MANILA, Philippines - Seven more dialects have been used as medium of instruction from Kindergarten up to Grade 3 as part of the mother tongue-based education under the K to 12 program starting this school year.
These dialects are Ybanag for pupils in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, and Isabela; Ivatan for the Batanes Group; Sambal in Zambales; Aklanon in Aklan; Kinaray-a in Capiz; Yakan in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and Surigaonon for Surigao City and the Surigao provinces.
Education Secretary Armin Luistro said: “The use of the same language spoken at home, in the early grades, helps improve the pupils’ language and cognitive development in addition to strengthening their socio-cultural awareness.â€
The 12 other local dialects used in other Tongue Based-Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) are Tagalog, Kapampangan, Pangasinense, Iloko, Bikol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Tausug, Maguindanaoan, Maranao and Chabacano.
The MTB-MLE is implemented in two modules: as a learning/subject area and as medium of instruction.
The Department of Education said local and internationals studies have shown that using the mother tongue inside the classroom during the learners’ early years of schooling produce better and faster learners who can easily adapt to learn a second (Filipino) and third language (English).
The mother tongue as a subject focuses on the development of reading and speaking from Grades 1 to 3.
As a medium of instruction the mother tongue is used in all learning areas from Kindergarten to Grade 3 except in the teaching of Filipino and English.
Filipino is introduced in the first semester of Grade 1 for oral fluency (speaking).
For reading and writing, it will be taught beginning in the second semester of Grade 1.
The four other macro skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing in Filipino will continuously be developed from Grades 2 to 6.