PROBLEMS IN READING COMPREHENSION IN ENGLISH AMONG WEAK

RURAL SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS: A STUDY OF FOUR RURAL

SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE DISTRICT OF SEGAMAT

RAJENTHARAN SUBBIAH
DEEPAK SINGH

ABSTRACT
In Malaysians schools, English, as a second language is compulsory for all students of the
primary and secondary schools. In order to improve Malaysian students’ skills in English,
the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics in English was introduced in 2003.
This is a necessary step to enable students to perform better when pursuing higher studies, as
they would find that most reference materials are in English. However, rural secondary
school students in Malaysia continue to encounter great difficulties when reading in English
even though they have successfully undergone the English Language programme beginning in
the primary school. It is obvious that in the rural areas, English holds the status of a foreign
language. This study therefore, examines the problems in Reading Comprehension in English
among weak rural secondary school students with the hope of discovering whether these
students used appropriate reading strategies. It is also hoped that with the teaching and
learning of reading strategies, the weak rural secondary school students would improve their
skills in reading and comprehension.

INTRODUCTION
The reading skill has to be taught to second language learners of English, as it is a complex
skill. Researchers in reading traditionally conceptualize reading as only a cognitive process
limited to the ability to decode symbols and construct meaning. However, when viewed in
different contexts, this skill presents a very wide information. Reading when viewed in a
social context, it presents a form of habit formation. It can be said that when students are
forced to read they move away from it, but when it is a habit, they are willing to read as much
as possible. Chambers (Heather 1981:1) points out: Come to it willingly, seeking many kinds
of pleasure from books, and you soon find enjoyment, but have it foisted on you as a duty ….
and it is …… gladly given up. In developing countries like Malaysia, the ability to read is
seen as a building block for nation building.

In schools, students have to be given a purpose for reading. Processing strategies are skills
that help a student understand what he reads. Thus, it is surprising that after six years of
education in the Primary schools, most students in rural secondary schools are still unable to
read and comprehend in English. The concern is whether these students have mastered
reading strategies or not.

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STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Reading and comprehension presents a problem to many students due to several factors.
Rural secondary school students face more problems than their urban counterparts. These are
due to two main factors, namely environmental factors and problems of reading and
comprehension.

The home, school and societal environment all influence the achievements of students. This
is all the more relevant in the case of English, which to many students is a foreign, rather than
a second language.

The home environment is very important to the achievements of a student. There seems to be
a vicious cycle. Rural secondary school students, generally come from homes with little or no
exposure to the English Language. Their parents do not speak or read in English and they in
turn are influenced by them. When they go to school, they are below par and are not given
much attention. This in turn does not improve their capabilities.

To these students, the little exposure they get is from the television. This too, only if they
watch programmes in English. In some homes, students are not encouraged to speak or read
in English for fear of learning and adopting a foreign culture. Students have shown that
parental and teacher models do influence the reading ability and habits of learners (Wigfield
and Asher 1984). The phenomenon of more adults developing into non-reading models for
their children can only serve to strengthen the vicious cycle as shown by Smith and
Mikulecky (1978).

The school too, just like the home, plays an important part in the reading and comprehension
of English. In schools, administrators, teachers and students’ peers all contribute to the
learning of English, either positively or negatively. Many administrators and teachers do not
use the English Language within the school compound. They also refrain from speaking in
English to students in the assumption that they would not be understood. Teachers of English
too, sometimes set very high targets for their students. Students, who cannot meet this target
get de-motivated and remain where they are. They do not improve their reading and
comprehension skills. Peers, too, tend to tease students when they attempt to speak or read in
English and this causes them to shy away from the language. Urban secondary school
students, on the other hand, have confidence and motivation to learn on their own.

The society or community where the student lives also affects his learning strategies.
Murdock (1965) and London (1978) show that patterns of behaviour are learned and shared

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by all members of a society and are passed down to new generations. Thus, if a community
feels that the language is not important than it gives a negative influence to the student.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
(i) To what extent do rural secondary school students use English to read and
communicate?
(ii) Does the lack of using appropriate reading strategies cause low
achievement in English among rural secondary school students?

SCOPE OF STUDY
This study investigated the problems in Reading Comprehension in English among weak rural
secondary school students and discovering whether these students used appropriate reading
strategies. “Reading” is accepted as a thoughtful process, requiring the reader not only to
understand what the author is endeavouring to communicate but also to contribute his own
experiences and thoughts to the problem of understanding. “Comprehension” is composed of
separate skills and abilities, such as understanding word meanings, verbal reasoning, getting
the main idea, detecting the author’s mood, and discerning word meanings in context.
“Rural” refers to areas far away from towns and lack most of the facilities available in the
town areas. Low achievement, according to Cambridge International Dictionary of English,
is not being successful in acquiring a set of qualities that should have been obtained.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The sample consisted of 200 Form Four students, all of whom are low achievers in English.
The students generally come from Felda schemes, Malay villages, Chinese villages, Rumah
Rakyat and estates. The study faced time constraint, as the research had to be carried out
during school hours, and this disrupted lessons. The research was carried out over four days
only.

It should also be noted that the study is only related to Form Four weak or low achieving
students from the earlier mentioned locations in a rural area. Therefore, it would have limited
application to other aspects of the language and higher achieving students and students from
urban areas.

The instrumentation will be limited to a survey using three sets of questionnaires, namely,
Student Information sheet, Strategy Inventory for Language Learning and Style Analysis
Survey for Language Learning.

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REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Reading is not a simple phenomenon, but a very complex process. Widdowson (1979) has
defined reading as “ the process of getting linguistic information via print.” This is too
general a statement. Jennings (1982:12), on the other hand has defined reading as “…. The art
of transmitting the ideas, facts, and feelings from the mind and soul of an author to the mind
and soul of the reader, with accuracy and understanding.” Goodman (1984:828) further states
that in order to understand how reading works, it is important to examine the major purposes
of reading.

The environment can play an important role in developing a child’s reading habits. Buss and
Plomin (1975) and Carroll and Chall (1975) note that the child’s personality is shaped by
many different environmental influences and the most important is the child-rearing practices
of the parents. Wigfiel and Asher (1984:430), further suggest, “parent-child interaction is the
most important home influence on children’s later achievement behaviour in school. Wigfiel
and Asher also believe that parents can become involved to help their children’s reading by
providing appropriate reading materials in the home. The older siblings too can influence the
younger ones (Werner 1983).

Smith (1971) characterized reading as a process charting the reader’s path through a text
rather than making judgements of comprehension based on reading outcomes. Eskey (1988)
states that second language readers will have weaker linguistic competence than first language
readers and therefore, will have less ability to draw on the range of cues which are available
in a first language. Eskey’s view of second language reading sees the reader as a participant
in the reading process who reconstructs meaning from a written text by making and
confirming predictions using cues obtained from the language.

Coady (1979) focuses on the role of prior knowledge or experience in the process of reading.
This form of information processing was given additional support from the schema theory.
Schemas or schemata have been described as ‘cognitive constructs which allow for the
organization of information in long term memory.’ According to the schema theory, a reader
interprets a text by mapping every input from the text against some existing schema in his
memory. It adds a new dimension to second language reading. Dole et al (1991), claims that
in addition to the knowledge that second language readers bring to the reading task, they also
possess a set of flexible, adaptable strategies that they use to make sense of text and to
monitor their ongoing understanding.

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Most rural secondary school students’ problems arise because of limited vocabulary as Grabe
(1983) points out that second language readers “invoke a unique set of constraints,’ the most
significant of which is that they can be assumed to have limited vocabulary.

However, reading is not a simple process as Huey in as far back as 1913 notes that “… until
the insidious thought of reading as word pronouncing is well worked out of our heads, it is
well to place the emphasis strongly where it really belongs, on reading as thought-getting,
independently of expression.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The information will be tabulated and presented in a frequency table with percentage to
ascertain what strategies are used by students and the problems they face in reading and
comprehension. This will help teachers form appropriate reading strategies to be taught to the
students.

Respondents
The respondents in this study consisted of 200 Form Four students of four rural secondary
schools. The students are all low achievers in reading and comprehension in English. For the
purpose of the study, the respective schools will be referred to as School A, School B, School
C and School D.

Instrumentation
Three sets of questionnaires are used to conduct this survey. The questionnaires will be used
on the sample only. They are the Students Information Sheet, the Strategy Inventory for
Language Learning and the Style Analysis Survey for Language Learning

RESEARCH FINDINGS
This chapter looks at the data from three sources: that of the Student Information Sheet,
information obtained from the Strategy inventory for Language Learning and Style Analysis
Survey for Language Learning. The data is organized accordingly into three sections. The
findings and inferences drawn from the date will be discussed as they are presented.

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Table 1: Students’ Background Information

Background Information Frequency Percentage

1. Uses mother tongue at L 200 100
home
2. Uses English at 4 2
home.
3. Reading in mother tongue 197 98.5
4. Reading in English 33 16.5
5. Reads in mother tongue more 56 26
than an hour daily.
6. Reads in English more than an 2 1
hour daily.
7. Plans to further studies. 62 31

N = 200

It is quite clear from the information in Table 1 that the students in the study wholly or 100 %
use the mother tongue at home. They also use the mother tongue quite rampantly in school as
observed by the researcher. The Malay language as well as dialects of the Chinese and Indian
languages are used widely. The researcher observed that during the course of the study none
of the students used English to communicate. When it comes to reading, 98.5 % of the
students read in their mother tongue as opposed to 16.5 % who take time to read in English.
This is confirmed by the library records, which show the type of books borrowed by the
students.

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Table 2: Strategies for Reading and Comprehension
Strategy Never Sometimes Very Often Always
(0) (1) (2) (3)
Response
1. Forming Concepts 164 29 5 2

2. Managing Reading 121 41 31 7

3. Personalizing 28 51 54 67

4. Remembering 105 60 49 14

5. Learning with others 37 53 58 52

6. Testing Hypotheses 125 23 29 23

7. Understanding and 67 42 46 45
using emotions

8. Overcoming 114 39 20 27
Limitations

N = 200

Table 2 indicates that these rural secondary school students generally use very little English to
read and to communicate, as the use of mother tongue is predominant. English is seen as a
foreign rather than a second language and thus is deemed unimportant. These students also do
not use the appropriate reading strategies required to master or improve the English
Language. Thus, the lack of appropriate strategies leads to low achievement in reading
comprehension among the rural school students.

IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

Generally, students lack appropriate reading strategies in English. Most students merely read
without understanding and do not apply any strategies. In fact, reading in English is an
unnecessary ‘burden’ done only to carry out the tasks during the English lesson. It is not an
enjoyable activity.

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The results of the study show that only three strategies are used quite extensively by the
students. These are the personalizing, learning with others and the understanding and using
of emotions strategies. These are probably popular strategies as they are generic to the
learning of languages.

If students can apply the strategies of predicting, discussing, reflecting, and comparing, they
would be able to improve in their performances. Thus, these activities should be included and
stressed upon in the teaching of reading comprehension. This would be the first step towards
improving their achievements in reading comprehension in English. One way to do this
would be to introduce the teaching and learning of appropriate reading strategies. These,
however, have to be carried out in creative ways, as weak students have little attention span.
Teachers should come up with more interesting activities by using songs for example, to get
students interested in the subject” (The Star, March 31, 1998). These suggest that the use of
drama techniques through the dimensions of forming, presenting and responding would be
appropriate (Drama Senior Syllabus, 2001).

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