Learners’ Reading Strategies and Comprehension Skills

This descriptive correlation study investigated the reading strategies and comprehension levels among students, considering variables such as sex, school location, mothers' educational attainment, family income, and home-to-school distance. The study also aimed in determining the relationship between the two variables. The 141 conveniently chosen Grade 7 students in the District of Sara, Iloilo served as the respondents of the study. Data on the reading strategies were gathered using the Survey on Reading Strategies by Mokhtari and Reichard and the level of reading comprehension of students was determined using the Phil-IRI test. Data gathered were analyzed using the mean, Kruskal Wallis, Mann Whitney U and Spearman’s rho set at .05 alpha level. The result revealed that the respondents predominantly consisted of male students with mothers who reached high school education and family incomes below PHP 9,522. Most students lived within 3 kilometers of their mountainous-area schools. Findings revealed high utilization of problem-solving strategies, moderate use of support strategies, and low use of global strategies, with notable differences based on sex, mothers' education, and monthly family income. Despite varying strategies, students exhibited frustration-level comprehension across all demographics. Significant differences in reading strategies were found when the respondents were classified as to sex and school location, but not for other variables. Additionally, no significant relationship was found between reading strategies and comprehension levels.