Teaching English in Blended Learning Modalities: Its Relation to the Students' Communicative Competence

In today’s rapidly advancing technological world, leveraging these innovations to enhance education is crucial. Blended learning, which combines traditional and technology-driven teaching methods, provides greater flexibility and enriches the teaching-learning process. In English Language Teaching (ELT), blended learning has gained widespread popularity, leading to numerous studies on its effectiveness. This research explores the relationship between teaching English through blended learning modalities and students' communicative competence in selected private secondary schools across three municipalities in Maguindanao: Sultan Kudarat, Parang, and Datu Odin Sinsuat. Specifically, it examines how three blended learning modalities—modular distance learning, online distance learning, and TV-based instruction—impact students' oral and written communicative competence. The results showed that modular distance learning was highly evident, with a mean score of 4.67, followed by online distance learning, also highly evident, with a mean of 4.52, and TV-based instruction was evident, with a mean of 4.25. In terms of communicative competence, oral competence was evident with a mean of 4.35, while written competence had a slightly higher mean of 4.44. Pearson product-moment correlation analysis revealed significant positive correlations between all three blended learning modalities and overall communicative competence: modular distance learning (r = .575, p = .000), online distance learning (r = .703, p = .000), and TV-based instruction (r = .744, p = .000). These findings indicate that higher levels of teaching English through blended learning modalities are strongly associated with improved student communicative competence.