Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

EMI has become a global phenomenon. It is a medium that is spoken by

the majority of the world population. English has become the most common and

dominant language and used both at the national and international levels. Almost

every country of the world has adopted EMI in their classroom from primary to

university level. English will serve as an advantage for students when they travel

abroad or even in their respective fields. The necessity of being proficient in the

use of the English language among non-native speakers has become a global

phenomenon. Educators in today’s time are faced with the extreme challenge of

addressing the needs of the growing number of students whose primary

language (L1) is not English.

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo implemented the Executive

Order 210 Series of 2003 which established the policy in strengthening the use of

English as a Medium of Instruction in the educational system in the Philippines.

The former President’s intention in executing the EO 210 is to keep Filipinos

competitive and to make them well-educated in the developing world. Because of

this policy the students’ will challenge for learning another language to prepare

the students in their chosen fields.

In line with this, the core of this research will tell what are the effects of

English medium of instruction on language proficiency of the students’ enrolled at

SKSU or Sultan Kudarat State University Kalamansig Campus.

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 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

INDEPENDENT VARIABLES DEPENDENT VARIABLES

Teachers’ Used of English Perception of the BSED first

The independent variable in this research is the English language. It’s

because, the English language cannot be manipulated. It is a language and

therefore it’s unchangeable while the perception can be varied because the

respondent only makes perceptions out of the usage of English language in the

class.

Statement of Problem

This study aims to provide possible solutions with these following problems:

 What is the profile of students in terms of:

1. Gender;

2. Age;

 How wide the level of perceived English proficiency of BSED first year

and second year English students’

 How does using English as a medium of instruction affect students’

learning process in the classroom?

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Hypothesis of the study

H 1 A: Is there a significant relationship between the English proficiency of

the freshmen and second year BSED English students and the language

proficiency of the English teachers?

H 2 B: There is no relationship between the language proficiency of the

English teachers and the English proficiency of the BSED freshmen and second

year English students.

Significance of the Study

This study is substantial in teacher and the students in terms of teaching

learning process. The result of the study will supply advance information in

learning English language as a medium of instruction and it provides

supplementary strategies for unlocking the difficulties in learning English

language.

Scope and the Limitations

This study focused on the effects of English medium of instruction on

language proficiency. The BSED first year and second year students of Sultan

Kudarat State University kalamansig Campus considered as the respondents of

this study.

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 Definition of Terms

EMI. The used of English as the main medium of instruction in the institutions-.

particularly when the students and academic staff do not speak it as a

mother tongue.

Lingua Franca. A language that is adopted as a common language between

speakers whose native languages are different.

Baccalaureate Degree. An academic degree conferred on someone who has .

Successfully completed undergraduate studies.

Proficiency. The quality of having great facility and competence.

Supplementary Strategies. Completing or enhancing something to met the

standard.

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 Chapter II
REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

The English language is one of the most geographically widely spoken

languages in the world and serves multiple purposes in a rapidly globalizing

world. Its wide use extends from politics and economy to technology, science,

media and communication. Its mastery opens doors to more information than the

mastery of any other language (Crystal, 2003). The importance of English

language learning and its usage as a medium of instruction divides opinions.

While some prefer using English as a medium of instruction as opposed to the

mother tongue, others are suspicious of English language learning from an early

age.

Foreign Literature

According to June Jordan "You will never teach a child a new language

by scoring and ridiculing and forcibly erasing his first language." At the beginning

of education, mother tongue instruction is very important not only to develop a

strong educational foundation, but also to strengthen the cognitive development

of learners.

Lev Vygotsky‘stheory of Cognitive Development focuses heavily on

language and social interaction, and the role they play in helping learners acquire

an understanding of the culture in which they live. Language is a tool people use

for cultural transmission, communication, and reflection on their own

thinking.Teachers are encouraged to engage students in meaningful learning

tasks that involve language and social interaction. Learners who can benefit from

5
assistance are in what Vygotsky calls the zone of proximal development.

Learners within this zone can profit from instructional scaffolding in the form of

modeling, questions, prompts, and cues

Skutnabb-Tangas and Toukomaa (1976) proposed the ‘threshold level

hypothesis’, which posits that only when children have reached a threshold of

competence in their first language can they successfully learn a second language

without losing competence in both languages. Further, only when a child has

crossed 16 a second threshold of competence in both languages will the child‘s

bilingualism positively affect intellectual development, a state which they called

‗additive bilingualism.

Nicholas and Lightbown (2008) explain that the pace of learning an

additional language, and effective instruction or support for children to learn an

additional language, will depend upon whether the child is has developed literacy

in L1. Literacy entails the development of metalinguistic awareness, including the

knowledge that the pronunciation of words is related to the written form (for most

languages), and that there are ‗right‘ and ‗wrong‘ ways to say things. (August &

Shanahan, 2006).

If children are made to operate in the classroom in a poorly developed

second language, the quality and quantity of what they learn from complex

curriculum materials and produce in oral and written form may be relatively weak

and impoverished. (Baker,1996, p. 148)

The effective domain, involving confidence, self-esteem and identity, is

strengthened by use of the first language (L1), increasing motivation and initiative

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as well as creativity. L1 classrooms allow children to be themselves and develop

their personalities as well as their intellects, unlike submersion classrooms where

they are forced to sit silently or repeat mechanically, leading to frustration and

ultimately repetition, failure and dropout. (Carol Benson 2004).

Language acquisition has been based primarily on studies of monolingual

acquisition, resulting in more theory than empirical evidence. However, scholars

17 agree broadly that children, including most children with specific learning

impairments or low general intelligence, have the capacity to learn more than one

language (Genesee, 2002.)

The L1 allows children to express their full range of knowledge and

experience and demonstrate their competence, which pedagogical approaches

like those of Piaget and Vygotsky would support as productive for learning.

(Richardson, 2001).

Foreign Studies

Many people believe that children have finished learning their first

language by the time they go to school. However, current research indicates that

at least 12 years are necessary to learn one's first language. In fact, adults are

still learning aspects of language all their lives-vocabulary, the social aspects of

language, 20 decontextualized language, and pragmatic skills (Collier 1989 citing

McLaughlin 1984).

Prodromou carried out research into the perceptions of 300 Greek

students regarding L1 use in the monolingual classroom at three levels –

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beginner, intermediate and advanced. A relatively high percentage of beginner

and intermediate students (between 53% and 66%) answered that both the

teacher and the students should use the mother tongue, while only a minority of

advanced learners supported those views. This contrasts with the students

opinions concerning the use of L1 in specific classroom situations (i.e. giving

instructions, explaining grammar and so on). Here L1 use receives a small

amount of support from the different level groups. Prodromou concludes that his

study presents a clear pattern; the more English students learn, the less reliant

they are on the L1 and that, on the whole, his students seem to have a negative

opinion of L1 use in the classroom. (Prodromou, 2002). A study of 17,000 British

theory stands up to children learning French in a school context indicated that,

after five years practice of exposure, children who had begun French instruction

at age 11 performed better on tests of second language proficiency than children

who had begun at eight years of age (Stem, Burstall, and Harley 1975 cited in

McLaughlin 1992).

A study of English-speaking children in Canada in late-immersion

programs (in which the second language is introduced in grades seven or eight)

have been found to perform just as well or better on tests of French language

proficiency as children who began their immersion experience in kindergarten or

grade one (Genesee 1987). (See Part II for a description of the Canadian early-

immersion program.)

The 1991 Ramirez et al. report in the United States indicates that Latino

students who received sustained instruction in their home language fared

8
academically better than those who studied under an all-English program. The

1997 Thomas and Collier‘s study confirms these findings. Non-English speaking

children in America who received a full six years of L1 education before being

mainstreamed into an all-English curriculum were found to score above the

national norms, at the 54th percentile. Those receiving one to three years of L1

instruction or no L1 support at all finished on the average between the 11th and

33rd percentile.

In Mozambique began following a conference on how to reduce the high

repetition, failure and dropout rates plaguing basic education. This was also a

principal motivation in the well-documented Six-Year Primary Project in Nigeria

whose results clearly supported long-term mother tongue development. Some

countries have followed up on the successes of models and materials for use in

formal schooling, which Cambodia has just begun doing in several languages of

the eastern highlands. (Thomas, 2003) The Six-Year Medium Primary Project

demonstrated unequivocally that a full six-year primary education in the mother

tongue with the L2 taught as a subject was not only viable but gave better results

that all-English schooling. It also suggested that teachers should be allowed to

specialize in L2 instruction. (Fafunwa et al 1975).

There is growing evidence from across Africa, Latin America and Asia that

mother tongue based multilingual education is the most appropriate solution for

children who do not use national or international languages in their home life 22

(Benson, 2006). Children build up a strong conceptual picture of the world and

9
academic concepts through a language they understand first, and later on

transfer that to a second or third language. There is clear evidence that good

quality MTB-MLE works, resulting in substantial efficiency savings to the

education system and leading to better learning competencies and proficiency in

both second languages and local language (Webley et al, 2006).

In 2006, the Association for Development of Education in Africa (ADEA)

published a review of research on the use of African languages in the education

of African children (Alidou, Boly, Brock-Utne, Diallo, Heugh, and Wolff, 2006). In

an early chapter, the following assertion is made: continued maintenance of the

mother tongue (or a national language) medium of instruction plus the teaching

of the official and other foreign languages by skilled teachers will secure quality

education, in Africa as much as in the so-called developed countries (p. 37;

emphasis added).

Researchers now consider that learning a second language requires

learning two different kinds of skills: (1) social communication skills; and (2)

academic language skills. To learn the first, requires only one or two years; to

master the second, at the level approaching grade norms, requires from five to

seven years (Cummins 1984).

Local Literature

The Philippines is a multilingual and multicultural nation with more than

150 languages. A national language is a powerful resource for inter-ethnic

dialogue, political unity, and national identity. To communicate throughout the

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nation, Filipinos use the national Lingua Franca called Filipino, also known as

Tagalog and Pilipino. They speak it as an L2, and not as an L1. Because

languages in the Philippines have similar features, values, and concepts, non-

native speakers of Tagalog learn Filipino faster, rather than English. (A Primer on

MLE, Nolasco, pg5)

Castillo (1999) echoes the importance of multilingual education beginning

with the first language. She notes studies in the USA and Canada have shown

that, when first language instruction is provided along with appropriate second

language instruction, then students can achieve academically at higher levels

that if they had been taught in the second language only.

Dr. Ricardo Ma. Duran Nolasco, a linguistics professor from UP, cites the

high functional illiteracy of Filipinos and the high drop-out and non-completion

rates 18 of students as the problems the mother tongue-based MLE seeks to

address. On July 14, 2009, in what The Philippine Star columnist Isagani Cruz

hailed as ―one of the most significant and far-reaching contributions of (then

DepEd) Secretary JesliLapus to the history of Philippine education,‖the DepEd

issued Order No. 74 series of 2009, entitled ―Institutionalizing Mother Tongue-

Based Multilingual Education (MLE).

DepEd Order No. 74 institutionalizes Mother Tongue-Based MLE—that is,

the use of more than two languages for literacy and instruction—as a

fundamental policy and program in the whole stretch of formal education,

including preschool. Under this framework, the learner‘s first language (L1) will

be used as the primary medium of instruction from preschool to at least Grade 3,

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and as the main vehicle to teach understanding and mastery of all subject areas

like Math, Science, Makabayan, and language subjects like Filipino and English.

Sibayan (1967) suggests that the Filipino people have had to face the

language problem at practically every stage in their history. Spanish colonization

from 1521 until 1898 and the period of American rule from 1900 until the

establishment of the Philippine Republic in 1946 have both had an impact upon

language use in all walks of life, but perhaps none more than in the area of

education.

Sibayan (1985) notes that some of the problems of bilingual education

among the linguistic minorities in the Philippines are related to the lack of

materials in the language. The Council for the Welfare of Children Report (1999)

states that schools must change to serve the Filipino child - locally-developed

learning materials using vernacular language is suggested in order to maintain

pupil's interest in the 19 curriculum. This would serve to build the child's

perception of the value of their language and increase their self-esteem and

promote continuing involvement in the education process. Baguingan (1999)

highlights the significant financial resources investment and teacher training

required to prepare instructional materials for the many language

The researcher has been to Department of Education and given the

chance to talk to the Special Education Unit Supervisor, Ms.Arsenia C. Lara. She

gave us some information about how they implemented the mother tongue

considering various reasons based to recent studies stated above. Inspired with

the information and experience, the researchers have conceptualized to pursue

12
the study about the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education to enhance

learning.

Dr. Ricardo Ma. Nolasco of the UP Department of Linguistics noted that

two out of three Filipinos, between the ages 10-64, do not understand what they

are reading, based on the 2003 FLEMMS survey. According to the 2008-2009

results of the national career assessment examination (NCAE), the reading

comprehension and verbal abilities of 4th year high school students are at a low

49.1 and 43.0 respectively for the public schools, and 57.9 and 52.1 for the

private schools. s of the Philippines.

Local Studies

Now everyone will agree that we need greater competence in English to

be competitive in a globalized world. But educators or those who have done

education research will disagree that using English as the medium of instruction

will accomplish that goal. As a matter of fact, they point out that research findings

are unequivocal, 23 that to achieve greater mastery in English or Filipino, the

most effective medium of instruction is in the child's mother tongue that is her first

language or the language spoken at home. Studies in country after country bear

this out. Teaching in an official school language that is not the mother tongue is a

major barrier in the child's learning. In the Philippines, the experiment was

conducted in Kalinga, where teachers use Kalinga to teach children from Grades

1 to 3 to read and write. It is also the medium of instruction for teaching other

subjects, including Filipino and English. Out of the 10 districts in the Kalinga

13
division, the Lubuagan district topped the 2006 national achievement test Grade

3 reading test for both English and Filipino, with mean scores of 76.55% and

76.45 respectively, which indicates mastery. The Tinglayan district came in a far

second registered only 63.89% and 53.58%. ("Analysis by WinnieMonsod",

2009).LubuaganKalinga First Language Experiment was conducted with three

experimental class schools implementing MLE and another three control class

schools implementing bilingual education scheme. Already in its tenth year, the

project is being carried out by the Summer Institute of Linguistics-Philippines, the

Department of Education and the local community of Lubuagan, Kalinga

province. The over-all results of the test show the experimental class scored

nearly 80 percent mastery of the curriculum, while the control class scored just

over 50 percent mastery. The results provide crucial evidence that mother tongue

instruction strengthens the learning of English and Filipino and does not hinder

the learning of content, contrary to the fears and concerns of many parents and

educators.

14
 Chapter III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design

The researcher used qualitative type of research for it aims primarily at

determining the effects of English medium of instruction and to identify the level

of perceived English proficiency of students and what are the students’ and

instructors’ attitudes towards English medium of instruction. The students’

perception about the usage of English language will be determined using a

survey. Their answers will be reflected as a numerical value.

Population and Sampling Plan

A random sampling procedure was used for selecting the participants in

this study. The technique was employed to ensure fairly equal representation of

the variables for the study. The respondents were based on the BSED freshmen

and secondary English majors in Sultan Kudarat state University Kalamansig

Campus. Within each year, selection of students is only 25% of their total

strength. This was achieved by choosing the students randomly until it cope up

the 25% needed to answer the survey research questionnaire. That is,

researcher applied the random sampling technique.

Research Instrument

The instrument used in this study is a 4 point Likert Scale ranged from

“Excellent” to “Poor”. There are 10 questions in the questionnaire. The purposes

15
of the study and the types of data called for necessitated the use of language

tests and questionnaires as the major data gathering instruments. Language

testing was considered appropriate not only because of its potential to provide

information’s about the students' knowledge and use of English as a second

language. The questionnaire technique was selected because of its

appropriateness for gathering quantitative information on perceptions.

Statistical Treatment

Statistically weighted mean was used in answering the research

questions. The response options in the instrument are weighted as shown below:

Table 1. 4 Likert Rating Scale

Excellent High Average poor

4 3 2 1

Table 2. Ranges

Ranges Descriptive Rating

4.99-4.00 Excellent

3.99-3.00 High

2.99-2.00 Average

1.99-1.00 Poor

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