Parents' Practices in Teaching Reading and their Children's L1, L2, and L3 Reading Comprehension: A Glimpse at Economically Challenged Communites

Abstract

In the multilingual context of the Philippines, children are expected to develop reading proficiency in three languages—L1 (Mother Tongue), L2 (Filipino), and L3 (English)—as early as the primary grades. While schools promote literacy, parental involvement remains a critical yet underexplored factor, particularly in remote, economically challenged communities where parents often serve as children’s first teachers. This study examines parents’ home literacy practices and their relationship to children’s multilingual reading comprehension. Specifically, it explores parents’ common teaching practices in L1, L2, and L3, differences across these languages, children’s comprehension levels in each, the relationships among comprehension scores, and how parental practices influence performance across the three languages.

Using a quantitative, correlational design, the study involved 40 parent–child dyads from last-mile schools in Sogod and Bontoc, Southern Leyte, all from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Parents completed a validated literacy practices survey, while reading scores were drawn from EGRA results. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, and Spearman correlation analyses revealed that parents commonly practiced print awareness, phonics, and guided reading, though frequencies varied across languages. Children performed best in L1, followed by L2, and lowest in L3. Positive correlations emerged among reading comprehension scores and between certain parental practices and comprehension levels, particularly in L1. The study underscores the importance of strengthening parental engagement programs and policies that equip parents to support differentiated home reading strategies across languages, especially in underserved communities.