Mother Tongue Education (MTE) in the Philippines seeks to educate learners from kindergarten to 3rd grade using their mother tongues. However, in Linguistically Diverse Contexts (LDCs) where multiple mother tongues are spoken, a lingua franca is nominated as the alternative MOI. Against this backdrop, our study explores the language attitudes of…

To address the challenges of teaching and learning among multilingual elementary students, the Philippines, a multilingual country with over 180 languages, implemented the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE). Studies on the use of mother tongue have reported positive results among students who share a common language. However, in…

Every individual's language rights are just as important and, often, even equate to healthcare rights during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this crisis, essential and lifesaving information and updates about local and international efforts to respond to and mitigate the impacts of the pandemic have to be made available using language(s) accessible…

Globalisation has resulted in people from different parts of the world migrating from one country to another in search of better job opportunities. Countries that provide attractive job opportunities are most likely to become the major destinations of migrant workers. In Southeast Asia, Malaysia is one of the preferred destinations of economic…

At the turn of the twentieth century, the Philippine archipelago transitioned from nearly 400 years of colonial occupation under the Spanish to imperial occupation under the Americans. This analysis interrogates the dynamics through which the heterogeneous languages of the Philippine archipelago were maintained alongside state-sanctioned languages…

Cross-cultural study of rhetorical traditions as they exist or have existed in different societies around the world has been the focus of contrastive rhetoric. Studies in contrastive rhetoric in the past years confirm that culture is reflected in rhetorical patterns. Using the argumentative essays of 55 students from a state university in Central…

A writer's L1 is generally believed to influence their L2 English writing significantly. However, the extent to which L1 backgrounds influence Asian learners' L2 English writing has not been wholly elucidated due to the lack of data covering various learners in Asia. Therefore, this study analysed more than one-million-word essays written by 2,318…

This paper shall describe the bridging strategies used by Grades 3 and 4 English teachers from schools in two regions in the Philippines to help their multilingual students transition from using the mother tongue as medium of instruction in the different subject areas to using English in the English classroom. Data were obtained through…

In 2009 the Philippines introduced a mother tongue-based multilingual education language policy requiring the "mother tongue" as the language of instruction (LOI) in kindergarten through grade 3. Using teacher classroom language data collected from four LOI groups in 2019, we compared the frequency of teachers' use of the target LOI in…

With the present implementation of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) in the Philippines, this study investigated the language practices of teachers and learners (collectively 'participants') in the teaching and learning of English as a second language (ESL) in two Third Grade classrooms in a multilingual city in the Philippines.…

This book brings together chapters that describe, investigate, and analyze the place of English in education in multilingual Philippines. Unlike most studies on languages in education, which take a neutral, de-contextualized stance, this volume takes a pluricentric view of the English language by positioning it in relation to its varieties, as…

In the past, the ESL/EFL field has intensively explored the effects of L1 to L2, yet overlooked the possible effects of L2 to L1. Hence, this study is an attempt to offer an initial answer as regards the considerable interest in how bilinguals make use of their language repertoires when engaged in an L1 composing task. Four Filipino English…

This study that adopts descriptive and inferential research methods investigated the status of elementary grade pupils' English proficiency, particularly the Grades 1, 2 and 3 pupils who are simultaneously taking up subjects in the Mother Tongue and English that are integrated in their curricula. The research population was sourced from a single…

Family language practice can be significantly influenced by social, historical, and political contexts, especially in immigrant households where a society's minority languages are used. Set in a large city in Japan, this study examines how institutional power can affect Filipino mothers' language use at home. Drawing from the cultural historical…

Many nations have attempted to create different language-in-education policies that would cater not only to the needs of learners but also to the demands of preserving a country's native languages. The emergence of multilingual education has led to a proliferation of research that shows the benefits of using a learner's first language. These…