that 9th class pupils have
better comprehension in English. Median of total score is less than mean of
total score. So the Skewness is positive. It seems that the distribution curve
moves to right. The value kurtosis is 0.281. For distribution this value of
Kurtosis is 0.263. Hence the distribution is Leptokurtic.
 5.2 GENDER DIFFERENCE:
25

The impact of gender on reading comprehension of the pupils was

investigated. The following hypothesis is formulated.

Hypothesis – 1.
There would be no significant difference in the mean scores of reading
comprehension between boys and girls.
The above hypothesis was tested by employing‘t’ test. The results are
shown in the table – 3.
Table-3
Gender differences in the mean and SD scores of Reading
Comprehension
Level of
Gender N Mean S.D ‘t’ Value
significance
Male 46 62.13 10.7 Not Significant at
1.72
Female 40 65.35 10.4 0.05 level

T – value = 1.72 not significant at 0.05 level

Discussion:
It is clear from the table that the computed value of 't' is 1.72 which is
less than the table value of “t”, for 1.96.at 0.05 level of significance. Hence the
null hypothesis is accepted
Conclusion:
It is concluded that Gender does not have significant difference on
reading· comprehension of the pupils. There is no difference in the performance
of boys and girls in reading comprehension.

29
5.3 INFLUENCE OF LOCALITY:

The Impact of Locality on reading comprehension of the pupils was

investigated. The following hypotheses is framed.

Hypothesis – 2:
There is no significant difference between the Reading Comprehension
scores of students residing in urban and rural areas.
The above hypothesis is tested by employing ‘t’ test. The results are
presented in table – 4

TABLE – 4
The mean and SD scores of Reading Comprehension based on
Locality.

Level of
Locality N Mean SD ‘t’ Value
Significance
Urban 47 66.74 9.25 Significant
5.09 at 0.05
Rural 39 59.41 11.45
level

Discussion :
It is clear from the table that the computed value of 't' is 50.9. ‘t’ table
value id 1.96. “t” calculated value is greater than table value. Hence the
hypothesis is rejected.
Conclusion:
 It is concluded that there is significant influence of locality on reading
comprehension of the pupils of the pupils. There is high achievement in the
students residing in urban areas than the students residing in rural areas.

5.4 INFLUENCE OF LOCALITY:

31

The impact of Locality on reading comprehension of the pupils was

investigated. The following hypotheses is framed.

Hypothesis – 3:
There is no significant between the reading comprehension of the
students belonging to Government and Private schools.
The above hypothesis was tested by employing ‘t’ test. The results are
presented in Table – 5

TABLE – 5
The Frequency Distribution of Reading Comprehension Scores
of the Total Sample.

Level of
Locality N Mean SD ‘t’ Value
Significance
Govt. 42 66.73 9.16 Significant
4.17 at 0.05
Private 44 60.69 10.5
level
Chapter – VI
33
Summery & Conclusions
CHAPTER – VI
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
The important findings of the study and major conclusions arrived at are
discussed in this chapter. Suggestions for further study are included.

The present investigation was designed to seek objective information on

certain factors related to reading comprehension and to recognize the reading
comprehension of VIII class students in English and factor influence reading
comprehension.

The purpose was to recognize the factors responsible for reading

comprehension of VIII class pupils in English.

6.1 THE MAJOR PURPOSE OF THE INVESTIGATION:

1. To study the nature of distribution related to reading comprehension of

VIII class Pupils in English.
2. To correlate reading comprehension in English with variables liRe;

a. Gender difference
b. Locality
c. Economic status
d. Parent's occupation
e. Father's qualification
 f. Mother's qualification
g. Reading activities
h. Home reading facilities
i. School reading facilities
The sample of 86 pupils was selected at random among the VIII secondary
35VIII class pupils.
schools. The sample was drawn from the

6.2 FINDINGS:

On the basis of the presents study the following conclusions were drawn.
It was found that
1. There is high correlation between the reading comprehension of VIII
class Students and their academic achievement. It is clear that if students
reading comprehension is high their academic achievement will be high.

2. There is no difference between boys and girls in their reading

comprehension In English.

3. There is significant influence of locality on reading comprehension of the

students. There is high achievement in the students residing in urban
areas. Than the students residing in rural areas.

4. There is significant difference between Govt. and Private Students in

reading comprehension. There is high achievement in the students who
belong to rich families compared to the students who belong to poor
families.

5. There is significant association between parents occupation and reading

comprehension of the students whose father's were working in high level
 jobs performed well compared to the students whose fathers were
working in low level jobs.

6. There is significant association

36 between father's educational
qualifications and reading comprehension of the students whose father's
has high educational qualifications achieved better than the students
whose father's has low educational qualifications.

7. No association was found between mother's educational

qualification and reading comprehension of their children.

6.3 SUGGESTIONS :

Reading comprehension is a wide area under which the scope is vast and
may further studies have to be done. The present study was done during a short
period of time with limited sample size. Therefore based on the analysis and
interpretation of data and conclusions made, the following suggestions were
made for pupils, teachers, parents and school administrators with a view to
improve reading comprehension in English

A. Suggestions for pupils:

1. Pupils should know about the value of silent reading and has to practice
in classrooms.

2. Silent reading should be cultivated among students so that they can

develop fast reading and comprehension.
3. Pupils should cultivate reading news papers and extra materials like
journals and magazines etc., so that they get their knowledge widened.
They can also improve their reading speed and comprehension by
getting acquainted with new words and phrases.
4. The student should utilize the school library to develop reading
37
comprehend and vocabulary.

5. The students should utilize the facilities provided by the parents and
teachers i.e., in guidance, tuitions, extra classes, comprehension periods
etc.,

B. Suggestions for teachers:

1. The teacher should play a vital role in providing proper attention and
guidance for the pupils to develop their reading habits.

2. Proper care should be taken in comprehension periods while students are

asked to read the content.

3. The teacher has to identity the retarded learners and slow learners to take
remedial measures to develop reading comprehension.

4. Teacher has to identity the student’s potentialities and his actual

achievements and modifies the instructions to meet pupils needs and
difficulties.

5. Special classes should be arranged to the disabled readers and guidance

should be provided to improve their reading habits and reading skills.
6. The teacher has to diagnose whether the students reading comprehension
depends upon basically · in the area of comprehension skills, oral
reading or silent reading or the combination of these. Basing on these the
teacher has to follow certain measures to develop reading skills.

38
C. Suggestions for parents:

1. Parents should be acquainted with the potentialities of their children and

take proper measures to develop their reading skills.

2. Parents should provide proper guidance for their children while reading
at home i, e., while reading mistakes and while pronouncing the words
etc.,

3. In rural areas parents who are illiterate should take possible measures to
develop reading skills and comprehension of their children by sending
tuitions etc

4. Parents should develop the habit of reading general books like story
books, comics, journal to their children so that they can develop
vocabulary, widen their knowledge etc.,

D. Suggestions for school administrators:

1. Good library facilities should be provided in private schools buy the

administrators.

2. Remedial programmes should be provided for teachers to take proper

measures to develop comprehension skills in students.
3. In rural areas the government should take proper steps to improve the
library facilities for the students.

4. Funds should be provided by 39

the government· to arrange remedial
classes, provide proper books to the school library to develop
comprehension skills in students.

5. Encouragement must be given to the students for conducting the book

exhibitions.

6. Instructions should be given to the teachers to follow case study

approaches according to the reading difficulties of the students with an
intention of proper remedial programmes.
 40

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APPENDICES