The mother of all Mother Tongues: Language as part of the Bicolano Identity, Part 3

Months ago, I posted on Facebook my apprehensions regarding eventually losing my mother tongue, that the Bicol dialect that I learned from birth will be extinct among my descendants. This was a deliberate choice on my part not to teach my only child to speak my Bicol or my wife’s Ilocano dialect. I rued the day that we did that, but it was for a good reason – protecting our child from a judgmental society or racist environment.

Much like going to Manila and deciding to stay for good in the Metropolitan where Tagalog is the preferred language for day-to-day conversations in all aspects of society. One must adapt to survive. In America, the same is true and it is beneficial for a child to learn, speak, and communicate in English for her own survival. My wife and I are both immigrants to the United States and society here is unforgiving when it comes to daily communication and use of foreign language.

Not only is English the preferred language; immigrants are also expected to speak with the fluency like the locals do. Filipinos who grew up in other parts of the Philippines where their mother tongue’s accent is very noticeable, they speak English with such a heavy accent. Filipino immigrants have a habit of congregating and speaking Tagalog (if attendees are multilingual) or their mother tongue when they’re from the same region. Even among Bicolanos, within such regional groupings are subgroups who prefer to speak the Rinconada varieties (Buhi, Iriga, Bato, or Bula) because they all long for their mother tongues.

American workplaces have adopted language requirements that forbid speaking a language other than English for professional lessons (unless as an interpreter for a patient or a customer). Locals and other non-Filipino immigrants complain that they can’t understand the other languages and are offended by such practice. “You’re in America, so speak English,” some will curtly say. Some would complain that an employee’s accent is so thick that they can’t even understand their English, much less syntax.

As adults coming to America, we’ve learned to adapt through such racist experiences knowing that this is the price of wanting a piece of the American dream. We’ve learned early that the use of our mother tongues was a liability especially for our children born and raised here. We believed then that our mother tongues inhibit language learning by creating dependency to it, limiting opportunities for practice and immersion and consequently hinders their development of proficiency (fluency) in the target language (English) .

Some kids who learned their parents’ mother tongues experienced derision and other forms of bullying in school from local kids who made fun of their accents or “funny” way of communicating. For us who came here and learned to be better with the English language, it was a necessity to swallow our pride by sacrificing our cultural pride and were willing to accept it despite the price of being muted and denying our descendants to speak and learn the dialect. It is wishful thinking to hope that American society will judge immigrants’ ability to communicate through the lenses of their mother tongues.

Many immigrants who relied too much on their mother tongues instead of immersing themselves to the acquired language lost the opportunity to engage politically (other than exercising the right of suffrage) because of inabilities to grasp the nuances of American democracy. It also hindered their ability to climb through the corporate ladder and break the glass ceiling that limits their active engagement. Politicians do recognize such weaknesses and would exploit them for their own selfish interests.

This is primarily the reason why I don’t agree with using the mother tongue in primary or secondary education. Unemployment in the Philippines is so high that seeking overseas employment has become a financial goal for families. When one looks at the employment demographics for overseas workers, it is still much higher for blue collar workers and those in the service sector than those with professional degrees. So, why not equip students with language and life skills (critical thinking and creative reasoning) that make them competitive overseas?

Reflecting on 1975 when I took the U.S. Navy’s Basic Test Battery (BTB) as a second year mechanical engineering student, it reminded me of similar difficulties that I struggled with comprehending and visualizing some of the worded questions in these areas and the science (mostly physics) knowledge items. BTB was the navy’s standardized testing that measured traditional cognitive constructs or abilities in verbal and arithmetic reasoning, and perceptual speed.

The Navy’s BTB scores were not a predictor of success in Navy service but nevertheless, it became the basis for determining what my rating (occupation) would be. I only did well in the sciences but poorly on the others. Thus, a medical career was the closest rating they could put me in despite my background in engineering. Although my classification turned out to be spot on, still this repercussion was something that bedeviled me for the last 45 years.

With the MATATAG curriculum, the new generation of Filipinos will have the opportunity to do better than their previous generations, if it is fully implemented and funded. Money is a big driver for quality education. Lack of funding cuts through the whole curriculum because students and teachers are the ones impacted.

Particularly for teachers and pre-service teachers who will be faced with the increasing demand of instructional strategies based on the new curriculum, applying best practices and pedagogical approaches to effectively implement it becomes a big challenge. Learning and teaching materials need to be developed and absorbed by teachers (and pre-service teachers) who will be at the forefront of this new experiment. Adequacy of resources (money and people) will determine success in delivering quality education.

Corollary to the poor PISA (2018, 2023) performance by Filipino students, the teachers who took their tests as well, didn’t do any better. How much preparation time and training will incumbent teachers get to enhance their mastery, practices and understanding the philosophy behind it, determines the predictive value of the new approach. Teaching is not only about lesson plans, but it also encompasses a teacher’s educational philosophy.

No two teachers are alike because the educational philosophies they bring to the table will determine students’ success or lack of it. Teaching involves knowledge, skills, and dispositions. The teacher’s educational philosophy which is influenced by mentors and formed by personal beliefs, attitude, and behaviors espoused to facilitate the student’s learning and development is part of the framework that guides a teacher and filters what’s important towards what he/she considers the purpose of education.

Philosophy is key to teaching because it sharpens the teacher’s ability to clarify concepts, to express, to think clearly and correctly, and purposely. There are four major educational philosophies that are currently used in classrooms all over the world within the epistemological frame that focuses on the nature of knowledge: Perennialism, Essentialism, Progressivism, and Reconstructionism. (To be continued)