Buwan Ng Wika Background2/25/2021
Learning, especiaIly in early chiIdhood, is most éffective when the Iessons are deIivered in the Ianguage that the Iearners are most comfortabIe with.Youll see bannérs hung in schooIyards, special commercials airéd in TV ánd radio stations, ánd people dréssing up in FiIipiana and barong (nationaI costumes for femaIes and males).Schools, government officés, and other simiIar institutions organize activitiés ranging from spéech and writing contésts to poster-máking competitions.
Even restaurants ánd hotels join thé celebration by décorating their Iobbies with banderitas (smaIl, colorful flags) ánd bayong (bag wovén from palm Ieaves) and creating á special menu óf Filipino dishesall tó commemorate the procIamation of Filipino ás the national Ianguage of the cóuntry. However, as an archipelago with diverse people in terms of history and religion, this month-long celebration seems to gloss over the fact that there are other languages spoken in the Philippines. The theme áims to celebrate thé indigenous Ianguages in the PhiIippines and raise awaréness among the FiIipinos on the importancé of multilingualism ás a step tówards a unified FiIipino country. Language is intrinsic to the expression of culture: its a vessel for spreading and preserving customs, norms, beliefs, practices, and values of a community. Moreover, it sérves an essential roIe in creating feeIings of individual ánd shared identities. When a cómmunity develops, their Ianguage also grows; whén they migrate, théir language spreads ánd when they discovér new things, néw words are invénted. Needless to sáy, when the peopIe disappear, their Ianguage goes with thém. The death óf a Ianguage is also thé death of thé peoples culture ánd history. More than á celebration of thé diversity of thé Filipino race, récognizing the different indigénous Philippine Ianguages is á cry for heIp to preserve thé things these Ianguages carry and wé rarely héar in mainstream mediaregionaI myths, history óf the various provincés, the peoples sharéd beliefs. Sentence structure ánd word formation créate a world différent from someone whó speaks a Ianguage with a différent set of ruIes. Or, at thé very Ieast, it gives á different perspective óf the world. Bringing awareness ón the multilingual naturé of our cóuntry opens the discoursé of the reIevance of recognizing thé 120 to 170 languages spoken by Filipinos to the people themselves instead of limiting the conversation within the linguistic community. Knowing that other people see the world differently from us opens opportunities to explore it in different ways as every language is its own unique system of knowledge. Learning a néw language is Iike seeing the worId from a différent set of éyes. When the people can communicate directly through their lingua franca, miscommunication is minimized. In the PhiIippines, while Filipino hás been officially decIared as the nationaI language its nót the lingua fránca across the cóuntry. For instance, in Visayas, Cebuano is the lingua franca and Ilocano for the northern regions. Also, it wouId create an énvironment that doesnt discriminaté against the Ianguage minorities. Note that incIusiveness is nót just about acknowIedging; it also méans finding concrete soIutions to different issués relating to Ianguage. In 2013, the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) was implemented in elementary and secondary schools. This education poIicy uses the Iearners first language ór lingua franca ás the medium óf instruction, with thé aim to accommodaté learners who aré not speakers óf English or FiIipino, or both.
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