TRANSCENDING MTB-MLE- A critique

2. The study entitled "FACTORS AFFECTING THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MOTHER TONGUE-BASED
MULTILINGUAL EDUCATION AS PERCEIVED BY TEACHERS
IN BAGUIO AND BENGUET" conducted by DIALYN A.
GORIO, ANDREA M. GALINO, JOCHELLE B. MORALES
JOMAR B.PALILENG.
The Implementation of MTB-MLE curriculum for
kindergarten up to grade 3 is new to our country, starting
2011. In this paper, the authors report a comprehensive
account of these factors affecting the carrying out of this
language policy ( Gorio, et.al, 2014).

4. In the Philippines, one of the recent changes in Basic
Education Curriculum brought about by the new K-12
program is the introduction of Mother Tongue- Based
Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) specifically in
Kindergarten, Grades 1, 2 and 3 to support the goal of “
Every Child- A- Reader and A –Writer” by Grade 1.” Mother
Tongue is used as a Medium of Instruction (MOI) for Grades
1, 2 and 3 in teaching Math, Araling Panlipunan (AP),
Music, Arts, Physical Education and Health (MAPEH) and
Edukasyon sa Pag-uugali (EsP). Mother tongue is taught as a
separate Learning Area in Grades 1 and 2, and since the
implementation of this three-year old language policy.

5. It had been coupled by researches justifying its need in
the Philippine educational system. One of these
researches on the implementation of the MTB-MLE in the
Philippines is conducted by Balce,M. (2005)
recommending an adoption of the mother tongue (L1) as
the language of learning and instruction (LOLI) for Science
and Health at the elementary school level for two
reasons: (1) The science process skills (or thinking skills)
are linguistic: communicating, classifying, inferring,
predicting, interpreting data, hypothesizing, defining
operationally, and investigating.

6. )

8. The implementation of vernacular languages used
for formal education is further supported by
UNESCO in which they released in 1953 a policy
paper recommending that every pupil should begin
formal education in his or her mother tongue. In
connection with the article, researchers sought to
gather the factors affecting the implementation of
MTB-MLE curriculum. Their main respondents are
the teachers of Baguio and Benguet.

9. Language plays a vital role in the context of
education. According to Hudson (2010), language is
the main medium of education; literacy as the mode
of education is one of the foundations of education;
verbal intelligence is one of the most-used
predictors of educational success; foreign or second
languages are traditionally an important part of the
school curriculum; language has a profound effect
on education.

10. The results of the said study vary from each
factor. Teachers from Baguio and Benguet
have positive acceptance of the shift of the
medium used in the classroom, and is highly
implemented garnering 68% of the
respondents answered YES (Gorio, et.al,
2014).

11. It is highly implemented by the teachers
resulting in a positive response from the
students from their language acquisition,
improvement of cognitive ability of pupils and
developing their socio-cultural awareness. On
the other hand, the shift of the medium in class
affects the performance of the teachers and the
students.

12. The implementation of the language policy in our
education is refreshing and new to our institution and
the stakeholders especially to the teachers and pupils.
From the study conducted, there are pros and cons of
this shift. The willingness and acceptance of teachers
and students came out positive. Through strong
implementation, teachers could comply with the
objectives of the language policy.

13. Students could easily develop their cognitive skills
as they are already familiar with the language use
and it is easy for them to understand instructions. It
would be easy for them to translate the first
language to the second language. On the other
hand, teachers have struggled with lack of training
and workshops. This is related to limited references
and teaching strategies for this new medium of
instructions.

14. Though students are comfortable with the use of
vernacular language as a medium of instruction,
there are wide lexicon and highly technical words
that they are not familiar with. This
implementation is quite a challenge for teachers
and pupils as training, workshops, and
dictionaries are still limited.

15. In the near future, this challenge will be
addressed as our department of education
continuously works with this language policy.
Students and teachers would be able to have
better teaching and learning experiences
correlating the objectives of the language policy.

16. Article Reference:
https://sites.google.com/site/languageandmothertongue/home/research-
on-mtb-mle-implementation
Other References:
HUDSON,R. (2010). The Handbook of Educational Linguistics. Linguistic
Theory. USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
UNESCO Education Position Paper, 2003, Education in a Multilingual World,
United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization.
www.unesco.org/education.Acessed Dec. 23, 2011.cited by Divindo, (2012)

17. THANK YOU!
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