Assessment of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education Instructional Materials (IMs): Basis for Contextualization and Localization

Author: Joseph P. Casibual Jr. (Western Mindanao State University)
Speaker: Joseph P. Casibual Jr.
Topic: Language revitalization
The (SCOPUS / ISI) SOAS GLOCAL CALA 2019 General Session

Abstract

Since June 2012 the Department of Education (DepEd) in Zamboanga Sibugay has implemented the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE). The program promotes the teaching of Cebuano, Filipino, and English as language subjects particularly to fist three grade levels of public elementary students in the province. To know whether there is a one-to-one correspondence between language subjects and cultures taught to students is the main objective of this study. More specifically, this study compares, contrasts, and evaluates the cultural discourses or schematic representations of cultures present in instructional materials (IMs) (i.e. word cards, images, and stories or big books) and classroom teaching utilization of such materials in mother-tongue based discourses. A word card normally contains one word with no clear cultural contents. Images produce mixed cultural messages. Stories or big books generally portray the Filipino culture. In general, classroom interactions using IMs center on students’ Sibugaynon culture. The observations suggest that the learning of second languages (i.e. Filipino and English) does not necessitate the learning of cultures unfamiliar to students. Thus far, incongruities exist between the MTB-MLE program on paper and the same program in action for many more work, therefore, needs to be done to improve the program.

Keywords: MTB-MLE, language subjects, instructional materials, cultural discourse