CRISSEL R.
ANTHONY LANGUAGE PROGRAM & POLICIES in the MULTILINGUAL SOCIETY
2BSED MR. ROY BENEDICTO
Answer the Following:
1.What were the problems encountered by the 3 ASEAN countries?
2. What were the actions taken in preserving language and dialects?
MALAYSIA
140 Languages spoken
MALAY is National Language of Malaysia
There is also school offering to teach Mandarin & Tamil for the first six years of school.
In other state of Sarawak, other languages are used as medium of instruction.
The Iban has their language taught in both primary and secondary.
In Sabah, Kadazandusun has been taught as POL in government school sine 1997(Smith,2003), and the use of
Murut has just started (K. Kosonan,2005)
Orang Asli (the indigenous people in west Malaysia) Semai language is being used at lower school level in some
schools where community dominates.
Problems encountered in Language Policies
1. PUPIL OWN LANGUAGE can only be taught at least 15 students (Jurnudd,1999; Kaplan & Baldauf;
Kua,1998; Smith,2003)
2. Mathematics & Science has been taught in English from primary Grade 1 onwards since 2003
(Spolsky,2004; Yaakub,2003)
3. The use of Malay language and English are more important than using the mother tongue language
SINGAPORE
20 languages spoken
75 % of the population is ethnic Chinese
They practiced bilingualism (English and a mother tongue) because Singaporeans are important to present
Singapore ethnic ana linguistic diversity identity in the world.
The use of English as national language in Singapore:
a. It gives them access to the world market.
b. Rapid economic growth since 1980s
c. Better opportunities for them as individuals and to other countries.
Problems encountered in Language Policies
1. English is the sole medium of instruction at all levels of education and the three other official
languages (Malay, Mandarin & Tamil) as a second language.
2. Bilingual policy where English is learnt as first language. Mother tongue to be learned according
to their ethnic background.
Objective: to promote the use of mother tongue s so as to ensure identification with the
maintenance of traditional cultures and their values.
3. Only 45% of the Chinese spoke Mandarin at home
4. The use of Mandarin has replaced the other use Chines dialects.
5. The Indians switch towards English during family activities and use Tamil in prayers and in
communicating with relatives.
6. In 1991 the use of Tamil by Indians was low. The main ethnic groups have the largest shift from
Tamil to English (age range of 5-14 years old)
7. Singaporeans rely in the use of English and Mandarin due to its economic importance globally.
(the Malay community is still maintained in switching Malay and English occurs in the home
domain)
PHILIPPINES
Multi-ethnological country consisting 180 languages.
The Bilingual Education Policy in the Philippines (1974, revised in 1987) states that English and Filipino are the
languages of education and official languages of literacy for the nation.
The goal of this policy is to make the population bilingual.
In 1970, Filipino started to use in teaching in grade five and the mother tongue use in teaching instruction from
grade one to four for non-Tagalog areas.
English was offered double period subject in grade fie and grade six.
In the intermediate level and Highschool both English and Pilipino were used as the media of instruction.
In 1973, they attempt to change the system to use the vernacular language as a medium of instruction in grade
one and grade two with English and Pilipino subjects. In grade three, English was the medium of instruction. It
was not accepted immediately and it resulted for revision that English and Pilipino were used as the media of
instruction in all levels.
In DEPED Order No. 25 states that “the vernacular shall be resorted to only when necessary to facilitate
understanding of the concepts being taught through the prescribed medium of instruction: English and Pilipino”
Problems encountered in Language Policies
1. The language policy has influenced the abandonment of some Philippine languages.
2. The vernacular languages are auxiliary media of instruction in schools and they are used but
generally only in the home domain.
3. Local languages have been elevated as auxiliary languages and are not used seriously as a
medium of instruction.
PHILIPPINES LANGUAGE POLICY CHANGES
1970: Implementation of Bilingual Education Medium of Instruction for elementary Level
A. Tagalog area
Grade 1-5:Pilipino
B. Non Tagalog areas
Grade 1-5: Vernacular Language
Grade 5:Pilipino
Grade 5-6: Pilipino and English are subjects in schools
C. Medium of instruction for intermediate level and high school
Intermediate level: English and Pilipino
High school: English and Pilipino
1973: Medium of instruction for elementary level
A. Grade 1-2: Vernacular language with Pilipino and English as school subjects
B. Grade 3: English with the Pilipino as media of instruction in all levels as stated in DEC Order No. 25
Revised Policy
a. Bilingual Education: English and Pilipino as media of instruction in all levels
b. Vernacular languages: auxiliary languages
Approaches to Language Revitalization
According to Leanner Hinton and Ken Hale (2001), there are five categories of approaches in language revitalization
globally.
1. School based programs
2. Children programs outside the school
3. Adult language programs
4. Documentation and materials development; and
5. Home based programs
ACTIONS TAKEN TO REVITALIZED THE LANGUAGE
1. SCHOOL BASED PROGRAMS
Endangered Language as a subject
Malaysia
The Ministry of Education (MOE) started to introduce “Semai” in the national curriculum from year
1996 till implementation in the year 2000.
UNESCO funded the use of Bidayuh as a medium of instruction in the Bidayuh Belt.
Philippines
A memorandum of Agreement with Caraga Department of Education signed by two NGOs who
funded the teaching of “Butuanon Language” in public schools staring school year 2006 solicited
by SOLFED Butuan Chapter.
2. ADULT LANGAUGE PROGRAMS
Malaysia
They offer evening classes for adults and families once a week. Two adult classes for Bidayuh
language in Kampong Quop.
3. DOCUMENTATION AND MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
Malaysia
They develop books and audiotapes in teaching language and learning aids such as video tapes and
CR ROMs.
They help the Iranun in Sabah, Malaysia to revitalized their language by the following actions:
a) Proposed practical orthography based on linguistic analysis
b) Preliminary Phonology description
c) Recording and transcription of Iranun traditional stories and history was carried out.
d) Community members attended a three-part writer’s workshop to train them in writing
literature.
e) Since there are 29 isolects,The Bidayuh Language Development project to have a unified
orthography system and achieved the four main Bidayuh dialects and resulted to have a
unified symbolization for Bidayuh words.
Philippines
The SOLFED Butuan Chapter created a BUTUANON syllabus or grammar book to be used by
teachers.
The SOLFED-Butuan members who were native Butuan speaker have a collaboration in designing the
syllabus and copied to a computer hard disc and made copies. The recordings were played in
classrooms.
4. HOME BASED PROGRAMS
Children learn their first language at home taught by their parents.
In Peninsular Malaysia Sikh children learned Punjabi said by the gurdwaras
(the Sikh temple and educating parents on the correct lexical items for specific words)
5. COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY
The computer technology has become the ultimate solution to revitalize the language.
Uses of computer technology in language revitalization:
a) Development of materials and self-published books
b) Online dictionaries, grammars and other important language references
c) Multimedia curriculum for language pedagogy
d) Networking (which include email, online newsgroup, blogs) and
e) Documentation
