Computer-Assisted Instruction and Students’ Comprehension of a Literary Text

This study was conducted to compare the effects of Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) and Traditional Instruction (TI) on the reading comprehension ofgrade ten male and female students during the School Year 2015-2016. Seventy six grade 10 students, three English teachers, and one English head teacher were the respondents of the study. The researcher used the random assignment of groups. The study used quasi-experimental design of research and it usedteacher–made tests and evaluation questionnaire as major data collection tools. The researcher utilized weighted mean, frequency counts, percentage, standard deviation, analysis of covariance for the data analysis. The literary pieces discussed were the short stories The Gift of the Magi for pretest and The Last Leaf for posttest both written by O. Henry (William Sidney Porter). The obtained p-value of 0.000 showed that there was a significant difference on readingcomprehension in the pretest and posttest of the CAI group. Also, it presented that the obtained p-value of 0.003 on the pretest and posttest of the TI grouprevealed that there was a high significant difference in the pretest and posttest. Both groups improved their reading comprehension after the discussion.Moreover, a p-value of 0.443 was obtained in the posttest of both groups which means that there was no significant difference in the reading comprehension of students after being exposed on the two methods of instruction. This signifies that students learn whether through CAI or the TI. The obtained p-value 0.591 indicates that there was no significant difference between male and female respondents in their reading comprehension; it stresses that both male andfemale respondents improved their reading comprehension on the literary text after the treatment within same level of understanding. Therefore, the use of CAI may serve as an alternative or complement in teaching literature.