2009/10/5
Dear Frederick,
What sort of items for teachers did you have in mind?
Basically two kinds: items for MLE coordinators, who might have limited teaching responsibilities and spend more of their time developing innovations and assisting classroom teachers in their implementation. Existing personnel are fully loaded, and MLE is unlikely to prosper unless somebody can focus their full attention on it.
Also items for additional classroom teachers, so that at least for piloting, normal sections of fifty can be split into sections of 2 x 25 or 3 x 18, sizes that are conducive to innovative teaching methods. The items will not necessarily go to the MLE pilot sections, but would free up the best and most experienced teachers to work on MLE innovation.
What is necessary is the help of bilingual teachers to teach and demonstrate instructions and directions in both languages.
Almost any candidates or teachers in our region would be bilingual, that is not a problem. I think the challenge is to shift the use of the Mother Tongue from “medium of repeated presentation to satisfy low expectations in reading English” to “medium of task-based goal-setting, organizing, reading, writing and assessment to achieve high level standards in fluent reading in the mother tongue.” At the same time, I indicated a strategy of reinvigorating ESL teaching, first for limited hours as a subject taught substantially in Cebuano, and later, if resources are available, in a well-supported “immersion-style” small section for intensive ESL which makes use of the mother tongue literacy they have already achieved. I have a detailed draft concept paper of the intensive ESL strategy if you are interested, and am working on drafting something for Kindergarten and Grade I focused on Cebuano reading and spoken English as a subject.
Having accepted that children learn best when there is good understanding of what is required.
We are an innovative and resourceful people. Let the teachers build networks among themselves and ask each other to help each other improve understanding of their lessons.
Yes, but as Mario Taguiwalo suggested a good strategy can make a difference between success and failure after the goal is agreed. And as Diane Dekker suggested, there are risks to a half-baked implementation.
Sometimes it helps to know what children have in their homes and use these as building blocks for what can be done in schools.
I am definitely interested in involving parents and family members, and have some ideas how that can be done.
Maybe an English Cebuano dictionary?
I am quite interested in learner’s dictionaries, and have been working on developing English-Cebuano resources. This includes graded vocabulary lists for introducing specific senses of meaning at appropriate grade levels, and ensuring the children have active mastery of a core vocabulary (they can produce sentences with those words, during the first 2-3 years of school in spoken form, and in later grades in writing (or rewriting into English the themes they wrote first in the mother tongue). I suspect recognition vocabulary will come automatically if the children are supported in regular and ambitious reading targets, but a productive vocabulary needs serious learning support, including speaking and later writing tasks with feedback.
I have an English Filipino dictionary. Would this be useful? Are the common Cebuano words not known to most teachers in Cebu?
Almost any teacher or candidate in Region 7 would be fluent in Cebuano. The problem is not equivalents of common words, but how the teacher can be sensitized to the multiple senses of meaning of English vocabulary, so they can ensure students achieve mastery of multiple senses appropriate for their grade. For example, a common word like “break”.
—- excerpt from draft
“break” has a basic meaning of “an object suddenly separates into several parts, usually because it is dropped or hit” (= CEB nabuak, FIL nabasag), which will be introduced in Grade I. In Grade II, they can study the additional meaning “If someone breaks for a short period of time, they rest or change from what they are doing for a short period.” (= CEB nagpahuway, FIL nagpahinga) and the related noun (= CEB miryinda, FIL meriyenda).
In Grade III, they can learn some patterns of how common words have extended meanings. For example, a leg is broken (= CEB nabali ang bukog, FIL nabalian (ng buto)) even if it remains a physical whole, but the bone inside might be cracked. A machine breaks (= CEB naguba, FIL nasira) even if there is no separation of parts, what is important is that it doesn’t work anymore. Sometimes the focus is not on a object that breaks, but on an agent that breaks loose. Related to the idea of interrupting a continuing activity, you can break a silence, or break a journey. They can study derived words like breakfast (= CEB pamahaw, FIL almusal), perhaps in relation to learning that “fast” can also mean not eating (= CEB mag-puasa, FIL mag-ayuno), daybreak (=CEB banag-banag, FIL bukang liwayway?), breakage.
In higher grades, they can study how different prepositions help signal different meanings: break into X, break with Y, break from Z. The word also participates in “phrasal verbs” where the verb is used with a prepositional form that no longer carries its usual relational meaning but signals a special meaning of the verb: break down, break out, break up. They can study idioms using the word: break someone’s heart, break new ground, break even.
The vocabulary lists will identify specific senses of meaning for a word that will be studied at different grades, so that a common word with many different meanings will be studied systematically several times over the years. That way the pupils can achieve a better mastery of the core language in both writing and reading, and have greater confidence and effectiveness in using language as a tool for learning Science and Health.
—– end of excerpt
The above analysis is based on the COBUILD dictionary, which is very useful for teachers (and has a softcopy version). I also have the Longman Dictionary of American English, which is even more user friendly for students, but less detailed. What is lacking is an English-Cebuano (and English-Filipino) learner’s dictionary embodying similar principles in support of the needs of young learners. For Cebuano, there are several English-Cebuano dictionaries including a very large one just published by SunStar. Unfortunately, it is more like a bilingual thesaurus designed for fluent speakers of both English and Cebuano who are used to writing English and are trying to find the right word or phrase in Cebuano. The entries are not self explanatory for children, and are not necessarily very useful for parents or teachers.
If you know somebody who is interested in working on a bilingual learner’s dictionary (English into Cebuano or Filipino, or both) I am interested in collaborating. I am also interested in developing other kinds of language resources, including vocabulary development materials based on grade-level lists of targeted senses of meaning.
I notice your email address is at Miriam. If you are with the college, you might want to help organize research activities along these lines, I would be happy to give a talk the next time I am in Manila. I am a colleague of Dr. Ibe on the board of trustees of Philippine Science High School, give her my regards if she still is involved with MC.
Cheers,
Fred
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Frederick B. Kintanar
Cebu City
Jasmin
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