English Language Proficiency And Reading Comprehension Difficulties Of Grade 10 Students Of Zamboanga City National High School West: Basis For Developing Effective Reading Strategies

The Researcher conducted this study to find evidence-based reading methods because they wanted to investigate how language proficiency affects reading abilities of Grade 10 students at Zamboanga City National High School West. The study started by testing students' English language skills through three areas: grammar and vocabulary and sentence structure. The researcher used a descriptive-correlational research design to collect data from 120 selected participants who completed a validated 30-item survey instrument that achieved high internal reliability with a Cronbach's Alpha score of 0.89. The study results showed distinctive characteristics of the student population because the participants achieved "Very High" average weighted means in both ELP (4.25) and RC (4.27) while showing particular "islands of difficulty" which existed. Students experienced major difficulties when they attempted to combine information by using summarization methods and they struggled to understand figurative language and they could not relate book themes to actual life situations. The t-test statistical analysis showed that there was no connection between different proficiency elements which included grammar and vocabulary and total comprehension abilities. Reading achievement requires multiple skills because it needs more than just linguistic proficiency to succeed at reading. The study found that teachers should concentrate on teaching higher-order thinking abilities because this needs to be done to improve student understanding. The research team developed particular techniques which included guided summarization and "text-to-life" reflection to help students overcome their major reading comprehension challenges.