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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Rationale

All over the globe, the matters on English teachers’

language proficiency specifically in reading

comprehension and literary competence are remarkable

problems. The bottom line is that, the teachers’

proficiency and expertise in the English language have

been identified as a crucial factor that impacts the

learning of the students. That is why the focus of the

attempts on uplifting the quality of English language

teaching is on the teachers’ proficiency in the language,

which include their reading comprehension and literary

competence (Richards, 2015).

In the Philippine context, the Department of

Education (DepEd) aims to elevate the reading skills and

literary competence of the students by incorporating

literature in the Philippine curriculum. Literature is

used as spring board to teach language skills and a tool

to urge the teachers to inculcate the value of reading in

the hearts of the learners. The factors that could hinder

the learners to improve their reading skills and literary

competence are given importance as well as this would be

one of the crucial things to be considered before

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carrying out an intervention towards reading

comprehension and literary competence (Malipot, 2018).

In Region XI, the Department of Education designed a

Reading Recovery Center to address the occurrence of

failure in reading and literary competence. This centers

on aiding the difficulties of children in reading at the

very early stage. This is phenomenal, as the Philippines

is the first country and only Region XI among other

regions in Mindanao carried out this kind of reading

recovery program (Valderrama, 2011).

Nevertheless, there is still no study that was

administered by researchers and experts regarding the

factors affecting literary competence among students who

specialize in English. This instance manifests the

distinct contribution that this study could give, from

coming with new knowledge about factors affecting

literary competence up to the interventions that the

researchers could offer at the end of this undertaking.

The situation given convinced the researchers to find

specific factors that could affect literary competence.

Due to the urgency and timeliness of this issue, the

researchers were fascinated to determine whether or not

the identified factors and literary competence have

significant relationship on the students of University of

Mindanao Tagum College who specialize in English. As this

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study could elevate the consciousness of the identified

beneficiaries towards the pursuit of excellence, there is

a need to carry out this research.

Research Objective

The study aimed to find out the level of the

literary competence of the fourth-year English major and

AB English students in the University of Mindanao Tagum

College. The factors affecting the literary competence

will be measured with the following indicators:

motivation to read, prior knowledge, reading strategies,

vocabulary, word recognition and working memory. On the

other hand, literary competence was determined with the

following indicators: contextual knowledge, knowledge

about reading, literary reading skills and textual

knowledge.

Mainly, the study attempts to seek answers to the

following objectives:

1. To determine the level of the factors affecting

literary competence among students in terms of:

1.1 motivation to read;

1.2 prior knowledge;

1.3 reading strategies;

1.4 vocabulary;

1.5 word recognition; and

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1.6 working memory.

2. To determine the level of literary competence

among the students in terms of:

2.1 contextual knowledge;

2.2 knowledge about reading;

2.3 literary reading skill; and

2.4 textual knowledge.

3. To find out the significant relationship between

the level of the factors and literary competence

among AB English and English Major students.

4. To identify which domains in the factors affects

the literary competence of the AB English and

English Major students.

Hypothesis

The following hypotheses were investigated at 0.05

significance level: there is no significant relationship

between the factors and literary competence and there is

no domain in the factors that significantly influences

literary competence.
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Review of Related Literature

This chapter includes the significant articles and

readings which are related to this study. The first

subheading would be for the factors affecting literary

competence which consists of the following sections:

motivation to read, vocabulary, working memory, reading

strategies, prior knowledge and word recognition. The

second subheading is the readings for literary competence

which composed of the following sections: contextual

knowledge, knowledge about reading, literary reading

skills and textual knowledge.

Factors Affecting Literary Competence among Students of

UM Tagum College
The factors affecting literary competence are the

circumstances that could influence the literary

competence. The factors are identified as the following:

motivation to read; prior knowledge; reading strategies;

vocabulary; word recognition; and working memory. These

factors have different impacts and roles on literary

competence. Thus, these factors play a vital role in

strengthening and improving literary competence

(Melekoglu & Wilkerson, 2013).

One of the identified factors of literary competence

is motivation to read. Motivation is defined as someone’s

willingness or desire towards something. There are two

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components of motivation namely: intrinsic motivation and

extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation pertains to

the inner desire of someone in doing things. For example,

when one is intrinsically motivated, he/she reads a book

because he/she enjoys reading. In contrast, extrinsic

motivation involves the outer factors and circumstances

that drive someone in doing something. When one is

extrinsically motivated, he/she reads a book because

his/her final examination is approaching (Lakhani & Wolf,

2005).

If students are interested in something, they can

generate motivation especially if it is personally

significant to their lives. In relation to literary

competence, some texts are naturally interesting to most

of the readers and some too seldom catch the attention of

the readers. For example, it is rare not to receive great

interest from showbiz news and shark attacks. In contrast

with texts such as sonnets and poems which do not garner

much interest in most readers. To think that not all of

the important and must-read texts are interesting in

nature like some of the historical legends which contains

historical importance, readers would have little to no

attention in reading these types of texts (Jimenez &

Duke, 2011).
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Moreover, lack of motivation implicates poor

literary abilities. This occurrence is often associated

to students in secondary and tertiary levels which are

bombarded to read and examine different kinds of texts in

their literature subjects. This high demand caused the

students to lose interest and eventually deteriorates

their motivation in improving their literary skills.

However, if the students will condition themselves and

decide to develop positive feelings towards reading,

their interest and motivation would be restored, giving a

great possibility for the readers to improve their

literary competence (Melekoglu & Wilkerson, 2013).

Similarly, in a survey conducted in United Sates

(US), second year College students were tasked to

calculate the number of hours they spent in reading every

day. There are three significant findings on this survey.

First, 93% of the students noted that they do not read

daily the literary works that are required in school

which implies that only a few number of students read on

a daily basis. Second, 69% of the students stated that

they read literary works for enjoyment which means that

the 31% of the students still do not enjoy reading

literary texts. Lastly, 66% of the students said that

reading literary works are not their favorite activity

which indicates that more than a half of the students do

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not like reading literary texts. These results manifested

the low interest of the College students in reading

literary texts (Grigg, Daane & Campbell, 2003).

In addition, one way to strengthen the motivation of

students could be in the form of teachers’ support.

Teacher’s support is defined to as a general positive

interaction with other students. Some scholars also

defined it as an emotional support or care. Basically, a

classroom with a high teacher support is characterized as

an environment with low level of conflicts and high level

of closeness. This means that there is a strong rapport

between teachers and students. As an illustration,

teachers’ support could be manifested by asking students

why they are absent and even telling them to eat their

meal. Thus, simple sensitive and creative behavior of the

teacher could affect the motivation of the students

(Wentzel, 2010).

Comparatively, students who were given high

competence support coming from their mentors were

perceived to reflect more accurate assessment of the

students’ potential competence. In contrast, the students

who were given low competence support are also perceived

to perform poorly and with inconsistent perceptions with

their self-efficacy. This shows that giving credits and

appreciation to students will strengthen their motivation

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in harnessing their literary competence. Hence, the

students who perform well would strive to maintain the

same eagerness while the students who perform poorly

would work harder to improve their performances

(Coddington, 2010).

In relation to teachers’ support, the learners

should be able to feel the commitment of the teachers

towards teaching. This commitment could be exhibited by

means of helping the students in difficult tasks, showing

genuine concern on the learning of the students and even

making students feel a sense of belongingness inside the

classroom. For instance, giving the students consistent

exposure on the skills they need. Since the students need

reading comprehension and literary competence, a

committed teacher will expose his/her students in

activities that would help them harness these skills.

Furthermore, it should be kept in mind that in

providing exposure to certain texts, one important aspect

that should be considered is the genre of the text which

carries out different purposes. For example, choosing a

fictional literary piece would help the students enhance

their imagination and visualization skills. Since reading

success does not transcend from one genre to another, it

means that the learning of the students from fictional

literary pieces does not transcend to that of the

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learning he/she had with the non-fictional one.

Therefore, teachers should know a variety of literary

genres and expose the students to the range of genres

that the students need to learn (Duke & Roberts, 2010).

In a classroom setting, the text should also vary in

terms of the level of difficulty. The students should be

exposed first with the basics before proceeding to the

more complex types of literary texts. As an illustration,

teachers should provide students with text that are well-

written and can be easily understood then providing them

text that could challenge them. These give avenues for

the students to establish well their foundation in

literary reading. Thus, there is a need for teachers to

consider the intellectual capability and the

developmental stages of the students in determining the

texts and tasks complexity for the students (CCSGO & NGA,

2010).

Aside from exposure to reading, there is also a need

to motivate the students by inculcating the habit of

reading for both creative and technical writings. If

reading already becomes a habit, the students would

regularly read and develop their literary competence even

without them being told. In inculcating this habit, the

teachers have to employ different strategies and

activities that will cater the purpose of the lesson. For

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instance, giving a timely issue to students where they

have to read daily news to check for further developments

that are necessary for the presentation of their work.

This would help them become sensitive and critical

thinkers. Thus, the strategies that the teachers would

employ should be aligned to the purpose of letting the

students read (Roddy, 2011).

Vocabulary has been identified as one of the crucial

factors that could affect literary competence. It is

defined as the building blocks of language. It covers the

knowledge of someone on the vast body of words utilized

in a language. In reading literary texts, a reader is

required to have knowledge on both easy and complex words

to stimulate comprehension (Dickinson & Porche, 2011).

There is need for readers to have a competent

knowledge on the words and its meaning to be able to

comprehend literary reading materials. This means that

the more knowledgeable the students are with the word

meanings, the more they possess literary competence. In

this fashion, there is much attention given in second

language vocabulary and literary competence by the

researchers and experts (Milton, 2013).

In addition, the approximated percentage for the

students to be capable of comprehending a passage is

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knowledge of 80% of the words in it. This approximation

is only ground for basic understanding of the text, which

means that if readers only have 79% knowledge of the

words in a passage, they could not even have a basic

understanding on the text they are reading. This

reiterates the complexity and vast concept of vocabulary

knowledge (Silverman & Crandell, 2010).

Vocabulary influences literary competence in a way

that reading literary texts requires readers to

concentrate on connotations and denotations of the words

and sentences. If the readers know both the connotative

and denotative the meaning of the words that are embedded

in the passage, they can most likely comprehend what they

are reading. Aside from the knowledge of connotative and

denotative meaning, there are also vocabulary skills that

students must possess to guess meanings such as the

skills in guessing meaning through the use of context

clues. Hence, both the knowledge of word meanings and

vocabulary skills are essential for one’s literary

competence (Naggy & Scott, 2007).

Furthermore, if the students do not have vast

knowledge of word meanings, this situation would slow

down the effectiveness of information processing, which

will result to dilemma in reading comprehension and

literary competence. In reading a text, especially if it

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is literary, there are a lot of difficult words to be

encountered because of the authors’ poetic purposes. Some

readers who cannot get the gist of the texts would either

read it over again or make use of resources such as

internet and dictionaries. Therefore, one’s vocabulary is

a great deal in literary competence (Moghadam, Zainal &

Ghaderpour, 2012).

Moreover, there is a great need of improving the

vocabulary of the students based from the aforesaid

related readings. Development in vocabulary is

characterized with acquisition and utilization of new

words in day-to-day activities. It does not focus

entirely on the knowledge of word meanings, but the

students’ skill as well as to applying this knowledge in

real-life experiences. This effort could be directed for

both the teachers and the learners. The teachers should

do their task in helping the students learn and use new

words in real-life situations and impart to them

strategies in vocabulary learning. In return, the

students should also do their part in improving their

skills. Thus, it accentuates the collaborative effort of

both learners and mentors in enhancing vocabulary

instruction and learning (Loftus & Coyne, 2013).

Working memory provides a simultaneous storehouse of

information that is already sorted out and at the same

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time, reinforces the process of sorting out new inbound

information. While reading, there are events and

information that you should put great attention to as it

may be helpful in comprehending the text, whereas there

are also events that you opted not to put too much

attention as does not have something to do with your goal

in constructing meaning out of the texts. This implies

that working memory is crucial to literary competence

owing the fact that while reading a literary text the

learner should store and consolidate information while

continuously reading (Gathercole & Alloway, 2008).

Moreover, the effectiveness of the students’ working

memory has a great deal to literary competence. The

students should be able to execute proper functions and

processes for a substantial comprehension. For example in

integrating current knowledge stored in their memory to

that of the new and preventive function which hinders

misleading information from meddling in the process of

sorting out salient information (De Beni et al., 2007).

The learners with working memory deficits would find

it hard to accomplish a task since they are incapable of

getting a hold to vital information that would enable

them to do so. This situation would lead learners into

struggles in reading comprehension and literary

competence as they tend to forget a lot of things, get

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distracted easily, they cannot reach standards of

learning and they tend to be inattentive. This

inattentiveness often occurs due to the poor performance

of their working memory so they cannot get a hold of the

needed information for a completion of a task. As a

result, the attention of the learners will be diverted

away from the task (Gathercole & Alloway, 2008).

Researches in the track of literary competence

indicated that one major force towards literary

competence is reading strategies. These strategies are

what the learners use in the process of making sense with

a literary text. These would assist the students to

assess their own achievement in reading comprehension

(Hogan & Dubas, 2010).

Moreover, reading strategies are defined by some

other scholars as the technique used in comprehending

certain text. There have been varieties of reading

strategies employed based on its effectiveness in every

learner. Some strategies of reading might not be as

effective as it is with other readers. Thus, emphasizing

the need of individualizing these strategies based on

readers’ choice (Cain & Oakhill, 2011).

The three strategies that are being evaluated as the

most effective techniques to be used to harness literary

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competence are the following: prediction, inference and

summarization. First, prediction is defined as the

ability to make assumptions while reading a certain text.

This has been evident when reading literary works where

readers have to make guesses as to what would happen next

while reading the preceding part of it. Second, inference

is creating conclusion based on the facts or events that

happened first. This too is observed when reading long

stories wherein in the course of reading few chapters,

the reader could make a conclusion about what would be

the story’s ending. Lastly, summarizing is the ability to

enumerate orally or in written the flow of the story by

observing the plot of the story. This technique is often

used by the teachers to harness the ability of the

students to read for gist (Fritschman, Deshler &

Schumaker, 2007).

In relation to what stated that teachers and

researchers should put emphasis on the essence of reading

strategies. Teachers should acquire and teach finer

reading strategies to scratch the illusion of some

readers who content themselves in poor standards of

literary competence. This is to help the students

acquire and put into practice strategies to encourage

more advanced achievement to comprehension in relation to

literary competence (Grabe, 2009).

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Prior knowledge is defined as stored knowledge

associated with the rise of the literary competence and

memory. Studies have shown that prior knowledge or

schema improves both memory and literary comprehension.

For instance, when readers continue to enhance their

prior knowledge by means of reading, they can improve

their memory as they continuously try to remember

concepts they have learned. They could also improve their

literary comprehension as they can gain learnings and

experiences from which they could integrate when they

read texts. Thus, when learners have more knowledge and

experiences about the text, they are likely to make a

meaningful interpretation of it as they have a lot to

relate with (Priebe, Keenan, & Miller, 2012).

Students’ general knowledge and experiences shape

students’ literary competence. The interaction between

the reader and text is one avenue that makes the reader

internalize the text they he/she reading. The students

make meaning of the text by means of his repertoire of

knowledge as well as his/her experiences and even through

experiences of other people. In a study interconnected to

this, students were examined on how well they are in

activating their prior knowledge to make predictions and

hypotheses about a literary text, which helps in overall

text comprehension. The results have shown that the

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literary competence of the students would be developed

when the students practice to infer and predict even if

their decoding, vocabulary, knowledge of text structure

and comprehension are limited. Thus, explaining how

important it is to inculcate the importance of prior

knowledge (Elbro & Iversen, 2013).

Reading is fortuitously visual as the learners are

the ones who provide more necessary information than that

content of the texts. This means that the readers’

knowledge contributes more than the embedded information

when trying to comprehend a text. This further stipulates

that ones’ comprehension of certain texts is dependent on

their schemata. Accordingly, the failure of the learners

in making sense with the text is provoked by inadequacy

of proper schema which can either be based on content or

formal. Content-based schema comprises the knowledge

about the cultures and practices of people whereas formal

schema consists of knowledge of the structure of

discourse (Brown, 2001).

After accomplishing the elementary school, the spot

light is to be put on the students’ ability to understand

more advanced types of texts such as the literary ones.

The focus in the elementary level is on oral fluency

while the focus in the secondary level is on reading

comprehension and literary competence. This is where the

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next factor that affects literary competence takes in.

Considering that there is an intertwined relationship

between literary competence and word recognition when

readers try to recognize all the words in a literary text

for comprehension (Denton, et al., 2011).

In a study conducted to secondary students,

researchers seek to investigate if morphological

awareness which is the ability to operate and segregate

smallest units of meaning is significant to literary

competence. Modern studies have suggested that these two

have significant connection between each other (Compton &

Kearns, 2013).

An example of application of morphological awareness

would be the word unhappy. There are two morphemes

(smallest unit of meaning), the prefix “un-” and the base

word happy. If a student knows that the suffix “un-“means

not then the student could infer that the word means not

happy (Perfetti, 2007).

Finally, there is a bond between poor word

recognition and literary competence Students who have

poor word recognition are more likely to possess low

quality of lexical portrayal. In contrast, students who

have good word recognition are also most likely to

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possess high quality of lexical portrayal (Gilbert et

al., 2013).

Literary Competence among students in UM Tagum College

Literary competence has been defined by some

scholars as “an interesting collaboration of historical,

socio-cultural, linguistic and semiotic awareness. This

definition can be assimilated to Culler’s idea of someone

who is reading a Journal of English and Economy. For

learners to possess literary competence they should have

the following: contextual knowledge, knowledge about

reading, literary reading skills, and textual knowledge

(Hirstch, 1997).

Competence is defined as the essential, rare, and

non-replaceable resources that could grant someone

competitive advancement in a competitive environment. For

instance, in a classroom, students are literary advanced

would be expected to excel than those who are not. Thus,

those students who are competent have given competitive

advancement in a competitive language classroom

(Atkociuniene, 2010).

Some sub skills of literary competence include

textual and contextual skills. These two are used in

comprehending written or spoken text irrespective of its

text purpose whether it is educational or not. Studies

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have shown that even those who have not graduated in a

degree in college could still be successful in their

lives if they have these essential skills. For those who

have specialization in Literature and English, they must

possess these two essential sub skills (Berkeley,

Mastopieri & Scruggs, 2011).

Moreover, literary competence is not instantly

absorbed by learners. It needs fostering and development.

It is something that we should inculcate to the learners

through practice and drills. Moreover, in the stage of

giving meaning to a literary work, a reader creates a

relationship between his/her personal experiences and

that of what he/she reads. This would have been the

combination what he/she knows and what he/she has been

through (Rosenblatt, 2010).

In the same fashion, literary competence depends on

the learners’ reading culture which includes their

exposure and reading habits competence. Age does not

guarantee the literary competence of a learner because

the orientation and the experiences of the learners

overpower age. Therefore, even a small child could be a

competent reader as long as the child has great

foundation, which would build his/her literary competence

(Hennig, 2010).
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The first indicator of literary competence is

contextual knowledge. For learners to be literary

competent they should have knowledge on historical

expansion of literature, including the knowledge of

authors and the latters’ literary pieces and genres of

literature would likely to possess literary competence.

He further stated in the important role of the students

in their literary development (Witte, 2008).

In addition, the second indicator of literary

competence is knowledge about reading which comprises the

students’ knowledge about reading emphasizing the notion

that readers should know the process of reading and

making meaning. As an illustration, a reader who has an

exceptional knowledge about reading knows what and when

to read again a segment of a selection and what parts of

the selection should be kept in mind and discarded for a

more constructive and effective comprehension of the text

(Griffith & Ruan, 2005).

Another indicator of literary competence which is

literary reading skills demand readers to integrate the

content of reading material with their schemata. To

simply put into terms, literary reading skills are the

ability of the students to read between the lines. As the

reading materials are mainly literary texts, the capacity

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of the readers to read between the lines is one essential

skill (Pennel, 2002).

The last indicator of literary competence is textual

knowledge which includes the readers’ familiarity with

certain terminologies in literature such as literary

devices and terms. This knowledge will help the readers

understand further the usual structures utilized by the

authors in the latters’ writings. If the students possess

this knowledge, it would be easier for the students to

appreciate, expound and examine a literary work. In this

way, textual knowledge contributes to literary competence

(Slager, 2016).

Correlation Between Measures

There is a significant relationship among factors

affecting literary competence literary competence which

means that factors affecting literary competence

influence literary competence. Factors affecting literary

competence influence how learners make meaning from

written literary works. It ranges from the emotional

state of the learners that drives them to read up to the

learners’ knowledge and skills in making sense out of the

literary works (Hennig, 2010).

Literary competence and motivation are correlated,

upholding the likelihood of bidirectional connection

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between these two. If the learners are motivated to read,

they enjoy learning and can improve their literary

competence. Thus, researchers, experts, parents and

teachers should focus on the implication of motivation

and literary competence to aid most excellently the

students with low performances in terms of literary

competence (Morgan & Fuchs, 2007).

In the same way, literary competence can be

anticipated by motivation to read. Determining first the

motivation of the learners to read, the amount of time

spent in reading and the degree of reading engagement

could be anticipated. This in return would directly

predict the students’ literary competence (Torgesen,

2007).

On the other hand, vocabulary is predictive of their

literary competence. Learners with established vocabulary

are likely to possess literary competence compared to

those learners who have poor foundation of vocabulary.

This is because learners with highly established

vocabulary could easily decipher the underlying message

of a literary text as they know a lot of words with their

corresponding meaning. In contrast to learners with poor

vocabulary who would find it hard to make sense of the

literary text due to deficiency in knowledge of word

meanings (Cromley & Azevedo, 2007).

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Equally important is the capacity of the learners to

recognize words precisely and instantaneously contributes

to literary competence. As learners could identify words

correctly, the comprehension would be easier. Just as

what expressed that word recognition could predict

literary competence (Adlof, Kendeou. Broek, White & Lynch

2009).

Meanwhile, learners who have poor levels of prior

knowledge are not likely to possess literary competence

than those who have advanced levels of prior knowledge,

as the latter could comprehend texts better with the help

of their previous knowledge and are likely to formulate

inferences out of the texts to generate meaning (Ozuru,

McNamara & Dempsey, 2009).

On the contrary, teachers and researchers should put

emphasis on the essence of reading strategies. Teachers

should acquire and teach finer reading strategies to

scratch the illusion of some readers who content

themselves in poor standards of literary competence.

This is to help the students acquire and put into

practice strategies to encourage more advanced

achievement to comprehension in relation to literary

competence (Grabe, 2009).

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Working memory is crucial to literary competence

owing the fact that memory reading requires activation of

short-term memory. During reading, a learner should store

and consolidate information while continuously reading.

The information that would be stored in the short-term

memory of a learner would be used in interpreting the

text. Thus, if learners have not established their

working memory, the learners are more likely to read

multiple times and with the use of resources before

having a substantial understanding of it (Kintsch &

Rawson, 2005).

The aforesaid display of related readings had

contributed in highlighting the essence of factors

affecting literary competence on literary competence.

These literatures guided the researchers in the

realization of the influence of factors affecting

literary competence towards literary competence. Thus,

related readings are one of the guides in the realization

of any research.

Theoretical Framework

This study is anchored in the Construction

Integration theory of Kintsch and Van Dijk that was first

developed in 1978 and later expanded in 1983. This theory

states the complexity of literary competence which

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involves two processes of reading comprehension. First,

as readers construct meaning out of the literary texts,

they prompt word meanings and inferences using their

prior knowledge to come up with comprehensible meaning.

Lastly, in the second process the readers make use of the

formulated meaning to integrate it to practical

experiences and situations. And later, they mentioned

that in the two process of reading comprehension there

are cognitive and affective factors that could affect

readers’ comprehension of texts in relation to literary

competence which focuses on literary pieces as reading

materials.

This theory is duly supported by Koda (2007) who

stated that cognitive factors are crucial in harnessing

literary competence. These cognitive factors center on

the way a human mind process information and signals.

Hence, the qualities of a person that influences his

learning and performance that inflects whether or not

his/her performance would enhance or deteriorate.

Similarly, Negris (2013) stated that readers’ extent

of cognitive abilities could greatly affect their

literary competence. These cognitive abilities comprise

how someone learns, recall and solve problems. For

example, in answering a phone call, it includes skills

such as perception, making decision, motor skill,

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language skills, and social skills. First, there would be

consciousness if someone calls as the phone will ring.

Second, the receiver will answer the call. Third, the

receiver will lift the phone to answer. Fourth, the

receiver will talk to the caller using the language.

Lastly, the receiver will interpret the tone of the

caller’s voice and interact accordingly.

Lastly, Trehearne and Doctorow (2005) indicated that

aside from the cognitive factors, affective factors also

maintain its crucial role in literary competence. These

factors refer to emotional aspects that can influence

language learning. These factors can either influence

learning positively or negatively.

Conceptual Framework

Conferred in the Figure 1 is the conceptual

framework of this undertaking. The independent variable

of this study is the factors affecting literary

competence with the following indicators: motivation to

read, prior knowledge, reading strategies, vocabulary,

word recognition and working memory. First, motivation to

read is the driving force that causes someone to read.

Second, prior knowledge is something a learner has before

encountering new information. Third, reading strategies

are projected and explicit activities that will aid

readers in translating meaning from print. Fourth,

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vocabulary is a myriad of words utilized in a certain

language. Fifth, word recognition is the capability of

the readers to identify words that are written accurately

and practically. Lastly, working memory is a portion of

short-term memory which is focused with on immediate

responsive emotive and linguistic processing (Melekoglu

and Wilkerson, 2013).

The dependent variable is literary competence with

the following indicators: contextual knowledge, knowledge

about reading, literary reading skill and textual

knowledge. First, contextual knowledge is defined as the

knowledge of the various text types, authors, and

literary history, genres and text’s cultural and

periodical context. Second, knowledge about reading is

the reader’s personal knowledge about how he/she reads

the text, comprehends the text. Third, literary reading

skill is the ability to engage and interact to the text

by imagining it. Lastly, textual knowledge is the

knowledge of the literary terminologies, narrative

structures and analytic capabilities of the readers

(Hennig, 2010).
 30

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Factors Affecting Literary Competence

Literary Competence
 Contextual Knowledge
 Motivation to Read
 Knowledge about
 Prior Knowledge
Reading
 Reading Strategies
 Literary Reading
 Vocabulary
Skill
 Word Recognition
 Textual Knowledge
 Working Memory

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of the Study

 31

Significance of the Study

The uncovering of this study is relevant as it may

be of use for conceiving teaching and learning strategies

for improving literary competence and to ensure that the

factors affecting literary competence would be addressed

as well. The result of this study would yield advantages

for the institution as they could make use of the

findings in providing the necessary data for program and

instruction adjustments aimed to foster development of

the students. This data would be a great help for the

institution to make the latter's vision, mission and

goals happen because if the students will be examined,

present and future problems could be diagnosed. In that

case, the institution could formulate intervention

programs in order to cater those problems. Thus, the

institution will be providing competent graduates who are

geared enough to face their respective path and choice.

In addition, this study would also benefit both the

teachers and the students. For teachers, they could

determine and adjust appropriate teaching strategies that

could foster best learning based on the factors

determined in this study. In this way, teachers could

harness their pedagogical competence, because

technically, it is the teacher who facilitates students'

learning inside the classroom. For the students, this

 32

study can enlighten the students’ minds about the things

that could hinder or foster their competence. Thus,

knowing these, both teachers and students can already

monitor and improve the teaching-learning process.

Definition of Terms

For preferable comprehension of the readers on the

terminologies maneuvered in this study, the functionally

defined terms below would help.

Factors Affecting Literary Competence. This term is

influences that play a part to literary competence which

can be measured by motivation to read, prior knowledge

reading, strategies, vocabulary, word recognition and

working memory.

Literary Competence. This term is an interesting

collaboration of historical, semiotic, sociocultural and

linguistic awareness which can be measured by contextual

knowledge, knowledge about reading, literary reading

skills and textual knowledge.

 33

Chapter 2

METHOD

This chapter shows the research design, research

locale, population and sample, research instrument, data

collection and the statistic tools that were employed by

the researcher in the conduct of this study.

Research Design

This study made use of a quantitative design due to

the nature of our study, where observation and in-depth

interviews will not be the appropriate means to gather

the data needed for this study. Correlation technique was

also employed in this study. In this design, quantifying

and determining a relationship between two variables and

influences of one variable to another are the most

distinctive features from other types of research design

(Bhat, 2018).

This design involves quantitative data regarding the

aforesaid occurrence. The outcome can be generalized,

reliable, precise and consistent as the sampling

selection and sampling process is duly planned and well-

designed. The procedure of accumulating the data was

established through the utilization of questionnaires.

The focal point of this undertaking was to find out the

 34

level of factors affecting literary competence and

literary competence.

Research Locale

This study will be employed specifically in the

University of Mindanao Tagum College, Tagum City, Davao

del Norte. The probability of universal applicability was

restricted to the scope and population sample.

Figure 2 shows the map of the Philippines which is

composed of 17 region from which Tagum City is located in

Davao Region (Region XI). Figure 3 also presents the

distribution of the respondents from two different

courses in the same institution.

Tagum City has the greatest number of population in

Mindanao. This first class city belongs to the province

of Davao del Norte. It is in the northern part of Davao

City, the regional economic and executive capital of

Davao Region (Region XI) which is Davao City. This city

is situated between 7°26’ N latitude and 125°48’ E

longitude. The following Municipalities bounded Tagum

City: on the North, Mawab, Asuncion and New Corella, on

the East, Maco, and on the West, Braulio E. Dujali.

The locality of the respondents is situated at the

City of Tagum, Davao del Norte in their school University

 35

Tagum
City is
located
in this
area.

Figure 2. Map of the Philippines Highlighting Davao

Del Norte
 36

of Mindanao Tagum College. Since, there are two courses

who have great involvement of this study, both the BSED

English and AB English students of the same institution

will be respondents to the conduct of this study.

Population and Sample

The respondents of the study were chosen by means of

purposive sampling. The subjects of this study were the

232 fourth year students of the University of Mindanao

Tagum College. Presented in Table 1 are the distribution

of respondents who were the BSED English and AB English

students for the school year 2018-2019. The results of

the survey conducted with the respondents will be the

bases of determining the factors affecting literary

competence and the level to which the English major

students and AB English students are literary competent.

Distribution of Respondents

Name of Schools Number of Respondents

University of Mindanao Tagum College

BSED English students 146

AB English students 86

Total 232

In determining the respondents for this study, the

researches employed purposive sampling of 146 students

 37

coming from BSED English and 86 students from AB English

with a total of 232.

Research Instrument

There were two sets of researcher-made

questionnaires concerning the indicators of the DV which

are contextual knowledge, knowledge about reading,

literary reading skill and textual knowledge and the

indicators of IV which are motivation to read, prior

knowledge reading strategies, vocabulary, word

recognition and working memory. The first set of

questionnaires is composed thirty (30) statements

measuring Motivation to Read, Prior Knowledge, Reading

Strategies, Vocabulary, Word Recognition, and Working

memory. The research instrument for this undertaking is

subjected to content validation by research panels to

ensure that validity of the questionnaires.

To evaluate the level of factors affecting literary

competence, these intervals were followed:

Range of Means Description Interpretation

4.30 – 5.0 Very High This means that the factors

are influential at all times.

3.50 – 4.20 High This means that the factors

are influential most of the
times.
 38

2.70 – 3.40 Moderate This means that the factors

are influential occasionally.
1.90 – 2.60 Low This means that the factors
are rarely influential.
1.00 – 1.80 Very Low This means that the factors
are not influential at all.

The second set of questionnaires was composed of

forty (40) questions, ten (10) questions in every

indicator measuring the literary competence of the

students with the following indicators: contextual

knowledge, knowledge about reading, literary reading

skill and textual knowledge.

To evaluate the level of factors affecting literary

competence, these two intervals were considered for the

individual skills and the overall skills of literary

competence:

Range of Description Interpretation

Means

9 – 10 Very High This means that the literary

competence is very highly
manifested.

7 - 8 High This means that the literary

competence is highly
manifested.

5 – 6 Moderate This means that the literary

competence is moderately
manifested.
 39

3-4 Low This means that the literary

competence is lowly
manifested.

0 – 2 Very Low This means that the literary

competence is very lowly
manifested.

Range of Description Interpretation

Means

33 – 40 Very High This means that the literary

competence is very highly
manifested.

25 - 32 High This means that the literary

competence is highly
manifested.

17 – 24 Moderate This means that the literary

competence is moderately
manifested.

9-16 Low This means that the literary

competence is lowly
manifested.

0 – 8 Very Low This means that the literary

competence is very lowly
manifested.

Data Collection

The process of gathering information needed for

this study followed the succeeding step. First, the

researchers made questionnaires for both the Independent

Variable (IV) and the Dependent Variable (DV). During

this stage, the researchers made a collaborative effort

in coming up with a comprehensive test. Second, the

researchers let their adviser check it for some

 40

correction and suggestions. In this stage, the

questionnaires only had few corrections and the

researchers edited it immediately. Third, the

researchers let the research panels check and validate

the questionnaires. The panels looked carefully into the

questionnaires and asked for the Table of Specification

(TOS) for the Multiple-Choice test. Fourth, the

researchers asked permission to conduct the study by

providing a letter duly signed by the research adviser.

Fifth, the researchers asked for the total population of

the respondents to determine the appropriate number for

the study. It took one week for the researchers to have

the population sample of the respondents. Sixth, the

researchers consulted a statistician on the needed

number of research respondents and the researchers

conducted the survey. Lastly, after the conduct of the

survey the students tallied the scores and gave it to

the statistician.

Statistical Tools

The accumulated data on the factors affecting

literary competence on English major and AB English

students of University of Mindanao Tagum College were

examined and expounded based on the purpose of the

study.
 41

Below are the statistical tools that were utilized

in this study:

Pearson (r). This tool was employed to figure out

the significant relationship of factors affecting

literary competence and literary competence.

Mean. This was utilized to measure the level of

factors affecting literary competence and literary

competence.

Linear Regression Analysis. This tool was employed

to figure out the influence of factors affecting

literary competence to literary competence.

 42

Chapter 3

RESULTS

This chapter contains the data and results of this

study. The tables are presented according to the

following subheadings: Level of Factors Affecting

Literary Competence, Level of Literary Competence,

Significance on the Relationship between Levels of

Factors Affecting Literary Competence and Literary

Competence, and Multiple Regression Analysis of the

Influence of Factors Affecting Literary Competence and

Literary Competence with their corresponding indicators.

Level of Factors Affecting the Literary

Competence of BSED English and
AB English students

Table 1 shows the mean scores of the indicators of

factors affecting literary competence among BSED English

and AB English student which got an overall mean of 2.6

characterized as low with a standard deviation of 0.72.

The descriptive level of the overall mean is low. This

signifies that the responses are rarely influential in

most instances reiterated in the items of motivation to

read, prior knowledge, reading strategies, vocabulary

and working memory except word recognition which got a

descriptive level of moderate with a mean of 2.8.

 43

Table 1. Level of Factors Affecting Literary Competence

of the BSED English and AB English Students

Indicator 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐧 SD Descriptive

Level

Motivation to Read 2.6 0.88 Low

Prior Knowledge 2.5 0.84 Low

Reading strategies 2.6 0.84 Low

Vocabulary 2.4 0.76 Low

Word Recognition 2.8 0.93 Moderate

Working Memory 2.6 0.85 Low

Overall 2.6 0.72 Low

Legend:

4.3 – 5.0 Very High

3.5 – 4.2 High

2.7 – 3.4 Moderate

1.9 – 2.6 Low

1.0 – 1.8 Very Low

 44

The overall mean score presented in table 1 was

derived from computing the following mean scores

arranged in a descending order: the highest mean score

which is 2.8 for word recognition, deemed as moderate

with a standard deviation of 0.93; next to the highest

mean score are three 2.6 for reading strategies, working

memory and motivation to read, all considered as low

with the corresponding standard deviation of 0.84, 0.85

and 0.88 arranged in chronological order as these

indicators were previously mentioned, second to the last

is 2.5 for prior knowledge, regarded as low accompanied

with its standard deviation of 0.84; lastly, 2.4 for

vocabulary, viewed as low with a standard deviation of

0.76.

Level of Literary Competence of the BSED English and AB

English students

Table 2 shows the mean scores of the indicators of

factors affecting literary competence among BSED English

and AB English students which got 27 as the overall mean

3.42 as the standard deviation. The descriptive level of

the overall mean which is high, coming from the high

rating of the responses coming from the respondents.

This indicates that the responses are highly manifested

in all cases mentioned in the items for contextual

knowledge, knowledge about reading, literary reading

skills and textual knowledge.

 45

Table 2. Level of Literary Competence of the BSED

English and AB English Students

Indicator 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐧 SD Descriptive

Level

Contextual Knowledge 7 1.61 High

Knowledge about Reading 7 1.63 High

Literary Reading Skill 7 1.68 High

Textual Knowledge 7 1.68 High

Overall 28 3.42 High

Legend:

Skill Overall

9 – 10 Very High 33 – 40 Very High

7 – 8 High 25 – 32 High

5 – 6 Moderate 17 – 24 Moderate

3 – 4 Low 9 – 16 Low

0 – 2 Very Low 0 – 8 Very low

 46

The overall mean score presented in table 2 was

derived from computing the following mean scores which

are all of the same value: first is 7 for contextual

knowledge, deemed as high with a standard deviation of

0.93; second is 7 also for knowledge about reading,

considered high as well with the corresponding standard

deviation of 1.63; third is 7 also for literary reading

skills, regarded as high with its corresponding standard

deviation of 1.68 and; lastly, 7 for textual knowledge

considered as high accompanied with its standard

deviation of 1.68.

Significance of the Relationship between Levels

of Factors Affecting Literary Competence

One principal purpose of this undertaking is to

figure out if the factors affecting literary competence

have significant relationship with literary competence

among BSED English and AB English students of UM Tagum

College. To work out the correlation between these two

variables, Pearson r was utilized. Table 3 presents the

outcome of the calculation.

Additionally, the outcome exposed that factors

affecting literary competence compared to literary

competence would generate an r-value of 0.599 exhibits

its significance. Due to the p-value of 0.000 which is

below 0.05, the null hypothesis is rejected. This means

 47

Table 3. Significance on the Relationship between Levels

of Factors Affecting Literary Competence and Literary
Competence

Variables Mean SD r-value p-

value

Overall Factors 2.6 0.72 0.599** 0.000

Literary Competence 27 3.42

**- Very Significant at 0.05 level.

 48

that there is a significant relationship between the

factors affecting literary competence and literary

competence.

Regression Analysis of the Influence of

Factors Affecting Literary Competence

Table 4 displays the regression coefficients to

analyze the significant effect of the overall factors

affecting literary competence to literary competence in

BSED English and AB English students of UM Tagum

College. By means of Multiple Regression Analysis the

data uncover the influence of factors affecting literary

competence towards literary competence with an F-value

of 33.639 and equivalent p-value of 0.000.

As a result, the factors affecting literary

competence significantly influence literary competence

considering the probability value of 0.000 which is

below 0.05. Further, the R² value is 0.599 signifies

that 59.9% of the literary competence is affected by the

factors affecting literary competence among BSED English

and AB English students of UM Tagum City, while the

other 40.1% were affected by other remaining factors.

To further expand the explanation of Linear

Regression Analysis between the two variables, the

influence of factors towards literary competence will be

explained. First, the indicator Motivation to Read which

 49

Table 4. Regression Analysis on the Influence of the Factors

Affecting the Literary Competence and Literary Competence in
BSED English and AB English Students

Factors Affecting B β t- p-
Literary Unstandardized Standardized value value
Competence Coefficients Coefficients
(Indicators)

Constant 20.453

Motivation to Read 1.829 0.469 6.294 0.000

Prior Knowledge 0.696 0.171 2.382 0.018

Reading Strategies -0.785 -0.192 - 0.021

Vocabulary 0.092 0.020 2.317 0.806

Word Recognition 1.192 0.323 0.246 0.000

Working Memory -0.299 -0.075 3.688 0.420

0.808

Dependent Variable: Literary Competence

R = 0.688
R2 = 0.473

F = 33.639**
ρ value = 0.000

**significant at 0.05 significance level

 50

got a beta of 0.469 accompanied with its p-value of

0.000which entails that Motivation has a significant

effect on the literary competence of the BSED English

and AB English students of UM Tagum College considering

the probability level of 0.000which is below the 0.05

significance level. Second, the indicator Prior

Knowledge with a beta of 0.171 and a p-value of 0.018

means that Prior Knowledge has a significant effect to

the literary competence considering the probability

level of 0.000 which is below the 0.05 significance

level. Third, the indicator Reading Strategies with a

beta of -0.192 and a p-value of 0.021 which implies that

Reading Strategies have significant effect on the

literary competence considering its probability value of

0.021 which is below the 0.05 significance level.

Fourth, the indicator Vocabulary with a beta of 0.020

together with its p-value of 0.806 which indicates that

Vocabulary has no significant effect on literary

competence as its probability value of 0.806 is above

the 0.05 significance level. Fifth, the indicator Word

Recognition with a beta of 0.323 and a p-value of 0.000

which means that Word Recognition has significant effect

on the literary competence considering its probability

value of 0.000 which is below the 0.05 significance

level. Lastly, the indicator Working Memory with a beta

of 0.075 and p-value of 0.420 means that Working Memory

 51

has no significant effect on the literary competence

considering its probability value of 0.420 which is

above the 0.05 significance level.

 52

Chapter 4

DISCUSSION

The elaboration of the data on factors affecting

literary competence among BSED English and AB English

students of UM Tagum College are laid out in this

chapter. The subheadings for this chapter includes the

following: Level of Factors Affecting the Literary

Competence of the BSED English and AB English Students,

Level of Literary Competence of the BSED English and AB

English Students, Correlation Between Measures and

Regression Analysis on the Influence of Factors

Affecting Literary Competence.

Level of Factors Affecting the

Literary Competence of the
BSED English and AB English Students

Based on the responses of the respondents, the

level of factors affecting literary competence is low,

signifying that the peculiar factors affecting literary

competence were negative among BSED English and AB

English students in UM Tagum College. This indicates

that the respondents in UM Tagum College do not often

embody the factors affecting the literary competence as

to: word recognition which is concerned with the one’s

ability to recognize words in written texts; motivation

to read which involves one’s driving force towards

 53

reading; reading strategies which covers one’s reading

strategies whether through adopting or adapting; working

memory which encompass one’s ability to effectively

assimilate new information they encounter from that of

the past; prior knowledge which involves one’s previous

knowledge; and vocabulary which deals with one’s

knowledge on the body of words utilized in a certain

language.

The level of the indicator word recognition is

moderate, signifying that this factor is moderately

manifested by the BSED English and AB English students

in UM Tagum College. This means that the respondents

have moderate skills in recognizing the following: words

with its pronunciation, words and its spelling and

various-units of sounds. The word recognition skill

would help the respondents develop their literary

competence as readers continuously identify words in

making sense of a text they are reading. This is

symmetrical to what Best (2008) stated that the capacity

of the learners to recognize words precisely and

instantaneously contributes to literary competence. For

instance, when one reads the sentence “Romeo and Juliet

planned for a rendezvous.” He/she would try to recognize

all the words that made up the sentence in order to

comprehend it.
 54

Moreover, the level of the indicator reading

strategies is low, bespeaking that this factor is rarely

influential among BSED English and AB English students

in UM Tagum College. This means that the reading

strategies of the respondents are not highly established

as they have low ratings in knowing the different kinds

of reading strategies, applying reading strategies in

texts, knowing when to and not to use a certain reading

strategy, having personal reading strategies and making

use of different types of reading strategies to improve

reading skills. In relation to what Grabe (2009) stated

that teachers and researchers should put emphasis on the

essence of reading strategies. He added that teachers

should acquire and teach finer reading strategies to

scratch the illusion of some readers who content

themselves in poor standards of literary competence.

This is to help the students acquire and put into

practice strategies to encourage more advanced

achievement to comprehension in relation to literary

competence.

Similarly, the level of the indicator working

memory is low, implying that this factor is rarely

influential among BSED English and AB English students

in UM Tagum College. This indicates that the ability of

the respondents to assimilate well the prior knowledge

 55

to new information is not highly compelling as they have

low ratings in remembering and responding to

information, retaining information while paying

attention, associating new concepts from previous ones,

storing information while listening or reading and

retaining information for a long span of time. In

accordance with what Kintsch and Rawson (2005) said that

working memory is crucial to literary competence owing

the fact that while reading a literary text the learner

should store and consolidate information while

continuously reading. As an illustration, when one

reads a story, he/she would store important information

that would be helpful in comprehending the text. This

may include information such as the characters of the

story, the conflict and the important events in the

story.

In like manner, the level of the indicator

motivation to read is low, signifying that this factor

is rarely influential among BSED English and AB English

in UM Tagum College. This implies that the respondents

are not driven to read as they have low ratings in

finding reading interesting, knowing the advantages of

reading, spending time in reading, valuing the

importance of being a good reader and wanting to improve

their reading skills. This can be assimilated with the

 56

idea of Lakhani and Wolf (2005) that if readers are not

motivated they will not spend time in reading

considering that motivation is the driving force that

makes someone do something. They further elaborated the

need to put emphasis on intrinsic motivation over

extrinsic motivation because if readers are more

intrinsically motivated they would read even without a

reward or an instruction. For example, a reader who is

intrinsically motivated would read because he/she enjoys

reading.

Comparatively, the level of the indicator prior

knowledge is low, entailing that this factor is rarely

influential among BSED English and AB English students

in UM Tagum College. This means that the respondents do

not have vast prior knowledge as they have low ratings

in recognizing and recalling past lessons, understanding

and reproducing meaning out of a concept and in

classifying and comparing information based on what they

already know. This is akin to the notion of Ozuru,

McNamara and Dempsey (2009) that learners who have poor

levels of prior knowledge are not likely to possess

literary competence than those who have advanced levels

of prior knowledge. This is due to the likelihood of the

learners who have more advanced level of prior knowledge

to comprehend texts better as they could formulate well

 57

inferences out of the texts to generate meaning. For

example, when readers has well-established prior

knowledge in elements of prose and poetry, it would be

easier for them to compare and contrast prose and

poetry. This notion could also be associated to Priebe,

Keenan, and Miller (2012) that prior knowledge or schema

improves both memory and literary competence. This is

because as learners have more knowledge and experiences

about the text, they are likely to make a meaningful

interpretation of it as they have a lot to relate with.

Lastly, the indicator vocabulary is also low,

signifying that this factor is rarely influential among

BSED English and AB English students in UM Tagum

College. This implies that the respondents do not have a

highly established knowledge of the myriad of words

utilized in a specific language as they have low ratings

in having a wide span of vocabulary, guessing meaning

through semantic relations and in reading all types of

texts. In relation to what Milton (2013) stated that

when readers are more knowledgeable with the word

meanings they could be more proficient in reading any

types of literary texts. For instance, in reading the

Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare, the readers should

know the meanings of the difficult words in it such as

temperate, lease, hath and sneer. This is also in accord

 58

with what Cromley and Azevedo (2007) said that learners’

vocabulary plays a great role in their literary

competence. Thus, when learners have established

vocabulary, they are likely to possess literary

competence compared to those learners who have poor

foundation of vocabulary.

Level of Literary Competence of

the BSED English and AB
English Students

Based on the responses of the respondents, the

level of the literary competence is high, signifying

that the indicators under literary competence are highly

manifested by the BSED English and AB English in UM

Tagum College. This indicates that the respondents often

embody literary competence as to: contextual knowledge

which covers one’s knowledge of text types, authors,

literary history, genres and cultural context; knowledge

about reading which is concerned with one’s knowledge on

how he/she reads and comprehends texts; literary reading

skills which encompasses one’s ability to engage and

interact to text; and textual knowledge which refers to

the knowledge of literary terminologies, and narrative

structures.

The performances of the students in all indicators

of the literary competence are quite close to each

other. All indicators got a mean score of 7, rounded off

 59

from their original means scores of 6.82 for contextual

knowledge, 7.26 for knowledge about reading, 6.94 for

literary reading skills and 6.66 for textual knowledge.

These mean scores were rounded off due to the reason

that the research instrument for literary competence was

a multiple-choice test, signifying that each item should

only have one point. This further means that, if a

respondent got a wrong answer in item number 1, then

he/she will have a score of 0, rather than giving

him/her a score of 0.50 or scores other than 1. Thus,

the mean scores for the literary competence were rounded

off.

The level of knowledge about reading is high,

implying that this indicator is highly manifested by the

BSED English and AB English students in UM Tagum

College. This means that the respondents have a highly

well-established knowledge about how they read and

comprehend the texts they are reading. This is parallel

to the point of view of Griffith and Ruan (2005) that

readers should know the process of reading and making

meaning. In particular context, a reader who has an

exceptional knowledge about reading knows what and when

to read again a segment of a selection and what parts of

the selection should be kept in mind and discarded for a

more constructive and effective comprehension of the

text.
 60

Similarly, the indicator literary reading skills

are high, signifying that this indicator is highly

manifested by BSED English and AB English students. This

implies that the respondents have possessed the

abilities in initial understanding, literary analysis

inferential comprehension and construction of meaning.

In relation to the study of Pennel (2002) that literary

reading skills demand readers to integrate the content

of reading material with their schemata. For example, in

comprehending the famous proverb “Give man a fish and

you feed him for day, teach man how to fish and you feed

him for a lifetime,” readers are required to integrate

what they know to uncover the lesson behind this

proverb. To simply put into terms, literary reading

skills are the ability of the students to read between

the lines. As the reading materials are mainly literary

texts, the capacity of the readers to read between the

lines is one essential skill.

In like manner, the indicator contextual knowledge

is high, bespeaking that this indicator is highly

manifested by BSED English and AB English students in UM

Tagum College. This means that the respondents embody

the knowledge of the authors, literary history, literary

genres and periodical context. In like manner, Witte

(2008) stated that the students who have knowledge in

historical expansion of literature, including the

 61

knowledge of authors and the latters’ literary pieces

and genres of literature would likely to possess

literary competence. As an illustration, when a reader

knows about the biography of Edgar Allan Poe, it would

be easier to understand about his writings such as “The

Cask of Amontillado” and “Annabelle Lee.”

Lastly, the indicator textual knowledge is high,

entailing that this indicator is highly manifested by

BSED English and AB English students in UM Tagum

College. This implies that the respondents have highly

established their knowledge in literary terminologies

and narrative structures. For Slager (2016), one of the

vital points of textual knowledge is the readers’

familiarity with certain terminologies in literature

such as literary devices and terms. This knowledge will

help the readers understand further the usual structures

utilized by the authors in the latters’ writings. If the

students possess this knowledge, it would be easier for

the students to appreciate, expound and examine a

literary work. In this way, textual knowledge

contributes to literary competence.

Correlation Between Measures

This undertaking reveals a significant relationship

between factors affecting literary competence and

literary competence among BSED English and AB English

 62

students of UM Tagum College. This signifies that

motivation to read, prior knowledge, reading strategies,

vocabulary, word recognition, working memory and

literary competence influence literary competence as

presented on the preceding chapter.

The correlation between overall factors affecting

literary competence and literary competence is

significant. This further means that the literary

competence is dependent on the factors affecting

literary competence. This affirms to the study of

Rydland, Fulland and Aukrust (2012) that affective and

cognitive factors such as motivation to read,

vocabulary, prior knowledge, working memory, reading

strategies and word recognition influence the literary

competence of the readers. This outcome is also in

accordance to the notion of Koda (2007) and Negris

(2013) that readers’ cognitive abilities paired with the

intrinsic and extrinsic motivation have great

contributions to their literary competence.

Regression Analysis on the

Influence of Factors
Affecting Literary Competence

The regression coefficient is to find out the

significant influence of the factors affecting literary

competence on literary competence. By means of Simple

Linear Regression the data revealed that there is a

 63

significant influence of the factors affecting literary

competence toward literary competence. This implies that

the factors affecting literary competence significantly

influence literary competence considering that the

literary competence is influenced by some of the factors

affecting literary competence. The overall outcome of

the factors affecting literary competence predicts

literary competence. Thus, the hypothesis for factors

affecting literary competence and literary competence

among BSED English and AB English students in UM Tagum

College is rejected.

As stipulated with the preceding chapter of this

study, the outcome of the computation on the

significance of the relationship adheres to the adopted

theories in this undertaking. It can be indicated over

and over that the significant influence of the factors

affecting literary competence towards literary

competence foregrounds to the Construction-Integration

theory of Kintsch and Van Dijk (1978) which expounds

that in the process of making meaning while reading a

literary text, there are underlying factors that could

affect it.

This outcome is also related to the work of Koda

(2007) and Negris (2013) who stressed that there are

cognitive and affective factors in dealing with literary

competence such as motivation for affective factors

 64

while prior knowledge, reading strategies, and word

recognition for cognitive factors. They assert that

these cognitive factors are composed of the knowledge of

the readers and what the readers can do with it while

the affective factors comprises both the intrinsic and

extrinsic motivation of the readers. If the readers have

a highly-established knowledge in these two, the

literary development would be easier.

Conclusion

In line with the outcome of this undertaking,

conclusions are contrived in this chapter. The level of

factors affecting literary competence among BSED English

and AB English students in UM Tagum College is moderate

for word recognition, low for reading strategies, low

for working memory, low for motivation to read, low for

prior knowledge, and low for vocabulary and low for the

overall mean for factors affecting literary competence.

This implies that the factors affecting literary

competence are rarely influential. The level of literary

competence among BSED English and AB English students in

UM Tagum College is high for knowledge about reading,

high for literary reading skills, high for contextual

knowledge, high for textual knowledge and high for the

overall mean for literary competence. This implies that

the literary competence among BSED English and AB

 65

English students in UM Tagum College is highly

manifested. Factors affecting literary competence and

literary competence have a significant relationship.

Thus, the factors affecting literary competence

influence literary competence.

Recommendations

With the aid of the foresaid results and

conclusions, the succeeding recommendations are

proposed: The curriculum developers and DepEd officials

may put emphasis on harnessing literary competence for

students who are specializing in English by means of

administering seminars and workshops on improving

vocabulary. The seminar may include topics on

strategies in building vocabulary and prior knowledge.

This in turn would help the language teachers employ a

variety of activities in building vocabulary such as

semantic maps, word wizard, semantic maps, concept cube

and word connect cube. In the same manner, the teachers

could apply strategies in improving prior knowledge such

as relating topic to students’ experiences and

integrating technology to lessons. On the other hand,

the students should also do their part as learners in

improving their vocabulary and prior knowledge by taking

responsibility of their own learning. The factors

affecting literary competence can be raised to an

advantageous level if it involves a collaboration of the

 66

administrators, teachers and students. Thus, a

collaborative effort is one avenue to improve literary

competence.
 67

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 72

Appendices A

PERMISSION TO CONDUCT THE STUDY

Date: July 11, 2016

GINA FE G. ISRAEL EdD

Dean of College
UM Tagum College
Tagum City

Ma’am:

Greetings!

We, the researcher under BSED major in English are

currently working on with our undergraduate thesis
entitled “FACTORS AFFECTING THE LITERARY COMPETENCE OF
THE ENGLISH MAJOR AND AB ENGLISH STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY
OF MINDANAO.” This is in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree, Bachelor of Secondary
Education Major in English in our institution UM Tagum
College.

Anent to this, we are humbly requesting for a

permission to conduct our study in our institution in
which the identified respondents are all fourth-year
students under BSED English and AB English program.

Thank you very much for your favorable response.

Sincerely yours,

CABRERA, FERLIE JEAN S

LLANOS, BRELLIN N.

TALE, LAISSA M.

GINA FE ISRAEL EdD

Dean of College
 73

Appendices B

LETTER TO THE RESPONDENS OF THE STUDY

Date: July 11, 2018

Dear Respondents,

The undersigned are the students of the UM Tagum

College Tagum City and currently taking Bachelor of
Secondary Education Major in English. We are conducting
an undergraduate thesis entitled “FACTORS AFFECTING
LITERARY COMPETENCE OF THE ENGLISH MAJOR AND AB ENGLISH
STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF MINDANAO TAGUM COLLEGE,” in
partial fulfillment of the said course.

In line with this, we are humbly asking for your

support and cooperation as you are being chosen to be
the respondents for our study. We are giving you the
assurance that whatever information will be kept
confidential.

We do acknowledge your cooperation for the

attainment of this undertaking. Thank you very much and
God bless.

Sincerely yours,

CABRERA, FERLIE JEAN S.

LLANOS, BRELLIN N.

TALE, LAISSA M.

MARIA MILA PALERO

Research Adviser
 74

Appendices C

Date: August 14, 2018

JUANITO VILLASENCIO
University Registrar
UM Tagum College
Tagum City

Sir:

Greetings!

We, the researchers under BSED major in English are

currently working on with our undergraduate thesis
entitled “FACTORS AFFECTING LITERARY COMPETENCE OF THE
ENGLISH MAJOR AND AB ENGLISH STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF
MINDANAO TAGUM COLLEGE.” This in in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree, Bachelor of
Secondary Education Major in English in UM Tagum
College.

Anent to this, we are humbly requesting for the

population sample of all the fourth year students under
BSED English and AB English program.

Thank you very much for your favorable response.

Sincerely yours,

CABRERA, FERLIE JEAN S.

LLANOS, BRELLIN N.

TALE, LAISSA M.

MARIA MILA PALERO

Research Adviser
 75

Appendices D

Research Title: FACTORS AFFECTING THE LITERARY

COMPETENCE OF THE ENGLISH MAJOR AND AB ENGLISH STUDENTS

Name (optional): ________________________________

Gender______________*

Part I. To the raters

This questionnaire is designed to study the factors

affecting the literary competence of the English major
and AB English students of the University of Mindanao.
Enumerated in the following pages are the items
concerning the different indicators of the factors.
Your honest answers and participation are very much
appreciated.

Direction: Please read every statement carefully. Choose

your answer by checking the rating scale from 5 to 1.
Below are the interpretations of every scale.

Range of Description Interpretation

Means

9 – 10 Very High This means that the literary

competence is very highly
manifested.

7 - 8 High This means that the literary

competence is highly
manifested.

5 – 6 Moderate This means that the literary

competence is moderately
manifested.

3-4 Low This means that the literary

competence is lowly
manifested.

0 – 2 Very Low This means that the literary

competence is very lowly
manifested.

Part II. Factors Affecting Literary Competence

 76

A. Motivation to read

As a student, I… 5 4 3 2 1

1. find reading interesting.

2. know the advantages of
reading.
3. spend some of my time in
reading every day.
4. value the importance of
being a good reader
5. want to improve my reading
skills.

B. Prior knowledge

As a student, I… 5 4 3 2 1

1. Can easily recognize,

enumerate, recall and remember
my past lessons.
2. Can easily define,
reproduce, and understand the
meaning of a concept using my
past lessons.
3. Can easily understand
concepts and relations by using
my previous knowledge.
4. Can easily classify and
compare information based on
what I already know.
5. Can easily solve problem,
apply knowledge, produce and
implement ideas utilizing my
prior knowledge.
.

C. Reading strategies

As a student, I… 5 4 3 2 1
1. know the different kinds of
reading strategies like
skimming, scanning, intensive
and extensive.
 77

2. can easily apply appropriate

reading strategies in texts I’m
reading.
3. know when to use and not to
use the different types of
reading strategies.
4. have my own reading
strategies that are most
effective to me.
5. can make use of the different
reading strategies to improve my
reading skills.

D. Vocabulary

As a student, I… 5 4 3 2 1

1. have a wide span of vocabulary.

2. can easily guess a meaning of
a word using word semantic
relations. (synonym and antonym)
3. can easily guess a meaning of a
word using word parts. (prefix,
roots and suffixes)
4. can easily guess a meaning of a
word using context clues.
5. can read and understand all the
types of texts.

E. Word recognition

As a student, I… 5 4 3 2 1

1. can recognize words and its

pronunciation immediately
2. can recognize many words and
decode it.
3. can easily recognize the words
that belong to the basic sight
words.
4. can easily recognize various-
sized units of sounds. (rhymes,
syllables and phonemes)
5. can recognize many words and
their corresponding spellings.
 78

F. Working memory

As a student, I… 5 4 3 2 1

1. can easily remember and respond

to information.
2. can retain information while
paying attention to something
else.
3. can associate a new concept
with the previous ones.
4. can easily store information
while listening or reading.
5. can retain recent information
for a long span of time.
 79

Research Title: FACTORS AFFECTING LITERARY COMPETENCE OF

THE ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF MINDANAO
TAGUM COLLEGE

Name (optional): ________________________________ Gender

:______________

Part II. This questionnaire is designed to determine the

level of the literary competence of the English major
and AB English students of the University of Mindanao.
In the following pages are the items concerning the
different indicators of the literary competence. Your
honest answers and participation are very much
appreciated.

Direction: Read the items carefully. Encircle the letter

of the correct answers.

Dependent Variable:

 Contextual knowledge- Text types, authors

and literary history, literary genres,
cultural and periodical context.

The boy was astonished by what he saw inside. Never

could he have imagined that, there in the middle of
the desert, there existed a tent like this one. The
ground was covered with the most beautiful carpets
he had ever walked upon, and from the top of the
structure hung lamps of hand-wrought gold, each
with a lighted candle.

1. What type of text is the passage above?

A. instructive
B. persuasive
C. descriptive
D. informative
2. A cooking recipe is an example of which type of
text?

A. descriptive
B. instructive
C. persuasive
 80

D. informative
3. In what language did Geoffrey Chaucer write?

A. greek
B. german
C. modern english
D. middle english
4. Which of these novels was not written in the
19th century?

A. Moby Dick
B. Little Women
C. Robinson Crusoe
D. The Old Curiosity Shop
5. What literary genre pertains to a story about a
person's life written by someone else?

A. journal
B. biography
C. autobiography
D. historical fiction
6. What literary genre pertains to facts and
statistics about people, places and things?

A. textbook
B. dictionary
C. biography
D. encyclopedia
7. How old was Shakespeare when he married 26 year
old Anne Hathaway?

A.29
B.28
C.22
D.18
8. Which Poem caused Milton's stature as a poet to
be recognized?]

A. Lycidas
B. Il Penseroso
C. Areopagitica
D. Paradise Lost
9. Which Elizabethan playwright published a work
regarding Mephistopheles and Doctor Faustus?

A. Thomas Kyd
 81

B. Philip Sidney
C. William Shakespeare
D. Christopher Marlowe
10. The American Renaissance overlapped the
____________ time period, in which American writers
were trying to ______________.

A. postmodern; end slavery.

B. modernism; end individualism.
C. colonial; end patriotism for England.
D. romanticism; define themselves and their
writing style as independent from England.
 82

Dependent Variable
 Knowledge about Reading- Readers’ personal
knowledge about how he/she reads the text and how
she comprehends it.

11. Which sound is the onset of the word big?

A. /ig/
B. /b/
C. /g/
D. /i/

12. Effective reading instruction includes

explicit, systematic instruction in: blending
letter-sound correspondences, recognizing high
frequency and irregular words, using common
spelling and syllable patterns, and structural
analysis. These are examples of:

A. Phonics and word study instruction.

B. Phonics and word family instruction.
C. Phonics and word analogy instruction.
D. Word analogy and word family instruction.

13. Students who are struggling readers benefit

from all of the following except:

A. Implicit instruction in phonics.

B. More instructional time with many
opportunities to respond.
C. Decodable texts that enable them to apply
the skills they are learning
D. Explicit instruction in phonemic awareness
and the alphabetic principle.

14. Being aware of one's own thinking processes

during reading, such as focusing one's attention,
noticing when one is not understanding what is
read, and processing information is known as:

A. Think aloud.
B. Metacognition.
C. Implicit thinking.
D. Explicit thinking
 83

15. Phonemic awareness is the knowledge that:

A. Phonemes are meaningful units of sound.

B. The words we speak are composed of
morphemes.
C. The words we speak are composed of
individual sounds.
D. The sequence of letters in written words
represents the sequence of sounds in spoken
words.

16. Prosody is the ability to:

A. Read for meaning

B. Decode text quickly.
C. Speak a foreign language.
D. Read with proper expression.

17. An effective approach to increase students'

reading speed is:

A. Chunking.
B. Choral reading.
C. Repeated reading.
D. Round robin reading.

18. Teaching students letter-sound correspondences:

A. Is a phonemic awareness activity.

B. Prepares them for decoding words.
C. Is not an important pre-reading skill.
D. Should always occur in the context of whole
words.

19. If a third grade student is reading a text with

93% accuracy level, he is _________.

A. Reading at his instructional level and you

should use this level of text for reading
instruction.
B. Reading at his independent level and you
should use this level of text for reading
instruction.
C. Reading at his instructional level and
should be encouraged to read books at his
level independently.
 84

D. Reading at his independent level and should

be encouraged to read books at his level
independently.

20. Which of the following statements is not true

of effective third grade comprehension strategy
instruction?

A. It is best taught implicitly.

B. Students can learn to use strategies.
C. Effective comprehension is explicit.
D. It can be taught through cooperative
learning.
 85

Dependent Variable:

 Literary Reading Skills - ability to engage

and interact to the text by imagining it. This
includes four skills these are the following: initial
understanding, literary analysis, inferential
comprehension and constructing meaning.

Look up, my people,

The dawn is breaking,
The world is waking,
To a new bright day,
When none defame us

21.The rhyme scheme of the poem is ________.

A. ABBCD
B. AABCD
C. ABCDE
D. ABCCD

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close day;
Rage, rage against the dying.

22. This extract is an example of what figurative

language?

A. paradox
B. symbolism
C. personification
D. onomatopoeia

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling of buds of May
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Nor colour shame us,
Nor sneer dismay.

23. What is the rhythm and the meter of the excerpt

above?

A. iambic tetrameter
B. iambic pentameter
C. anapestic tetrameter
 86

D. anapestic pentameter

Jenny sat with her toes in the hot sand digging a

hole with her new shovel and pail.

24. Based on the selection above, where is Jenny?

A. in the circus
B. in the beach
C. in the school
D. in the grocery

When Shenna gets to work she passes out papers and

set up a game for the kids to play. When everyone
arrives, she reads a story and discusses it. The
bell rings and it is time for lunch. She corrects
some papers and prepares the next lesson.

25. Based on the selection above, Shenna is a

__________.

A. chef
B. actor
C. doctor
D. teacher

Randy walked into his room and discovered that his

hamster, Pickled, had croaked. He cleaned out an old
box and carefully placed Pickled inside. Randy then
dug a hole in his backyard and buried the tiny box.
Later, he placed a large rock over the mound.

26. Based on the passage above, what can we infer?

A. Randy like pickles.

B. Randy knew pickles was getting ready to die.
C. Randy didn’t know what to do with the dead
hamster.
D. Randy was happy pickles finally died
because he was getting old.

Jill hands were trembling and sweat ran down her back.
Her face was red and she could feel her ears turning
pink, too. Jill grabbed her speech and walked onstage.
She smiled at the audience.

27. Based on the passage above, what can you infer?

 87

A. Jill is nervous.
A. Jill was prepared.
B. Jill has to give a speech.
C. All of the above

“Singing the song of procreation,

Singing the need of superb children
And therein superb grown people,
Singing the muscular urge and the
blending…”

28. This passage of Whalt Whitman is an example of

A. Paradox
B. Anaphora
C. Alliteration
D. Personification

29. What is the type of rhymes in the following pair of

words? “Grown-Gown”

A. Eye rhyme
B. Slant rhyme
C. Feminine rhyme
D. Masculine rhyme

My life is a fault at last, I fear,

It seems too much like a fate, indeed!
Though I do my best, I shall scarce succeed.
But what if I fail of my purpose here?

30. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem above?

A. AABB
B. ABCA
C. ABBB
D. ABBA
 88

Dependent Variable:

 Textual Knowledge- Literary terminologies,

narrative structures and analytic
capability of the reader.

31. The exact, literal meaning of a word is its _______.

A. context
B. annotation
C. denotation
D. connotation
32. A composition that mimics the language, style, or
ideas of another, usually serious, piece of work for
comic effect is called a/an _______.
A. farce
B. satire
C. parody
D. allegory

33. In literary criticism, noting the inconsistency

between one's beliefs or between one's beliefs and one's
actions is known as ________.

A. synthesis
B. digression
C. dissonance
D. colloquialism

34. A major division of a play, consisting of one or more

scenes, is called a(an)_________.

A. act
B. drama
C. narration
D. monologue

35. This type of narrative structure is organized around

a series of events and key moments that have often been
labeled and ordered as follows: rising action, conflict,
obligatory moment, climax, resolution, and falling
action.

A. circular
B. framed
C. fractured
D. chronological
 89

36. This type of narrative structure jumps back and forth

in time can utilize flashbacks time is fractured or bent
to alter or intensify a story

A. circular
B. framed
C. fractured
D. chronological

37. This type of narrative structure tells a story within

a story.

A. circula
B. framed
C. fractured
D. chronological

A Countryman and a Snake

A countryman's son stepped on a snake's tail
accidentally. The tail suddenly turned and hit him
so that he died. The father was very angry so that
he cut off part of the snake’s tail. Then, the snake
in revenge stung several of the farmer's cattle. It
caused him great loss. However, the farmer decided
to stop the fight with the snake. He brought food
and honey to the mouth of its lair, and said to it,
"Let's forget and forgive. Perhaps you were right to
punish my son, and take revenge on my cattle, but
surely I was right in trying to revenge him. Now
that we are both satisfied, why should not we be
friends again?" "No, no," said the snake. "Take away
your gifts. You can never forget the death of your
son, nor I the loss of my tail. Injuries may be
forgiven, but not forgotten.

38. What is the type of narrative structure applied in

the text below?

A. circular
B. framed
C. fractured
D. chronological
 90

I. Martha is in the marbles team during

the summer.
II. Martha is in the playground.
III. Marbles is played in the
playground in summer.
IV. All the pupils in the playground
are playing marbles

39. “Martha is playing marbles.” Which of the statements

above are logical?

A. I and II
B. II and IV
C. III and IV
D. IV and II

I.Ciscois the champion runner.

II.John can run further than Cisco.
III. John can run as fast as Cisco.
IV. Cisco can run faster than Jody.

40. “John runs faster than Jody.” Which of the statements

above are logical?

A. I and II
B. II and IV
C. III and IV
D. II and III
 91

CURRICULUM VITAE

Personal Data:

Name : FERLIE JEAN CABRERA

Sex : Female

Civil Status : Single

Birth Date : August 11, 1999

Birth Place : Pikit, Cotabato City

Address : New Corella, Davao del Norte

Religion : Foursquare

Father’s Name : Fernando Cabrera Sr.

Educational Attainment:

Elementary: Kapatagan Elementary School

S.Y. 2010-2011
Kapatagan, Laak, Compostela Valley

Secondary: Laak National High School

S.Y 2014-2015
Laak, Compostela Valley

College: University of Mindanao Tagum College

Present
Arellano St., Tagum City
 92

CURRICULUM VITAE

Personal Data:

Name : BRELLIN N. LLANOS

Sex : Female

Civil Status : Single

Birth Date : June 23, 1998

Birth Place : Kaligutan, Laak, Compostela

Valley

Address : Kaligutan, Laak, Compostela

Valley

Religion : Roman Catholic

Father’s Name : Feliciano Llanos

Educational Attainment:

Elementary: Kaligutan Elementary School

S.Y. 2010-2011
Kaligutan, Laak, Compostela Valley

Secondary: Laak National High School

S.Y 2014-2015
Laak, Compostela Valley

College: University of Mindanao Tagum College

Present
Arellano St., Tagum City
 93

CURRICULUM VITAE

Personal Data:

Name : LAISSA M. TALE

Sex : Female

Civil Status : Single

Birth Date : November 5, 1998

Birth Place : Tulalian, Sto. Tomas, Davao

del Norte

Address : Tulalian, Sto. Tomas, Davao

del Norte

Religion : Jehova’s witnesses

Father’s Name : Larry Tale

Educational Attainment:

Elementary: Tulalian Elementary School

S.Y. 2010-2011
Tulalian, Sto. Tomas, Davao del Norte

Secondary: Tulalian National High School

S.Y 2014-2015
Tulalian, Sto. Tomas, Davao del Norte

College: University of Mindanao Tagum College

Present
Arellano St., Tagum City