Student: Marvel B.

Fabro Course & Year: BSEd Eng III

Subject: BSEDENG 17
LEARNING ASSESSMENT IV

1. Why was Tagalog (later called Filipino) assigned as the national language of the
Philippines? Use the work of Tupas and Martin (2016) as reference.

The creation of a national language that could unite the whole country is the
realization of a long-held desire by most Filipinos. Several authors across the internet
present reasons why Filipino has become our country's national language. For discussion,
I'll provide some explanations based on the work of Tupas and Martin (2016) as
reference. According to Tinio (2009), Tagalog enjoyed a literary and anti-colonial
heritage during the country's colonial past with Spain and the United States. This
argument allegedly proved beneficial in explaining calls for it to be the national language
of the Philippines. This is true because various works are written and may be translated
into Tagalog during these defining moments of the country's history. Just to name a
few, Doctrina Christiana (1593), which is written in Spanish with an accompanying
Tagalog translation, Mahal Na Pasion ni Jesu Christo (1704), a Tagalog poem based on
Christ's passion, and the narrative poem Florante at Laura (1838), which was written in
sublime Tagalog. In the 1930s, despite strong opposition from non-Tagalog legislators in
Congress, Tagalog has named the country's official language (Gonzalez, 1980). Tagalog
was then renamed "Pilipino" in 1949 and "Filipino" in 1987 (Tupas 2007). To this end, it
has helped spread Filipino across the archipelago, giving us a language that could help
bridge interethnic communication, a national language of an accomplished nation (Tupas
and Martin, 2016).
2. Give a brief discussion or presentation of the Language planning and policy in the
Philippines. Use the article of Mahboon and Cruz (2013) and Monje et al (2019) as
references.

The Philippines, according to Simons and Fennig (2018), is a Southeast Asian

country with approximately 7000 islands and 175 indigenous living languages. Here is a
quick rundown of the country's language strategy and plans.
 English and Filipino, the Tagalog-based national language, have been the
languages of education and literacy in the Philippines since 1974 (Tupas &
Martin, 2017), with all other Philippine languages relegated to a subordinate place
as 'auxiliary' languages of instruction, used only orally to enhance understanding
in the classroom (Nolasco, 2008; Young, 2001). However, in response to growing
scientific evidence that children learn best when they can study in the language(s)
that they comprehend best (Nolasco, 2008), the Department of Education (2009)
ordered to institutionalized Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-
MLE), which stated that pupils' first language should be their primary medium of
instruction and language of beginning literacy from preschool to grade 3.  
 The Enhanced Basic Education Act, a weaker version of the same idea, was
enacted by the Philippine Congress in 2013. The law emphasized the early shift
between Filipino and English as the language of teaching while still requiring a
gradual transition (Nolasco, 2013). The law also stipulated that instruction,
teaching materials, and assessment in the learners' regional or native language will
conducted (Nolasco, 2013).
 DepEd has been involved in the gradual implementation of MTB-MLE for the
eight primary regional languages since 2009, which was later expanded to
nineteen languages (Tupas and Martin 2017:9). The law permits the use of MOI
in the early grades for about 150 languages not presently included in the DepEd
implementation of MTB-MLE (Congress of the Philippines 2013).
 Meanwhile, DepEd expanded its policy on Indigenous Peoples' (IP) education two
years after the order of institutionalizing MTB-MLE (DepEd, 2009), in light of
the marginalization and exclusion that IPs typically endure (Seameo Innotech,
2007). The new policy called for creating an IP education program, which would
be overseen by the Indigenous Peoples' Education Office (IPsEO), which had just
been founded (DepEd, 2011). This initiative aims to involve IP communities in a
participatory and empowering approach so that better culture-responsive
education may be developed (DepEd, 2011).

 The Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act of 1997, which gave IPs the right to
education in their native language (Congress of the Philippines 1997), is cited in
the DepEd directive, and the new IP education program prioritized MTB-MLE
implementation for IP learners (DepEd, 2011). As of 2018, work was ongoing in
many Regions to develop guidelines for contextualizing the curriculum for each
IP culture (Mahboon & Cruz, 2013); Monje et al., 2019)