Mother tongue as a teaching medium

Feeding programs and conditional cash transfers are two of the strategies development agencies promote to boost students’ nutrition and school attendance. These days, intra-class interaction is also looked at as a crucial factor in improving the educational system.

One of the ways to increase interactivity within the classroom is the use of the mother tongue, often the individual’s first learned language, as a medium of instruction.

The use of this language as a means of improving the quality of education in a country is already being pushed by no less than the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization or UNESCO.

To be sure, multilingual education in the country is not at all new.

In 1987, the Department of Education, Culture and Sports or DECS, now the Department of Education or DepEd, issued the Bilingual Education Policy (BEP) or Order No. 54 which mandated the use of English in teaching Math, Science, and English, and the use of Filipino for other subjects.

This was in line with the government’s goal of improving the English skills of students to make them more competitive when they enter the labor force.

Results of national achievement tests, however, would eventually show poor results among students, an indication of the program’s limited success. The problem was even more acute in the provinces, where students would typically be more fluent in their local dialects than in either English or Filipino.

This resulted in the re-assessment of the program. In July 2009, the DepEd issued Order No. 74, or the Mother-Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE), which prescribed the use of students’ mother tongues as a means of instruction for all subjects.

As of the current school year, almost 200 schools have reportedly fully implemented the order. Full implementation entails using the mother-tongue, not only through teachers’ verbal communication, but also through textbooks and other available printed resources as well.

Results of several studies have demonstrated the positive effects of mother-tongue instruction on the performance of students.

The Iloilo experiments conducted from 1948 to 1954 and from 1961 to 1964 found that those classes that used the local vernacular (Hiligaynon) as the medium of instruction scored higher in all exams than those that were taught in English. These students were also able to learn English faster than those that were English-taught from the start.

This observation showed that mother-tongue instruction could facilitate learning of a 2nd or 3rd language. Other experiments with similar results were also done in Rizal, Cebu, and other provinces.

With all the experiments done, among the most cited is the Lubuagan Experiment, an ongoing study since 1998. Lubuagan is an ethnic community in Kalinga Province whose people are not immersed in either Filipino or English.

Three experimental classes used Lilubuagan, the mother tongue, as the medium of instruction in all the subjects; another three served as the control and implemented the BEP. It was found that the experimental classes scored higher than the controlled classes and learned Filipino and English faster. These strengthened the basis of implementing mother-tongue instruction in the country.

Despite its promise, mother-tongue instruction also presents a host of challenges.

A particular obstacle is that some languages and dialects are unwritten or are passed on verbally, making it difficult to produce textbooks and other published learning materials.

Foreign terminologies, especially in Science and Math, are also almost always impossible to translate, which often necessitates the use of English in teaching.

Finally, in a multilingual country such as the Philippines, students from different language groups often compose a typical classroom, an obvious obstacle in the choice of instruction medium.

Indeed, implementing the mother-tongue instruction policy is a difficult task. This involves the development of a good curriculum, the training of good teachers, and the production of good educational materials.

The Institute for Development and Econometric Analysis, Inc. (IDEA) is an economic think-tank based in the University of the Philippines – Diliman. For inquiries on IDEA, please contact Eduard Robleza at edjrobleza@idea.org.ph.