Fox Steven B.

Jaleco December 06, 2019

G12 – Virtue English for Academic and
Professional Purposes 12
DECONSTRUCTION
A term common to the philosophies and literatures,
deconstruction is a vague, but somewhat essential concept in
the fields of philosophy and literature in terms of analysis
of texts. Deconstruction, as defined by Merriam-Webster's,
is a theory focused in the study of philosophy and
literature which says that a piece of writing does not have
just one meaning, and that the meaning depends on the
reader.
Deconstruction too refers to critical dismantling of
tradition and traditional modes of thought1. Deconstruction
is a result of its predecessors, most notably New Criticism
and Structuralism. Deconstruction played it’s role in the
1950s as a means to analyse cultural phenomena in the field
of anthropology. The method was soon applied in the social
sciences and humanities—inclusive of literary studies.
Duignan 2016 too cited that deconstruction treated works of
art not as the harmonious fusion of literal and figurative
meanings but the instances of intractable conflicts between
meanings of different types. This concept accentuates that
works of art, verbal and nonverbal, literary and no literary
do not solely present a mixture of conventional and
unconventional structures or methods, but as the possible
debates that could arise based on relative point of views
with regards to the interpretation—thereforecthe meaning of
a particular work in question.
Moreover, Turner 2016 outlines that Jacques Derrida
(proponent of the concept) formulated three main key
features of the method, mainly: “inherent desire to have a
centre, or focal point, to structure understanding
(logocentrism); reduction of meanings to set definitions
that are committed to writing (nothing beyond the text);
and, finally, how the reduction of meaning to writing
captures opposition within that concept itself
(différance)”2. This brings about the essentials that can
make rise to the possibility of deconstruction.
The first key feature dwells on the placement of a
particular concept at the centre of efforts of deducing a
meaning. For instance, in philosophy, a concept much like
relativity in particular, is set as the centre of a given
text for the main reason that more knowledge is built upon
that centralised concept. Given relativity as an example,
logocentrism practically means putting relativity in a core
sense, and constructing meanings around it. The third key
feature highlights that meaning deduced by readers are bound
by the given text alone, and its technicalities. Whereas the
final key feature of the concept dictates the possibility
for an internal debate between the meaning and the concept
itself.
On another note, deconstruction involves the close
reading of texts in order to demonstrate that any given text
has irreconcilably contradictory meanings, rather than being
a unified, logical whole3. Mambrol 2015 elaborated that J.
Hillis Miller explained in his literature (1976) that:
“Deconstruction is not the dismantling of the structure of a
text, but a demonstration that it is already dismantled
itself. Its apparently solid ground is no rock, but thin
air.” Deconstruction initially branched from criticism and
Structuralism, but overtime has developed into an idea that
dwells not merely on the structure but the text itself —
“framing questions or undoing assertions made in the text,
by means of elements that are in the text, which frequently
would precisely be structures that play off the rhetorical
against grammar elements.”4 This means, according to Richard
Dirty as cited in the New World Encyclopedia, that
deconstruction points out how a text's meaning is found to
be betraying the essential meaning of the actual text,
dependent on interpretations.
With what J. Hillis Miller has quoted, it could be
acknowledged that a deconstruction does not focus on the
disassembling of a text's structure (grammar and synthesis),
but deconstruction remarks that within the given text, it is
by sense already dismantled, for it bears contradictory
meanings within itself.

____________________
1
Duignan. “Deconstruction.” (2016)
2
Turner. “Critical Legal Thinking.” (2016)
3
Mambrol. “Deconstruction.” (2015)
4
New World Encyclopaedia. “Deconstruction.” (2019)
References

Duignan (2019). Deconstruction. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/topic/deconstruction
Turner (2016). Critical legal thinking. Retrieved from
http://criticallegalthinking.com/2016/05/27/jacques-derrida-
deconstruction/
Mambrol (3015). DECONSTRUCTION. Retrieved from
https://literariness.org/2016/03/21/philosophical-influences-on-
poststructuralism/
New World Encyclopedia (2019). Deconstruction. Retrieved from
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Deconstruction
 Fox Steven B. JALECO December 09, 2019
G12 Virtue English for Academic and
Professional Purposes
VERNACULAR LANGUAGE

The word vernacular originates from the Latin word,

vernāculus, meaning native or indigenous. Ideally, vernacular is
the way ordinary people talk with each other in nonformal
settings like at home. A vernacular language (non-standard
dialect) is a native dialect or form of speech of specific people
or a specific region.1 In other words, a vernacular language is
the mother tongue of the individual, or their first language. In
conjunction to education, educational institutions do not
necessarily teach subjects with the use of the vernacular, or the
mother tongue. Education is often taught wmin the use of the
pervasive language spoken within a certain locale, for instance,
in Baguio, educational institutions would either teach classes
using English or Iloco.
However, the RUTU Foundation regards mother tongue language
education as any form of schooling that makes use of the language
or languages that children are most familiar with.2 so this
basically means that mother tongue language education is the form
of schooling exhibited when the most familiar language is used to
aid to the students' learning, thus being their mother tongue.
The RUTU Foundation innumerate a number of benefits of
using mother tongue-based education, mainly:

1. Children learn better and faster in a language they can

understand (preventing delays in learning)
2. They enjoy school more, they feel more at home
3. Pupils tend to show increased self-esteem
4. Parents participation is increased. Parents can help with
homework and can participate in school activities
5. Studies have reported that when children take advantage of
their multilingualism they also enjoy higher socioeconomic
status, including higher earnings
6. On average, the schools perform better, reporting less
repetition
7. Finally, schools report children stay in school longer

The framework laid by the RUTU Foundation sets the notion

for efficiency in learning, on the art of the learner, when it
comes to learning in school when mother tongue language has
become a norm.
In contrast to the RUTU Foundation's conclusion on mother
tongue-based education, Alberto 2016 constructed his own
framework in context of mother tongue-based education in the
Hilippines. His framework splits into three main areas of
learning: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Alberto 2016
concludes these areas to have their own separate issues regarding
learning in context of mother tongue-based education, such that
he has come to the hypotheses of stating that each key area of
learning bear an impact on the learner's behaviour in learning,
though having their own issue, Alberto claims his own
conclusions, in relation to his preliminaries with his key
informants, as follow:

 Listening skills in the classroom need to be developed and

shaped intentionally in order for them to be improved.
 The fact that their resources were limited and most of them
were teaching Hiligaynon subject for the first time, they
were really having a hard time in effectively teach their
students
 They stated that the books for teaching reading from the
Department of Education were limited. This is why the
students’ capacity to learn is hampered.
 As the key informants responded to the issues in teaching
Mother tongue-based education in terms of writing, the
 majority of them stated that the main problem was that there
were insufficient resources where they can source out the
teaching-learning materials for teaching writing in Mother
Tongue.

In this sense, the struggle of mother tongue-/based

education lie solely on the lack of instructional materials that
could aid to more effective teaching [in the part of the
educational instructors], and with the lack of the resources come
the difficulty to learn efficiently [in part of the learners].
In relation to the benefits of s mother tongue-based
education, Verizon 2004 has come up with her own framework that
outlines the nature of a mother tongue-based schooling for
education quality. Her outline follows:

 Use of a familiar language to teach beginning literacy

facilitates an understanding of sound-symbol or meaning-
symbol correspondence. Learning to read is most efficient
when students know the language and can employ
psycholinguistic guessing strategies; likewise, students can
communicate through writing as soon as they understand the
rules of the orthographic (or other written) system of their
language. In contrast, submersion programs may succeed in
teaching students to decode words in the L2, but it can take
years before they discover meaning in what they are
"reading.

 Since content area instruction is provided in the L1, the

learning of new concepts is not postponed until children
become competent in the L2.Unlike submersion teaching, which
is often characterised by lecture and rote response,
bilingual instruction allows teachers and students to
interact naturally and negotiate meanings together, creating
 participatory learning environments that are conducive to
cognitive as well l as linguistic development.

 Explicit teaching of the L2 beginning with oral skills

allows students to learn the new language through
communication rather than memorization. In submersion
schooling teachers are often forced to translate or code-
switch to convey meaning, making concept learning
inefficient and even impeding language learning, while
bilingual programs allow for systematic teaching of the L2.

 Transfer of linguistic and cognitive skills is facilitated

in bilingual programs. Once. students have basic literacy
skills in the L1 and communicative skills in the L2, they
can begin reading and writing in the L2, efficiently
transferring the literacy skills they have acquired in the
familiar language. The pedagogical principles behind this
positive transfer of skills are Cummins' (1991, 1999)
interdependence theory and the concept of common underlying
proficiency, whereby the knowledge of language, literacy and
concepts leamed in the L1 can be accessed and used in the
second language once oral L2 skills are developed, and no
re-leaming is required. Consistent with the se principles,
it is possible for children schooled only in the L2 to
transfer their knowledge and skills to the L1, but the
process is highly inefficient as well as being unnecessarily
difficult

____________________
1
Worldatlas. “What is a vernacular language? How is it different from a lingua franca?.” (2019)
2
RUTU Foundation. “What is mother tongue language?.” (2019)
3
Alberto. “Issues and Challenges in Teaching Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education in Grades II
and III: The Philippine Experience.” (2016)
4
Rowete. “The benefits of mother tongue in teaching-learning process.” (2017)
Therefore, mother tongue-based education serv s as an avenue to
show that with the use of a language most familiar to the
learner, that learner is more likely to develop better behaviours
toward learning, and in the long-run fester a better learning
process.
____________________
5
Berison. “The importance of mother tongue-based schooling for educational quality” (2004)

References

Alberto (2016). Issues and Challenges in Teaching Mother Tongue-

Based Multilingual Education in Grades II
and III: The Philippine Experience. Retrieved from
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2768558
Carole (2004). The importance of mother tongue-based school for
educational quality. Retrieved from
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000146632
Rowete (2017). The benefits of mother tongue in teaching-learning
process. Retrieved from
https://www.academia.edu/26826256/The_benefits_of_Mother_Tongue_i
n_Teaching-Learning_Process_INTRODUCTION_Background_of_the_study
RUTU Foundation (2019). What is mother tongue education?.
Retrieved from https://www.rutufoundation.org/what-is-mother-
tongue-education/
Worldatlas (2019). What is a vernacular language? How is it
different from a lingua franca?. Retrieved from
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-a-vernacular-
language-how-is-it-different-from-a-lingua-franca.html