My Mother

Tongue: The
Language I First
Learned
Language
- a means of communication. It is the
medium by which thoughts are conveyed
from one person to another.
- when we think anything, we give shape
to our thinking in the form of language.
Mother Tongue

-the first language of the child and the language of the home. It can also be

construed as the language of primary socialization, the language developed by a

child from an early childhood.

- an instrument for transmitting culture in the socialization of the child.

 Importance of Mother Tongue

 Connects and strengthens our roots

 Knowledge of our culture

 Develops a sense of belongingness

 Develops a sense of respect for other languages and culture

 Develops better linguistic skills

 Helps for a better society

 Saves from extinction

 Mother tongue creates the basis for learning another language

 Mother tongue is indicator of cultural identity

 Mother tongue develops multilingual abilities

Jim Cummins (2010)

- “children who come to school with a strong foundation in their mother tongue
develop stronger literacy abilities in the language used at school and succeeded
educationally.
Why Use the Mother Tongue as
the First Language in School?
 Local and International studies have shown that
using the mother tongue inside the classroom
during the learner’s early years of schooling produce
better and faster learners who can easily adapt to
learn a second(Filipino) and third language (English).
It promotes literacy, as it
hastens the learning process.
They are able to:
a) Understand what the teacher is saying

b) think well

c) argue well and

d) question properly and critically.

What are the benefits:
1. Reduced drop-out

2. Reduced repetition

3. More attendance

4. More learning

5. More involvement and participation from parents and the

community

6. More cost-effective in the implementation

Balanced Bilingualism brings many positive cognitive benefits:

 Strong level of creativity

 Solid problem-solving ability

 Monolingual people only use 20% of the brain. When another language is learned, a
different are of the brain is activated and engaged, utilizing a greater percentage of the
brain

 Greater capacity of intentiveness and creativity with oral and written language

 Greater sensitivity to grammatical functions

 Heightened respect for different languages and cultures, creating learners with a more
global approach to life

 Higher performance rate than monolinguals on tests of intelligence and tests of fluency,
flexibility, and originality
The following figure indicates how mother tongue
helps to acquire other language and how two
languages are helpful to precede successfully.

With one wheel

(One Language) You
can go from place to
place.
With one big and one
small wheel (one good
and one not so good
language) You can go
farther and faster.
With two equal sized
wheels (two strong
languages) you can
comfortably go anywhere
you want.
Techniques to promote Mother Tongue:

 Parental motivation- children love mother tongue by findings

ways

 Leave second language to the outside world and speak to

children only in your mother at home.

 Devote time each day to reading and writing mother tongue

 Tell stories and discuss interesting topics on your childhood,

celebrations, develop both their oral and vocabulary skills.

 Provide a reward system and make learning mother tongue

 Watch TV series or favorite cartoons with them in the target language.

 Listen to songs in mother tongue

 Send children to centers that offer courses and other types of learning
in your language

 Keep journals in home written in mother language

 Communicate your expectations about your home language to your

child’s teachers. As professionals, they can encourage and support
your child in keeping and developing their home language in many
ways.
Thank You!