Exploring Pedagogical Difficulties in Teaching Mother Tongue: Underpinnings of Intervention Program

Abstract

Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) program promotes the development of individuals and shall be implemented as a subject area and as medium of instruction in the primary level under the K to 12 Curriculum in the Philippines. Teachers of the first graders are the frontlines displaying levels of determination in teaching Mother Tongue (MT). Various teaching strategies are teachers’ leeway to make the lesson easy to understand. This paper described the strategies of teachers in teaching MT; their difficulties and live experiences even the proposed intervention were presented. Included in the process is the careful analysis of narratives’ codes; the text was subjected to phenomenological reduction. The multiple themes that emerged from the interview were analysed thematically. Study revealed that demonstration, game-based learning and differentiated instruction are frequently used strategies of teachers; these are the most motivating and stimulating to learners as perceived by them. Furthermore, teachers’ difficulty is not directly connected to strategy; rather, to the lack of Mother Tongue visuals and multimedia materials and equipment.