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Guiding Principles in The Teaching of The Mother Tongue

This document outlines guiding principles for teaching mother tongue (MTB-MLE) from Kindergarten to Grade 3. It discusses 8 key principles: 1) Starting from what students already know, 2) Developing language and academics through the first language, 3) Promoting cognitive development, 4) Discovery learning, 5) Active and peer-based learning, 6) Focusing on both meaning and accuracy, 7) Non-threatening language learning, and 8) Valuing students' home language and culture. The document provides examples for applying each principle to help teachers reflect on students' needs and facilitate effective mother tongue instruction.

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Leah Ann Reid
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2K views5 pages

Guiding Principles in The Teaching of The Mother Tongue

This document outlines guiding principles for teaching mother tongue (MTB-MLE) from Kindergarten to Grade 3. It discusses 8 key principles: 1) Starting from what students already know, 2) Developing language and academics through the first language, 3) Promoting cognitive development, 4) Discovery learning, 5) Active and peer-based learning, 6) Focusing on both meaning and accuracy, 7) Non-threatening language learning, and 8) Valuing students' home language and culture. The document provides examples for applying each principle to help teachers reflect on students' needs and facilitate effective mother tongue instruction.

Uploaded by

Leah Ann Reid
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Topic 3: Guiding Principles in the Teaching of the Mother Tongue

3. Guiding Principles in the Teaching of the Mother


Tongue

Introduction

The goal of effective teaching is to create an impact or change in the lives of the
learners. It is our collective responsibility as an education community to deliver high-quality and
challenging education designed to maximize learners’ potentials and an education that
stretches learners’ abilities and interests.

Children are viewed as diverse learners and active contributors within a variety of
cultural and social contexts. Experiences within families and communities define the various
pathways through which children learn in and outside of school. In response to these
differences, schools can build on children’s diverse prior knowledge and experiences.

The following guiding principles help teachers to reflect on young learners’ diverse
needs, capabilities, learning styles, dispositions and cultural, social and linguistic backgrounds.
Utilization of various techniques and strategies in delivering lessons should also be considered.

Objectives
At the end of the lesson students can:
- Cite the relevance of the guiding principles in the teaching and utilization of the
mother tongue in Kinder up to Grade III levels.

Engage

- Examine the title “Guiding Principles in the Teaching of mother Tongue.”


- Jot down at least 5 words that come to your mind.
- Use each word and write phrases about why you think the word can be associated
with the title.

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Topic 3: Guiding Principles in the Teaching of the Mother Tongue

Explore

.Form groups of 5 members each.


Share your responses (Engage).
Summarize your group’s responses.

Explain

GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING IN MTB-MLE

Principle 1. Known to the unknown


1.1 Learning requires meaning. We learn when we use what we already know to help us
understand what is new. “The most important single factor influencing learning is what the
learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him/her accordingly.”
Application: Start with what the learners already know about a topic and use that to
introduce the new concept. Beginning with the learners’ first language and culture will
better facilitate mastery of the curriculum content. “Nowhere is the role of prior knowledge
more important than in second language educational contexts. Students who can access
their prior knowledge through the language and culture most familiar to them can call on a
rich array of schemata, whereas students who believe they can only use that knowledge
they have explicitly learned in the second language are limited in their access.”(Chamot,
1998, p.197).
1.2 Second language learners use what they know in their own language to help develop other
languages.

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Topic 3: Guiding Principles in the Teaching of the Mother Tongue

Principle 2. Language and Academic Development


Students with well-developed skills in their first language have been shown to acquire
additional languages more easily and fully and that, in turn, has a positive impact on academic
achievement.
Application: Continue the oral development of L1 and begin reading in L1 to strengthen L2 and
L3 learning as well as academic achievement across the curriculum.
Principle 3. Cognitive Development
3.1 Students who use their multilingual skills have been shown to develop both cognitive
flexibility and divergent thinking.
Application: Continue developing critical thinking in the L1 as well as in L2 and L3.
3.2 Higher Order Thinking Skills When we truly learn something, we can explain it, apply it,
analyze it, evaluate it, and use it to create new ideas and information.
Application: In all subjects, focus on activities that build understanding and that encourage
students to apply, analyze, and evaluate what they have learned to create new knowledge. CF
Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy.
Remember Understand Apply Use Analyze Evaluate Create
Repeat Explain what we hear Examine Assess Use what We
what we what we or read what we learn What we learn to discover,
hear or read hear or read to discover Hear or Read Invent, and create
patterns

Principle 4. Discovery Learning


4.1 We learn when someone who already understands the new idea or task helps us to
“discover” the new idea and then use it meaningfully.
Application: Find out what the students already know about a topic. Then provide activities that
let them use their knowledge to learn the new concept or task.
Principle 5. Active Learning
5.1 Peer interaction. Children learn best through peer interactions in which they work together
creatively to solve problems. Application: Do most class activities in teams or pairs. Encourage
students to talk with each other and compare ideas in order to solve problems.
5.2 Second language active learning. Young children gain confidence in learning a new language
when they begin with “hear-see-do” (Total Physical Response) activities.

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Topic 3: Guiding Principles in the Teaching of the Mother Tongue

Application: Begin the L2 language learning time by focusing on listening and responding to oral
language. Children listen to a command, observe someone respond to the command and then
respond in action (no talking at first).
5.3 Purposeful Talk. Talking helps us make sense of new ideas and information.
Application:
1) Ask a lot of “higher level” questions and give students time to think and then respond.
2) Provide plenty of opportunities for students to work in teams, sharing and comparing their
ideas.

Principle 6. Meaning and Accuracy


Successful language learning involves hearing, speaking, reading and writing activities that focus
on both meaning and accuracy.
Application: Include plenty of activities that focus on both MEANING and ACCURACY.

Principle 7. Language Learning/Language Transfer


7.1 We learn a new language best when the learning process is non-threatening and meaningful
and when we can take “small steps” that help us gain confidence in our ability to use the
language meaningfully.
Application: Begin the L2 language learning time by focusing on “hear-see-do” activities that
enable students to build up their “listening vocabulary” before they are expected to talk.
Introduce reading and writing in L2 only when they have built up a good hearing and speaking
vocabulary.
7.2 Research in second-language acquisition indicates that it takes a minimum of 2 years to
learn basic communicative skills in a second language when society supports that learning. It
takes five years or more to learn enough L2 for learning complex academic concepts.
7.3 “Errors” are a normal part of second-language learning. Second language learners benefit
from opportunities to receive feedback in a respectful and encouraging way. It is helpful when
teachers respond first to the content of what the student is saying or writing… focusing on one
or two errors at a time.
Principle 8. Affective component: Valuing the home language/culture
8.1 Valuing students with talents in their home language more powerfully enables learning than
just valuing learners of English whose home language is irrelevant to academic success.
Application: Learners are encouraged when they know they are valued in the classroom and
their language and heritage are seen as resources.

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Topic 3: Guiding Principles in the Teaching of the Mother Tongue

8.2 The classroom environment


Children from ethno-linguistic language groups thrive in a welcoming environment in which
teachers and peers value them as a positive presence in the classroom and the school;
encourage their use of their L1; provide books, visual representations, and concrete objects
that reflect their backgrounds and interests.
Source: K-12 Curriculum Guide

Elaborate

Reading and understanding the Guiding Principles in the teaching of


mother tongue, I realized that …

_____________________________________________________________________________________
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Evaluate

Choose at least 3 principles and apply each in the activities of a topic or lesson. You can use any topic or
lessons from Kinder to Grade 3 subjects.

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