chapter II

Chapter II
Origin
Mother tongue is the frst language learned at home in childhood . The language learned may differ from anybody depending on where the person is and the language in the stated area . A person who learned two languages at the same time during childhood , the mother tongue would be the language the person spoke most often at home . The Philippines offers a challenging environment for implementing a language policy that can serve the whole country . And in 2009, the Department of Education (DepEd) challenge the Bilingual Education Policy by issuing an order that called for institutionalization of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) . This order requires use of the learners’ first language as the medium of instruction for all subject areas in pre-school and in grade school . Two studies in the United States (Ramirez, Yuen, and Ramey , 1991 ; Thomas and Collier , 1997) and one in the Philippines (Walter and Dekker, 2011) concluded that : “ Minority language students who gained literacy in their first language experienced higher academic achievement thatn students who learned in a second or third language . “
They suggested that second and third languages can be acquired more easily if a foundation of a first language is established early .In addition , these studies pointed to the importance of mother tongue to be utilized until grade six with other languages taught as separate subjects .
Diane Dekker (2010) described Mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) as :
“ ....more than just using the learners’ first language to explain curriculum content “
It emphasizes the importance of curriculum rooted in the local culture , as well as teaching methodology that promotes cognitive development and higher order thinkingskills .