Language is our
way of expressing ourselves and if we are not fluent enough, how can we express
our opinions and beliefs? But which is more important, fluency in English or mastery
of your mother tongue?
According
to the Department of Education (DepEd), local and international studies have
shown that using the language used at home (mother tongue) inside the classroom
during the learners’ early years of schooling produces better and faster
learners who can easily adapt to learn a second (Filipino) and third (English)
language. That’s why they had a new scheme: “Mother Tongue-Based Multi-Lingual
Education” (MTB-MLE).
Our mother tongue is something to be proud of.
It’s a part of our culture and we should never neglect it. Teaching children to
speak with their mother tongue is considered beneficial. Why? It is because as
they grow up, it will help them socialize with their society. Imagine a child
who is a native in Cavite but does not know how to speak Tagalog. How will the
child make friends with other children who only know their mother tongue? Our
native language also reflects our identity as Filipinos. We show respect to
elders with our language using “po” and “opo” as well as using “ate” and “kuya”
whereas in other language, they are not used.
But
on the other hand, fluency in English could help us a lot. Most of the time,
English is the medium used in job applications. People who are fluent in
English easily get a job than the others who are not. It is also easy to
socialize with other people especially foreigners if you know the language.
This will make you stand out in a crowd. Not just that, you can say that most
of our books are written in English. In connection with that, English language
can help a lot in gathering information, making researches and learning in
school. You might get wrong information if you didn’t understand what is
written in the book.
We
need not to choose between the two because both of them are important. Some may
prefer our mother tongue, others may like English. But what is more important
is we can express ourselves. Though English is often used, one should not
neglect his native language. But this does not mean that we should only focus
in our native language. We all need English language. It’s just that the
culture should be remembered. To end this piece of writing, I can say that
DepEd did the right thing for implementing MTB-MLE wherein Filipinos will use
their mother tongue as medium for teaching children in their early learning
stage for it makes the children aware of Philippine Literature.
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