Kishiane Ysabelle L.

Cabatic EED112 W12

BEED Language Education III

EED 112 - LISTENING AND SPEAKING IN MOTHER TONGUE

1. Discuss – “What is Mother Tongue?”

By Richard Nordquist
Updated July 25, 2019
The term "mother tongue" refers to a person's native language — that is, a language
learned from birth. Also called a first language, dominant language, home language,
and native tongue (although these terms are not necessarily synonymous).

Contemporary linguists and educators commonly use the term L1 to refer to a first
or native language (the mother tongue) and the term L2 to refer to a second
language or a foreign language that's being studied.

Use of the Term 'Mother Tongue'

"[T]he general usage of the term 'mother tongue'...denotes not only the language
one learns from one's mother, but also the speaker's dominant and home
language; i.e., not only the first language according to the time of acquisition, but
the first with regard to its importance and the speaker's ability to master its linguistic
and communicative aspects. For example, if a language school advertises that all its
teachers are native speakers of English, we would most likely complain if we later
learned that although the teachers do have some vague childhood memories of the
time when they talked to their mothers in English, they, however, grew up in some
non-English-speaking country and are fluent in a second language only. Similarly, in
translation theory, the claim that one should translate only into one's mother tongue
is in fact a claim that one should only translate into one's first and dominant
language.

"The vagueness of this term has led some researchers to claim...that different
connotative meanings of the term 'mother tongue' vary according to the intended
usage of the word and that differences in understanding the term can have far-
reaching and often political consequences."

(Pokorn, N. Challenging the Traditional Axioms: Translation Into a Non-Mother

Tongue. John Benjamins, 2005.)
Culture and Mother Tongue
"It is the language community of the mother tongue, the language spoken in a
region, which enables the process of enculturation, the growing of an individual into
a particular system of linguistic perception of the world and participation in the
centuries-old history of linguistic production."

(Tulasiewicz, W. and A. Adams, "What Is Mother Tongue?" Teaching the Mother

Tongue in a Multilingual Europe. Continuum, 2005.)
"Cultural power can...backfire when the choices of those who embrace
Americanness in language, accent, dress, or choice of entertainment stir resentment
in those who do not. Every time an Indian adopts an American accent and curbs his
'mother tongue influence,' as the call centers label it, hoping to land a job, it seems
more deviant, and frustrating, to have only an Indian accent."
(Giridharadas, Anand. "America Sees Little Return From 'Knockoff Power.'" The
New Yor k Times, June 4, 2010.)

Myth and Ideology

"The notion of 'mother tongue' is thus a mixture of myth and ideology. The family is
not necessarily the place where languages are transmitted, and sometimes we
observe breaks in transmission, often translated by a change of language, with
children acquiring as first language the one that dominates in the milieu. This
phenomenon...concerns all multilingual situations and most of the situations of
migration."
(Calvet, Louis Jean. Towards an Ecology of World Languages. Polity Press, 2006.)
Top 20 Mother Tongues
"The mother tongue of more than three billion people is one of 20: Mandarin
Chinese, Spanish, English, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, Japanese,
Javanese, German, Wu Chinese, Korean, French, Telugu, Marathi, Turkish, Tamil,
Vietnamese, and Urdu.
English is the lingua franca of the digital age, and those who use it as a second
language may outnumber its native speakers by hundreds of millions. On every
continent, people are forsaking their ancestral tongues for the dominant language of
their region’s majority. Assimilation confers inarguable benefits, especially as
internet use proliferates and rural youth gravitate to cities. But the loss of languages
passed down for millennia, along with their unique arts and cosmologies, may have
consequences that won’t be understood until it is too late to reverse them."
(Thurman, Judith. "A Loss for Words." The New Yorker, March 30, 2015.)
A Lighter Side of the Mother Tongue
"Gib's friend: Forget her, I hear she only likes intellectuals.
Gib: So? I'm intellectual and stuff.
 Gib's friend: You're flunking English. That's your mother tongue and stuff."
(The Sure Thing, 1985)
2. The Mother-Tongue Instruction July 14, 2009
DO 74, s. 2009
Institutionalizing Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MLE)
1. The lessons and findings of various local initiatives and international studies in
basic education have validated the superiority of the use of the learner’s mother
tongue or first language in improving learning outcomes and promoting
Education for All (EFA).
2. Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education, hereinafter referred to as MLE, is
the effective use of more than two languages for literacy and instruction.
Henceforth, it shall be institutionalized as a fundamental educational policy and
program in this Department in the whole stretch of formal education including
pre-school and in the Alternative Learning System (ALS).
3. The preponderance of local and international research consistent with the Basic
Education Sector Reform Agenda (BESRA) recommendations affirms the benefits
and relevance of MLE. Notable empirical studies like the Lingua Franca Project
and Lubuagan First Language Component show that:
4. First, learners learn to read more quickly when in their first language (LI);
5. Second, pupils who have learned to read and write in their first language learn to
speak, read, and write in a second language (L2) and third language (L3) more
quickly than those who are taught in a second or third language first; and
6. Third, in terms of cognitive development and its effects in other academic areas,
pupils taught to read and write in their first language acquire such competencies
more quickly.
7. Relatedly, the study of the Department of Education Region IV-B (MIMAROPA)
entitled “Double Exposure in Mathematics: a Glimpse of Mother Tongue First”
has provided the local validation of the fundamental observation that top
performing countries in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science
Study (TIMSS) are those that teach and test students in science and math in their
own languages.
8. All Regional Directors and Superintendents are hereby enjoined to promote and
encourage local participation in the following essential, support systems of the
MLE within the framework of School-Based Management (SBM) with the support
of the local government units:
9. Formulation of region-specific schemes to recognize and institutionalize the
initiatives of schools and localities through appropriate incentives or policy
support in bringing about and developing MLE towards financial and instructional
self-reliance and excellence;
10. Provisions of orientation and training opportunities along with exposure to
successful models of MLE that have been developed. The gradual integration of
MLE in all subject areas and at all grade levels (beginning in preschool and
 continuing by adding a grade level per year) in the school improvement plans
(SIPs) and district ALS program is likewise enjoined effective immediately;
11. The utilization of Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE), school
board funds, and other education improvement funds is hereby authorized for
the planning and implementation of MLE programs in the following sequence of
priority: (1) advocacy work and community mobilization; (2) development of a
working orthography of the local language; (3) MLE orientation and teachers
training; (4) developing, printing and distributing teachers’/facilitators’ guides;
(5) reading materials and other instructional materials; (6) development of
assessment tools; and (7) evaluation and monitoring of learning outcomes; and
12. An MLE technical working group at the regional and division levels shall be
established to facilitate MLE planning, monitoring and evaluation.
13. During the first three years of implementation, the enclosed “MLE Bridging Plan”
may be used for reference for both teaching and curriculum development. For
the ensuing years, adjustments may be made based on monitoring and
evaluation results.
14. For all learning programs of the Alternative Learning System (ALS), the learners’
first language shall be used as primary medium and thereafter, depending upon
the previous level of functional literacy and pedagogical requirements of
accreditation and equivalency, the Bureau of Alternative Learning System (BALS)
shall determine the suitable second and third languages that will maximize the
educational benefits and competencies of the ALS clients. Enclosed is the
Fundamental Requirements for a Strong Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual
Education (MLE).
15. This Department with the help of MLE specialists shall incorporate an MLE
certification process and retain the privilege of establishing MLE certification
procedures in order to maintain quality MLE programs wherever they may be
implemented.