Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education: The Attitudes and Challenges Faced By Elementary School Teachers In Marhaba School Of Davao, Inc.

AUTHOR(S)

JONAH MARI VANILLA A. VILLAFUERTE

ABSTRACT

—— The study illustrates the attitudes of elementary school teachers in Marhaba School of Davao Inc. of Lubogan, Toril, Davao City towards Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) policy; the challenges they experienced that are attributed to it; and their suggestions in improving such language education policy. The study adapted the modified version of Ejieh’s (2019) questionnaire, such modifications were done by Tonio and Ella (2019) in their study for it to fit in the Philippine educational context. Using Chronbach’s Alpha, Tonio and Ella’s (2019) modified questionnaire garnered a 0.80 rating for reliability. The questionnaire was administered online, and the data were obtained from 50 elementary teachers of a private school. The data were analyzed using the frequency and mean computation as well as thematic analysis. The results indicate that generally, the teachers disagree that the MTB-MLE policy is in good principle as they believe that it will not make the lessons interesting to students, and that it will not enable them to understand their lessons easily. In addition, some of the most recurring challenges associated with the policy include reading and instruction comprehension difficulties, degradation of English language literacy and proficiency, language and/or communication barrier between the teacher and the students, poor vocabulary and other grammar issues, teaching difficulty in Math, and difficulty in learning a second language (L2). Some recommendations obtained from the participants include the call for additional funding and support to MTB-MLE teachers, abolishing the policy and switching to the old curriculum, and revising some aspects of the policy to better suit the linguistic diversity of the country. Keywords — MTB-MLE, teachers, attitudes, challenges, recommendations