By Ronshel T. Laguna
(September 10, 2017) - The Philippines is a multilingual nation with
more than 170 languages. They use Filipino as their national language or their
“lingua franca,” while English as the medium language for instructions and
their respective mother tongues.
English is also the most commonly used
language among foreign language speakers throughout the world when people with
different languages come together, they use English to communicate. One of the
primary benefits of learning English is that it is often considered the
language of global business. The international business community often uses it
for communication, even among people who do not speak the same native language.
Meanwhile, Filipino as defined by the
Commission on the Filipino Language (KWF) is "the native language,
spoken and written, in Metro Manila, the National Capital Region, and in
other urban centers of the archipelago."
Filipino is ideally a pluricentric
language - a language with
several centres, each providing a national variety with at least some of its
own (codified) norms. Generally, pluricentric language is used across the
boundaries of individual political entities, so that the language and the
ethnic identity of its native
speakers do not coincide (Clyne 1992, pp
1-2).
The Philippine constitution recognizes Filipino and English as the two official languages [Art. XIV. Sec. 6 and 7]. It also says
that “regional languages as the auxiliary official languages in the regions xxx
shall serve as auxiliary media of instruction therein.” In fact, the
Philippines has around 181 languages, 17 of which are qualified for the new
mother tongue or the Mother
Language-Based Education and are being used in kindergarten and the first three
years of primary education nationwide (Abueva, 2013).
Mother tongue or L1 is the person’s first
language. A person speaks it the best and so is often as the basis for sociolinguistic identity (Bloomfield,2008).
Learning mother tongue is no easy task. The
most important years of learning begins at birth. During these early years,
humans are capable of absorbing more information than later on,(Ogbu,1991). The
brain grows rapidly in the early years. During these years, parents are
responsible for the learning of their child. Parent involvement in early
literacy is directly connected to their child’s academic achievement, (Erika
Burton,1974). Equipping the preschoolers with English Education basically on
how to read, write and speak is what we call Early English Education. Parents
need to interact with their children like supporting, explaining, endorsing and
challenging them to move on from what they know about English. An important way
of doing this is to involve children in real literacy tasks in which they can
make a meaningful things enabling them to do with an adult what ‘tomorrow’ they
will be able to do independently.
Here’s a story of Mrs. Anet, a mother that
used to train her child to read books or some other types of literature.
Sometimes, she reads it for her more often times and teaches her child to write
English words. Letting her child sing or recite nursery rhymes, talks to her
child also using this medium of instruction. Julia, her child cannot read but
rather understand what her mother reads. She can write the correct spelling of
some basic words in English. She can speak and make a short conversation using
English language.
Because English is a first language for many
countries, many other nations teach it as a requirement in schools. According
to (B.Miller,2004),“It is estimated that over a billion people in the world
speak English on at least a basic level.” For many people, the benefits of
learning English involve the new opportunities that become available to someone
who understands it.
However, for some teaching English to
preschoolers may also have some disadvantages in which the language is learned,
if kids are in touch with the English language since they are born, they may
start speaking three to six months later; than those who are raise in a
monolingual environment, children will temporally mix languages, additional
effort from parents and children to encourage each other to learn the foreign
language is needed (Silke Rheman, 2010).
Those disadvantages fortunately appear at the
early process of learning the language. One of the most remarkable
disadvantages that children have at the moment of being taught in English since
they are born is that they might start speaking three to six months later.
Rehman says that “You can expect your bilingual child to begin speaking about
3-6 months later than his/her monolingual peers”. Monolingual children are
expected to say their first 8-10 words around the age of 18 months and their
first 2 word sentences around the age of 2 years. Also she recommends that “if
monolingual children don´t talk in the first 6 months, they have to go and ask
a doctor.” On the other hand, if bilingual kids do not start speaking after the
extra six months there must be language confusion or a medical factor that is
blocking the learning process.
Another significant disadvantage of teaching
English especially in preschool is that children will temporarily mix
languages. Rehman states that “It is normal for bi-/multilingual children to
mix up languages until about the age of 4. If children are lacking the right
word in language A, they will borrow it from language B to communicate their
message.” It means that they may temporally mix the languages affecting the way
they interact or communicate their ideas or messages to others. ###
References:
Book:
Silke Rehman (2010) Make
Your Child Multilingual!: The 10 Step Success Plan to Raising Bilingual /
Multilingual Children, Booksurge Llc.
Clyne, Michael G., ed.
(1992). Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations.
Contributions to the sociology of language 62. Berlin & New York: Mouton de
Gruyter.
Newspaper/Journal:
Jose “Pepe” Abueva (2013) Seeking
Unity in Diversity: Sustaining Our Multilingual and Pluralistic Culture, The
Bohol Chronicle.
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