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2010-09-13 조회수 : 2451 |
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Dr. Ricardo Nolasco, of the Commission on Filipino language, has quoted the Philippines as among the top countries in the world in terms of multilingualism. The diversity of multilingualism is in depth full of wisdom and beauty but it also carries with it challenges especially, in education. Learning from multiple perspectives, sharing wider ranges of knowledge and wisdom are just some of the advantages of multilingualism. The society which is multilingual, like the Philippines itself change rapidly as people of different languages exist, there is learning of more languages and it also offers different chances for language use within the home.
The Philippines have acquired two languages to master in its participation to wider society and global issues and these two languages drives the Lubuagan First Language based educational innovation. It was proven to be beneficial in school where only one second language is acquired to use as a medium of instruction and they find it a difficult challenge to add more to this process.
This document is the initial result of longitudinal methodology-research project on a mother tongue based Multilingual Education innovation in Lubuagan Kalinga.
A standard test was launched by a group of teachers. The test was administered for three years to students in control and experimental schools. The English language was used to this approach.
Different methods were used to the different grade levels. For grades 1 and 2, the test questions were read by the test administrator to eliminate the reading skill constraint while Grade 3 students read all questions themselves. They also used a multiple choice format for their own purpose.
This selective report is provided for three reasons. First, the researchers believe that the latter outcome is more important as they better reflect how a given child will literally benefit from the educational experience. Second, latter measure or result is more revealing. Third, the early results are more sensitive to local variation such as teachers and school effects significant differences in the ability and backgrounds of children and uneven application of the respective models (both control and experimental)
The utilization of the first language or the mother tongue concerns people about the credibility of their children’s learning as they thought that it is not conducive to powerful knowledge ability. They believe that the English language has the power to bring their children to better opportunities for higher education. Their exposure to English school could help the child better opportunity for the future.
However, educators and researchers from both the US and Canada have found out that the result of the popular belief on early English exposure to be beneficial is but a fallacy. It is not the amount of exposure to a second language but the proper timing of exposure and the manner of exposure that count.
Some 42,000 children in the US who entered school not speaking English were tracked. These children were placed into one of the several programs which varied extensively into “how much” English language instruction children were exposed to and “when” they were exposed. The surprising and consternation result were as follows:
-children who were exposed to an early English instructions exhibited negative English language ability and scored poorly on the national and standardized tests on academic achievement. They are also the most likely to drop out of school
-in contrast, the children who attended in the 6-year Mother Tongue based program actually completed their secondary education scoring well above the national norm for their native English-speaking peers.
This result is clearly the opposite of the belief of most parents and educators that children beginning their education in their first language are most likely to suffer educationally.
Tests were given to Grade 3 children in the Lubuagan First Language Experiment to measure their English language development. This was done because of the sharp contrast between “popular belief” and findings and predictions of educational researchers in foregoing report.
Three components of English language were tested,-English listening, English grammar, and English reading. A summary for the English Oversell result was also reported. In all these components, the first Language Component got the higher score. These results manifested the contrast against the fear and concern of parents and educators regarding the “popular belief’ of English language as the medium of instruction rather than the first language, to ensure the betterment in learning among children but the test proved that their popular belief was a disaster.
In this school, the Lubuagan Central School, where the research and study was conducted, it was observed that the first graders in the control section are equal with the experimental class in the English subject. But in Grades 2 and 3, the children in the experimental section moved very far ahead.
Filipino is a required part of the curriculum all over the country. Hence, two languages are required in most areas of the country, where their dialect is the first language they use in school. Ilocano is the first language in Lubuagan, therefore, their learning in Filipino has a different pattern. As a result, in the first grade the control students excel from the experimental students. But in grades 2 and 3 there was a slight advantage for students in the experimental class.
Math shows a great indication for the need to have a solid language foundation to deal with the demanding acquisition of learning. Thomas and Collier have proposed that academic development, language development, and cognitive development must proceed in parallel or in lock step. The child who receives educational instruction in a language not well understood never develops the learning tools needed to master learning.
The test on Math given to the Lubuagan school reflected nicely and coincided with the prediction of researcher that the mother tongue education can provide children fine opportunity to adopt themselves to quick or easy learning ability.
The result of the experimentation is best supported by two conclusions:
- First, children are placed on safer ground as they develop their knowledgeability.
- Second, they are benefited most by the first language program in learning Math.
- A school which is large enough to hold classes for experimental program and the traditional program conducted this research as this school is the most established of the schools in the research site and is considered the standard bearer fro education in the area. It also has the most experienced teachers and the best equipment. The three year test report was meant to illustrate and not define, - to suggest what is reasonable to expect and not consider as proof of anything.
Consolidating the results of all the three tests given to Lubuagan students, it is evident that control children and experimental children in grade 1 scored identically but experimental children gradually increased their advantage in grades 2 and 3.
The result of this research project is illustrative rather than definitive but is sufficient enough to provoke the interest of the public to make a careful choice about the language of instruction in the nation’s school. The small data provided in this paper is cannot be the sole basis for a quick adjustment in our medium of instruction but another sound research can provide a helpful and beneficial policy such as the research done in the Lubuagan Mother Tongue Education experiment.
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