Linguistic Facilitation in Scientific Literacy: A Comparative Study of English and Tagalog-Translated HOTS Questions in Life Science
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20070145Keywords:
Bilingual Assessment, Life Science, Linguistic Facilitation, Scientific Literacy, Taglish, Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)Abstract
The landscape of modern science learning in the Philippines is shaped by a bilingual medium of instruction, with English as the primary language of assessment. This study addressed the potential linguistic barriers Filipino students face when demonstrating Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in Life Science. The objective is to determine whether Tagalog-translated instructions enhance student performance and to identify significant differences in scores between Tagalog-facilitated and traditional English-based assessments. Utilizing a quantitative approach, the study employed a counterbalanced between-subjects experimental design with 80 Grade 11 students from a Tagalog-speaking community in Laguna, Philippines. Participants engaged with a researcher-developed test comprising 28 HOTS-based questions, in which instructional syntax was translated into Tagalog while technical terms remained in English. The instrument underwent content validation by subject-matter experts and statistical validation through test parallelism, confirming equivalence in difficulty and reliability across test versions. Analysis focuses on comparing performance across these two linguistic media to isolate language comprehension from scientific aptitude. Findings are contextualized within the Tagalog-speaking population and may not directly generalize to students whose primary language is Cebuano, Ilocano, or other regional languages. The results revealed a clear pattern where students achieve higher scores and demonstrate more consistent performance when assessed in Tagalog. Students answer more items correctly in their primary language, suggesting that beginning assessments with Tagalog facilitates better cognitive processing and conceptual understanding. Statistical analysis confirms that the language of instruction significantly impacts student outcomes, with a large effect size indicating that the performance gap is practically meaningful. In conclusion, aligning assessments with a learner’s primary language is essential for accurately measuring scientific literacy.
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