ABSTRACT
This is a quantitative descriptive study that examined the level of difficulty in tackling some literary devices (metaphor, symbolism, imagery, and irony) of selected English short stories as to their reasons for difficulty that arise among first year English learners of Abuyog Community College.
The study was based on Schema Theory, Reader-Response Theory and the Constructive Theory of Learning and used a structured survey designed to collect data from 71 total respondents. An investigation was made because of few quantitative studies that had focused on problems faced by the first-year English learners in the understanding of literary devices in selected English short stories. The research has tended to focus on traditional general reading comprehension and literary analysis; very little emphasis, however, has been placed on the difficulty the first year student of English encounters in the interpretation of metaphor, symbolism, imagery and irony.
All these findings show that the students were at moderate level of difficulty with grand means ranging from 3.12 to 3.31 across the variables investigated in this study. The most difficult concepts of literary devices were metaphor and irony with identical grand mean of 3.28 (Moderate), while imagery was the most easily understood with a grand mean of 3.12 (Moderate). Students had higher performance for identifying and depicting the literary devices than contextual meaning of short stories (Mean: 3.42) and analysis of authorial intentions (Mean: 3.35) based on the item level analysis. When asked about comprehension difficulties (Grand Mean: 3.31), making inferences from the text (Mean: 3.44) was reported as the most frequent problem or difficulty followed by students' lack of interest in literature (Mean: 3.39) and lack of understanding of literary devices (Mean: 3.37).
From the results, it can be concluded that students had moderate difficulties in understanding the literary devices, especially metaphor and irony. Problems mostly related to making inferences in the text, limited vocabulary and limited exposure to literary texts.
Therefore, English teachers should adopt interactive teaching methods, heads of curriculum should enhance the content of reading enrichment lessons, and students should read frequently to enhance their comprehension of literature.
Keywords: Reading Comprehension, Literary Devices, Short Stories, Cognitive Barriers
https://doi.org/10.65494/pinagpalapublishing.386
