Abstract

The study determined the effectiveness of printed and digital text on reading comprehension of Grade 10 students. The study was anchored on the simple view of reading (SVR) model and on the perspective of top-down and bottom-up models of reading. A quasi-experimental design was employed collect data on the cause and effect of the dependent and independent variables, utilizing a test questionnaire to gather data from the 40 grade 10 students of one national high school located in Santa Rosa City, Laguna, Philippines. The study revealed that the majority of the participants in the control group (printed text) achieved high proficiency compared to the experimental group's (digital text) in the pretest and posttest score. This finding suggests that printed text might still be more effective for deeper comprehension and memory retention than digital text. However, there is a lack of a significant difference between the post-test score and the pretest score, suggesting that there was some improvement as a result of both printed and digital text. Nevertheless, neither printed text nor digital text clearly outperformed the other, even with the rise in competence level. In addition, a comprehensive action plan was recommended to provide the students with opportunities to develop and strengthen their literacy skills by using both printed and digital text reading formats. There is a need to strengthen student’s reading strategies and digital literacy to maximize comprehension across mediums to provide students with opportunities to enhance their literacy skills through both printed and digital reading formats since students using printed texts showed a greater percentage improvement in high proficiency levels despite digital tools being convenient. This quasi-experimental study determined the effectiveness of printed and digital text on reading comprehension of Grade 10 students. It is beneficial in order to optimize understanding across media, students' digital literacy and reading strategies.