Landscaping the Philippine Languages: The Implementation of Multilingual Education Policy

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Introduction
The Department of Education (DepEd) issued DepEd Order No. 74, series of 2009 which positioned Mother Tongue-Based Multi-Lingual Education as the official language policy of the basic education system in the Philippines which aimed to improve the use of the English language of students, together with the vision to resuscitate our geographically-based languages and minority languages. Thus, justice and equality among languages are put into consideration with the aid of MTB-MLE, and learning of concepts in the schools can be acquired by learners easily. It is an aggressive attempt of the Philippines government to underscore learners' capacity to acquire basic concepts through the use of their first language. Now that there is MTB-MLE in the Philippines, students can easily comprehend lessons and instructions given by their teachers using their first language. The Philippines is considered a language laboratory since it has 168 geographically-based languages and minority languages and others are yet to be reported. It can be viewed as a challenging opportunity for national education administrators in implementing this program because each regional and local language is unique and complex and as it is perceived differently by different language groups in the country especially when it comes to program implementation given that the country is an archipelago and availability of resources may vary from one local to another.
In 1948, the United Nations Declaration of Universal Human Rights affirmed the right to education without discrimination. After that declaration, another milestone has been achieved, in 1953, UNESCO expanded this by endorsing the mother tongue to be used as the medium of instruction. It states that: According to UNESCO (1953), it is best for a child to use his first language in learning. It provides systems of meaningful signs relative to how his mind works automatically. In education, he learns through it faster because it is familiar to him.
It is an affirmation that access to education should not be limited to only a few, but for all. Given that this is one of the movements behind the structural and ideological changes in the landscape of language policy in the Philippines, one cannot deny its sustainability and applicability in the countries like the Philippines, since it provides greater opportunities for learners to learn and participate.
Moreover, it is worth noting that it is the Philippines is the only ASEAN country that institutionalized multilingual education as its official language policy in the curriculum (Martin & Tupas, 2016), through the Department of Education Order 74, series 2009 and later adapted in the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013.
For this reason, a program like MTB-MLE is worth revisiting, provided that its implementation is something unique in Southeast Asia, it can be viewed as a benchmark for our neighboring countries, yet we say that it can never run without any problem. Its effectivity has been in various experimental research conducted in the Philippines and in abroad, but it underwent changes and gone through problems over time.
On this note, the challenge always lies on the end-users of the program, the teachers, and through this, the extent of their implementation shall be revisited. Now, this paper sought to determine the extent of program implementation of multilingual education policy and how do teachers implement the program? Martin (2008) opined that the English language is the most-feared language in the Philippines. With the current MTB-MLE, students can easily comprehend lessons and instructions. The Philippines is considered a language laboratory since it contained 168 geographically-based languages and minority languages. It can be viewed as a challenging opportunity for national education administrators in implementing this program because each regional and local language is unique and complex and it is perceived differently by different language groups in the country. And one of the many challenges MTB-MLE is facing in the Philippines is it has been continuously receiving counterblows from those who believe that English is and those who speak English are superior, not realizing that this policy would be an agent to intensify our global competitiveness in the face of the world.

Review of Related Literature
Singh, Zhang, and Besmel (2012) argue that a society with access to resources supporting multilingual and multicultural ideals may gain advantages in terms of social and economic roles in this era of globalization. Mother tongue education as a part of multilingual policies has been recognized as part of cultural development. The use of mother tongue language is a compromise to the conflicts emerging between the domination of a language over local languages.
Scholars have also looked into this area of multilingual education and language anxiety and the results of their study may vary depending on the context and localization. Also, its relationship is undeniably evident since both are connected with language learning and development. However, the reservoir of research examining the relationship between language anxiety, proficiency, and multilingualism has been little or scarce (Thompson & Lee, 2012). And as found out by Bensalem (2018) found out that multilingualism produces a range of anxiety from low to average after engaging college students learning English as a foreign language. This confirms that multilingualism actually has an effect on anxiety.

Statement of the Problem
This paper ought to unravel the perceptions of teachers as end-user of the program, MTB-MLE towards the implementation and its extent. Specifically, the following questions ought to be answered: 1. What is the perception of teachers towards the extent of their implementation of the program? 2. How do teachers implement the program? 3. What implications may be drawn from the findings of the study? The data collected were tabulated and processed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings were presented using the necessary tables and figures. In order to analyze and interpret the data gathered, the following statistical measures were used: the extent of the implementation of mother tongue-based multilingual policy by the teacher-respondents was quantified using the necessary rating scale, range of scoring, and descriptors. Also, an interview was conducted in order to gain insights from the informants on how they execute the program.

Data Gathering Procedure
The mode of data gathering was the survey questionnaire method. Each of the respondents was given a well-structured, wellinstructed, and standardized set of questions to describe quantitatively, for the teacher-respondents, the extent of implementation of mother tongue-based multilingual education policy.

Results and Discussion 4.1 The Extent of the Implementation of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education Policy
Sound policies are very essential in order to implement educational plans and achieve desired goals in learning the language. In this regard, there is a constant and massive effort to revolutionize the teaching and learning of language, consistent with the demands of the ever-changing world.
In the study of Björklund, Björklund, and Sjöholm (2013), the significance of a minority language as opposed to a dominating language has been emphasized to gain recognition from a number of countries where several indigenous or regional languages serve as barriers to language learning. The use of mother tongue language as an initial step to help learners gain the fundamental principles or knowledge about a second or foreign language is very essential.
Singh, Zhang, and Besmel (2012) argue that a society with access to resources supporting multilingual and multicultural ideals may gain advantages in terms of social and economic role in this era of globalization. Mother tongue education as a part of multilingual policies has been recognized as part of cultural development. The use of mother tongue language is a compromise to the conflicts emerging between the domination of a language over local languages.
In this study, the extent of the implementation of a multilingual education policy was quantified in terms of the perception of respondent-teachers using the guidelines issued by the Department of Education.

Indicators Mean Interpretation
There is a working orthography (spelling) for the chosen 5.00 Very Great Extent local language.
There are inexpensive instructional materials in the 5.00 Very Great Extent designated language at the school, division, and regional levels with a special priority on beginning reading and children's literature.
Learner's first language is the medium of instruction from 5.00 Very Great Extent Mother Tongue as a subject and as a medium of instruction 4.00 Great Extent is introduced in Grade one for conceptual understanding.
In the secondary level, Filipino and English shall be 4.00 Great Extent primary medium of instruction (MOI).
The language of instruction is also the primary language 5.00 Very Great Extent of testing.
A continuing in-service training (INSET) in partnership 4.85 Very Great Extent with MLE specialist has been implemented.
There is strong support for the program implementation 4.57 Very Great Extent from the local government unit, parents, and community.
Ensuring critical awareness, maximum participation, and 5.00 Very Great Extent support from the LGU, parents, and community for the implementation of the language and literacy program strategy.

Average Mean Score4.64 Very Great Extent
As can be observed from the data presented in the table above, the mother tongue-based multilingual education policy is implemented to a very great extent by the teacher-respondents as evidenced by the average mean score of 4.64. The result indicates that the said respondents very satisfactorily complied with the mandate to set in motion a multilingual education policy based on the mother tongue language.
Mother tongue-based multilingual education policy is implemented to a great extent when a working orthography (i.e. spelling) is present for chosen local language (5.00), when expensive instructional materials are available for language education primarily on beginning reading and children's literature at the school, division, and regional levels (5.00), when the learner's first language is used as the medium of instruction from Kinder to Grade 3 in the subjects like Math, Science, Makabayan, Filipino and English (5.00) when the language of instruction utilized is also the primary language of testing (5.00), when critical awareness, maximum participation, and support from the local government unit, parents, and community are ensured for the implementation of the language and literacy program strategy (5.00), when a continuing in-service training (INSET) in partnership with MLE specialist is implemented (4.85), and when the program implementation receives strong support from the local government unit, parents, and community (4.57).
On the other hand, the implementation is said to be to a great extent when Filipino, English, and other local and foreign languages are introduced as separate subjects in a carefully planned pacing program and not earlier than Grade two (4.00), when Mother Tongue as a subject and as a medium of instruction is introduced in Grade one for conceptual understanding (4.00), and when Filipino and English shall be the primary medium of instruction (MOI) in the secondary level (4.00). Hu (2015) found the signification of the use of mother tongue in learning a language. The study reasons out that second and foreign language learners of English, as well as their educators, utilize their first languages in order to create a "nurturing environment" for learning. The use of mother tongue in giving instructions, exercises and drills, code-switching, and the likes provide building blocks of fundamental knowledge in order for them to acquire a certain range of competency, which will be useful as they further acquire learning inputs.
Yassin and Razak (2017) revealed that mother tongue-based teaching interferes with the level of anxiety or stress experienced by language learners. The interference was studied considering the years of study of the respondents. The effect of such interference was found more prominent among lower years and less among their counterpart in the higher levels.

Program Implementation
To check the consistency and reliability of data, the researcher included an interview from which he described and analyzed how teachers implement multilingual. These were the results of the interview, as examined by the researcher.
1. As a language teacher, I allow my learners to use their native tongue to ask questions for clarification. 2. Give the learners more speaking activities inside the classroom and group work after class hours. 3. I use multilingual practices by giving them the chance to express themselves without minding grammatical errors. I believe encouraging them to concentrate on communicative success rather than formal accuracy will help them utilized the language and be more comfortable in it.