<![CDATA[This study aims to examine the differential effectiveness of storytelling and group discussion learning strategies, grounded in progressivism philosophy (Dewey, 1938), on the language development of fourth-grade elementary school students at SDN 21 Makalo, Sikakap District, Mentawai Islands Regency. The low literacy level of students in bilingual contexts motivated this research. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design was employed, involving 60 students divided into three groups: storytelling (n=20), group discussion (n=20), and conventional control (n=20). A validated 36-item language ability test covering phonological, morphological, syntactic, and pragmatic dimensions was used as the instrument (Cronbach's Alpha r=0.87). Interventions were conducted over eight weeks with 16 sessions per group. One-way ANOVA on gain scores revealed a significant inter-group difference (F(2,57)=18.43; p<0.001; η²=0.39, large effect). The storytelling group achieved the highest gain (M=24.5; SD=4.2; d=2.89), followed by group discussion (M=19.8; SD=3.7; d=2.34), and control (M=8.3; SD=3.1). Tukey HSD post-hoc tests confirmed significant pairwise differences across all groups (p<0.05). Storytelling most effectively enhanced syntactic competence (M=6.4), while group discussion produced lower pragmatic gains (M=4.6) due to code-switching tendencies in bilingual peer interactions. These findings affirm progressivism philosophy as a relevant theoretical foundation for language instruction and support the integration of structured storytelling alongside explicit language scaffolding in bilingual elementary school contexts.]]>
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