By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo

 

LAST Thursday, I had a discussion with Elvira Bautos Estravo, former official of the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (KWF), on how languages can serve to facilitate understanding in a fast-evolving world where new terminologies in science, commerce and trade are emerging. We are witnessing new languages and means of communication that transform our perceptions, faster than we can comprehend their context and meaning. With these changes, we communicate ourselves differently, evolve our own meanings, and hopefully integrate ourselves in the global field.

In 2009, the DepEd implemented Order No. 74 institutionalizing the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB MLE) nationwide and “mandated the use of the learners’ mother tongue (MT) in improving learning outcomes from Kindergarten to Grade Three” becoming an integral part of the new K-12 Basic Education Program articulating its link to the four forms of child development namely: language development, cognitive development, academic development and socio-cultural awareness. This move was precipitated by studies of some educators that the presence of a second language impeded learning among children.

Language development essentially means achieving an escalation of cognitive skill involving auditory and oral abilities in humans to communicate human wants, needs and aspirations, verbally or otherwise. Since its implementation however, its supposed objectives and targets were questioned, its implementation became problematic, and the conclusions reached in the studies from which its creation was established, were beginning to be eroded.

A study entitled Philippine Educational System Towards ASEAN Education Standard published in the International Journal of Current Research mentioned, “In the 2018 educational ranking, only five (5) out of eleven (11) countries in the ASEAN made to top one hundred (100) these are Singapore who made to rank 1, Malaysia who made to rank 19, Indonesia who made to rank 57, the Philippines who made to rank 75, and Brunei who made to rank 100.

This, despite the implementation of the MTB MLE in 2009, nine years after. In 2024, the state of our educational system became worse. Philippine Star reports “No Philippine university made it to the top 100 of the Times Higher Education’s 2024 Asia University Rankings, with the latest results showing that the country’s top schools either dropped or retained their place. While still the top university in the Philippines, the Ateneo de Manila University has slid from 84th place to the 401-500 bracket, according to the latest Asia rankings. The last time that no university from the Philippines appeared in the top 100 of THE’s Asia rankings was in 2022, when then-front runner University of the Philippines dropped to 129th place from ranking 84th the previous year.” (PhilippineStar, May, 2024). Fifteen years after, did the MTB MLE make a dent, even a small increment to the achievement of its goals? What really impedes learning in children? Did a second language actually impede learning?

A research entitled “Foreign Language Learning During Childhood” indicated that “young child up through age 5 can learn and process up to five languages”, other researches suggest from birth through age 10. Many studies concluded that learning languages at an early stage allows children to speak correctly and fluently, which opens better opportunities and encourages a deeper understanding of their own culture and that of other cultures. Children are learning on their own, despite the limitations and impositions made by institutions. A second, or a third, or a fifth language will not impede learning in children. I can attest to this.

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