PHILIPPINE NORMAL UNIVERSITY

The National Center for Teacher Education

Philippine Normal University- Mindanao

Submitted to:

Dr. Julius Nunez

Course Instructor

Submitted By:

Aivy F. Ylanan

Rica Mae B. Bernados

Sheryl F. Amano

BEE-III students

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 PHILIPPINE NORMAL UNIVERSITY
The National Center for Teacher Education

THE PERCEPTIONS OF GRADE FIVE PUPILS IN E.G. MONTILLA

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ON MEDIA OF INSTRUCTION: CEBUANO,

FILIPINO AND ENGLISH

Aivy F. Ylanan | Rica Mae B. Bernados | Sheryl F. Amano

Introduction

The medium of instruction is the language used by the teacher to teach.

Teaching the language, or educational content, through the target language

increases the amount of exposure the learner gets to it, and the opportunities

they have to communicate in it, and therefore to develop their control of it

(medium of instruction, TeachingEnglish.Org). What the teacher uses as a

medium of instruction affects learning. It is one of the major factors that

develop the whole being of a learner.

Instruction is the focal point of education. It is very essential because

without it, education is useless. English is the medium of instruction used in

the Philippines. However, Filipinos also use several languages in teaching in

order to elucidate instruction. These languages depend on a group of

Filipinos’ language preference to be used like Tagalog or local dialects

(mother-tongue). While the teachers teach lessons using several

languages/dialects, the comprehension of the learners is also affected. Some

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The National Center for Teacher Education

learners learn more when the medium of instruction used is English, some

with Tagalog and others with Mother-tongue.

Statement of the Problem

This study attempts to determine that grade five pupils’ insight towards

the languages (English, Filipino and mother tongue) used as the media of

instruction in Mathematics are of big difference and level. In this case, Mother

tongue (Cebuano), Filipino and English are used interchangeably in

accordance to the complexity of the lesson, specifically in the Mathematics

subject. What is/are the perception(s) of the pupils towards the languages and

how much understanding would be implanted to them as these languages are

used during Mathematics discussion?

This study aims to determine the perception of the pupils in grade five

towards the various media of instruction in the Mathematics subject.

Specifically, it will seek to answer the following questions:

1. What are the common languages that are being used during

Mathematics discussion?

2. What are the languages that the pupils are comfortable using with

during the discussion?

3. What language(s) that the pupils are confused using with?

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 PHILIPPINE NORMAL UNIVERSITY
The National Center for Teacher Education

4. What is/are the difference(s) among Cebuano, Filipino and English

as these languages are used during the discussion?

Methodology

This chapter focuses with the methodology of the study. This study

uses qualitative descriptive approach. It includes the research design,

participants of the study, setting of the study, research instrument used and

procedure for data collection and data analysis. Data are taken from the grade

5 pupils in E.G

Montilla Elementary School. In this study there are two respondents

male and female and they are both honor pupils. The male respondent (J)

aged 10 years old and the female respondent (C) aged 11 years old.

Before conducting the interview, the researchers asked permission

from their parents and as well as to their teacher. The interview was

conducted in E.G Montilla Elementary School during the pupils recess time.

The researcher used sound recorder and transcribed the utterances being

recorded.

Data gathered was analyzed guided by the four problems raised in the

study such as: 1) what are the languages that are being used during

Mathematics discussion? 2) What are the languages that the pupils are

comfortable with during the discussion? 3) What language(s) are the pupils

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The National Center for Teacher Education

are confused using with. 4) What are the difference(s) among Cebuano,

Filipino and English as these languages are used during the discussion. To

answer the following questions, the sound recorder was played back and the

responses were analyzed.

Data Presentation

Percentage of the students. The pupils during their grade 1-3 were

exposed to mother tongue because of the implementation of MTB-MLE. Now

that they are in grade 5, they’re teachers’ uses English most of the time in

presenting the lesson. Moreover, the pupils were not exposed or used with

English in their daily conversation so interaction between the students and

teachers are less.

The Respondents

The respondents are the grade five pupils in E.G. Montilla Elementary

School. There are only two respondents to give justification to the given

questions.

The first respondent (J) (10). The respondent is an achiever specifically

in the subject area of Mathematics. Though he was not a product of a private

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The National Center for Teacher Education

kindergarten and pre-school but his performance in the class especially in

Mathematics is great. He used to be an honor student since grade one up to

grade six, not lowering to fifth. He participated during the Sudoku competition

and was included as one of the best participants during the first set.

The second respondent (C) (11). The respondent is an honor student

from grade one up to grade six, not lowering to sixth place. Her achievements

are more inclined on both Mathematics and Filipino wherein she won the Math

thrill competition, 2nd place. She also participated to any activities such as

Balagtasan and Sabayang pagbigkas wherein she won together with her

company as 1st placer and 3rd placer.

As to the teacher’s observation to the respondents’ behaviour towards

these languages, the pupils have their own preferences of language use

during the Mathematics discussion. The teacher said that she has been using

various languages to instruct her students and these languages mirror the

understanding of the students. The teacher said that pupils’ best achieved

when using the language that they are comfortable with. The teacher’s

fluctuating used of these languages enable her to see that pupils improved the

most to the language that they tend to understand more.

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The National Center for Teacher Education

Data Results

Below is the transcription of the interview conducted.

Researcher: What are the languages that are being used during Mathematics

discussion?

Respondent 1: In our class, our teacher mostly used English in his

discussion like in Mathematics, Science and the English subject.

Respondent 2: My teacher in Math usually taught us using English language

and sometimes with the use of Tagalog and Bisaya.

Researcher: What are the languages that the pupils are comfortable with

during the discussion?

Respondent 1: I’m comfortable with Filipino even if we mostly use English in

the class because we are more exposed to Filipino, like when we are in the

house we always watch Filipino Teleserye and in school our teacher let us

perform drama in a Filipino or Tagalog.

Respondent 2: I am comfortable whatever language the teacher uses during

class hours in delivering his lessons. However, there is a difference in

comprehending because I most likely understood the discussion when my

teacher explains with the use of Bisaya or Tagalaog.

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The National Center for Teacher Education

Researcher: What language(s) that you are confused using with?

Respondent 1: Sometimes, I’m confused with English because of the

complexity of words and if our teacher noticed that we didn’t understand it

that’s the time that our teacher will use Bisaya in order for us to understand

the words.

Respondent 2: I am sometimes confused with English because there are

words included in books, directions, and explanations of my teacher that are

unfamiliar to me which is one of the reasons why I can’t fully understood the

lesson.

Researcher: What are the difference(s) among Cebuano, Filipino and English

as these languages are used during the discussion?

Respondent 1: If our teacher uses Bisaya in her teaching we can understand

her discussion easily because that is our own dialect which we used to use.

However, there are also times that we don’t understand the words that she is

using because it’s too unfamiliar.

Respondent 2: The comprehension really varies on what the teacher uses in

teaching. I can understand if the teacher teaches us Math using English, I can

understand more with the use of Tagalog because most of the shows on

television that I watch are in Tagalog, and also I have a childhood friend who

is Tagalog. But I can understand most if my teacher discusses Math using

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The National Center for Teacher Education

Bisaya because it is the language that I speak since I was little that’s why I

can understand clearly it.

Discussion:

1. The most common languages that the teachers’ used in her discussion

in Mathematics subject is English.

2. The pupils are comfortable with Filipino language because they are

exposed to it through various Filipino competition, dramatization and

role plays.

3. The pupils were sometimes confused due to complexity of words.

4. The students will easily understand the discussion if it is delivered

through Cebuano because they believe that it’s their own dialect, this

they are used to.

Conclusion

Based on interview and findings of this study, it is concluded that the

two grade 5 pupils prefer more the use of Tagalog as a medium of instruction

rather than English but needs further elucidation of every lesson using Bisaya

for better comprehension.

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The National Center for Teacher Education

REFERENCE:

Retrieved from https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/medium-instruction

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