ACTRC researchers, Dr Alan Williams, Dr Romylyn Metila, and Lea Pradilla gave presentations on their work at the recent International Conference-Workshop, Language Culture, Multiculturalism, Multilingual Education and K+12 Curriculum, held at the Main Theater, UP Diliman, from 20 to 22 November, 2014. The conference was a significant event attended by over 1700 academics and teachers with an interest in language and cultural diversity in the K to 12 Curriculum. Speakers and delegates came from many countries, including France, Russia, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, and Singapore.
Dr Alan Williams presented a plenary address, ‘Mother tongue and national language in the K–12 Curriculum: Lessons from Australia and the Philippines.’ He described linguistic diversity in Australia and discussed how the country deals with languages in the school curriculum. He shared a video which presented a two-way bilingual education program for the early years. He also discussed linguistic diversity, bilingualism, and multilingualism in the Philippines, and their implications for the K to 12 curriculum, especially for the use of the mother tongue in the early years.
Dr Romylyn Metila, Lea Pradilla, and Dr Williams presented a parallel session paper, ‘Understanding the Tagalog Context Distinction in MTB-MLE Implementation.’ This presentation reported on the challenges faced and the strategies adopted by schools in the Tagalog context in Phase 1 of ACTRC’s research project, Understanding Best Practices in MTB-MLE in the Philippines. The schools’ use of Tagalog as the mother tongue has led to some challenges caused by the similarities between Tagalog and Filipino as languages in the K to 12 Curriculum. The presentation described the strategies the schools are using in the implementation of the mother tongue as the medium of instruction. It was very well attended, reflecting the current high level of interest in MTB-MLE policy and implementation in the Philippines.
