Learners’ Beliefs and Use of Chavacano as Medium of Instruction

Abstract

Philippines has been known to be an ethnically diverse country where people speak 181 different major and minor languages. Despite being a multilingual country, the Department of Education (DepEd) through the Republic Act 10533, implemented the Mother Tongue Based, Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) in the primary level of the basic education. In the year 2012, Chavacano language was one of the languages used as medium of instruction in the primary level. Although Zamboanga City has been known to be the “Asia’s Latin City”, it is also known as the “melting pot” of the region because of the presence of different cultures bringing their own native languages. This scenario may give possibility of language mixing especially to children who do not master yet their L1. Thus this study aimed to determine the beliefs and use of the 39 participants about Chavacano (L1) as a Medium of Instruction (MOI) in L2 reading. Furthermore, study solicited the beliefs and use of the 39 participants about Chavacano (L1) as a Medium of Instruction in reading in English (L2). Using Descriptive Coding, the validated guided questions were coded, transcribed and analyzed. Results showed that the respondents were not yet proficient in their L2 and they were not exposed to L2 especially in reading as evidenced by their “sometimes” responses in reading and answering stories in English. There also seemed to be a dominant negative or unfavourable pattern on the students’ views on the role of L1 to L2 particularly in learning how to read. Generally, students did not see yet the connection or association between the languages in reading, more so, the pupils did not see the importance of their L1 in learning their target L2. They did think that Chavacano and English are both difficult languages. Moreover, this supported Ellis (1997) and Cummins (1979) Threshold Hypohesis that learners construct their own interim rules in learning a target language using their L1 knowledge if they believe that this L1 would help them in learning the task at hand or when they have become sufficiently proficient in the L2 for transfer to be possible. This also supported the findings that some problems in the mother tongue instruction were Teachers’ Guide and Learners’ Manual inconsistency, limited number of LM’s, lack of time in the preparation of localized instructional material, limited vocabulary.