Degree of bilinguality and achievement of students in high school chemistry

Date of Publication

1999

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Teaching Major in Chemistry

College

Br. Andrew Gonzalez FSC College of Education

Department/Unit

Science Education

Thesis Adviser

Adelaida L. Bago

Defense Panel Chair

Melecio Deauna

Defense Panel Member

.Bee Ching Ong
Jaime Raul O. Janairo

Abstract/Summary

This study investigates whether the level of competencies in English and in Filipino, socio-economic status, and language of the examination influenced the achievement in chemistry of third year students at Pampanga High School.The policy on bilingual education in the Philippines provides that the medium of instruction in science education is English in all school levels. However, science teachers resort to the use of Filipino in teaching science concepts to come across clearly to the students who have less command in English.This problem inspired the researcher to conduct the study which adopted a 3 x 3 factorial design and where degree of bilinguality, and socio-economic status were treated as independent variables while achievement of students in the test written in English and Filipino were considered dependent variables.The sample was purposively selected based on their average grade in the communication arts. Those who were not included were dropped from the list. Two covariance analyses were employed for the test written in English and in Filipino. Further analysis such as the Tukey Method was utilized. High School grade point average was used as a covariate.The results showed that it was not the language of the test which influenced the achievement of students in chemistry but their degree of bilinguality and in a particular case, their socio-economic status. No interaction effect was observed between the independent variable. These findings provided evidence to support the threshold hypothesis formulated by Cummins (1984). According to his hypothesis, there may be two threshold levels of linguistic proficiency, the lower and the upper threshold which can influence the achievement of bilinguals.

Abstract Format

html

Language

English

Format

Print

Accession Number

TG02910

Shelf Location

Archives, The Learning Commons, 12F Henry Sy Sr. Hall

Physical Description

284 p., 28 cm. ; Typescript

Keywords

Bilingualism; Academic achievement; Achievement tests--High school; High school students; Chemistry

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