Mother Tongue Dilemma.
Another alteration in Philippine
education had been the talk of the town these previous months. Who won’t be interested
with this matter, right? A lot of changes to be made and with the current
economic crisis we are experiencing; only those fortunate will be able to cope
up without difficulty. Public schools lack supplementary materials, classrooms
and even educators. Nevertheless, these are not the only issues. The medium in
instructions in preschool even in higher grades was modified to their native tongue
which in return is expected to affect not only the comprehension skills of
students but as well as their
relationship with their communities. This crucial shift, known as “Mother
Tongue-Based Multi-Lingual Education” (MTB-MLE), is part of the K+12 basic
education reform program. The new scheme has yielded positive results in 921
schools across the country where it has been implemented.
The DepEd says: “Local and
international studies have shown that using the language used at home (mother
tongue) inside the classroom during the learners’ early years of schooling
produces better and faster learners who can easily adapt to learn a second
(Filipino) and third (English) language.”
At the other side of the coin, English is now introduced as a second or third
language at the primary level in almost all these schools. Even after many
years of compulsory study, a number of high school students are unable to
speak, read or write simple English phrases and sentences. For these
types of students, access to higher education, employment, technical knowledge,
the world of computers and the Internet will also be limited.
Learning English is important because
80% of the information stored in computer is in English as it is the main
language in the internet. More than half the world's scientific journals are in
English. It has become the main way to get around, the main way to
get things done, the way you make friends, the way you do business with a
foreign country and at last but not the least, you get information.
Now that another adjustment was made so that our country won't be left out, I expect big differences. I infer that there will be a boost in Philippine literature considering that students,in recent time, uses their own dialects. The knowledge and vocabulary of students will also broaden up since they are to use their own language at all times. I also expect that no schools will longer fail the achievement tests that the department of education will be giving.
Now that another adjustment was made so that our country won't be left out, I expect big differences. I infer that there will be a boost in Philippine literature considering that students,in recent time, uses their own dialects. The knowledge and vocabulary of students will also broaden up since they are to use their own language at all times. I also expect that no schools will longer fail the achievement tests that the department of education will be giving.
As of this moment, I stand on my
opinion that it is best to use our native language not only because we are used
to it but because it reflects our identity as a Filipino. In fact, we don’t actually
need to adopt the American way of living; it just turns out that it is a symbol
of affluence among Filipinos. An example to this is that speaking straight
using English as a medium may mean to us that that person is either from a
prosperous family or an erudite.
Hence, for some time, we will really need to use the english language. Now as the world continues to revolve around flurries of technology and economy, we need to cope up and join in the fight of developing nations. For that reason, english and other languages must be taught to adolescent students and native language should be spared for early learning stages.
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