Factors Affecting Reading Comprehension


Difficulties in reading comprehension are produced by a variety of factors. The factors which are most often responsible for people to comprehend reading materials according to Devine (1986: 49) are:
1)   Reader’s ability to use certain cognitive skills
2)   Their ability to use related reading skills
3)   Their ability to reason
4)   Their knowledge of the ways writers structure texts
5)   Their social and cultural background.
Kennedy (1981: 195-197) adds some factors which affect reading comprehension. They are:


1)   Inadequate Instruction
Many teachers are poorly prepared to teach the basic reading skills. As a result, they may follow the general instructions given in a teaching manual, without regarding the specific needs to their pupils. Or they may teach as they were taught when they were in grade school, or without any systematic plan. Inadequate instruction practices include selecting the wrong skills to emphasize, presenting the skills too rapidly for groups or individuals to grasp them adequately, or neglecting to evaluate progress adequately.
2)   Lack of Pupil Interest
It is difficult to any readers but the most thoroughly disciplined readers to concentrate on material they dislike or that is unrelated to their personal interests. Without thoughtful attention to content comprehension of such materials will be negligible. Lack of interest causes the mind to wander, eliminate any desire to excel, encourage a dislike for the task, and reduces consciousness effort.
3)   Unsuitable Materials
When reading materials are adopted for an entire school system and each teacher is expected to use them, regardless of whether they are appropriate for pupils in a particular classroom, difficulties in comprehension can result. Such required materials may be too difficult or too easy, stress the wrong skills, have little relationship to the pupil interests, or generally be of poor quality. If unsuitable materials are used exclusively, interest lags, skills development is unbalanced, and all forms of comprehension are discouraged.
4)   Vocabulary Difficulties
An excessive vocabulary burden forces the readers to rely on dictionary or to bypass many important words. When any appreciable number of words is left out, understanding must suffer.

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