Reading Anxiety and Academic Performance of Grade 8 English Students
Abstract
This study was conducted to determine the level of reading anxiety and academic performance of Grade 8 English students. Specifically, it looked into the profile of the Grade 8 learners of Daniel Maramba National High School in terms of their age, sex, parent’s highest educational attainment: father and mother, birth order, monthly family income, mother tongue, reading materials read at home or school and number of hours allotted reading at home or school and the level of academic performance of Grade 8 students in the School Year 2019-2020.
Likewise, the level of reading anxiety of the students was assessed in terms of physical and cognitive. These variables were correlated to their profile and academic performance. The descriptive design was used. A survey-questionnaire was developed to gather the needed data from 221 respondents. Frequency counts, percentage distribution, average weighted mean (AWM) and chi-square and spearman-rho were used in the analysis of data.
The research revealed that the students are in their early adolescent age, predominantly female by sex, whose parents are high school graduates with low monthly family income, speak Tagalog, read storybooks and allot 1 to 2 hours reading at home. Their academic performance was at satisfactory level. Also, the level of their reading anxiety is high with 2.66 average weighted mean. The level of their anxiety in terms of the cognitive indicators is higher than of the physical indicators. Sex and parents’ highest educational attainment showed significant influence to the level of their reading anxiety. It is also proven that the level of reading anxiety in terms of physical indicators is inversely proportional to the academic performance of the students.
An Intervention Activity Plan to Reduce Anxiety was developed by the researcher as a possible tool to address the reading anxiety levels of Grade 8 English students.
References
Grabe, W., & Stoller, F. (2001). Reading for academic purposes: Guidelines for the ESL/EFL teacher. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (3rd ed., pp. 187-204). USA: Heinle & Heinle.
Seligman, M. E. P., Walker, E. F., & Rosenhan, D. L. (2001). Abnormal psychology (4th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton.
Krashen, S. (2009). Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Pergamon Press Inc. Retrieved from: http://www.sdkrashen.com/content/books/principles_and_practice.pdf.
Santoso, J. S. P., Sutarsyah, C., & Sudirman, S. (2013). An Analysis of Student’s Reading Anxiety and Its Effect on Reading Comprehension. U-Jet, 2(10).
Jalongo, Mary & Hirsh, Rae. (2010). Understanding Reading Anxiety: New Insights from Neuroscience. Early Childhood Education Journal. 37. 431-435. 10.1007/s10643-010-0381-5.
Blair, Clancy. (2002). School Readiness: Integrating Cognition and Emotion in a Neurobiological Conceptualization of Children's Functioning at School Entry. The American psychologist. 57. 111-27. 10.1037/0003-066X.57.2.111.
Guthrie, J. T. (2008). Reading motivation and engagement in middle and high school: Appraisal and intervention. In J. T. Guthrie (Ed.), Engaging adolescents in reading (p. 1–16). Corwin Press.
Owens M., Stevenson J., Hadwin J., & Norgate R. (2012). When Does Anxiety Help or Hinder Cognitive Test Performance? The Role of Working Memory Capacity. British Journal of Psychology, 105 (1), 92- 101. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12009.
Salkind, N. J. (2007). Encyclopedia of measurement and statistics (Vols. 1-0). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781412952644.
MasoudZoghi,. (2012). An instrument for EFL reading anxiety: Inventory construction and preliminary validation. Journal of Asia TEFL. 9. 31-56.
Department of Education. DepEd Order No. 47, s. 2016. Retrieved from: https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/DO_s2016_47.pdf.
Ali, Shoukat & Haider, Zubair & Munir, Fahad & Khan, Hamid & Ahmed, Awais. (2013). Factors Contributing to the Students Academic Performance: A Case Study of Islamia University Sub-Campus. Am J Educ Res. 1. 283-289. 10.12691/education-1-8-3.
Kilinc, H. & Yenen, E. (2015). Investigation of Students’ Reading Anxiety with Regards to Some Variables. International Journal of Education, 5 (1), 111-118. doi:10.5430/ijhe.v5n1p111.
Racca, R & Lasaten, R. (2016). English Language Proficiency and Academic Performance of Philippine Science High School Students. International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 44-49, 2016.
Kong, et.al. (2012). Emotional intelligence and life satisfaction in Chinese university students: The mediating role of self-esteem and social support. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886912003704.
Guimba, W. & Alico, J. (2015). Reading Anxiety and Comprehension of Grade 8 Filipino Learners. Retrieved from https://ijhss.net/index.php/ijhss/article/view/42/18.
Jalongo, Mary & Hirsh, Rae. (2010). Understanding Reading Anxiety: New Insights from Neuroscience. Early Childhood Education Journal. 37. 431-435. 10.1007/s10643-010-0381-5.
Stahl, D. (2018). Academic Anxiety with Regard to Performance. Retrieved from: https://thriveglobal.com/stories/academic-anxiety-with-regard-to performance/.
Yoshiko Saito, Thomas J. Garza & Elaine K. Horwitz (2002). Foreign Language Reading Anxiety. The Modern Language Journal. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1111/0026-7902.00016.
Tsai, Y., and Lee, C. An Exploration into Factors Associated with Reading Anxiety among Taiwanese EFL Students. Eric Online Journal. Taiwan. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?q=reading+anxiety+in+English+as+foreign+language&id=EJ1186031.
Vanisa D. Sellers (2008). Anxiety and Reading Comprehension in Spanish as a Foreign Language. Foreign Language Annals. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2000.tb01995.x.
Magno, C. (2010). The Effect of Scaffolding on Children's Reading Speed, Reading Anxiety, and Reading Proficiency. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277405431_The_Effect_of_Scaffolding_on_Children's_Reading_Speed_Reading_Anxiety_and_Reading_Proficiency.
Salehi, Masoomeh & Marefat, Fahimeh. (2014). The Effects of Foreign Language Anxiety and Test Anxiety on Foreign Language Test Performance. Theory and Practice in Language Studies. 4. 10.4304/tpls.4.5.931-940.
Rajab, Azizah & Zakaria, Wan & abdul rahman, Hamidah & Hosni, Alia & Hassani, Samira. (2012). Reading Anxiety among Second Language Learners. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 66. 362–369. 10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.11.279.
Barrot, J. S. (2016). Current Principles and Concepts in the Teaching of Macro Skills. Retrieved from: www.national-u.edu.ph/wp- content/uploads/2016/08/JSTAR-6_Barrot.pdf.
Giang, T. (2017). Reading Comprehension Performance of EFL First Year Students: Basis for Reading Enhancement Program. English Language Teaching. 10. 89. 10.5539/elt.v10n7p89.
Al-sohbani, Yehia. (2018). Foreign Language Reading Anxiety among Yemeni Secondary School Students. International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies. 06.
Woolley G. (2011) Comprehension Is Strategic. In: Reading Comprehension. Springer, Dordrecht. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1174-7_11.
Ismail, S. (2015). Secondary School Students’ Reading Anxiety in a Second Language. English Language Teaching. 8 (11), 28- 41. doi:10.5539/elt.v8n11p28.
Lien, H. (2011). EFL Learnersʼ Reading Strategy Use in Relation to Reading Anxiety. Language Education in Asia. Volume 2. Issue 2.
Kiya, R. (2014). The Effect of Second Language Learning Anxiety on Reading Comprehension of Iranian University Students. The International Journal of Humanities. Retrieved from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1520/e3302199175ee9572b2bbd393b1a651f08ce.pdf.
Conger R. D., Donnellan M. B. (2007). An interactionist perspective on the socioeconomic context of human development. Soc. Sci. Electron. Publish. 58 175–199.
Silinskas, Gintautas & Lerkkanen, Marja-Kristiina & Tolvanen, Asko & Niemi, Pekka & Poikkeus, Anna-Maija & Nurmi, Jari-Erik. (2012). The frequency of parents’ reading-related activities at home and children's reading skills during kindergarten and Grade 1. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. 33. 302–310. 10.1016/j.appdev.2012.07.004.
