CHAPTER 1

The Problem

Background of the Study

The use of mother tongue provides children with an

equitable opportunity to access and facilitate learning.

Studies assert that the use of a child’s home language is

one of the most important factors in helping children

learn to read and write and in learning academic content

and other languages. Defined as one’s first language,

home language, and heritage language (Malone, 2004),

mother tongue is considered as a language one knows best

apt for use in beginning education.

Claiming that children develop new knowledge and

skills based on what they already know from their

community and culture (Dekker, 2003), primary education

programs that begin in children’s mother tongue are

believed to help students gain early reading skills more

quickly, as well as transfer key skills to a second or a

third language.

In assessing learning, studies of Cummins (2000) and

Thomas and Collier (1997) claim that the level of

development of children's mother tongue is a strong

predictor of their second language development. Cummins

their mother tongue develop stronger literacy abilities

in the school language which enable them to go from the

known to the unknown using what they have learned about

reading and writing in the first language and their

knowledge of oral second language to bridge into reading

and writing the second language.

This was supported by the study of Thomas and

Collier (1997) noting that only those language minority

students who had five to six years of strong cognitive

and academic development through their first language as

well as through their second language did well in Grade

11 assessments building a good bridge to the new

language(s), beginning with listening, speaking, reading,

and writing.

Many Filipino learners face various barriers in

education and one of these barriers is that learners

begin their schooling in a language where they do not

comprehend. They do not understand the language of

education being used as a medium of instruction in the

classroom (DepEd, 2011). Learners become discouraged and

tend to drop out from school. Low quality education often

has disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups and

2
leads to school and resource wastage as learners drop

out, are pushed out or end up repeating grades

(Alexander, 2000; Bowden, 2002).

Accordingly, learners should begin their education

in a language they understand; it will develop a strong

foundation and a motivation to attend school. In

addition, it will develop their cognitive and reasoning

skills enabling children to operate in different language

starting in the mother tongue with transition to Filipino

and then English. Test carried out in several developing

countries revealed that many students had not attained

the competency levels required for their level of

schooling. Thus, EFA reports that ―millions of children

are leaving school without having acquired basic skills

(EFA Summary Report 2010). The EFA Report on the quality

of education notes an enormous gap between the number of

graduating from school and those among them are mastering

the minimum level of literacy.

The Department of Education Order No. 16 s. February

17, 2012, states that starting the school year 2012-2013,

the mother tongue-based multilingual education will be

implemented in all public schools specifically in Grade

I, as part of the K to 12 Curriculum. The pupils’ home

3
language will be used to teach all the learning areas for

literacy and as a medium of instruction inside the

classroom. As stated in DepEd Order No.74,

pupils taught to read and write in their first language

acquire competencies more quickly. Pupils who have

learned to read and write in their first language learn

to speak, read, and write in a second language (L2) and

third language (L3) more quickly than those who are

taught in a second language or third language first; and

in terms of cognitive development and its effects in

other academic areas, pupils taught to read and write in

their first language acquire such competencies more

quickly (DepEd Order No. 74, s. 2009).

The use of mother tongue enables the young learners

to immediately construct and explain without fear of

making mistakes, articulate their thoughts and add new

concepts to that which they already knew. In turn, the

teachers can more accurately assess what has been learned

and identify the areas where they need help (Nolasco,

2010, Philippine Daily Inquirer).

Moreover, Mother tongue-based education has a

positive impact on educational and learning outcomes. The

child‘s home language can effectively be used as a

4
language of instruction in the early years of schooling

as a bridge to learning. Appropriate language in

education enables the teachers to instruct on the

language a child speaks most at home and understands well

enough to learn academic content through mother tongue.

Likewise, mother tongue instruction promotes inclusion in

education and improves the quality of education by

building on the knowledge and experience of both learners

and teachers (Ricablanca, 2014). UNESCO believes and

supports findings of studies showing evidence that mother

tongue instruction is a key factor for literacy and

learning.

With the inclusion of Mother Tongue- Based

Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) the DepEd was inspired

from it to feature the Enhanced Basic Education Program

which mandates the use of language that is familiar with

the learners as medium of instruction to allow learners

to understand the basic concepts.

The mother tongue-based and multilingual education’s

case is therefore simple: Children learn best in a

language that is familiar to them. However, children in

the Philippines are found to have gaps in their mother

tongue. In a study conducted by Caspe, Oyzon, Ripalda,

5
and Salamia (2012), children of today were described to

be more familiar with English vocabulary than the

indigenous terms while Oyzon (2010) observed Filipino

children to unconsciously shift from their mother

language to English or Tagalog in their vocabulary use.

For instance, in a classroom set-up, a picture can be

identified easily as sun rather than the Kanana-ey

equivalent term ‘siget’ or cloud rather than ‘libuo’.

In Buguias, Kankana-ey is considered as the dominant

native language of the municipality, although there are

other minor native languages such as Kalangoya, Mandec-ey

and Ibaloi. All of these languages are IP languages.

Fortunately, those who know the minor languages in the

area can also speak Kankana-ey, making it not difficult

to determine Kankana-ey as the Mother Tongue used for

medium for instruction and teaching (Arzadon, Igcalinos,

Zubiri, Cortez, Awid, and Gumba, 2016). Consequently, the

schools that are strong in implementing MTB-MLE like

Buguias and Bukidnon, teachers have observed that with

the use of the students’ home language, pupils have been

more relaxed during classes. Moreover, with the story in

their own language, the pupils would now respond

spontaneously and would even offer their own

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interpretation and opinion. Students also have a higher

reading comprehension, and the use of their mother tongue

allows the pupils to talk more and with confidence.

Teachers also reported that there is less tension and

they are not prone to get mad because children are now

able to answer questions. Most importantly, both the

teachers and pupils are now more relaxed when supervisors

and visitors come to observe classes (Arzadon, Igcalinos,

Zubiri, Cortez, Awid, and Gumba, 2016).

In 2011 Bangao-Moreno Elementary School was one of

the schools in the district of Buguias who piloted the

mother tongue as medium of instruction in all subjects.

The school conducted a research in beginning reading

using Kankanaey as medium of instruction. It was found

that learners easily learned to read and understand the

concepts better than the other section that used English

as a medium of instruction. The section who was taught

in Kankanaey as medium of instruction can reason out in

their mother tongue PDI, 2013).

Statement of the Problem

The study was conducted to determine the

relationship of reading comprehension skills of the

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intermediate grade pupils in Kankana-ey and English in

the district of Buguias, Benguet

Specifically, it sought answers to the following

problems.

1. What is the level of reading comprehension of

pupils in Kankanaey?

2. What is the level of reading comprehension of

pupils in English?

3. Is there a correlation in the reading

comprehension of pupils in Kankanaey and English?

4. What are the reading miscues of pupils in

English and Kankanaey?

Hypothesis of the Study

1. There is a high positive correlation between the

reading comprehension of pupils in Kankanaey and in

English.

Importance of the Study

The result of this study will be of help to the

teachers in the intermediate grade to guide them build

the comprehension skills of pupils who have gone through

Mother Tongue instruction and improve their strategies or

make innovations in order to build the comprehension of

pupils in English.

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 The School Administrators. The result will guide

them to find what the mentors and pupils need to improve

comprehension.

The parents to have idea in helping their children

to love reading and help them in their studies.

The learners to help them gain interest in reading

so that they will gain knowledge through reading.

The result will also benefit the researcher herself

and incoming researchers related to this study to base

from for coming up with new strategy or making learning

materials and innovations that can help in improving the

comprehension skills of the learners.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The researcher in this particular study investigated

the relationship of reading comprehension of intermediate

pupils in Kankana-ey and English of Bangao-Moreno

Elementary School in the district of Buguias. The study

focused on the comprehension skill of pupils in Kankaney

and in English as well the correlation between their

comprehension in mother tongue (Kankanaey) and target

language (English). Reading miscues were likewise

included in the study.

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 The study was conducted in Bangao-Moreno Elementary

School, Buguias, Benguet for the school year 2018-2019.

Theoretical/ Conceptual Framework

The study is anchored from the premise that the best

medium for teaching a child is his [her] mother tongue.

Psychologically, it is the system of meaningful signs

that in his [her] mind works automatically for the

expression and understanding. Sociologically, it is a

means of identification among members of the community to

which he [she] learns more quickly through it than

through an unfamiliar linguistic medium (UNESCO, 1953).

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organization (UNESCO, 1968) advocate for the use of

mother tongue on psychological, sociological and

educational grounds. Mother tongue education is

supported by educationists due to its applicability to

the cognitive development of a child. Learners have

difficulties in developing cognitive skills when taught

through the medium of a second language especially if it

is not related to the learners’ mother tongue (McNab,

1989). UNESCO advances the point of view that pupil’s

mother tongue is the best for expressional and

understanding of concepts. This is compared to exogenous

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languages like English, which the pupil has to learn the

subject before being instructed in the language.

Educationists support the view that learners best learn

from simple to complex, known to unknown. The known

language that a child encounters in his/her life is

mother tongue.

Cummings (1964) thus proclaims succinctly:

Elementary schooling in a language other than

the child’s mother tongue represents a serious

departure from the fundamental educational

rule that one should move from known to

unknown. Only the mother tongue with its links

to the child’s environment and experiences can

introduce the child to the world of abstract

experiences and high culture (p. 180).

According to Asher (1986) it is important to check

how students use language both written and spoken to make

sense of their own lives and what they learn in school.

This can therefore insinuate that teachers need to check

out the kind of language pupils’ use in school.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organization (2006) argue that the best medium to teach a

child is through their mother tongue.

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 Stubbs (1996) claims that reading problems in second

language emanate from inadequate knowledge in second

language since the reader may lack adequate proficiency

to pick cues that will enable him to make correct

predictions or guesses. It is equally argued that

individuals proficient in first language will also be

proficient in second language (Stubbs, 1996). This

argument tends to simplify the proficiency in mother

tongue and assume that this proficiency will

automatically lead to proficiency in the second language.

In the study of Krashen (2001), he provides that

what the theory implies is that first or second language

acquisition occurs when comprehension of real messages

occurs. Language acquisition does not require extensive

use of conscious grammatical rules and does not require

tedious skills. Thus, there is emphasis on meaning and

communication (focusing on whole texts) and on accuracy

and correctness (focusing on parts of the language)

(Malone, 2004).

The choice of the language is a recurrent challenge

in the development of quality education. Speakers of

mother tongues, which are not the same as the national

language, are often at a considerable disadvantage in the

12
educational system (UNESCO, 2003). By the time children

begin school, they have begun gaining confidence in their

ability toy to communicate meaningfully in their mother

tongue. They have built a foundation of knowledge and

experience through observing and interacting with peers

and adults in their community. The language, knowledge

and experience that children bring to school form an

important foundation for their learning in the classroom.

Nolasco (2010) further explained that the mother

tongue enables the young learners to construct and

immediately explain their ideas without fear to commit

mistake and articulate their thought. Bridging from

Mother Tongue to English then is important in order to

fill the gap in building the comprehension of pupils in

English in the intermediate Grades. This is the most

problem of teachers in Grade II and III so that when they

will be in Grade IV, English is not difficult for them.

Since the pupils were taught in Mother Tongue, most

teachers in the higher grade complain that their pupils

could hardly speak and comprehend in English. There are

lots of problems that teachers are facing in building the

comprehension of pupils. It is also stated that Mother

Tongue Based programs, students have the opportunity to

13
learn core concepts primarily in a familiar language and

later, they learn the labels or vocabulary for those

concepts in a new language. MTB education is especially

beneficial in early childhood programs, preschool and the

early grades, when children are learning to read and

gaining new concepts (Benson, 2006).

In our country, The Department of Education issued

Department Order No. 74, s. 2009 Institutionalizing

Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE).

This was strengthened by the declaration of the former

President of the Philippines Benigno Aquino, Jr., when he

said: “Learn English more and connect to the world. Learn

Filipino well and connect to your country. Retain your

dialect and connect to your heritage.”

According to DepEd Order 74, s. 2009, MTBMLE is the

effective use of more than two languages for literacy and

instruction. Local and international Studies have

validated the superiority of the use of the mother tongue

first in improving learning outcomes and promoting

Education for All encouraged the use of mother tongue in

teaching the learners starting to read and write. It is

believed that the learners who are taught in their first

language can learn more effectively. They can think

14
deeper so that they can give correct answer and can

reason out. When pupils read and write critically in

their own language, it will also happen in the second and

in the third language.

Learners start their education from the language

they already know and understand best. Their mother

tongue needs to develop a strong foundation in their

mother language before learning additional language

(Dekker, 2003). Dekker said that Mother Tongue- Based

Multilingual Education is a curriculum and teaching

methodology that enables learners to participate well in

education through the use of their first language. MTBMLE

provides a strong foundation in the learners’ first

language, enabling them to build on the knowledge and

experiences they bring to the classroom. MTBMLE also

provides good bridge to listening, speaking, reading and

writing the second language of the classroom using sound

educational principles for building fluency and

confidence in using the other language for lifelong

learning.

Once the students have a basic literacy skills in

the L1 and communicative skills in the L2, they can begin

reading and writing in the L2, efficiently transferring

15
the literacy skills they can have acquired in the

familiar language. The pedagogical principles behind this

positive transfer of skills are Cummins‘ (1991, 1999)

interdependence theory and the concept of common

underlying proficiency, whereby the knowledge of

language, once oral L2 skills are developed, and no re-

learning is required. Consistent with these principles,

it is possible for children schooled only in the L2 to

transfer their knowledge and skills to the L1, but the

process is highly inefficient as well as being

unnecessarily difficult. According to Jordan (2009), ―You

will never teach a child a new language by scoring,

ridiculing and forcibly erasing his first language.

At the beginning of education, mother tongue

instruction is very important not only to develop a

strong educational foundation, but also to strengthen the

cognitive development of learners. Unless the mother

tongue is used in education, there is a big gap between

the student‘s home and the school. By developing literacy

skills in the first language, mother tongue-based

multilingual education helps strengthen the first

language and provides a smooth transition from L1 (first

16
language) to L2 (national language) or L3 (international

language) to be used as a medium of instruction.

On the one hand, A tool that can provide an

understanding of the reading process is the analysis of

miscues made when reading orally. "Miscue analysis", as

defined by Goodman (1976), is not inventory performance.

Rather, it is intended to provide a "window on the

reading process". The contributions by Kenneth and Yetta

Goodman have led to a large body of research focused on

miscue analysis. A miscue may indicate some of the cues

in the stimulus to which the child is reacting (Goodman,

1970). A reader may be testing a hypothesis as to what

the printed word is or if it makes sense in relation to

the rest of the sentence, paragraph or passage.

Miscue analysis is now a diagnostic procedure rooted

in the newer psycholinguistic view of reading which is

that through miscues, readers show their strengths, as

well as their weaknesses. No longer are deviations from

the author's text considered errors, but rather miscues

are defined as an actual observed response in oral

reading which does not match the expected response

(Goodman, 1981).

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 Use of mother tongue can affect both reading and

writing and thus performance of English since the more

the students’ dialect departs from the Standard English,

the great the students show problems in learning in

printed words both in reading and writing (Asher, 1986).

It is therefore important for teachers to know as much as

they can from the students’ dialect for them to optimally

teach them. Mother tongue interference retards the

progress for reading, speaking and writing since patterns

of mother tongue do not correspond with those of English.

This study endeavors to find out whether indeed use of

mother tongue in the context under study influenced the

reading comprehension of pupils in English.

The study utilized the input-process-output (IPO)

model (Figure 1) to present the framework of the study.

Results from the reading comprehension of pupils in

Kanakaney and in English as well as the transcribed

reading miscues from the audio-recorded oral reading

activity (input) was analyzed (process). The outcome of

the analysis and interpretation of the results on the

identified problems were the output.

18
 Input Out Put Process
Collection of
1. Reading data
High
comprehension Analysis of:
correlation
of pupils in Reading
between the
Kankanaey and comprehension
reading
English of pupils;
comprehension
2. Relationship relationship
of pupils in
between their between
Kankana-ey and
comprehension reading
English
in mother comprehension
Identified
tongue and in Kanakaney
English common reading and in
3. Reading miscues
miscues in English;
English
committed by reading
pupils in miscues of
English pupils in
19
English
Figure 1. Paradigm of the Study

Definition of Terms

The following words are defined according to how

they were used in the study and some are according to the

conceptual definition:

Comprehension. It refers to the ability to interpret

and apply what is read and heard. The process of giving

or developing the meaning of various types of materials,

including words, sentences of paragraphs.

English. It refers to the target language or second

language (L2) learned by the pupils.

20
 Kankanaey. It refers to the first language (L1) or

mother tongue of pupils.

Language. Is a system of human communication which

consists of the structured arrangement of strings of

sounds (or their written representation) that are put

together to form a code.

Reading. It is a process of identifying and

understanding the meaning of characters and words in

written or printed material.

Reading Comprehension Level. The phrase refers to

the percentage score obtained from the transmitted raw

scores resulting from test.

Mother Tongue. The language that the learner use at

home, or the first language that the child knows best and

uses most because it is the first language of the

learner.

Mother Tongue Instruction. It refers to the

vernacular language of a group used as medium of

instruction.

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 CHAPTER 2

Design and Methodology

This chapter presents the research design, locale

and population of the study, the data gathering tools and

procedure, and treatment of data.

Research Design

The study employed the descriptive survey. The

survey method is the most appropriate to use in gathering

and interpreting data for the study since it utilized a

teacher made questionnaire to assess the respondents’

22
reading comprehension skills in Kankanaey and in English

and the result of reading miscues of pupils from the

PHIL-IRI result. Correlation method was used to establish

relationship between reading comprehension skills of

pupils in both languages.

According to Polit and Hungler (1999), the purpose

of descriptive research is to observe, describe and

document aspects of a situation as it naturally occurs.

Locale and Population of the Study

This study was conducted among grade 4 pupils of

Bangao-Moreno Elementary School of Buguias District,

Division of Benguet during the school year 2017-2018.

There were 44 pupils who were officially enrolled.

Data Gathering Tools

A teacher-made test was used an instrument in

gathering the data needed for this study. Likewise the

Model used by PHIL-IRI was utilized to identify the

reading miscues of the pupils.

The test will have the following parts: Part I

contains the profile of the respondents and Part II

contains questions that will assess the level of reading

comprehension skills of the pupils. The reading material

was taken from a Grade 4 text and was translated in

23
Kankana-ey. The tests given to pupils were in English and

Kankana-ey translation. For the validity of the

instruments, three teachers who are expert in the

Kankana-ey edited the translation of the reading material

and the test questionnaires.

Data Gathering Procedures

The researcher requested permission from the

principal of the School, public schools district

supervisor, the Schools division superintendent for the

approval of the conduct of the study. The researcher

sought the consent of the parents for the administration

of the tests.

Reading materials in English was translated by the

teacher in Kankanaey, teacher-made test in Kankanaey and

in English and Model Reading Miscues were the main data

gathering tool of the study. Interviews, observations,

recordings and discussions were also be used.

The questions focused on the content of the story to

measure the comprehension of pupils along mother tongue

(Kankanaey)and target language (English), correlation

between their comprehension in mother tongue and target

language.

Treatment of Data

24
 The data gathered from the questionnaire were

classified, tallied, tabulated, analyzed and interpreted.

To determine the level of reading comprehension of

the students in Kankanaey and in English, the following

was used:

Comprehension Score Reading Comprehension Level

88% to 100 % Independent

63% to 87 % Instructional

62% and below Frustration level

The scores of the respondents, the following formula

was used:

Comprehension = Number of correct answers x 100

The formula is based on the guidelines stipulated in

the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI)

Assessment tools.

To determine the reading miscues of pupils, the

frequency count was used. Percent was determined by

dividing the categorized frequency with the number of

cases and multiplied by one hundred. The percent formula

is:

Percent = ___Frequency___ x 100

Total Population

25
 For the relationship between reading comprehension

skill and performance in Mathematics, the following were

used:

Ranges of r Degree of relationship

± 1.00 perfect relationship

± 0.90 to ± 0.99 very strong/very high

± 0.70 to ± 0.89 strong/high

± 0.40 to ± 0.69 moderate/substantial

± 0.20 to ± 0.39 weak/small

± 0.01 to ± 0.19 almost negligible to slight

0.0 no correlation

To determine the relationship between reading

comprehension of pupils in Kankanaey and in english, the

Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient was used.

The formula is (Oasan, 1990)

r = ∑xy-(∑x)(∑y)
n
√{∑x -(∑x) }{∑y2-(∑y)2}
2 2

n n

The Pearson-Product Moment Correlation Coefficient

is a measure of the correlation between two variables X

and Y, giving a value between +1 and -1 inclusive.

Moreover, it is widely used in the sciences as a measure

of the strength of linear dependence between two

26
variables. Hence, this was seen as the most suited

statistical tool for the study.

27