Big Books On Mother Tongue-Based Instructional Materials To Enhance Comprehension Skills of Grade Two Pupils in Palapag I Central Elementary School

Big Books on Mother Tongue-Based Instructional Materials to Enhance
Comprehension Skills of Grade Two Pupils in Palapag I Central Elementary

School
Kenneth A. Deananeas
Med-Reading-Research
INTRODUCTION
Language is one of the most important variables affecting education. Indeed,
we will not achieve Education for All (EFA) unless we provide children with
opportunity to learn in their mother tongue. The use of mother tongue or home
languages is a key to increasing access to school and facilitating learning,
including learning of second language or L2. Using the vernacular or the child’s
first language makes it easier for him to learn how to read and write as well as
to learn concepts in academic subjects including the learning of a second or other
languages. Thus, it is more advantageous if the familiar language is used in the
early years of the child’s educational programs. This enables them to acquire early
reading skills faster than using a foreign language.
Likewise, language professionals also claim that in the early years of
development, learning is more facilitated when the language used is similar to that
which is spoken by their parents, siblings and friends. In addition, using a
familiar language to teach beginning literacy helps learners to understand sound-
symbol or meaning-symbol correspondence. When students know the language, learning
to read is most efficient and students can employ psycholinguistics guessing games.
Learning to communicate through writing is facilitated as soon as they become
familiar with the orthographic rules (or other written) system of language.
The 2010 curriculum for elementary school has been radically changed from a
bilingual to trilingual one with the addition of the mother tongue as medium of
instruction aside from Filipino and English. This was anchored on DepEd Order No.
74 s. 2009 which calls for Institutionalizing Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual
Education (MTB-MLE). This is a research based initiative in basic education
conducted by local and foreign researchers which has proven the advantage of using
the learners’ first language in so far as the enhancement of learning outcomes and
attainment of quality are concern.
The Secretary of Higher Education herself, Patricia Licuanan claims that using
the first language or the vernacular helps the students learn better. This will not
only improve the quality of education but will also be the tool for learning and
improving a second or foreign language like English. She also asserts that there
is damaging effect in using English as the medium of instruction since students
don’t learn well as much as they do when teaching is done in their first language.
Furthermore, studies claimed that children who were taught effectively using
their mother tongue perform better in school; thus become literate to that language.
On the other hand, children who were discouraged to use their mother tongue
consequently risked their personal and conceptual foundation for learning.
This is strengthened by the results of local and international studies which
have shown the superiority of using the pupils’ home language inside the classroom
during their years of schooling. Such research claim that it produces learners who
can easily adapt to learn a second (Filipino) and third (English) language and can
learn other concepts better and faster. This fundamental change in the use of the
problems. Hence, this necessitates the production of new instructional materials
and modules using the local dialects which have long been ignored as formal tools
in facilitating the teaching and learning process.
This need for new instructional materials has been supported by DepEd Order
No. 90 series of 2011 which recommend the learning materials that can be produced
for MTB-MLE instructions. These are stories printed in big book or in small book
formats, and flash or activity cards using letters and numbers. Also included are
basic sight words or grade level words and picture dictionary; and thematic picture
chart for oral literacy. Strickland and Morrow also explained that a big book one
of the learning materials that can be produced using pupils’ native language. Big
books contain reading materials printed in bigger book format for children’s use
these are usually narratives which are quiet appealing for children because of big
illustrations which could entice them to be involved in print and later in reading.
As observed, there are perennial problems that confront teachers in their
daily performance of their basic jobs. They are faced with the low academic
performance of pupils, which is brought by their poor reading skills and study
habits as well as the prevailing problems of school administrators and teachers on
lack of reading resources for MTB-MLE.
Similarly, in the Region VIII, particularly in Northern Samar the same problem
on the lack of instructional materials written in Northern Samar vernacular is also
being experienced by Grades 1 to 3 teachers. Hence the researcher has been driven
by this urgent need to develop his own learning materials for his pupils. Likewise,
this research is aimed at determining the comprehension level of Grade 2 pupils to
serve as basis in developing big books in Northern Samar vernacular particularly
in Palapag, Norther Samar dialect.
REFERENCES
[1] The case for MTB-MLE Resources for understanding the value of mother
tongue-based multilingual education. http://www.mlenetwork.org/
[2] Benosa, S. E. (2010). Why I write in my mother tongue. Starting where
the children are: a collection of essays on mother tongue-based multilingual
education in language issues in the Philippines.
[3] DepEd Order No. 74, s.2009. Institutionalizing mother tongue-based
multilingual education
[4] Cruz, I. (2010). Mother tongue education. Starting where the children
are: a collection of essays on mother tongue-based multilingual education in
language issues in the Philippines.
[5] Licuanan, P. B. (2010). Students learn better when mother tongue is used.
Starting where the children are. A collection of essays…edited by Ricardo Ma. Duran
Nolasco, et. Al. published by 170-Talaytayan MLE Inc., Quezon City, Philippines.
[6] DepEd Order No. 90, s. 2011. Guidelines on the utilization of downloaded
funds for materials development and production of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual
Education (MTB-MLE) program.URL:http://goo.gl/t9uM1H
[7] Strickland, D.S. & Morrow, L.M. (1990). Emerging teachers and writers:
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Comprehension Skills of Grade Two Pupils in Palapag I Central Elementary

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