essay about mother tongue based multilingual education

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Bilingual and Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education in the Philippines (2017)

2017, Bilingual and Multilingual Education

(Co-authored with Ruanni Tupas) Bilingual education in the Philippines – the use of English in mathematics and science and Filipino, the national language, in all other subjects – is a complex story of postcolonial, neocolonial, nationalist, and ethnolinguistic ideologies and relationships. Thus, the recent law mandating the use of the mother tongues as media of instruction (MOI) in early primary years did not come easy. Called Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE), this recent linguistic structure of educational provision had to navigate the intricate discursive terrains of language policy-making in order to find a strategic space from which to articulate alternative and marginalized visions of education and nation-building in the country. This chapter provides a brief history of the language-in-education debates in the country, assesses the hits and misses of bilingual education, and takes stock of the arguments for and against the use of the mother tongues leading to the promulgation of a comprehensive basic education law which includes MTB-MLE. In the end, however, languages-in-education are never just about languages alone; they are about struggles for power and for contending visions of the nation. MTB-MLE promises to address different forms of inequities in Philippine society, but ideological and structural challenges against it are massive and relentless.

Related papers

Tupas, T.R.F. and Lorente, B.P. (2014). A ‘new’ politics of language in the Philippines: bilingual education and the new challenge of the mother tongues. In P. Sercombe & T.R.F. Tupas (Eds.). Language, identities and education in Southeast Asia: language contact, assimilation and shift in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore (pp. 165 - 180). Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Home to over 180 individual languages, the Philippines is one of few heterogeneous countries in the world without an absolute majority of native speakers of any one language. Unfortunately, Filipino language-in-education policy has not always reflected the country's rich linguistic diversity. This paper will map the history of language-in-education policy in the Philippines, including the 2009 reform which saw non-dominant languages introduced into official education for the first time. It will then look closer at the present policy environment to determine the level of support it provides to mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB MLE) implementation. Posited on the language-in-education policy directives of Malone and the language policy dissemination model of Ricento and Hornberger, this paper finds that the policy environment in the Philippines may be considered supportive of MTB MLE implementation. However, further advocacy and training at the local level is recommended to ensure the program is sustainable in the long term.

The instruction of English in the Philippines causes quite some challenges to scholars due to its rich linguistic diversity. With more than 180 languages currently recorded in the country, linguistic power struggle is unavoidable, although it may be silent. To make the situation even more complex, the Philippine Government recently launched a new educational policy that promotes learning in mother tongues in earlier years of the child. While this law is based on sound research, it poses quite some challenges to both linguists and educators due to the various linguistic backgrounds found in almost every classroom around the nation. The Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education policy is complex from different perspectives. This paper presents evidence from research and current reality of the Philippines. Then it introduces two models that could potentially yield a positive outcome in the implementation of mother tongue-based education. Both perspectives are prepared primarily based on existing literature and careful critical analysis of the Philippine linguistic context. The author also draws from findings from his previous research on the issue in the Philippines.

With the rise of English as “the” international language and the rise of national (e.g. Filipino) or large regional (e.g. Kiswahili) languages as “the” languages of wider communication within a country/region, non-dominant and minority languages are struggling to maintain a sustained population that continues to use and develop the language. One attempt to redress this problem is through mother-tongue based multilingual education (MTBMLE). Recent developments in MTBMLE policies are one strategy that may help in countering and perhaps even reversing the process of language loss and language shift. However, in order for this to happen, we need to understand peoples’ attitudes towards such policies, the sociolinguistic distribution of (variations of) languages, and how people generally perceive the way local languages are used (or useful) in education; and, at the same time, we need to develop appropriate pedagogical models and approaches for using local languages in the classroom. This chapter looks into these questions with a focus on MTBMLE in the Philippines.

In this chapter, we problematize language in education policies that consider a multilingual system of education against attitudes to language that can impact on the (non)success of these policies. We argue that without addressing perceptions toward the role/s of different languages across various uses, multilingual policies in education may reinforce the hegemony of the English language rather than raise the status of local languages. This can happen because of a lack of understanding of how languages work and function, particularly with respect to vertical discursiveness (Bernstein, 1996) and notions of how power is inscribed in different uses of language. Furthermore, we argue that any multilingual language policy should consider how English and other languages connect to language allocation and affiliation, which, if not considered, can lead to schooling maintaining power relations in an unequal society (Apple, 2004) rather than changing them. In addition, we consider how multilingual contexts with a strong level of English use lead to variations in language whose place must be considered where schooling is concerned. Finally, we consider these policies in terms of the Principles-Based Approach (Mahboob and Tilakaratna, 2011) to language policy. Without using the PBA as a guide, any language policy may just be created without its stakeholders fully understanding what it means. Language policies in a multilingual society that is dominated by English cannot be so simple as insisting on a multilingual system of education. Rather, various issues must be considered to insure that these policies do help toward changing society instead of just maintaining power relationships that limit the access of various sectors to different social, economic, and semantic resources.

14th International Nakem Conference, with the theme “Diversity and Inclusion in Mother Language Education”, 2019

This paper examines the timing of language introductions and transitions in the Philippine basic education system, in light of legal obligations and research findings. In the Philippines, a variety of native languages are being used in schools as part of the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) framework. These languages, or mother tongues, are being implemented as mediums of instruction for the majority of subjects until Grade 3, while English and Filipino (based on Tagalog) are introduced as individual subjects as early as Grade 1. From Grade 4 onwards, English and Filipino are used as the main mediums of instruction. The essential questions that this paper explores are: 1. Is Grade 4 the ideal time to switch to English and Filipino as mediums of instruction? 2. Is Grade 1 the ideal time to introduce English and Filipino as subjects? 3. Will fixing the timing of language introductions and transitions ensure improvements in educational outcomes? In light of current knowledge about cognitive development and language acquisition of children, and empirical evidence from the implementation of multilingual education in various countries (including the Philippines), there is a strong case for extending the use of first languages (i.e. mother tongues) to higher grades, with a more gradual introduction of and transition to other languages. Considering the divergent ideologies of language in the country, however, the scientifically advisable path is not always the most politically viable. Furthermore, the great diversity of learner contexts practically guarantees that one prescribed language-in-education model will fail to meet the needs of the majority of the population. Hence, this paper suggests the adoption of a multi-modal language policy in Philippine education, whereby regions, divisions, or schools could select from several multilingual education models to suit their respective contexts. These models could vary in the number, phasing, and relative proportion of languages in the curriculum.

Kritika Kultura, 2011

For much of postcolonial language politics around the world, the fight has largely been between a foreign (read: colonial) language and (a) dominant local language(s). This is true in the Philippines where the debates have focused on English and Filipino, the Tagalog-based national language. In recent years, however, the mother tongues have posed a challenge to the ideological structure of the debates. Although local languages have long been acknowledged as positively contributing to the enhancement of learning in school, they have been co-opted mostly as a nationalist argument against English, American (neo)colonialism and imperialist globalization. The current initiatives to establish mother tongue-based education reconfigure the terms of engagement in Philippine postcolonial language politics: it must account for the fact that the mother tongues could be the rightful media of instruction. In the process, it must tease out issues concerning the decoupling of Filipino as the nation...

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The recent introduction of the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education program in the Philippines follows the larger policy and legal trend of localization and indigenization. Its reflects the post-colonial context of Philippine society, one that recalls both policy failures and successes in diverse domains of governance. As with all the other nation-wide programmatic decentralization that has antedated it, the nascent stages of this new experiment promise to bring conflicts and implementation issues.

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PUBLICATIONS

Starting where the children are: a collection of essays on mother tongue-based multilingual education and language issues in the philippines.

• Author: Ricardo Ma. Nolasco, Francisco Andres Datar, and Arnold Azurin
• Publication Type: Book