The Venacular in the schools

Media

Part of Philippine Educator

Title
The Venacular in the schools
Language
English
Year
1952
Rights
In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
Fulltext
THE PHILIPPINE EDUCATOR 31 excitement. The bloom upon my "Rasul,'. go away. I shall only cheeks is gone. The sunset of my break your heart if I tell you. l life has indeed come. The greying lost my soul in the City; I had formists of the evening are upon me. gott~n my promises to you. If you Oh Lord, Thou who hast been could but forgive me, that is all I borne this Christma2 Eve, give me ask. I do not deserve you and your a few day~ to live that I may have love. I am going to ask God to take the chance to atone for the sins me with Him: The sunset days of of my wickedness. Give me the my life have come." opportunity to tell Rasul that my "But, my love, whatever has love for him had never changed, happened to you in the City, whatbut yet to tell him that I seek his ever has passed, - that cannot forgiveness. His pure, great love be more important than my love I no longer deserve. Give me a for you. You could not have eschance to tell him so, and then, caped the evil of this City, and so and then .... I shall be ready to I have come to take you away from go .. , . " it." Rasul was there with her, on the "You do not understand, Rasul, way to church. I am no longer worthy of your "Myrna, I am here. I came to ~pend my Christmas Eve here in the City. 'Aren't you glad? Jt is so good to see you, but what has happened to you? You have thinned so, the bloom of your cheeks is gone !" love.. I have been false to my pr~ mises. How can you ever forgive me?" "This is Christmas, my dear. Everything is forgiven. For Christmas ·is charity; Christmas is forgiveness." The Vernacular in the Schools MARCELINO BAUTISTA 'THERE IS INCREASING interest in the proposition' to make the verna:cula.rs· as the medium of instruc~ion in the primary grades. The ~ETA (College English Teacher$ A.ss-ociation) ·in its last conference in Manila advocated through a resolution. that the vernaculars be used as the medium of instruction in the first two Grades. It is very well known, of course, that the Iloilo experiment has been instituted mainly to determine the feasibility and practicability of using the vernacular as medium of instruction in the primary grades. A phase of the Iloilo experiment, probably the most important one, was that of determining to what extent a functional knowledge of the · vernacular would be · a help to the learning of English. - The hypothesis set up was to the effect that if a child learns to read and write 32 THE. P~ILIPPINE EDUCATOR the vernacular, he will be better · tion of the experiment after the equipped to learn English some- two groups had finished Grade IV where in the upper primary grades seems to show that the control or in the intermediate grades. group (the group that has studied A basis of all this agitation for English only) fared better in Engthe use of the vernacular as me- lish than did the experimental dium of instruction, at least in the group. This has not been expectprimary grades, is the assumption ed by the experimenters. For if that pupils learn more through the there have been gains by the exuse of the vernacular. That seems perimental group over the control to be a very valid assumption, and group at the end of the first year we said so in the very much criti- of the introduction of English as cized article we published in the a second language, it had been exPhilippine Educator (July, 1950) pected that the gains would inentitled "For a Less Muddled crease. The latest evaluation of Thinking on Educational Prob- the experiment does not confirm lems." We said in that article that to expectation. The control group it seemed so obvious that a child was shown to be superior to the learns much more readily through experimental group· in the acquisihis mother tongue than through a tion of English Lai:i~uage ability. foreign language. What we had The question that.readily comes claimed to be also obvious is that up is: At the end of the fifth if a child learns the vernacular year and the sixth year of the exonly, there will be very little trans- periment, will the · experimental fer to ability to learn English. It group catch up again and/or exappears that the Iloilo experiment, ceed the achievement of the conwhich has b~n going on for four trol group? That is the question years, tried to prove the hypothe- that remains to be answered. Our si~ that there is transfer of train- way of thinking convinces us that ing from learning the v~cular if at the end of the fourth year to learning English. of the experiment, the control The Iloilo experiment seems to group has shown a decided advansho'W 't!J,at when the learning of' · tage over :the experimental group English is i:iitroduced somewhere in the learning of English, what in the primary Grades to pupils new factor that has not yet been who have been studying the ver- considered would enter in favor nacular only; these pupils will of the · experiment8.1 group, which show achievement in English will enable that. group to catch up over pupils who have been study- with or exceed the control group? ing English only. At least this J11st now we cannot 'pinpoint such has been found to be true when a factor. Our way of thinking tells. evaluation was made of the re- us that the control group will conlative achievement in English of tinue to exceed the performance the control and the experimental of the experimental group insofar groups at the end of the Third as learning English is concerned,. Grade. (English· was introduced as because this is so evident at the a second language in the Third end of the fourth year of the exGrade.) .An unpublished evalua- periment. But let us wait until THE PHILIPPINE EDU,CATOR 33 the results of the fifth and the fact that he had studied English sixth year of the experiment have only? That cannot be the answer, been evaluated. for the Laguna study showed that the average Fourth Grade graduate can read and write in his native tongue. Then to what other cause would such reversion be attributed? Might it not be suggested that the reversion to illiteracy or semi-illiteracy would be due, in specific cases, to failure to keep on reading and writing in the native tongue or in English, whichever has been the language of instruction? Having previously acquired some degree of literacy in any tongue, a person reverts to illiteracy or semi-illiteracy if he does not continue reading and writing. The language in which he had acquired some degree of literacy does not matter. And of course the ability to continue reading and writing in that tongue depends upon the availability of reading materials and the opportunity and the need for communication. If these factors are not present, and they are likely to be absent in certain areas and in the case of specific persons, there is reversion to illiteracy. One factor that is to be considered with respect to the experiment and its evaluation is the extent to which the constituency of the two groups can be kept intact through the years of the experiment. If there is fluidity in the composition of the two groups due to transfer of pupils, the results will be difficult to evaluate. The second basis of the agitation for the use of the vernacular is the claim that if the child learns English only, he will revert to illiteracy or semi-illiteracy even if he completes the intermediate grades. In the CETA conference, Dr. J. Villa Panganiban, an authority in linguistics and on the Filipino Nationa~ Language, cited studies made in the Philippine Normal College which allegedly show that there is such a reversion to illiteracy or semi-illiteracy on the part of people who studied in the intermediate grades in English. We admit that we are not familiar with these studies. We are, however, familiar with a study made in Laguna sometime before the war which indicated that a large portion of the pupils who were in Grade Four could read and write in the vernacular, without having studied anything but English. If this Laguna study was valid, it would seem safe to presume that the average Fourth Grade graduate is literate in his native tongue. If there should be a reversion to illiteracy or semiilliteracy during the lifetime of the individual, what would be the cause of such reversion? Is it the The foregoing statements try to show that reversion to illiteracy or semi-illiteracy does not depend to any great extent upon the language in which one had formerly acquired some degree of literacy; rather, it depends upon the extent to which such literacy would be used in the future. If the arguments advanced. here are valid, then there. is little basis .for the present agitation to use the vernaculars in the primary grades for the purpose of insuring literacy or of enabling the Filipino children to learn English more effectively 34 THE. PHILIPPINE EDUCATOR· when they take up this subject later in the Grades or in the High School. It is admitted that the Filipino child can acquire literacy much more readily in his native tongue than in a foreign tongue. After literacy has been acquired, and we are claiming here on the basis of the Laguna study ref erred to that the child who learns English also becomes literate in the native tongue, the duration of literacy depends upon the extent to which that literacy is used. Now, is it likely that the child who learned English only and also became literate in his native tongue will continue to be literate in his native tongue or in English? The answer to that question is not l'\O obvious. It all depends upon the opportunity and the need, and this is difficult to ascertan in specific cases. These other· questions are involved: Is there more opportunity to read and write in the native tongue or in English? Which language materials are more available to the average person? Are there more opportunities to write in the vernacular or in English? (The question of speaking the language is not of much concern here; be~use· reading and writing to insure literacy is our main concern. And it is so obvious that the .. child speaks more in his native tongue than in a foreign language.) There are many problems related to this proposal to use the vernacular as medium of instruction in' the primary grades. Here are some of them: 1. Which native tongue shall be U;iled in cosmopolitan areas such as Tarlac, Davao, Nueva. Vizcaya, ·and other places in which there is a conglomeration of dialects? 2. Preparing curriculum materials and textbooks for the various vernacular regions would be a tremendous expense. It is obvious that it would be more expensive to prepare a book in one language, say English, than in several languages. Publishing houses have cheaper rates for . large orderB than for small orders. Considering the fact that even now, when we are using English as the medium of instruction there are not enough copies of books for children, would not the situation become worse under the vernacular system? 3. Training teachers of the vernaculars would also involve considerable time and ·money. We would have to start all over again, and our work would be set back many, many years. Even develoPment of vernacular terminology for teachers' use will take many years. Even as Tagalogs have to study (from Grade I through College) the Filipino National Language, which is mainly Tagalog, the teachers .will have to do the same for their respective vernaculars. And we shall have to set up National Language Institutes for each of the dialects identical with the present Institute of National Language ! And we shall have experts in the various dialects who would be set up in the General Office to help the local people prepare their curricula and materials of instruction ! In the meantime what shall be done with the pr~.,. sent experts in English? 4.1 • There would be no fluidity of movement of teaching personnel TH.E PHILIPPINE EDUCATOR 35 1ish-written materials than with .vernacular material,· and therefore there is greater insurance that he will have greater opportunities to continue reading and writing in English . among the regions as at present because an Ilongo teacher, for in-stance, would be practically useless in the Mountain Province, .if he knows only. Ilongo. School .officials will have to be assigned .in their respective dialect regions. We know that the fluidity of 6. The world; even the Filipino movement of teaching peronnel world, is becoming more sciencefrom region to region has contri- and · technical-minded. Since the ·Luted· to the uniftcation of our vernaculars do not h~ve. enough ·:Peo:ple. This fluidity has contri- concepts, words, and terms that buted toward effecting some kind are equivalents of these in· science -0f social homogeneity to such an .and technology, it wUI be a seextent. that we no longer know or l;'lous hindrance to the scientific .care to know whether this or that and· technical advancement of our ,teacher or. school official belongs young· people for. thein to wait uri. tQ. this or to. that dialect group. _til w.e can produce our Q~ termi-The use of English has erased at nology in .dialect terms. Of course least one barrier that obstructs It' . can be argued that . we could .more effective socialization. The adopt the scientific ·and technical ,p~ople themselves 'in their inter- 'terms; but then why.·go through an group ~ommunication now possess this trouble when we already have ·some knowledge (no matter how -them in the English language? little) of a common language The cutting off of our learners . (English; and possibly the Nation- ·fr?m the rich store of literature', . al · Language in. due ti~e). . If an science, and technology through Jlocano Fourth Grade graduate, ·confirming our instruction to. the for example, goes to Mindanao and vernaculars would be a · serious meets· a person who knows a lit- drawback to their intellectual and .tle English, they can communicate cultural development. with one another to some extent. :.This :would not be so, if the two In passing, we might touch upon :~ha.d studied only their. dialects up . a point stressed iµ the speech of to Grade IV. J • Dr. J. Villa Panganiban at the .. . . · r CETA conference to the e:ffect ·. ~, 5. All the arguments for Eng- ·that many great European iiat.ions hsh as the most widely used lan_guage in science, art literature, di- ii;itroduce the vernacular in their J>lomacy, pubHc ·affairs, interns- 'schools and in an inStructional Ietion_al relationships, etc. ~ls_o argue vels sometime in the sixteenth and ,ag:amst t.he use of the vernacular. seventeenth centuries. We can onMore :reading materials available )Y say that this movement was in the Philippines are published i:h tied up . with the gradual change :English than in any·.Of the verna- from humanism to' realism in the culars. It stands to reason that thinking philosophers and school~the . average Filipino, . no ·matter men .. Before, this movement· gainhow limited his ability in English, .ed ·any popularity"' there was too would have more contact.with Eng- .mu.ell. importance and. emphasis 36 THE PHILIPPiNE EDUCATOR given to the Latin and Greek languages. The thinkers began to won.;. der why, since English was spoken in England, German was spoken in Germany, Spanish in Spain, and French in France, why there was still emphasis on Latin and Greek even in the elementary schools. The realists looked at the study of language, not for its beauty of phrase or as vehicle of noble emotion but chiefly as the carrier of information. As such, language was therefore looked upon as a practical tool for use by the people and not as a cultural subject for the elite classes. For this reason the vernacular movement became popular. What should be borne in mind in connection with the vernacular movement in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is the fact that the national languages of Europe were already widely spoken within the respective countries. English was already a well-developed hmguage, and so were the other national languages. The European countries did not have the difficulty of multiple dialects within their respective national boundaries. The question ., in their cases was very simple: ."Since we already have a national language, one spoken by a large majority of the people, why continue teaching Latin and Greek in the schools?" That is not our main language problem here. Our problem is tied up with the reality of very many vernaculars. And now, may we venture once more to suggest what we recommended before in some of our art· icles. The recommendation is as follows : First, since we believe that the child can learn more by using his dialect, why don't we use the vernacular in teaching certain subjects that are easily amenable to the use of the vernacular? Social studies, for instance, co!!kl be more effectively taught through the vernacular. And so is character education, health education, physical education, even perhaps the practical arts (gardening, carpentry, home economics). But meanwhile, let us teach English as thoroughly as we can, since this is a language that has to be made the basis of education in the higher levels. For those who do not go to school in the higher levels, let us aim to give them functional literacy through the use of the vernacular. Second, English should be made as sharp a tool as possible, and it should be taught beginning from Grade I. The longer the exposure, the better. (We predict that this last statement will be borne out by the Iloilo experiment; there are already indications of the validity of this prediction.) The tool cannot be made so sharp with children who do not go beyond the primary or elementary grades, but they will have some knowledge of a language (English) that they can use for communication with other dialect groups, Jl.lld they will have the rudiments that will enable them to ·carry on educating themselv<"s in a limited way through the use of the most widely available material for continued literacy - English materials.