Since comprehension explains the method by which meaning can be successfully extracted from a written piece, comprehension is regarded as the fundamental component of reading. In order to become strategic readers who can extract information from texts, formulate arguments, and include critical thought on the texts while reading, students must be able to self-modify, self-manage, and self-monitor. This is required by modern literacy standards. “Understanding, using, reflecting on and engaging with written texts, to achieve one’s goals, to develop one’s knowledge and potential, and to participate in society” is how the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) defines reading comprehension. In order to ascertain the degree to which students who have completed their mandatory education have acquired the necessary information and abilities for appropriate involvement in modern communities, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) created the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) exam (OECD, 2017). The OECD conducts the PISA, a triennial worldwide assessment, to evaluate the reading comprehension abilities of 15-year-old schoolchildren in participating nations. According to the most recent PISA findings from 2018, secondary school pupils in OECD nations had an average reading comprehension score of 487. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), 2019) shows that there is a notable difference in performance between the countries, with the top-performing nations receiving over 600 points and the bottom-performing nations receiving less than 300. The recently conducted 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) revealed that the Philippines ranked the lowest in Reading Comprehension with a reading score of 340, the lowest score in all countries surveyed.
To increase the level of comprehension among students, it is imperative that they practice good reading comprehension strategies. As a result, in order to enhance comprehension and encourage critical thinking while interpreting complicated texts, language teachers must employ appropriate reading practices. It is difficult for language teachers to establish an efficient reading approach since reading comprehension involves many complex components, primarily cognitive, linguistic, and sociocultural ones.
Improving struggling readers’ reading comprehension abilities is a major and ongoing task in education. It has been established that teaching bilingual readers can improve their reading comprehension. Bilingual pupils outperformed monolingual students in reading comprehension, according to a Banitalebi (2021) study. Yeganeh (2015) found in another study that bilingual pupils’ reading abilities were statistically significant. In 2019, Miñoza conducted research to examine the impact of bilingual textbooks on the reading comprehension skills of fourth-grade Filipino students. According to the study, pupils’ reading comprehension abilities considerably improved when they used bilingual textbooks. In a similar vein, Mangila (2018) investigated the effects of code-switching in the science education of bilingual children in the Philippines. According to the study, code-switching improved student involvement and participation in the classroom. What do you think is the best way to improve reading comprehension skills among the students? To me, it has always been rooting to start from language that is understood by the learners then going gradually to second language, and developing content from both. Let us always bear in our hearts that no matter what happens, reading remains a scaffold to other skills. Hence, teaching reading is everyone’s responsibility.
