Content and Pedagogy

in the

Mother Tounge

Module 1

AGUILAR ERIKA M.

BEED ll-A
ACTIVITIES

Activity 1: Define the following terms in your own words.

1. Mother Tongue - A first language, native tongue, native language, or mother/father/parent tongue, is
a language that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period.

2. MTB-MLE - Programs serve learners of non-dominant language communities who do not understand
or speak the language of instruction when they begin their formal education.

3. Language of Instruction - If the first language of students is different from the official language, it may
be used as the medium of instruction for part or all of schooling.

4. Language Policy - Language Policy is what a government does either officially through legislation,
court decisions or policy to determine how languages are used, cultivate language skills needed to meet
national priorities or to establish the rights of individuals or groups to use and maintain languages.

5. Filipino - The Tagalog-based official language of the Republic of the Philippines.

6. Tagalog - A member of a people originally of central Luzon in the Philippines.

Activity 2 : Identify the national and official languages in the Philippine Constitution and tell something
about it.

• One of the contentious issues during the convention was the definition of the national language.
Tagalog advocates remained firm on a Tagalog-based national language, while a great majority of
delegates voted in favor of scrapping the notion of having a national language altogether. The
arguments came to a point that even the language used for the debates and the language of the 1973
Constitution became points of contention, with many voting for the use of the English language as a
compromise. The 1973 Constitution ended up with a carefully-worded Article XV, Section 3, which
states: “ The Batasang Pambansa shall take steps towards the development and formal adoption of a
common national language to be known as Filipino. Until otherwise provided by law, English and Pilipino
shall be the official languages.”

EVALUATION

Discuss comprehensively the cultural rootedness behind the use of mother tongue as a medium of
instruction in one paragraph with 5 sentences.

• Mother tongue instruction generally refers to the use of the learners' mother tongue as the medium
of instruction. Additionally, it can refer to the mother tongue as a subject of instruction. It is considered
to be an important component of quality education. Learning in a foreign language also brings a sense of
alienation from ones' own culture and heritage. Education in mother tongue will help the students in
getting a better sense of their cultural background.

REFLECTION
Reflect on the following statements/topics/quote:

1. “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his
language, that goes to his heart”.

• Studies have shown that when native language is spoken, emotions and feelings play a more active
role in thinking. On the other hand, when one speaks a foreign language, he or she tends to be more
logical and not to use emotions and feelings in decision-making as much as in the native one. I guess this
situation is related to how languages settle down in our minds.

2. “If one’s mother tongue is forgotten; one’s value will also be forgotten”

• According to the commission, a language can be considered "endangered" at various levels: if its
system is not regulated, if the language of adults is not passed on to younger people, if only adults speak
it, or if it is no longer used by any living person.