Implementation of Bilingual Education in Primary Grades (Auto Recovered) PDF

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Summary

This file was owned by Darren Quirimit, his own summary and analysis. This document is about primary grades referring to Kindergarten through grade three are the primary grades in elementary school. The Department of Education's new K+12 curriculum is now embracing Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual E...

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Daren G. Quirimit III BSEd English A Language Program and Policies in Multilingual

Primary Grades I.

Summary

Primary grades focus on Kindergarten to grade III years in elementary. The new curriculum of DepEd which is the K+12 curriculum is now embracing the Mother Tongue- Based Multilingual Education also known as MTB-MLE, in support to the country’s bilingual education policy that is promulgated by the Department of Education, Culture and Sports which is the achievement of competence in both Filipino and English at the national level, through the teaching of both languages and their use as media of instruction at all levels. The regional languages shall be used as auxiliary languages in Grades I and II. The aspiration of the Filipino to enable them to perform their functions and duties as Filipino citizens and in English in order to meet the needs of the country in the community of nations. II.

Critical Analysis

Bilingual education in the Philippines is defined operationally as the separate used of Filipino and English as the medium of instruction in specific subject areas. DECS issued department order No. 25, S. 1974 entitled “Implementing guidelines for the policy on Bilingual Education”, which talk about that , Filipino should be used as the language of instruction particularly in the subject of social studies/sciences, music, arts, physical education, home economics, practical arts, and character education. English on the other hand is allocated in science, mathematics and technology subjects. Article XIV Section 7 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution states that for the purpose of communication and instruction Filipino and English are the official languages in the Philippines. Filipino being the national languages and English if it is otherwise provided by law. Regional languages shall be used as auxiliary media of instruction and as initial language for literacy for Grades I to II. In support to the article XIV Section 7 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, the Department of Education new curriculum which is the K+12, becomes the root on embracing the Mother Tongue- Based Multilingual Education (MTB- MLE). Students in the primary years more specifically Kindergarten to Grade III are expected to be taught all subjects in their mother tongue except for the subject English and Filipino. As for Bilingual education it will start until they reached grade four and so on, for the reason, that the mother tongue will no longer be used in those grades, and Filipino and English are the language of instructions already.

Primary Grades Philippines has a long relationship with English language thanks to its historical ties, including both periods of conflict and prosperity. More than 100 years, Philippines is officially a bilingual country under the country’s constitution. Filipino being the National language, and both Filipino and English as the language of communication and instruction. The status of English in the Philippines is unique among countries in Southeast Asia. Aside from the small citystate of Singapore, the Philippines is the only country in the region to mandate a fully bilingual public education for all children beginning in grade school. Under the official policy (1987 constitution of Republic of the Philippines which are embodied in Article XIV, sec 6 and 7 provided the legal basis for the various language policies that are being implemented in the country. The policy was first implemented in 1974 when DECS issued department order No. 25. 1974 entitled Implementing guidelines for the policy on Bilingual education), both Filipino and English are taught as language subjects in public schools, with English being the sole language used in science, mathematics and technology courses. Official language is different from first language just like in the Philippines there’s a lot of different dialects like Pangasinan, Ilokano, Cebuano, Tagalog, and etc., but the majority language being used is Filipino especially in communicating with other people. Now the question is, what should be the language of instruction we need to used when we talked about primary grades? The new DepEd K+12 curriculum is embracing the Mother Tongue - Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE). Students in the primary years are taught all subjects (except Filipino and English) in their mother tongue. The requirements, teachers should be more diverse. Teachers need to be able to teach math and science in the mother tongue of their pupils. Not having science as a formal subject in the early years, teachers then do not have to worry about teaching science in the native tongue during the first few years of elementary school. Since the mother tongue is only taught as a language and culture subject, one need not worry about what mother tongue should be used in any given school. The choices are there and schools simply need to have a teacher or a group of teachers (depending on the demand) who can speak fluently and teach the mother tongue. Math and science teachers simply have to know how to teach their subjects in English. The school does not make a choice on what language should be used as the medium of instruction. This has practical aspects especially in a place where there is significant heterogeneity in languages. Take, for example, the following region in the Philippines: In the Cordillera administrative region (CAR), there are clearly five major languages, and these, five account for less than 80% of the households. A school in this region needs textbooks in at least five different languages. A school in this region requires teachers who can instruct in these languages.

(The following table and figure shown here are copied from Jose Ramon G. Albert's (National Statistical Coordination Board, Philippines) article, "Many Voices, One Nation: The Philippine Languages and Dialects in Figures"

DepEd K+12 aims to teach students in the Philippines their mother tongue, English and Tagalog. According to UNESCO, “providing education in a child’s mother tongue is indeed a critical issue”. But researches, both here and abroad proves the positive outcomes of bilingual education programs. In the United States, a major research finding is that students in bilingual programs outperform their monolingual counterparts in metalinguistic awareness, concept formation tasks and analogical reasoning ability. Students in bilingual programs also outperform their peers in standardized achievement tests in either language. Like other multilingual countries, the Philippines also has research pointing to the benefits of mother tongue maintenance and bilingual education programs. In 1984, the Linguistic Society of the Philippines (LSP) conducted an evaluation of the bilingual education program, then on its tenth year of implementation. The findings showed that though students performed well in achievement tests and teachers and school administrators saw the need for bilingual education, there was a dearth in materials in Filipino and a lack of preservice and inservice training for teachers in Filipino. The LSP study emphasized the need for a regular evaluation of the nation’s bilingual education program. The said study also significantly stressed the role of the mother tongue in bilingual or multilingual education. In some parts of multilingual Philippines, the mother tongue might be neither English nor Filipino. The use of the child’s mother tongue in developing his basic and 3 functional literacy skills enables him to transfer these skills to a second language, or even a third. Probably the most important piece of research concerning language in Philippine education is the one based on the First Language Education project done in Lubuagan, Kalinga Apayao. The Lubuagan project boasts of a trilingual program initially implemented in 5 government schools. After only two schoolyears into the program, standardized test results showed the students in the Lubuagan program edging out their counterparts who were not taught in their mother tongue.

The message of both local and international research is quite clear: children should no longer be in monolingual classrooms. Despite this growing body of research showing the benefits of mother tongue maintenance and bilingual programs, the Department of Education issued Executive Order No.210, declaring English to be the medium of instruction, as second language starting at Grade 1, then a primary language of instruction from Grade III until the secondary levels. Proof that the inconsistency between reality and rhetoric, pointed out by Gonzales in 1996, still persists. Though studies show that systematic implementation is at the crux of the problem pertaining to bilingual education in the Philippines, the lack of a dual or multilingual program model to emulate also presents a problem to local schools. As Yanilla-Aquino (1995) stated, there has yet to be a definitive bilingual program for the early grades in the Philippines. If the government is serious about multilingual or even just bilingual education, program models for bilingual education have to be constantly developed and studied. Currently, there are bilingual education models being implemented in local schools such as the University of the Philippines Integrated School, a government school; and, The Raya School and The Builders’ School, both private, progressive schools. These last two schools are currently developing and implementing dual language programs that are closely akin to two-way immersion. Learning begins with teachers, and empowered teachers and school heads are at the heart of genuine education reform. It is not enough that our teachers just go along for the ride in our drive toward quality education. They must lead the way in preparing our children and young people for lifelong learning. But what are the medium of instruction that teacher must use in the teaching process? There is constant debate over which language should be use in educating Filipinos: English, Tagalog, or local dialects. The use of English for teaching math and science as well as English language and literature subjects has endured for many years; however, they said that Using English in public schools is a violation of the Philippine constitution (Article XIV, Section 6 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution). It also deteriorates the education system in the Philippines and puts the poorer students at a disadvantage. Requiring its use, schools ironically determine the students’ abilities to learn the language. The use of English alienates students from their cultural heritage, impairs their emotional security and selfworth, and results in inferiority complex among lower-class children who are stigmatized for using the native tongue. Despite a number of studies confirming that learning is faster using the native language, government officials are still pushing for the adoption of English as a medium on instruction (MOI) in Philippine schools.

Refences: Language in the Philippines: A Challenge for Basic Education. (2013). Retrieved from https://www.philippinesbasiceducation.us/2013/10/languages-in-philippines-challenge-for.html

Implementing Guidelines for the 1987 policy on Bilingual Education. (1987). Retrieved from https://www.deped.gov.ph/1987/05/27/do-54-s-1987-implementing-guidelines-for-the-1987policy-on-bilingual-education/ Policy on Bilingual Education. (1987). Retrieved from https://www.deped.gov.ph/1987/05/21/do-52-s-1987-the-1987-policy-on-bilingual-education/

Alamario & Villanueva. (2008). Dual Language. Retrieved from https://www.seameo.org/_ld2008/doucments/Presentation_document/Almario_Villenueva_DualLangua ge.pdf Bilingual and Mother tongue- Based Multiligual Education in the Philippines. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307551787_Bilingual_and_Mother_TongueBased_Multilingual_Education_in_the_Philippines

Primary Grades (K-3) – Program Resources. Retrieved from https://education.alberta.ca/primary-grades-k-3/primary-grades-k-3/everyone/program-resources/

Jessica Ball. (2019). Bilingual Education starts with the Mother Tongue. Retrieved form https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/bilingual-education-starts-mother-tongue

The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines – Article XIV. (1987). Retrieved from https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/constitutions/the-1987-constitution-of-the-republic-of-thephilippines/the-1987-constitution-of-the-republic-of-the-philippines-article-xiv/ Bilingual Education. Retrieved from https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1788/Bilingual-Education.html

The Medium of Instruction in Education. Retrieved from https://bsuexegesis.wordpress.com/authors/language-education/the-medium-of-instruction-ineducation/

Bilingualism and Multilingualism. Retrieved from https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-pressreleases/bilingualism-and-multilingualism...