Literacy Instruction In The Mother Tongue: The Case Of Pupils Using Mixed Vocabularies

Abstract

In the institutionalization of the mother tongue-basedmultilingual education (MTB-MLE) in the country, several trainings wereconducted introducing its unique features such as the use of the two-trackmethod in teaching reading based on the frequency of the sounds of the firstlanguage (L1). This study attemptedto find out how the accuracy track method worked with Waray pupils using mixedvocabularies. This is a part of a developmental study that aims to improveWaray reading instruction in basic education. The researcher used a checklistof the 100 Most Common Words in Waray for pretest and posttest, interviews,survey questionnaires, and daily observations during the three-weekimplementation of the method. The averages of the pretest and posttest scoreswere compared. Themes and patterns in the responses were likewise analyzed. Theresults showed a big gap in the performance of pupils classified as readers andbeginning readers. Several issues and challenges met were also identified.These imply that the method is less facilitative for effective teaching andlearning in Waray of speakers using mixed vocabularies. This study recommendsto modify the method or to develop an appropriate method for literacyinstruction of speakers without a strong linguistic foundation in their mothertongue.