MTB-MLE Curriculum: An Evaluative Study on Language Transitioning Design for Basic Education

Abstract

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to elicit teachers' lived experiences of teaching Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) in the primary grades. It sought to evaluate the MTB-MLE program in Dawis Elementary School in Digos City, Philippines particularly in its effects in the curriculum, instruction, and assessment, the effect of the transition from mother tongue to English language, and how teachers address the challenges they encountered in the implementation of MTB-MLE. In-depth interview (IDI) was conducted to the participants who handled learners from diverse tribes. Eight (8) significant themes emerged from the effects of MTB-MLE in terms of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment divided into two categories: success and struggles. For the success: Easy Understanding of Concepts and Enhancement of Students’ Engagement surfaced as themes. For the struggles: Linguistic Problems, Transition Challenges, Construction of non-standardized test, Inadequate Instructional Materials, Teacher Training Difficulty, and No Codified Dialects cropped up. Four (4) significant themes emerged in the transition from Mother Tongue to English Language to the learners: lexical problems, lack of instructional materials, translation difficulties, and comprehension difficulties. Five (5) themes in terms of the strategies that teachers address during the transition from Mother Tongue to English language appeared: Translation of target language to mother tongue, Utilization of Multilingual Resources, Utilization of technological aids, Use of scaffolding and bridging in instruction, and enhancing and optimizing the learning experience of students. The study's findings shed light for evaluating the MTB-MLE curriculum. School administrators may find this study to be helpful in providing insights for enhancing the MTB-MLE curriculum. Likewise, results of the study may provide incisive contributions to the ongoing discourse on MTB-MLE.