ABSTRACT

One of the most significant event that had happened in the educational system of the Philippines was the
implementation of the mother tongue as a medium of instruction from kindergarten to grade three as stipulated
in Republic Act 10533 otherwise known as the ―Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013‖ (Dep Ed Curriculum
Guide, Mother Tongue (2013). This remarkable shift is part of the K to 12 basic education program which
enhances the Philippine Basic Education System by strengthening its curriculum and increasing the number of
years for basic education. The DepEd K to 12 Curriculum clearly states that if learners begin their education in
the language they understand best-their mother tongue- and develop a strong foundation in their mother tongue
develop strong literacy abilities in the school language. Hence, the study was undertaken to find out the impact
of mother tongue or first language (L1) in the Performance of Junior High School Learners in Listening and
Speaking Skills over a popular method, the immersion approach. The FLC-BP approach was used for two
groups of respondents: Tagalog-English and Iloko-English while the immersion approach, the mandated
traditional way of teaching English was the All English. The Pre-test and Post-test Control Group Factorial
Design was used in the study. The statistical test utilized the ANCOVA with the Grade Six English Grades as
covariate. The researcher found out that all respondents in the three classes showed a moderate level of
performance in listening and speaking skills in the pre-test. In the administered post-test, the immersion 327
group, All English indicated a high level of performance in listening and moderate in speaking. The Tagalog-
English indicated a high level of performance in speaking and the Iloko-English were moderate. Therefore, the
use of first language will not only improve the quality of education, it will be the tool for learning and
improving the learning of English. Keywords: Socio Linguistics, Mother Tongue, Mother Tongue Based-
Multilingual Education, Macro Skills, Factorial Design, Philippines