L2 LEARNERS’

MOTHER TONGUE,
LANGUAGE
DIVERSITY AND
LANGUAGE
ACHIEVEMENT
of Grade 1, 2, 3
 Introduction

– From the moment a child is born, he begins to learn about the world and his language. He begins to acquire
mother tongue (MT) at home and develops most of the understanding of this first language in the early part of
his developmental life. Basically, he learns the basics of the first language from the family. Children growing up
in bilingual homes can have more than one mother tongue or native language. This occurs when the child’s
parents speak different languages. Thus, he becomes bilingual. However, even in the case of bilingualism, one
language usually dominates over the other.

– Through the mother tongue he acquired at home, the child eventually identifies himself belonging to a family,
communicates himself and develops his personality as a unique individual capable of performing
developmental tasks at home. This was supported by Gollnick & Chinn (2006) in their definition of language as a
means of communication that shapes cultural and personal identity and socializes one into a cultural group. The
child’s interaction with family members and the environment helps build his language proficiency and
competence.
• Cummins (1998, 2006) explains that the development of competence in the mother tongue or first language
(L1) serves as a foundation of proficiency that can be transported to learning another language or second
language (L2). This competence in L1 is significant in the process of second language acquisition (SLA).
Learning another language is part of language acquisition. It is the same process man use in acquiring the first
and second language. It requires meaningful interaction and natural communication in the target language in
which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are
conveying. Error correction and explicit teaching of rules are not relevant to language acquisition (Brown
2001) but native speakers can modify their utterances addressed to acquirers to help them understand, and
these modifications are thought to help the acquisition process (Ferguson, 2011).
METHODOLOGY

The Respondents
The respondents in this study is Grade 1, 2, 3, pupils of Dalumpinas Community School S.Y 2018 2019 at Dalumpinas
Este, San Fernando City, La Union.

The Research Design

The study utilized the qualitative research design to treat the variables on the mother tongue, language diversity and
language academic achievement of the respondents.

The Instrument
The study utilized a survey-questionnaire on the languages spoken by the L2 learners which was devised by the
researcher herself. Official Permanent Records of the respondents were obtained from the Office of the Registrar for
their language achievement variable. Their grade point averages is based on spoken language skills were considered.
The Procedure
The researcher personally distributed/floated the survey-questionnaire to the
respondents of Dalumpinas Com. School. They were given one and a half hour to
accomplish the form.
An informal interview with the respondents regarding their languages spoken was
likewise conducted.

The Statistical Tests

The research used the Chi-square and test of independence in analyzing the data.

Findings
1. Iloco is the dominant mother tongue of the respondents as well as their parents, both
the father and the mother.
2. Their diverse languages spoken by the respondents are as follows in (order):
Tagalog(89); English (89), Illoco (88), and Ybanag (20).
3. Among the respondents whose parents speak different MT, 14 out of 33 or 42.42% of
the respondents adopt their mother’s MT while 11 or 33.33% adapted their father’s MT
and almost a quarter did not use any of their parents’ MT.
4. The academic performance of the respondents in their language skills (Listening, speaking, reading, and thinking skills
is satisfactory.
5. There is no significant difference in the language skills performance of the respondents whose MT is Iloco or Tagalog.
6. There is no significant relationship between the language diversity and language academic achievement of the
respondents.

Conclusions
1. Iloco is the most widely spoken dialect/lingua franca among students and parents.
2. Majority of the respondents have adopted their mother’s mother tongue than their father’s mother tongue.
3. Majority of the respondents perform satisfactorily in language skills like listening, speaking, reading, and thinking skills.
4. Even if Tagalog perform better in their language skills than Iloco, the difference if not that significant.
5. The number of languages spoken by the respondents is not significant in acquiring skills in listening, speaking, reading,
and thinking skills as there may be other factors contributing to the successful learning of the skills.

Recommendations
1. Conduct studies that will correlate language diversity with learning Mathematics and Science.
2. Conduct the same study with wider scope of respondents using selective sampling from other universities and colleges
in the Region.
3. Conduct a correlation study with other respondents from Dalumpinas Com. School in the Region 1.
4. Devise/Use an instrument to measure the proficiency of the specific language skills of the students.