Strategies in Teaching the Mother-Tongue

1. STRATEGIES IN
TEACHING THE MOTHER
TONGUE

2. Introduction
The two end goals of Mother Tongue-
Based Multilingual Education are
lifelong learning and communicative
competence. With the utilization of this
native language which language is
familiar to the learners, these goal
appear to be achievable.

3. However, some teachers who have
been assigned to teach the mother
tongue are hesitant to handle the
subject because they lack the
confidence due to their incompetence
in the language as well as the dearth
of trainings in the use of the language.

4. In teaching the mother tongue, the
initial focus from Grade 1 to 3, is the
development of literacy and numeracy
skills and the learning concepts about
the language, skills and competence
which will later be transferred in the
learning of the second language
(Filipino and English).

5. As learning progresses, these macro
skills- listening, speaking, reading,
writing, and reviewing spiral across
grade levels and across languages.
The ultimate goal is both oral and
written discourse in the three
languages. ( Enclosure No. 1 to
DepEd Order No. 31, s. 2012 )

6. Strategies in Teaching Different
Learning Areas with the
Integration of the Macro Skills.
1. Listening and Speaking Strategies
2. Reading Strategies
3. Writing Activities

7. 1. Listening and Speaking
Strategies
 These activities develop the
listening and speaking abilities of
the learners as these strengthen
phonological and phonemic
awareness.

8. Phonological Awareness
- Is the ability of the learner to
manipulate sounds and words, or
“play” with sounds and words.
- This skill includes recognizing
rhyming words, blending of sounds,
and syllabication.
Phonemic Awareness
- Is focused on the ability to hear and
identify sounds in particular words.

9.  To focus attention and further sustain
the interest of learners, integration of
listening and speaking can be applied
in activities that draw out kinaesthetic
responses.
These require physical and mental
alertness from the learners to perform
the necessary movements assigned by
the teacher as she tells the story.
These responses can be nodding of
the head, clapping, stomping, or
saying aloud a particular word or

10. Poetry and rhyme exercises can
make learners easily memorize the
poem. They can also associate words
when they hear with their own
vocabulary which will activate prior
knowledge and therefore develop their
ability to discriminate letter sounds.
One activity for this strategy is “Planted
Words.”

11. The Total Physical Response
strategy can also be employed where
the teacher gives directions which the
learners act out. This activity
develops the listening and acting skills
of the learners.

12. 2. Reading
Strategies
 “Color-coded reading” can be
employed to assess reading
readiness.
-The teacher prepares a paragraph with
sentences that are written or
highlighted in different colors. Then
that teacher groups the class and
assigns a particular color similar to
the colors in the paragraph to identify
each group.

13. Each group is made to read the lines
whose color is similar to the color
assigned to them. In this way, learners
are focused on their lines and as they
read, the teacher can gauge their
difficulty in pronunciation, syllabication,
and phrasing. This activity also
enhances participation of the learners.

14. Interpretative/ Dramatic Reading
- Hones learners’ skill to express
themselves orally. With this, learners are
given the chance to speak with proper
phrasing, correct pronunciation, correct
stress and intonation.
- It is also effective to non-speakers of the
language because as they listen to their
classmates deliver their lines, these non-
speakers would be swayed and moved
by the performance of their classmates.
This can eventually persuade them to
learn to speak and enjoy language.

15. Routine Activities
 -indirectly perform a big role in
teaching and learning the language.
Prayers and greetings, similar to the
reminders and sayings posted on the
walls form a part of the routine of
learners. These are regularly read
during or before the class ends. These
also reserve as visual aids and
reading corner materials for other
learning areas.

16. 3. Writing Activities
Writing activities are also facilitated
with the use of instructional materials.
One of these is the interactive board.
Activities in a writing class can provide
effective interaction among learners.
Activities like writing the alphabet on
air, on the back of the seatmates, or
illustrating answers or spelling of the
words with body movements.

17.  For viewing, the teacher develops
materials for viewing activities like
hand and/or stick puppets and pictures
for storytelling.
 In science, there are other strategies
and materials that can be utilized to
develop the learners’ understanding of
concept. Two of these are the “Fishing”
and “Farming”.

18. PLANNING AND
EXECUTING A
LESSON IN THE
MOTHER TONGUE.

19. The Lesson
Plan
The plan for a lesson in the mother
tongue has the following parts:
A. Objectives
B. Content/subject matter
C. Materials
D. The procedure/process
E. Assessment

20. It has the following steps as
suggested by Corpuz
(2013):
1. Preliminary Activities
The lesson starts with a prayer said
in the MT followed by the greetings in
the same language. Afterwards,
initiatory activities are done to set
mode for learning. Some of these are:
a. Poetry Reading
b. Action Song

21. c. Short Story Reading
d. Vocabulary Building
2. Lesson Presentation
a. Unlocking of Difficult Words
This part of the lesson prepares pupils
for comprehension. The teacher
provides examples in sentences, as well
as synonyms and antonyms. This is
also done throgh the aid of puzzles,
jumbled letters, word hunt and pictures.

22. b. Reading of the Story
Initial reading is done by the
teacher for modelling. This is followed
by group reading, then individual
reading.
c. Comprehension Questions
These are the questions that focus
on the learners’ ability to answer the
WH questions. It is also a way of
checking what the pupils did not
understand which can be a basis for
the teacher to further expound and
reiterate what was discussed.

23. 1) Cabbage Peel
2) The Interactive Board
3) Worksheets
d. Own Examples
Examples are elicited from where the
pupils are. These may come from their
home environment, school, and other
personal experiences and
observations.
e. Boardwork / Drills
The integration of oral and written
activities will strengthen the learners’
communication skills.

24. f. Integration of Values
One way to integrate valuing in the
lesson is with the use of metacards.
This illustrates that values are not only
taught, they are also caught. These
cards maybe in the form of smileys,
thumbs up/down, or small red or blue
square cards.
3. Summary
This part of the lesson captures the
understanding of the lesson by the
learners.

25. 4. Assessment
Some suggested activities for this
part of the lesson is the story map and
sequencing.
a. Story Map
In a diagram, the story is retold by
the learners. The diagram is drawn on
the board, and beside it is a pool of
pictures. The teacher then asks
questions and the learners choose a
picture from the pool of pictures to
answer.

26. b. Sequencing
The teacher prepares in simple
sentences the sequence of the events
in the story. These are written on strips
of Manila Paper and are distributed to
several learners. The learners will
determine the correct order of the
sentences based on the story.
5. Assignment
The assignments serves as a
challenge to the learner to do
independent learning. Specifically, the
assignment is given for three reasons:

27. a. To enrich the lesson
b. To achieve mastery
c. To prepare for the next lesson
This can be done by asking the
learners to share their own
experiences related to the lesson, or
to bring to class a drawing which
represents their own interpretation of
the story, a picture, or anything that
symbolizes the part of the story they
can relate to.