Khyres Gell M.

Niñeza

1. Determine language development and maintenance in bilingual education done in the philippines.
Identify atleast 3 programs explaining its objectives, activities and actions taken. Should be in an essay
type not less than 500 words.

In today’s growing global economy, several international companies are on search for employees who
are bilingual, and those with a bilingual education have the advantage. In the Philippines, aside from the
national language which is the Filipino, English is a very important part of daily commumication
especially for people at work. To address the increasing demands for bilingualism and multilingualism,
Philippines has several policies and programs that help uphold the bilingual education in the country.

First is the Philippine Bilingual Education Policy. The policy, as cited by Espiritu (2015), was first
implemented in 1974 when DECS issued Dept. Order No. 25, s. 1974 titled, “Implementing Guidelines
for the Policy on Bilingual Education.” Bilingual education is defined as the separate use of Filipino and
English as the media of instruction in specific subject areas. Embodied in this policy is that Pilipino
(changed to Filipino in 1987) shall be used as medium of instruction in Social studies/social sciences,
Music, Arts, Physical Education, Home economics, Practical arts and Character education, while English
is for Science, Mathematics and Technology subjects. The policy on Bilingual Education aims at the
achievement of competence in both Filipino and English at the national level. The nation aspires to
uphold the cultivation of Filipino as a language of scholarly discourse, continuing intellectualization; and
the maintenance of English as an international language and as a non-exclusive language of science and
technology. To realize the aims of this policy, the Department of Education, Culture and Sports shall
provide the means to implement the language policy with the cooperation of government and non-
government organizations. The Department shall program funds for implementing the Policy, in such
areas as materials production, in-service training, compensatory and enrichment program for non-
Tagalogs, development of a suitable, and standardized Filipino for classroom use.

In addition, the EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 210 which stipulates the strengthening of the use of the English
language as a medium of instruction in the educational system was implemented. This policy aims to
develop the competence and proficiency of the students in the English language to maintain and
improve their competitive edge in the fast-growing local and international industries. Actions taken to
fulfill this policy include: The CHED shall adopt measures to promote and encourage the use of the
English language as the primary medium of instruction in the tertiary or higher education level and
evaluate the proficiency of educators in the English language and conduct training programs nationwide
to develop and improve it.

Next is the Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) policy which involves
implementation of local mother tongues as the language of instruction in Kindergarten to year three,
with the official languages (Filipino and English) being introduced as the language of instruction after
grade three. The MTB-MLE aims to improve the pupil’s language and cognitive development, as well as
his/her socio-cultural awareness as provided in the enclosure of DepEd Order No. 16, s. 2012. The child’s
language will serve as the fundamental language for literacy and learning. The two end goals of this are
lifelong-learning and communicative competence. Lifelong learning is learning as long as a person lives
while communicative competence is the learner’s ability to understand and use language correctly and
appropriately to communicate in real world situations. To make this program possible, the Department
conducted distribution of Teacher's Guide and Learner's Materials of these languages to the schools.

Also helpful program to uphold the use of Filipino and English as language for communication is the
celebration of Buwan ng Wika and English Month in several schools in the country. The month of
August is designated as Buwan ng Wika, which is celebrated to promote the national language. On the
other hand, the English Month Celebration is an annual activity that aims in promoting consciousness in
language and reading competencies among students through the exhibition of literary and rhetoric
competencies.

Not only English is being given emphasis in the country. The implementation of the Special Program in
Foreign Language (SPFL) in Spanish by the (DepEd) is a intended o restore the socio-cultural ties
between Spain and the Philippines particularly in the field of educational improvement. By including
SPFL in the new K to 12 Curriculum, DepEd was able to successfully revive the teaching of Spanish
language and culture in the Philippine secondary education system. This special program was initially
offered at the third and fourth year high school levels in 14 pilot schools in 2009.

Since competence in the use of Filipino and other languages is one of the goals of the Bilingual
Education, continuing improvement in the teaching of the languages, their use as media of instruction
and their functions in Philippine education shall be the responsibility of the whole educational system.

References:

Espiritu, C. Language Policies in the Philippines. Retrieved from: https://ncca.gov.ph/about-ncca-

Williams, A., Metila, R., Pradilla, L. A., & Digo, M. (2014). Investigating Best Practice in MTB-MLE in the
Philippines MTB-MLE: Phase 1 Progress Report. University of the Philippines: Assessment, Curriculum
and Technology Research Centre.

https://www.deped.gov.ph/2013/07/05/do-28-s-2013-additional-guidelines-to-deped-order-no-16-s-
2012-guidelines-on-the-implementation-of-the-mother-tongue-based-multilingual-education-mtb-mle/

https://www.seameo-innotech.org/spanish-language-assessment-program/

http://kwf.gov.ph/in-the-philippines-august-is-a-celebration-of-buwan-ng-wika/
https://books.google.com.ph/books?
id=INhL6k_89QoC&pg=PA142&lpg=PA142&dq=ched+policies+on+bilingual+education&source=bl&ots=u
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pAhXZQN4KHasGCmcQ6AEwEXoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=ched%20policies%20on%20bilingual
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