8/18/2020 0 Comments Buwan Ng Wika Theme
Learning, especially in early childhood, is most effective when the lessons are delivered in the language that the learners are most comfortable with.Youll see banners hung in schoolyards, special commercials aired in TV and radio stations, and people dressing up in Filipiana and barong (national costumes for females and males).
Schools, government offices, and other similar institutions organize activities ranging from speech and writing contests to poster-making competitions. Even restaurants and hotels join the celebration by decorating their lobbies with banderitas (small, colorful flags) and bayong (bag woven from palm leaves) and creating a special menu of Filipino dishesall to commemorate the proclamation of Filipino as the national language of the country. 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 aims to celebrate the indigenous languages in the Philippines and raise awareness among the Filipinos on the importance of multilingualism as a step towards a unified Filipino 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 serves an essential role in creating feelings of individual and shared identities. When a community develops, their language also grows; when they migrate, their language spreads and when they discover new things, new words are invented. Needless to say, when the people disappear, their language goes with them. The death of a language is also the death of the peoples culture and history. More than a celebration of the diversity of the Filipino race, recognizing the different indigenous Philippine languages is a cry for help to preserve the things these languages carry and we rarely hear in mainstream mediaregional myths, history of the various provinces, the peoples shared beliefs. Or, at the very least, it gives a different perspective of the world. Bringing awareness on the multilingual nature of our country opens the discourse of the relevance of recognizing the 120 to 170 languages spoken by Filipinos to the people themselves instead of limiting the conversation within the linguistic community. Learning a new language is like seeing the world from a different set of eyes. When the people can communicate directly through their lingua franca, miscommunication is minimized. In the Philippines, while Filipino has been officially declared as the national language its not the lingua franca across the country. For instance, in Visayas, Cebuano is the lingua franca and Ilocano for the northern regions. Understanding and being aware of the various languages used helps facilitate a peaceful discourse between and among different conflicting groups for a more democratic and civil means of resolving conflict and peace building. Also, it would create an environment that doesnt discriminate against the language minorities. Note that inclusiveness is not just about acknowledging; it also means finding concrete solutions to different issues relating to language. In 2013, the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) was implemented in elementary and secondary schools.
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