ENHANCING EMERGENT LITERACY: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL ON STORYTELLING INTERVENTIONS FOR KINDERGARTEN LEARNERS

This study investigated the effectiveness of a Mother Tongue-Based Dialogic Storytelling Intervention in enhancing the emergent literacy skills of kindergarten learners in public elementary schools in the Bamban West District during School Year 2025–2026. Employing a quantitative, true experimental research design through a pretest-posttest Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT), approximately 80 to 100 kindergarten learners were randomly assigned to either an intervention group or a control group receiving standard instruction. Data were gathered using a standardized Emergent Literacy Assessment Battery measuring overall emergent literacy, vocabulary acquisition, listening comprehension, print awareness, and phonological awareness. Findings revealed that learners exposed to the dialogic storytelling intervention achieved significantly higher post-intervention emergent literacy scores (Z = 0.88) than those in the control group (Z = 0.15, p < .001). The intervention group also demonstrated greater gains in vocabulary acquisition (15.2%) and listening comprehension (11.1%) compared with the control group. Moreover, the intervention functioned as a compensatory mechanism for learners with low baseline language skills, yielding the highest gain in print awareness (18.0%). Results further showed a significant Time × Group interaction effect, indicating accelerated growth in phonological awareness among learners who participated in the storytelling intervention. The study concluded that mother tongue-based dialogic storytelling is an effective, equitable, and holistic instructional strategy for developing both meaning-related and code-related literacy skills among kindergarten learners. The research was completed in 2025 and provides strong evidence supporting the integration of interactive storytelling approaches into early childhood literacy programs to improve literacy outcomes and reduce learning gaps among young learners.