SAINT TERESA SCHOOL OF HILONGOS

R.V Villaflores St. Hilongos, Leyte

Hilongos, Leyte

THE ADVANTAGE OF MOTHER TONGUE SUBJECT

ON CHILDREN’S LEARNING ABILITIES IN
CHILDHOOD CLASSROOM

Submitted by:
Chezka Jell M. Calunsag

Submitted to:
Mrs. Letecia S.Caballero

SY: 2019 – 2020

 Table of Contents

I. Acknowledgement

II. Introduction

III. Background of the Study

IV. Scope and Delimitation

V. Definition of Terms

VI. Methodology

VII. Presentation of Data

VIII. Analysis and Interpretation of Data

IX. Recommendations

X. Summary and Conclusion

XI. Bibliography

XII. Appendixes A.

Survey Results

Appendixes B.

Questionnaires

XIII. Curriculum Vitae

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, I thank God for all the guidance and blessings He bestowed me to make this affiliation

possible and more interesting.

I would also like to express my gratitude to Mrs. Letecia S. Caballero, our teacher in this research for giving

me the opportunity to do research and providing invaluable guidance throughout this subject requirement. It was

a great privilege and honour to work and study under her guidance.

To the panel of judges, we are immensely grateful for sharing your part of wisdom with us during the day of

our defense.
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Language is one of the most important characteristic forms of Human behaviour. It has accordingly always

had a place in the academic world. Determining what language will be used to teach children are one of the

most important decision that ministries of the education make. The language used in the classroom dramatically

affects children’s opportunity and ability to learn. Yet, this decision is often made without a careful

consideration of implications for learning outcomes. Furthermore, education effects rarely consider the impact

that language of instruction will have when designing education projects. Instead the mother tongue or familiar

languages are dismissed as a “political or national issues”. Language plays a vital role in facilitating the

learnings of pupils and academic achievement.

The Mother tongue meaning for a child involves more than just language and includes the child’s personal,

social and cultural identity. The choice of words and expression carry different meaning across cultures and

where in one language asking direct question is considered intrusive, in another it is inquisitive. This means that

the language chosen when speaking is thought about before it is delivered.

Mother tongue in educations refers to when a school or educational institution integrates the language a child

is most familiar with (their mother tongue) into the classroom lesson along with the school’s lesson (such as

English). This is normally the language that the child speaks at

home with their family.

Some children (particularly those that grow up in a mixed race parent household or those living abroad)

already know two or more languages by the time they reach school age, which in education term means that

their mother tongue is the language most spoke at home. If this is two languages, then the child is lucky enough

to have 2 mother tongue languages since their ability in both languages is equal. However, this is very rare as
common in households, one of the languages is predominantly used over another. Research shows that children

learn better when taught in their mother tongue subject, however it is not always possible.

Language and mother tongue also plays a huge role in the development of personal, social and cultural identity.

Children with a strong foundation in their first language often display a deeper understanding of themselves and

their place within society, along with an increased sense of well-being and confidence. Naturally, this flows

down into every aspect of their lives, including their academic achievement.

Mother tongue education refers to any form of schooling that makes use of language or languages that children

are most familiar with. This is usually the language that children speak at home with their family. The ‘mother

tongue’ does not have to be the language spoken by the mother. Children can and often speak more than one or

even two languages at home. For example, they may speak one language with their mother, another with their

father and a third with their grandparents.

 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The MTB’s implementation had been challenged in many ways. First in the list, is deciding as to what mother

tongue to use due to the different mother tongues that the learners use. This phenomenon may offend the

minority language community and cause them discrimination and prejudice. In many parts of the region, many

teachers were found incompetent in using the mother tongue, thus, their ability to teach has been doubted. In

addition, there is also a shortage in the educational resources to be used (Ball, 2012). Wa-Mbaleka (2014)

mentioned that the Philippines has been due to its vast number of languages recorded- 185 languages to be

exact, yet only a few were used. This clearly shows that scenarios like having students with several linguistic

backgrounds meet together in one classroom. This linguistic variety isn’t only true to learners, but also teachers.

It has been observed that some teachers teaching the Mother tongue do not speak that target language. In

addition, the Philippines has been successful in using English as it competes in the global market. With its

English ability, it has sent out workers all over the world to work in English environments. Ironically, it strives

to go back to learning the mother tongue again with the execution of the MTB-MLE.

Moreover, the MTB-MLE instruction has struggled in these categories; language, materials, instruction,

program and low regard to the mother tongue. In areas outside the schools, the society has a very high value for

English which is a second language. Since the mother tongue lacks standardization, the learners have also

mistakenly used some non-academic register. In addition to the problem, the teachers have limited pedagogies

in teaching the mother tongue and the parents have low proficiency of it. Some learners also refuse to learn it

and resort to learning English for prestige and practicality purposes. As regards the instructional materials to be

utilized, it came out that the stated had incompletely delivered them to the different schools. The materials are

not-contextualized, the technology for mother tongue instruction was limited and the mismatch issue between

the learner’s native tongue and the language used in the learning materials can be found. With instruction, it has

been observed that the learners struggle in using mother tongue words for Mathematics and Science. The

teachers also have a very low proficiency of the mother tongue they are teaching. On the other hand, parents
perceived the MTB-MLE medium of instruction and subject as difficult. Other challenges include the preference

of the parents to use English as medium teaching Math, the difficulty of the teachers in identifying some

competencies and subject matter distinctions between Filipino and mother tongue, the incomplete understanding

of the teachers on spiralling for mother tongue and Filipino subjects, and the unfamiliarity of the children with

the letters and sounds in the mother tongue. In the aspect of program implementation, the teachers had the

feeling of forced compliance with the policies. The mismatched mother tongue and medium of instruction, the

inconsistency between the activities and policies and the limited number of teachers trained for MTB-MLE have

also contributed to the problems (Ball, 2012). Consequently, Valerio (2015) said, that teachers were not fully

convinced that the instructional materials that schools have at present were enough. It was because the materials

were not locally translated to fit the mother tongue of the learners. Most of what we’re used in schools were

written in Filipino or in English. There were other learners who had no interest in learning the Mother tongue

for they saw it less important especially to those who had no intention of staying in their place for good. It has

become a fact that many of the learners’ venture to big cities and even abroad after getting a degree causing

some of the learners to lose motivations.

For Mondez (2013), the learners have problems learning through the mother because of their early exposure to

the English language. This meant that they were more competent in English than in their mother tongue to the

point that learning the mother tongue seemed like learning a foreign language for some of them. Cruz, P. &

Mahboob, A. (2015) pointed out that the local languages that were identified to be mother tongues have been

focused on local purposes and reasons. Though rare, cases involving the lack of register of the mother tongued

have been a serious issue. Implementations of the curriculum have missed developing the meta-language

necessary in the teaching of the language.

 SCOPE AND DELIMITATION

This study will generally cover the Advantages of Mother tongue subject at Hilongos South Central

School. This study will also look if this subject will help the pupils in terms of Cognitive development, reading

readiness and socio-cultural development.

However, this study did not deal in the other school.

 DEFINITION OF TERMS

 Implications – the act of implicating (see implicate); the state of being implicated.

 Academic – of, relating to or associated with an academy or school especially of higher learning

 Interaction – mutual or reciprocal action or influence

 Spoken – delivered by word of mouth : ORAL

 Impacting – to press together

 Outcomes – something that follows as a result or consequence

 Inquisitive – given to examination or investigation

 Determining – to fix conclusively or authoritatively

 Intrusive – intruding where one is not welcome or invited

 Adopt – to take up and practice or use

 Instruction – an outline/ mutual of technical procedure and directions.

 Learning- the act or experience of one that learns, knowledge or skill acquired by study

 Direct- to point, extend or project in s specified line or ocurse

 Institution- a significant practice, relationship or organization in a society or cuture.

 METHODOLOGY

This type of research is a quantitative research particularly a survey research. Researcher decided to use a

checklist form in order to the pupils answer the given question easily about The Advantage of Mother Tongue

Subject in the selected pupils from the grades 1, 2, 3 at the Hilongos South Central School.
 PRESENTATION OF DATA

Based on the results, the most dominant age in my respondents is 8-9 years old with 86.6%, followed by 6 -7

years old with 13.3% and no one answered 10 years old and above so it is automatic 0%. In the next question

which is about the respondent’s gender, most of them are female with 80% and male with 20%. Majority of the

respondents are from Grade 3 with 60%, next is from Grade 2 with 33.3% and 6.6% from Grade 1. In the

question, “do you love the Mother tongue subject?” the respondents choose to answer “yes” with 60%, 26.6%

answered “no” and 13.3% answered “maybe”. They do the Mother tongue subject for it can help them

understand more about the topic with 66.6% and 6.6% answered for it is fun and interesting. Even though most

of them loves the MTB, majority of them also are having a hard time in this subject for they choose to answer

yes in the question “are you having a hard time in this subject?” with 53.3%, 33.3% answered “no” and 13.3%

answered “maybe”. The reason why they are having difficulties in this subject it’s because they think that

instead of learning the universal language their understanding of English will be lessen with 40%, 20%

answered that they will be confused if they will start to learn English since they already got used to adapt the

Mother tongue and 6.6% also said that there are terms in the MTB that is hard to understand. In my 8th

question, 40% of the respondents choose to answer “strongly agree” about the question “is Mother tongue

helpful for your reading and writing skills?” 26.6% also answered “agree” and “disagree, lastly 6.6% voted

“strongly disagree”. The respondents also think that Mother tongue subject is helpful for their listening and

speaking development because majority of them choose to answer “maybe” with 46.6%” , 40% answered

“Yes” and “no” with 13.3%. Lastly, the Mother tongue subject really satisfied the respondents because most of

them answered “satisfied” with 60%, 20% “dissatisfied, 13.3% in “somewhat dissatisfied” and “somewhat

satisfied” with 6.6%.

 RECOMMENDATIONS

The Mother Tongue Subject plays a vital role in terms of the children’s academic purpose for it is now part of

the K-12 curriculum. Since the pupils are the consumer of the school, of course it would affect their

performance. If the pupils are actively participating in every activities in this subject, they do really love the

MTB and expect that their performance will be sensational but if the first idea of the pupil’s performance will

be lousy. As I conduct the research, most the respondents said that Mother tongue language or subject can

help their academic performance but there are also voted for no. If I will be given a chance to decide, I would

highly recommend not to have a Mother Tongue subject. There are advantages of implementing this subject,

yes but there are also disadvantages. According to the one the teacher in HSCS, she said that Mother tongue

really gives a hard time for the children, why? Because instead of learning the universal language, there

understanding of English will be lessen.

 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

In my findings, the Mother tongue subject could satisfied the grades 1, 2, 3 pupils to their learning abilities, as

well in their listening and speaking development. Some are having a hard time or difficulties in this subject for

they think that their understanding of the universal language will be lessen and they will be confused if they will

start to learn English for they got used to adapt the Mother tongue.

Based on the research, the Mother tongue subject is helpful for the learning and writing skills of the pupils.

Majority of them voted yes if they do love the Mother tongue and the reason why they love this subject it’s

because it can help them to understand more about the topic.

Therefore, the Mother tongue subject in school is really important as it provides children a sense of familiarity

and it would them as well as it makes them a better pupils. It is indeed helpful for their cognitive and social

cultural development, as well as in their reading and writing skills. If ever the teacher is not discussing the

subject well, of course there are tendency that the pupils will get bore especially at their young age and it is

likely that the pupils would have a hard time in understanding their lesson.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 http://www. Rutufoundation.org.com

 http://www.Ie-today.co.uk/blog/the-importance-of-mother-tongue-in-education

 Ball, J. (2012). Enhancing Learning of Children from diverse language backgrounds: Mother tongue-

based Bilingual or Multilingual Education in Early Childhood and Early school years. The University of

Victoria, p. 43

 Cruz, P. & Mahboob, A. (2015). Mother-tongue based Multilingual education in the Philippines;

Perceptions, problems and possibilities. New York: Routledge.

 APPENDIXES A.
SURVEY RESULTS

Table 1
How old are you?
N-15
Raw Score Percentile Rank
6-7 years old 2 13.3% 2
8-9 years old 13 86.6% 1
10 years old/above 0 0% 3

Table 2
Gender
N=15
Raw Score Percentile Rank
Female 12 80% 1
Male 3 20% 2

Table 3
Grade Level
N=15
Raw Score Percentile Rank
Grade 1 1 6.6% 3
Grade 2 5 33.3% 2
Grade 3 9 60% 1

Table 4
Do you love the Mother tongue subject?
N=15
 Raw Score Percentile Rank
Yes 9 60% 1
No 4 26.6% 2
Maybe 2 13.3% 3

Table 5
If yes, why do you love the Mother tongue subject?
N= 15
Raw Score Percentile Rank
For it can make us understand more about 10% 66.6% 1
the topic
For it’s fun and interesting 1 6.6% 2
Other reason: 0 0% 3

Table 6
Are you having a hard time in this subject?
N= 15
Raw Score Percentile Rank
Yes 8 53.3% 1
No 5 33.3% 2
Maybe 2 13.3% 3

Table 7
If yes, why do you say so?
N=15
Raw Score Percentile Rank

Instead of learning the universal language 6 40% 1

our understanding of English will be lessen
We’ll be confuse if we will start to learn
English since we already got used to adapt 3 20% 2
the Mother tongue
There are terms that is hard to understand 1 6.6% 3
Table 8
As a pupil, is Mother Tongue Subject helpful for your reading and writing skills?
N=15
 Raw Score Percentile Rank
Strongly agree 6 40% 1
Strongly disagree 1 6.6% 4
Agree 4 26.6% 2
Disagree 4 26.6% 3

Table 9
How about in your listening and speaking development?
N=15
Raw Score Percentile Rank
Yes 6 40% 2
No 2 13.3% 3
Maybe 7 46.6% 1

Table 10
Overall, how satisfied are you in your Mother Tongue Subject?
N=15
Raw Score Percentile Rank
Satisfied 9 60% 1
Dissatisfied 3 20% 2
Somewhat satisfied 1 6.6% 4
Somewhat dissatisfied 2 13.3% 3
 APPENDIXES B.

QUESTIONNAIRE

1. How old are you?

6-7 years old 8-9 years old 10 above

2. Gender

Male Female

3. Grade Level

Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3

4. Do you love the Mother Tongue Subject?

Yes No Maybe

5. If yes, why do you love the Mother Tongue Subject?

For it can make us understand more about the topic

For it’s fun and interesting

Other reason: _____________________

6. Are you having a hard time in this subject?

Yes No Maybe

7. If yes, why did you say so?

 Because instead of learning the universal language our understanding of English will be lessen
Because we’ll be confuse if we will start to learn English since we already got used to adapt the
Mother Tongue
Because there are terms that is hard to understand

Other reason: __________________________________

8. As a pupil, is Mother Tongue subject helpful for your reading and writing skills?

Strongly agree Agree

Strongly disagree Di Disagree

9. How about in your listening and speaking development?

Yes No Maybe

10. Overall, how satisfied are you in your Mother Tongue Subject?

Satisfied Somewhat satisfied

Dissatisfied Somewhat dissatisfied

 CURRICULUM VITAE

Name: Chezka Jell Mendoza Calunsag

Age: 18 years old

Adress: Brgy. Alejos Bato,Leyte

Gender: Female

Birthdate: November 23,2001

Elementary Level

Name of School: Alejos Elementary School

Year Graduated: 2013-2014

Achievements: 1st Honorable Mention

2nd Placer Makabayan District Quiz

Math and Scince District Quiz Representative

Junior Highschool Level

Name of School: Saint Teresa School of Hilongos

Year Graduated: 2017-2018

Achievements: SBO Officer

Language and Arts Vice-president

Alikaraw Dancer

Academic Awardee

Senior Highschool Level

Name of School: Saint Teresa School of Hilongos

Achievements: Team Knights President (for 2 consecutive years)

SCIMA Club Vice-president

Ms. Havana 2018, 1st Runner Up

Ms. Sportsympics 2018

Ms. STSH Second Runner Up

Academic Awardee

Motto: “GIVE UP TOMORROW”