HISTORY OF THE MOTHER TONGUE

At the end of this report, challenge yourself to attain the following learning outcomes:
● Know who and where the term “mother tongue” first introduced;

● Read and demonstrate good comprehension of the history of mother tongue in

Philippine setting; and
● Appreciate events behind the international mother language day celebration.

Mother Tongue
-is a language that a person has been exposed to from his birth or within the critical
period
- Native language or mother tongue refers to the language of one’s ethnic group rather
than one’s first language

● The term mother tongue was first used by Catholic monks to designate a

particular language they used, instead of Latin, when they were “speaking from
the pulpit”. That is, the “holy mother the Church” introduced this term and
colonies inherited it from the Christianity as a part of colonialism.

Spanish Colonization (1565-1898)

-Spanish was the primary language of government but not widely spoken around the
country.
-The Educational Decree of 1863 established the beginning of formal education system
and called the use of Spanish in schools.
-Local indigenous languages remained dominant in most regions of the country.

American colonization (1898-1946)

-English became the language of government.
-President McKinley initially ordered local languages to be taught in school. He later
decided that English should be required in order to teach about democracy and
American system.
-All schools in the Philippines used English for classroom instruction, the use of
Philippines languages was prohibited.(1900)
1935 Philippines constitution
-Original intent was to create a new language based on various Philippine languages
Tagalog was adopted as the national language given its status in the capital of Manila.
-An executive order was issued requiring the teaching of Tagalog as a subject in all
schools, regardless of native language.
-English continued to be an official language and primary language of instruction of the
Philippines.
Japanese (1942)
-Commander in Chief of the Japanese imperial forces prohibited the use of English.
-English and Tagalog continued to be taught in schools, Japanese became a mandatory
foreign language until 1945 when World War II ended.
Philippine Independence (1946)
–English return as the primary language of instruction with Tagalog taught as a
separate subject.
Bureau of Public Schools (1948)
–Experimenting with local languages as a solution to language issue.
Bilingual Education (1974)
–The policy separated the languages as mediums of instruction for specific
subject areas. Filipino was used to teach social studies, work education, character
education, music, health and physical education. English was used for all other
subjects, including math, science and technology
-Allowed the use of local vernaculars as auxiliary languages until grade three.
President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo (2004)
–initiated a return to English as the primary language of instruction in Philippines
schools.
Representative Eduardo Gullas (2006)
–proposed an English-only bill in Congress to make English the primary
language instruction in all Philippines'’ classrooms.
Representative Magtanggol Gunigundo (2008)
–produced a multilingual education bill that called for the use of local languages
in Philippines’ classrooms for grades one through six.
DepEd (July 14. 2009)
-moved to institutionalize MTB-MLE that required the use of the learner’s first language
as the primary medium of instruction from pre-school until grade three, in addition to the
teaching of Filipino and English as separate subjects.
DepEd (2012)
-issued a new order which provided more specific guidelines for implementing MTB-
MLE at the school level.
-It noted the piloting of MTB-MLE in 921 schools with support from Basic Education
Assistance for Mindanao (BEAM); Third Elementary Education Program (TEEP);
Translators Association of the Philippines (TAP); Save the Children and Summer
Institute of Linguistics (SIL).
DepEd (2010)
-MTB-MLE became a component of the K to 12 Basic Education Program proposed by
Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino’s administration.
November 2012
-Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2012 (House Bill No. 6643) was passed almost
unanimously (198-8) by the House of Representatives.
International Mother Language Day is celebrated every year on 21st February. The
main purpose of celebrating this day is to promote the awareness of language and
cultural diversity all across the world. It was first announced by UNESCO on
November 17, 1999. Since then it is being celebrated every year. The date represents
the day 21st February 1952 when four young students were killed in Dhaka, the
capital of Bangladesh, because of Bengali and Urdu language controversy. Languages
are the most powerful way to preserve and develop culture and to promote it all across
the world. Because of this unfortunate incident, International Mother Language Day is
celebrated in all over the world, while it is a public holiday in Bangladesh. In 1947 at the
time of partition of Pakistan, the province Bengal was divided into two parts: the western
part became India and the eastern part is known as East Bengal which was later known
as East Pakistan. At that time there were many economic, social and cultural issues
including linguistic issue. In 1948 when government announced Urdu as the national
language it sparked the protest among the Bengali speaking majority of Pakistan. The
protest got out of control and ended with the death of four protestors of the University of
Dhaka who were shot by the police. The students' deaths during the fight for their
mother language are now remembered as The International Mother Language Day. The
Shaheed Minar in Dhaka pays respect to those four protestors killed for the sake of
their mother language. An International Mother Language Day monument was
constructed at Ashfield Park in Sydney, Australia. Here we can see the images of
Shaheed Minar and the globe on the face of the stone with the words "we will
remember the martyr of 21st February" written on it in both Bengali and English
languages.