Impact of mother tongue for learning English language
Description
This research work has been carried out in a school in Bhutan consisting of 40 class X students. Thus, it contains datasets of 8 cycle tests scores and, pretest and posttest questionnaires scores over two months. The research is significant at four levels. First, it provides school-level empirical evidence from a Bhutanese multilingual secondary classroom, an environment in which local languages remain central to students’ daily communication while English functions as the principal academic language. Second, the eight-cycle design shows change over time rather than relying only on a single pre-test/post-test comparison. The significant Cycle × Group interaction suggests that the intervention’s advantage accumulated across the intervention period. Third, the findings offer a practical resolution to the common debate between English-only teaching and unrestricted L1 use: the evidence favors managed target-language immersion supported by brief, purposeful L1 scaffolding. Fourth, the study provides an actionable framework for teachers—maintain English as the default, identify moments when L1 genuinely adds value, use it briefly for clarification or planning, and then return students to English production.
Files
Steps to reproduce
I conducted these tests in the classes weekly for two months and at the end of two months, I did data triangulation and analysis using jamovi software. I did not seek any fund as it was not required. I rather received the material help from my school.