OBJECTIVES:

1. To demonstrate strategies of integra:ng language and literature in

Mother Tongue materials design and produc:on.

2. To conceptualize, write and package materials that reflect local
languages and cultures of the Cordillera.

3. To aid teacher-par:cipants in using different modes for their own
materials.
 In the modern era, the prevailing model of public
educa6on has been that of “one size fits all”, with
private schooling being a small but notable
excep6on. Language (of instruc6on) was generally
viewed as a minor variable readily overcome by
standard classroom instruc6on. As researchers have
sharpened their focus on the reasons for
educa6onal failure, language has begun to emerge
as a significant variable in producing gains in
educa6onal efficiency (Dekker,D. et.al, 2011).
 Importance of Indigenous and
Vernacular Languages
UNESCO in 1953 released a policy paper
recommending that every pupil should begin formal
educa:on in his or her mother tongue.

UNESCO has clearly supported ini:al reading,
wri:ng, and learning in the language of the learner
on psychological and pedagogical grounds.
 Importance of Indigenous and
Vernacular Languages
Students learn to read and write
most efficiently and effec:vely
when instruc:on takes place
through the medium of their
mother tongue (Dutcher, 1995).
 Importance of Indigenous and
Vernacular Languages
Students who learn to read in their
mother tongue also learn to read in a
second or foreign language more
quickly than those who ini:ally are
taught to read in a second language
or foreign language, and students
taught to read in their mother tongue
acquire academic content and skills
more quickly (Mehrotra, 1998).
Interna:onal Agreements Suppor:ng
Language Policy
1. 1966 Interna:onal Covenant on Civil and Poli:cal Rights recognizing the right of
minority persons to use their language in communica:on with the other
members of the group (Ar:cle 27);

2. 1989 Interna:onal Labor Organiza:on (ILO) Conven:on 169 concerning Indigenous
and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries requiring that children belonging to
the peoples concerned shall wherever prac:cable, be taught to read and write in
their own indigenous language or in the language most commonly used by the
group to which they belong (Ar:cle 28);

3. 1989 Conven:on on the Rights of the Child confirming that the child’s educa:on
shall be directed to the development of respect for the child’s cultural iden:ty,
language and values;

4. 1992 Declara:on on the Rights of Persons belonging to Na:onal or Ethnic,
Religious and Linguis:c Minori:es no:ng that states should take appropriate
measures so that, wherever possible, persons belonging to minori:es have
adequate opportuni:es to learn their mother tongue.
 Important Link Between
Language and Culture:
* Language is the primary tool for
understanding and
communica:ng, and indeed, for
crea:ng the world. As stated, it
is in and through language that
one can access to culture and
humanity.
 Important Link Between
Language and Culture:
* Language does not only carry the syntax
and the seman:cs, but it is also a carrier
of ways of life. Romero and McCarty
(2005) points out that rights to language
are fundamental to collec:ve and
personal iden:ty, and efforts to resist
language loss are part of larger struggles
for personal and communal well-being,
self- determina:on, and cultural survival.
 “ Language and culture cannot be
separated… Our language and
culture… tell us who we are, where
we came from and where we are
going. ”
(Task Force on Aboriginal Languages
and Cultures, 2005).

“When you lose a language, you
lose a culture, intellectual
wealth, a work of art… ”
(“The Economist”, 2001 as quoted
by McCarty,et.al., 2005)
 Local Language for Teaching
Using the local language for teaching and learning is one way to
promote the understanding of the various concepts in a par:cular
socio-cultural perspec:ve and context. This kind of situated pedagogy
increases the chance for learners to feel ownership of their educa:on
and reduces the condi:ons that hinder their acquisi:on and learning of
various knowledge and processes. Understanding the context
(personal), cultural, and environmental) is important and using the local
language is vital in teaching and learning. Vygotsky (1962) as cited by
Nolasco (2010) explained that language plays a crucial role in forming
abstract concepts and these abstract concepts are cri:cal to the
development of some disciplines. Therefore language really plays an
important role in developing ideas (Banks and Thompson, 1995).
 Local Language for Teaching

In some cases, learners are hesitant in par:cipa:ng during the
classroom discussions not because they do not know the topic,
but they are not quite comfortable with the medium of
instruc:on being used. To understand concepts and skills, it is
impera:ve for learners to discuss and share their ideas but this is
not made possible should a foreign language be primary used as
a medium of instruc:on. Ages:ng to this is the present situa:on
in the Philippines where most graduates are considered half-
baked due to insufficient mastery of basic competencies. Hence,
this needs considera:on among educa:on stakeholders, one
thing that should be considered by teachers.

Strategies in Integra:ng
Language and Literature in
the Mother Tongue-Based
Mul:lingual Educa:on
(MTB-MLE)

Transla:on Method
Transla:on is very beneficial to learning when it comes to
learning through the use of the students' mother tongue
because it serves as a bridge to connect students to the
lesson. Transla:on is some:mes referred to as the fijh
language skill alongside the other four basic skills of
listening, speaking, reading, and wri:ng.

“Transla:on holds a special importance at an intermediate
and advanced level: in the advanced or final stage of
language teaching, transla:on from first language (L1) to
second language (L2) and from L2 to L1 is recognized as
the fijh skill and the most important social skill, since it
promotes communica:on and understanding between
strangers” (Ross, 2000 as cited by Kavaliauskiene, 2009).
 The kankanaey dialect is spoken by one
among the minority groups in the
Northern Cordillera. Mankayan kankanaey
is one and s:ll on its process of
developing its dic:onary and
orthography. While it is on process,
teachers with their ini:a:ves use
transla:on or self made stories to come
up with instruc:onal materials to meet
the demand of the K-12 curriculum.
•  As cited by Igualdo (1989), the kankanaey have so many bunbun:ya
(riddles) and rhymes which the children usually recite before
re:ring to bed at night.

Examples of these riddles and rhymes considered products of the
transla:on method are the following:

Tamboyog ko ed dekkan adi
Adi kalkalgasan
Songbat: Buwan

My orange in the farm
It will never be out of fruits
Answer: Moon
 No egoyod mo din eket
Manat-ayaw din ak-ki
Songbat:Buwet

If you pull the string
The monkey will be dancing
Answer: Top
 Rhymes
1. Manok ko ay bokbokiki, (I have a liTle chicken)
Enakew di man-ili (It was stolen by a visitor)
Bayadan yos salapi (You pay it for fiWy centavos)
Ta waday ekaon kos baba-e (So I will have money to wed a woman)
Mangi utos e-ib-a mi (To cook the food of my rela6ves)

2. Ameyak ed nabel-asin (When I went to the otherside of the
neighbourhood)
Ngangas-it di sayote ( There were chayotes being cooked)
Tebek yan nababa:l (I tried to see if it’s cook, only to find out that it
is not
Ekag dak di kamisil ( I pressed it for the pigs to eat).
 Local Literatures
•  Literature is a composi:on that tells a story,
drama:zes a situa:on, expresses emo:ons,
analyses and advocates ideas, shaping ones goals
and values by clarifying own iden::es, both
posi:vely and nega:vely. An example of these local
literatures is as follows:
•  “Inmey nan-oskila din adado ay mumuyang ed Day
Care Center. Wada da Dina en Mila ay adi nan-
oskila tay magay mang-itolod en daida. Ad-ado di
am-amagen mama da ed beey da.
•  “Ulay adi kayo man-oskila. Man-ay-ayam kayo et
ed abong ta man-oto ak”, kanan mama da.
•  Adi nailan mama da din inay-ayam da. Nan-ala baw da
Dina en Mila si posposro et siya di inay-ayam da. Inmey da
ed kuwartoda.. Sinitgatanda sin kutson da asi dan
bunbonan si galey. Maaw-awni , man-as-asok din kuwarto
da. Katagtagda ay dowa ay bemela sin beey da. Nailan
inada et nan-ayag si bombero ngem din lugan di ili yan
magay danom na isunga nan–ayag da si bomberon di
kaaluba da et siya si nangedep sin apoy.
•  Nad-ep din apoy ngem maga et amin ay osal da ya beey
da. Ad-ado di binmadang ed daida. Waday nan-idawat si
kanen da, bado da ya osalen da ay man-amag si beey. Ed
wani naiamag beey da et wada kasin pantean da ngem
kitkitoy et” (Galino, 2014)
 Community Immersion
•  Community immersion enables one to know, experience,
to feel the problems, the frustra:ons, the needs, the
capabili:es, the interests, the aspira:ons and the dreams
of a group of people with whom he or she lives.

•  For a person to know the community problems, needs and
aspira:ons, there is a need to spend :me with the
community. Community immersion affords a person
opportuni:es for dialogue with the members of the
community. The community members become more
aware of what’s going on in the school and may even offer
services they can offer.
 With curriculum indigeniza:on, pupils will find subject
mager more interes:ng. The connectedness of the
classroom lessons with life outside the classroom will be
reinforced. Pupils’ cultural iden:ty will be affirmed and
validated, thus making them feel proved of their cultural
iden:ty. If learners, parents, local specialists and leaders
will take ac:ve part in the designing and in implemen:ng
the curriculum, then curriculum will be more relevant. The
good elements of culture will likewise be preserved.
Respect for others is enhanced so stereotyping,
ethnocentrism, regionalism are reduced, if not eliminated.
U:liza:on of Mul:lingual Teaching
•  Mul:lingual teaching is when teachers use varied languages in the
whole dura:on of teaching for the reason of accommoda:ng
students who do not speak a par:cular language and including them
in the discussion. This is defined as speaking two or more languages
in a growing worldwide phenomenon (Milambiling, 2011).

•  Since the people who live in Baguio City are speakers of different
languages, the teachers need to explore and use all possible
languages in order to cater to the needs of the learners having
different mother tongues. A teacher uses each mother tongue for
the pupils to understand the lesson.

•  “To use Ilocano, Kankanaey and for those who cannot speak or s6ll
understand Kankanaey and Ilocano, to use the Ibaloi language.”
•  This means that the teacher is
versa:le in making ways to cater to
the needs of the students.
Therefore, being a mul:lingual
teacher is an advantage in teaching
pupils with different languages.
•  In line with transla:on of the
different mother tongues, being a
mul:lingual teacher is needed to
match the skill of transla:ng. If the
teacher knows every language of
his/her pupils then the demands of
every learner to use his/her own
language will be met.
•  The teacher can cater to the
individual needs of the learners by
transla:ng the lessons he/she is
teaching in the different mother
tongues of the learners in the
classroom.
•  Garcia(2008) as cited by Milambiling (2011),
emphasizes that mul:lingual language
awareness is a necessity for teachers of
mul:lingual students. Besides knowing about
languages, subject mager, and teaching
methodology, teachers should have an
understanding of the poli:cal struggles and
social circumstances of pupils. This strategy
also allows the students to explore and learn
the language of others.
 U:liza:on of Lingua-franca
•  Lingua-franca is a language that is widely
used as a means of intercommunica:on
among speakers of different languages.
Seeing that the dominant language that
is being used in Baguio City is Ilocano, the
respondents prefer it as their medium of
instruc:on since it is the language that is
widely used by the learners in the school
and at the same :me at home.
 Improvisa:on of instruc:onal
materials wrigen in mother tongue
•  Instruc:onal materials are the basic channel of
communica:on in the classroom for the
purpose of bringing about effec:ve teaching
and learning.
•  Instruc:onal resources in teaching and learning
make students learn more and retain beger
what they have been taught and that these
instruc:onal resources also promote and
sustain students’ interest. These resources also
allow the learners to discover themselves and
their abili:es.
•  To use improvized materials like stories, songs,
poems, and charts wrigen in Kakana-ey and
Ilocano.”;
•  To mo:vate the pupils, use songs and poems
wrigen in Kankanaey and Ilocano ; and
Teacher-made instruc:onal materials and big
books wrigen in English language but
translated in mother tongue.
•  materials should be wrigen in the learners’
na:ve languages to mo:vate students and for
the learners to par:cipate.
 Remedia:on of instruc:on
•  This requires pupils to stay ajer class
hours for an extra learning especially
for those pupils who have difficulty
with the lessons and for those who
are behind in their lesson. This means
that the teacher will tutor to
accommodate all the learners despite
of their levels of intelligence. In
conduc:ng remedial classes, the
teacher uses mother tongue as the
medium of instruc:on.
•  a remedial class is a learner’s
opportunity to ask the teacher about
his/her difficul:es in understanding
the lesson especially when the
problem has something to do with the
mother tongue the teacher is using
during the class discussion. In this
case, it will also help the pupils learn
most, from u:lizing their mother
tongue.
U:liza:on of Literary Piece wrigen in
mother tongue as mo:va:on
•  Literary pieces are used by
teachers as a springboard to teach
other concepts or ideas that are
beneficial to the pupils. Teachers
integrate literature within the
discussion and these literary pieces
are already translated in preferred
mother tongue.
Four Main Reasons Why Teachers
Use Literature in the Classroom
 1.  Valuable authen:c material,
2.  cultural enrichment,
3.  Language enrichment
4. Personal involvement
(Hişmanoğlu, 2005 ci:ng Collie & Slater, 1990).

IMPORTANCE OF LITERATURE
•  Literature of any kind can be important for children
of other cultures and is a powerful tool to weaken
and dissolve racism. Mul:cultural literature can also
play a very important role for teachers. This serves
as an instrument for the teachers to see first in
themselves the importance of being a mul:cultural
person in order to appreciate the different cultures
found or emana:ng from the literature that they are
reading or they are teaching. Through this, they can
impart to their students the importance of having a
mul:cultural literature so that in turn the students
will also understand and appreciate different
cultures.
•  The teachers must be very keen in
selec:ng the different literatures that can
show the diversi:es of cultures of the
pupils especially those that are found in
the classroom. Mul:cultural literature can
be used as a tool to open pupil’s minds. It
helps to s:mulate an understanding of
diversity in the classroom and helps to
build an understanding of and respect for
people from other cultures (Boles, 2006).
•  In the case of Baguio City, having
different languages, the
men:oned strategies are
beneficial for the pupils to have
a meaningful learning since the
learners are exposed to different
languages and cultures.
Madam Herminia Os:ng --
MTBMLE Exemplar

Herminia Os:ng in 2011 was then serving as the School
Principal at Lengaoan Elementary School, a small school in
the middle of the Mountain Trail of Benguet. She wrote
Kankanaey big books. Since her college life at SLU, Baguio,
she developed a strong interest in Cordilleran literature.

More than four years later, she became the principal of
Loo Elementary School and PSDS OIC) having more fruits of
her labor—new big books (a few were published locally),
new MTBMLE allies, the newly approved (by the
community and the government) Kankanaey
orthography…. All these became possible even if
Kankanaey (the 13th largest Phil language) was not
selected as one of the 19 Philippine languages supported
by the central office of DepEd for massive material
development.
 She and her teachers, dipped from their own
pockets to produce many more Kankanaey big
books (now more than a hundred). Later, the LGU
contributed some and when MTBMLE became part
of the K-12 Law, they were given the go signal to use
their meager MOOE. They wrote fun and cap:va:ng
stories that young learners in Benguet (and other
rural places) would fondly remember----frog friends
who discovered a large footprint...the duck who got
stuck under the stairs...the cockroach with a pot
belly, etc. Some were wrigen to teach the sounds of
the alphabet and some for simple enjoyment of
their young readers.
 According to Madam Os:ng (who taught grade one for a
long :me), when English or Tagalog text was used (before
the MTBMLE policy came out) pupils would only be able to
read in September...now they can read with
comprehension in July. In the past, when a ques:on was
posed, the pupils would go back to the book to search for
the right word that will answer the ques:on. Now with the
story in their language, the pupils would respond
spontaneously and would even offer their own
interpreta:on and opinion.

Other teachers from neighboring schools in Benguet have
been coming to borrow and photocopy the big books
Madam Os:ng and her teachers wrote. There is indeed a
need for an affordable means (an alterna:ve to the
tradi:onal publishing) to reproduce these mother tongue
big books.

In summary...
“Mother Tongue-Based Mul:lingual
Educa:on (MTB-MLE) is about
young people speaking from the
heart, it’s about teachers trying to
contextualize their lessons and
more importantly, it’s about a
na:on in search for its own
iden:ty.”
– Bro. Armin Luistro (DepEd
Secretary).
“Book of Tradi:onal Literature”
>> Divide the whole group into
smaller groups.

>> Think of local riddles/

proverbs/ poetry/ or stories you
know very well.
>> Share it with your group mates
and translate it in a dialect
known by everybody. If majority
in the group knows kankana-ey
or ibaloi then translate it to
kankana-ey or ibaloi.
>> Make a big brochure or catalog
out of it. Do it creatively by
adding some illustrations. Make
sure it will be very attractive for
students to read.
>> Share your output to the big
group.
 References:
•  Boles, M. 2006. The effects of mul6cultural Literature in the
classroom. Eastern Michigan University.
•  Decker, D. et.al (2008). Initial results of the Lubuagan project. Paper
presented to the first MLE conference on February 18-20, 2001 at
CDO, Mindanao.
•  Dutcher, N. (2004). Promise and perils of mother tongue education.
Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC. USA.
•  M i l a m b i l i n g , J . ( 2 0 1 1 ) . B r i n g i n g o n e l a n g u a g e t o
another:Mul:lingualism as a resource in the language classroom
•  Lartec, J. et.al (2014) Strategies and Problems Encountered by
Teachers in Implementing Mother Tongue-Based Curriculum in a
Multilingual Classroom. The IAFOR Journal of Language Learning
•  Vygotzsky,L.S.1962. as cited by Nolasco (2010), Thought and
language, Cambridge, MA; MIT Press.
•  UNESCO Education Position Paper, 2003, Education in a
Multilingual World, United Nations Educational Scientific and
CulturalOrganization.www.unesco.org/education.Acessed Dec. 23,
2011.cited by Divindo, (2012)
•  A research done by students of the Graduate Program from Benguet
State University (failed to retrieve the title and authors).