REVISITING STAKEHOLDERS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS MTB-MLE AND ELT

Abstract

A number of studies on the Filipinos’ attitude towards the Philippine official languages and on code-switching have been done; nonetheless, very few studies on attitude towards the Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) language program after its implementation in 2013 have been conducted. This paper presents selected stakeholder participants’ attitude towards the language program in relation to English language teaching (ELT) and learning after about seven years of its implementation, and now that it may be suspended through House Bill No. 6125 or the Act Suspending the Implementation of the Use of Mother Tongue as the Medium of Instruction for Kindergarten to Grade 3 as suggested by a prestigious national linguistic organization[13]. The writer’s self-designed attitude questions which were patterned after the language attitude questions [21] were used to gather data through interview. Analysis revealed that four out of six participants had a positive attitude towards MTB-MLE; two were undecided about their perception and attitude; however, three among the six did not fully understand the program. The participants supported ELT and acknowledged the role of English as the global language; nonetheless, they were uncertain as to whether or not MTB-MLE would have a positive impact on ELT and on global competitiveness. KEYWORDS: Attitude, Bilingualism, English proficiency, English Language Teaching (ELT), Language of Instruction (LOI), Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education MTB-MLE), Multilingualism.