Institutionalizing a Mother Tongue-Based Approach in Teaching Multicultural Classrooms: A Closer Look at Elementary Teachers’ Experiences

This study was conducted to investigate elementary teachers’ experiences in the implementation of the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) Program in the selected elementary schools in one municipality of Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines. It made use of the qualitative method of research, specifically case study, with interview as main data gathering technique. The respondents involved in this study were the Kindergarten and Grades I-III teachers. The findings of the study revealed that teachers often encountered several problems during the implementation of the MTB-MLE program which included absence of instructional materials written in mother tongue, lack of teacher-trainings, lack of vocabulary, and language mismatch. Meanwhile, the doable solutions suggested by teachers to address the following problems include the provision of additional instructional materials written in mother tongue, conduct of intensive trainings for teachers on MTB-MLE, and provision of dictionaries and other materials to help teachers understand the unfamiliar terms used in textbooks and other instructional materials. Given the study site was small, this study recommended that a similar study must be conducted in a wider scope to get a more comprehensive view of the implementation of the program. Furthermore, it also recommended that the Department of Education must design a new mechanism by which teachers’ problems are properly addressed as well as design a more effective MTB-MLE model that supports teachers’ role in its effective implementation

Keywords – MTB-MLE program, problems, elementary teachers