Folklore in Laoang, Northern Samar A Culture-based Curricular Resource for Educators

Folklore forms part of the treasure’s worth preserving among the rich cultural heritage of the people. Through retrieval, translation and analyses, the distinct culture firmly rooted from the ancestors is traced. At the same time, this can supplement the need for instructional materials in teaching literature. This will be a great help to children since they will not just be learning aspects of literature for enjoyment and pleasure, but also, they will be acquainted with information which will let them understand where they came from and the culture of the people and society where they grew up with. This qualitative study explored the extant pieces of folklore in Laoang, Northern Samar through unstructured interview in gathering the data. It yielded 46 folklores which consisted of five (5) folktales, 12 folksongs, three (3) legends, 13 proverbs, and 13 riddles from 18 informants in Laoang, Northern Samar. Translation techniques like one-to-one, lexical borrowing, amplification and expansion were used. The analyses showed that values like strong faith in God, sense of responsibility, concern, kindness and generosity, family-orientedness and longingness, companionship and friendship, and tolerance were the dominant values reflected in the folklores. The people used these pieces of folklore to educate, entertain, discipline, and control most especially the young ones. Further analyses showed that these pieces were used during situations or occasions like fiesta celebrations, weddings, birthdays, drinking sprees, family reunions, and other community merry-making celebrations. These folklores were incorporated in the preparation of a culture-based instructional material in teaching literature.

Keywords – folklore, culture-based curricular resource