CHALLENGES OF CLOSE READING APPROACH ON THE COMPREHENSION LEVEL OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL: A PURVIEW OF INQUIRY

The purpose of this study is to discover the challenges encountered by the teachers of a close reading approach on the comprehension level of junior high school students in selected public schools in Sulop Davao del Sur. The researcher was concerned when students showed poor performance on both written and verbal assessments. For example, students could not answer reader response questions with accuracy when assigned a reading with comprehension questions. They had difficulty recalling what they read and performing critical analyses when assigned written work. Their performance on both informal and formal assessments illustrated they did not have a deep understanding of the text (Allen, 2020; Blum, 2021). The participants of this study are the ten (10) English teachers in selected public schools in Davao region during this academic year 2023-2024. These English teachers were chosen as participants since they have lived experiences in teaching reading to junior high school students for a couple of years. As a result, analysis of the data revealed three main themes with four sub-themes each, to wit; “lack of vocabulary development” with sub-themes, use comprehension technique, insufficient reading materials, students become more active and relationship of teachers and students. The second theme immersed was “use multiple strategies” with sub-themes, give clear instructions, use basic guide in reading, motivate students to read and be compassionate in teaching reading. Lastly, the last theme immersed was “use reading comprehension in context with sub-themes, more classroom activities, use small group discussion, importance of teachers training and use standard lesson plan. KEYWORDS: Challenges, comprehension, close reading, approach, junior high school