Effects of Bilingual Education

A TERM PAPER IN RESEARCH SEMINAR II

SUMMER
2012-2013
SUBMITTED AS A PARTIAL REQUIREMENT TO
DR. EMMANUEL DE GUZMAN

BY
SHIRLEY PEREZ-LOPEZ

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

The increasing number of pupils who obtained low grade in Mathematics is a cause of alarm to the Philippine educational system. Many studies have shown that there are actually many factors affecting achievement in Mathematics and one of these is the language factor.

The mandate of a Bilingual Education Policy of the Department of Education Culture and Sports (DECS) which took effect in 1974, states that English should be the medium of instruction in teaching Science and Mathematics in the elementary and secondary schools. The policy requires that Filipino should only be used in all other subjects. This policy has its good intention, that is, “to avail the advantages of the scientific, commercial and cultural links of an international language (English), which addresses the need to further develop the national language as an essential instrument for achieving national unity and integration.

However, language ability has been acknowledged to pose potential and actual barriers to learning – both in Science and in Mathematics. To understand the relationship between language and mathematics, one needs to know the main components of the language as it is used in the mathematics classroom.

With the new implementation of the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education as one of the salient features of the K to 12 Basic Education Program states that the mother tongue will be the medium of instruction from Kindergarten to Grade 3. This includes the following: Tagalog, Kapampangan, Pangasinense, Iloko, Bikol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Tausug, Maguindanaoan, Maranao, and Chabacano. Medium of instruction will be English and Filipino starting grade 4.

The message of both local and international research is quite clear: children should no longer be in monolingual classrooms. Despite this growing body of research showing the benefits of mother tongue maintenance and bilingual programs, the Department of Education issued Executive Order No. 210, declaring English to be the medium of instruction, as second language starting at Grade 1, then a primary language of instruction from Grade 3 until the secondary levels (Department of Education, 2006).

But in private schools where certain policies of the DepEd are not strictly followed and implemented, it is perceived that the language barrier, specifically in teaching Mathematics, certain mastery of the English language has to precede the understanding of Mathematics language.

In today’s world, “bilingualism is more the norm than the exception,” (Lessow-Hurley, 2000). Governments around the world are now developingbilingual/multilingual educational policies, not only as a response to their nations’ innate linguistic heterogeneity, but also as a means of coping with a world whose borders are increasingly disappearing.

The Philippines is no different from the rest of the world: the average Filipino speaks three to four languages. There are two official languages, English and Filipino.
Filipino, the amalgam of various local languages, is the language of the streets, popular media and the masses. Inhabitants of Metro Manila, the nation’s capital, are all exposed to these two languages the minute they are born. Yet, when they enter school, English is introduced as the “global” language, as well as the language of math, science and technology. The Philippines is in a linguistic situation where English and Filipino are used predominantly for different functions: English is used for formal and business communication needs, as well as for most academic discourse. Thus, it becomes imperative to learn this language, mostly at the expense of the other.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study hopes to resolve the effect of bilingual education in teaching Mathematics in the School of Saint Anthony as a private school. It will determine what medium of instruction in teaching Mathematics would result higher academic achievement among Grade 3 pupils.
Specifically, this study will answer the following questions:
1. How do the Grade 3 pupils in the control and experimental groups perform in the Mathematics pre-test?
2. How do both groups perform in the posttest results in Mathematics?
3. How significant is the difference between the posttest results in Mathematics of the experimental group and control group?

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Literature
Literatures about bilingual education is circulated everywhere to emphasize what is needed to provide higher academic achievement especially to Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students.

Local. A study conducted by Aquino (2012), from the University of the Philippines, revealed based on the data, it can be inferred that preschool children belonging to an urban poor community in the Philippines, that monolingual instruction in either Filipino or English had a stronger effect on the children’s literacy skills compared to bilingual instruction. Moreover, mother tongue-based instruction, as compared to second-language instruction, had stronger effect on the preschoolers’ literacy skills. Such results have implications not only for mother tongue-based (MTB) but also for English as a second language (ESL) instruction in the country.
In an article written by Espiritu (2010) on the evaluation of the bilingual education program revealed that the program is not seriously being implemented especially by private schools. At the tertiary level, it appeared that the policy is not a priority. Many institutions seemed to have put more premium on the use and teaching of English, the main language aspiration of many Filipinos. Studies also showed the very low level proficiency in the two languages of both the teachers and students.
In a research report of the Philippine National Assistance (1999) states that the effect of the language instruction on pupils’ or students’ degree of understanding, it is said that the degree of understanding among pupils or students is low because, for example, Science and Mathematics are taught in English, and it is felt that this problem cannot be considered to be insignificant.
Like other multilingual countries, the Philippines also has a research pointing to the benefits of mother tongue maintenance and bilingual education programs. In 1984, the Linguistic Society of the Philippines (LSP) conducted an evaluation of the bilingual education program, then on its tenth year of implementation. The findings showed that though students performed well in achievement tests and teachers and school administrators saw the need for bilingual education, there was a dearth in materials in Filipino and a lack of preservice and inservice training for teachers invFilipino (Gonzales and Sibayan, 1988). The LSP study emphasized the need for a regular evaluation of the nation’s bilingual education program.

Another study also significantly stressed the role of the mother tongue in bilingual or multilingual education. In some parts of multilingual Philippines, the mother tongue might be neither English nor Filipino (Tucker, 1998; Gonzales and Sibayan 1988). The use of the child’s mother tongue in developing his basic and 3 functional literacy skills enables him to transfer these skills to a second language (Gonzales, 1996), or even a third (BESRA Report, 2006).

Research both here and abroad proves the positive outcomes of bilingual education programs. In the United States, a major research finding is that students in bilingual programs outperform their monolingual counterparts in metalinguistic awareness, concept formation tasks and analogical reasoning ability (Cloud, Genesse, and Hamayan, 2000). Students in bilingual programs also outperform their peers in standardized achievement tests in either language (Howard, Sugarman, Christian, Lindholm-Leary, and Rogers 2005).

Like other multilingual countries, the Philippines also has research pointing to the benefits of mother tongue maintenance and bilingual education programs. In 1984, the Linguistic Society of the Philippines (LSP) conducted an evaluation of the bilingual education program, then on its tenth year of implementation. The findings showed that though students performed well in achievement tests and teachers and school administrators saw the need for bilingual education, there was a dearth in materials in Filipino and a lack of pre-service and in-service training for teachers in Filipino (Gonzales and Sibayan, 1988). The LSP study emphasized the need for a regular evaluation of the nation’s bilingual education program.

The said study also significantly stressed the role of the mother tongue in bilingual or multilingual education. In some parts of multilingual Philippines, the mother tongue might be neither English nor Filipino (Tucker, 1998; Gonzales and
Sibayan 1988). The use of the child’s mother tongue in developing his basic and functional literacy skills enables him to transfer these skills to a second language (Gonzales, 1996), or even a third (BESRA Report, 2006).

Probably the most important piece of research concerning language in Philippine education is the one based on the First Language Education project done in Lubuagan, Kalinga Apayao. The Lubuagan project boasts of a trilingual program initially implemented in 5 government schools. After only two school years into the program, standardized test results showed the students in the Lubuagan program edging out their counterparts who were not taught in their mother tongue (Dumatogand Dekker, 2003).

The message of both local and international research is quite clear: children should no longer be in monolingual classrooms. Despite this growing body of research showing the benefits of mother tongue maintenance and bilingual programs, the Department of Education issued Executive Order No.210, declaring English to be the medium of instruction, as second language starting at Grade 1, then a primary language of instruction from Grade III until the secondary levels (Department of Education, 2006). Proof that the inconsistency between reality and rhetoric, pointed out by Gonzales in 1996, still persists.

Though studies show that systematic implementation is at the crux of the problem pertaining to bilingual education in the Philippines, the lack of a dual or multilingual program model to emulate also presents a problem to local schools. As Yanilla-Aquino (1995) stated, there has yet to be a definitive bilingual program for the early grades in the Philippines. If the government is serious about multilingual or even just bilingual education, program models for bilingual education have to be constantly developed and studied (Villanueva, 2007).

Currently, there are bilingual education models being implemented in local schools such as the University of the Philippines Integrated School, a government school; and, The Raya School and The Builders’ School, both private, progressive schools. These last two schools are currently developing and implementing dual language programs that are closely akin to two way immersion.

STATEMENT OF THE HYPOTHESES

The following are the hypotheses to be tested in this study:
1. There is a significant difference between the posttest results of both groups.
2. There is a significant difference between the pre-test and posttest results in mathematics achievement test of the experimental and control groups.

SCOPE AND DELIMITATION

The study will focus on determining the effectiveness of the medium of instruction in teaching mathematics. It is limited to Grade 3 pupils of School of Saint Anthony in Quezon City. One section will be used as an experimental group and another section will be used as a control group with 35 pupils per section. The study will take place in an academic year. The measure of effectiveness of the medium of instruction in this study is further limited to the test scores in the pre-test and posttest of the pupils who are heterogeneous in nature.

The teacher who is to conduct the bilingual education will be a tenured Math teacher who is both proficient in English and in Filipino.

RESEARCH PARADIGM

Figure 1. Research Paradigm

THEORETICAL/ CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Figure 1 shows the theoretical framework of the study. The study will make use of the experimental method which involves two groups (experimental and control groups). Before the experiment will be done, the two groups will take the same set of pre-test. After the pre-test, the experimental group will be taught in bilingual education (English and Filipino) while the control group will be taught in English. Then after the experiment will be done, a posttest similar to the pretest will be given to both groups to determine which medium of instruction will lead to a better mathematics achievement.

CHAPTER 3

METHODS OF RESEARCH
This chapter discusses the different methods and procedures involved in conducting this study. It presents the research venue, the method used, the population and sample, the research instrument, the data gathering procedure and statistical tool used in this study.

RESEARCH DESIGN
This study experiments the effect of bilingual education in teaching mathematics of Grade 3 pupils.

The researcher will use the experimental method specifically, the Non-equivalent Control Group Design in order to know if bilingualism in teaching mathematics is an approach to higher academic achievement among Grade 3 pupils.

The non-equivalent control group design (Sevilla, 2000) consists of two groups. The design gives pretest and posttest to each group, but only one gets the treatment.

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This design is considered as one of the most widely used designs in educational research. The broken line between the two groups suggests that there has no randomization done.

It is commonly used in groups with participants naturally assembled such as those in classrooms. Two classes are picked as the two groups. The experimental group will be taught using English and Filipino as the medium of instruction in teaching mathematics while the control group will be taught in English . Both groups would be post tested.

The term experiment, like many other terms, can have different meanings. Defined in a general way, experiments are simply a way of learning something by varying some conditions and observing the effects on something else. In other words, one changes something and watches for the effect (Ochave, 2000).

Defined formally in the context of scientific research, a true experiment is a procedure for investigating cause-and-effect relationship by randomly assigning subjects to groups in which one or more independent variables are manipulated (Punsalan, 2000).

CONCLUSIONS

The following conclusions are hoped to be achieved upon the end of the study:
1. The use of bilingualism as a medium of instruction in teaching mathematics will be found out to be more effective compared with the regular teaching wherein English is used as the medium of instruction.
2. Bilingual instruction will be found out to be more effective because pupils will easily understand the lessons and could catch up with the discussion using their native language resulting in a higher academic achievement of the pupils specifically in math.
3. With the bilingual instruction, pupils are to participate well without hesitation because they could use the Filipino language during class discussion. This could also boost up self-confidence and higher self-esteem among pupils.
4. Bilingual instruction will provide a good foundation to the pupils’ retention to understand basic and more important concepts in mathematics.
5. Bilingual instruction will increase the interest of the pupils to study harder in mathematics as they will find it easier to understand the concepts and principles.