THE MOTHER TONGUE EDUCATION AND THE ROLE OF ENGLISH AND FILIPINO

ABIGAY G. AMAR

The purpose of a multilingual education program is to develop appropriate cognitive and reasoning skills enabling children to operate equally in different languages, starting with the mother tongue. It will test if reading in the mother tongue will enable immediate comprehension among pupils. (San Vicente, 2013) The author has stated that the mother tongue will help with learners learning comprehension for the recognized language will help with acquisition of learners.

Teachers are one factor affecting the implementation of the mother tongue testing and are integral part of the Department of Education. It is “a complex learning organization that develops, promotes, provides and ensures basic education responsive to the internal, external and emerging learning needs”. (DECS Service Manual, 2000) Teachers are one dynamic influence that makes the execution of lesson using the mother tongue.

The DepEd Undersecretary Yolanda Quijano was explained that MTB-MLE will help students understand their lessons better, at the same time infuse a sense of nationalism. (Sy-Kho, 2012)

Teachers take responsibility of a significant part in the accomplishment of the dialect approach. Their positive perspective towards the usage of the MTB-MLE completely influences the execution of lessons. (Paulson, 2011) However, there are still negative remarks though it has already been implemented and proven effective in language learning.

One’s own language enables a child to express himself easily, as there is no fear of making mistakes. MLE encourages lecture participation by children in the learning process because they understand what is being discussed and what is being asked of them. Learners can immediately understand lessons and answer questions if they know the language being used when they are asked. (Nolasco, 2010) The Kindergarten Education Act of 2011 (RA 10157) Section 5 Medium of Instruction declares that the State shall hereby adopt the mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTBMLE) method. The mother tongue of the learner shall be the primary medium of instruction for teaching and learning in the kindergarten level. (DepEd, 2011) After the Kindergarten education, the primary grades, from 1 to 3, teachers shall teach subjects using the local language except in Filipino and English subjects. This will help learners, even transferees, understand and learn their new locale’s vernacular languages.

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The author is Teacher III at Northville 16 Elementary School, Cluster I, Division of Mabalacat City