1Elizer J. Rico, 2Gay Emelyn S. Libre
1College of Education,
2Department of English, College of Arts and Sciences, Mindanao State University – Buug Campus, Buug, Zamboanga Sibugay, Philippines
Email: gayemelyn.libre@msubuug.edu.ph
ABSTRACT
Reading comprehension is seen as a pivotal factor in reaching the frontier towards the learners’ academic excellence, it is an ability to recognize a text and understand its meaning. This study examined the reading comprehension performances of the Grade 3 pupils of Milagrosa
Elementary School in terms of their Mother Tongue (L1) and English language as (L2). This also found out the significant correlation between the L1 and L2 learning of the pupils as presented by their reading comprehension performance in both Mother Tongue and English
language. This study used a correlational research method to gain an understanding of the reading comprehension performances of Mother
Tongue and English language of the forty-two (42) Grade 3 pupils. These pupils were assessed through giving them reading selections with
corresponding questions that are based on the levels of reading comprehension written in both Mother Tongue and in English language. With
the use of Pearson’s correlation and p-value, the results revealed that the proficiency level of the Grade 3 pupils in terms of Mother tongue
and English language falls on Highly Proficient, which means that pupils can correctly read the texts and can easily comprehend the selections in both L1 and L2 without the supervision of their teacher and/or parent. It also revealed the p-value 0.0001 which indicates that there is
a significant correlation between the L1 and L2 learning of the Grade 3 pupils as presented by their reading comprehension performances in
Mother Tongue and English language.
Keywords: Reading comprehension, bilingual learning, mother tongue, language, Milagrosa Elementary School