Here’s some helpful info on the forthcoming 3-day 1st Philippine Conference Workshop on Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education to be held at the Capitol University, Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines, on Feb. 18-20, 2010:

Plenary Sessions

• Doing Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MLE) in Mindanao
• Amianan Experience in MLE
• Our MLE Tasks until 2015
• “Teacher, Unsa man ni?” Mother tongue education in the Visayas
• Language-in-education policy making in the Philippines
• Cultural Night and Celebration of the International Mother Language Day

Workshop topics

• Reading, writing and comprehension in the L1
• Storytelling: from orality to literacy
• Sounds, words and sentence patterns in Philippine Languages
• Building oral fluency in the L1 & L2
• Teaching strategies and methodologies for MLE
• Re-imagining social studies instruction in basic education
• MLE materials development and production
• Teaching science and math in the early grades
• Language documentation and data preservation
• Designing an alphabet for written and unwritten languages
• MLE program planning, evaluation and assessment
• Bridging L1 to Filipino and English

Paper presentation topics

• Teaching science, math and social studies thru MLE
• Developing quality and culturally sensitive MLE materials
• What makes a Philippine language (and what makes English)?
• Language documentation and data preservation
• Case studies in mother tongue instruction in the Philippines and in other countries
• Sign languages in the Philippines the education of the differently-abled
• Community-based school management and MLE
• Endangered languages and their revitalization
• MLE and Peace Education

Plenary/workshop speakers come from SIL Intl, UNESCO, DepEd, TAP, ADDU, CU, DLSU, MMSU, MSU-IIT, PNU, TAP, UB, UH-Manoa, UP, WVSU and many more.

Conference registration fee is P 3,500. Discounts: 10% for those who pre-register on or before January 29, 2010. Student rates: P1,500 (undergraduate) P2,000 (graduate). For other details email: mlephilippines@gmail.com You may also call 9818500 loc.2294 09228090812 / 09163944870

We will provide booths for local writers organizations, publishers and language/cultural groups. Contact us for more details

Download related conference materials:

REGISTRATION FORM

Supporting DEPED MEMO

Supporting CHED MEMO

INVITATION LETTER

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

PRINTABLE CONFERENCE FLYER/POSTER

LIST OF CDO HOTELS (1)

LIST OF CDO HOTELS (2)

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY GUIDE

Conference Steering Committee: Ricardo Nolasco (UP-Linguistics), Lydia Liwanag/Rose Suatengco (PNU), Para Giron/Rose Villaneza (DepEd), Amor de Torres (CU), Francisco Datar (UP-Anthropology); Aurelio Agcaoili (UH-Manoa), Mel Awid (TAP), Tony Igcalinos (UNIDEV), Manny Faelnar (DILA), Greg/Diane Dekker (SIL) and Julian Abuso/Ched Arzadon (UP-Education)

On Friday, Feb. 5, 2010, Erwin Fernandez emailed the following report:

The U.P. Subol in cooperation with the Sine Caboloan and the Ulupan na Pansiansia’y Salitan Pangasinan (UPSP) [Association for the Preservation of the Pangasinan Language] will screen for the first time in Metro Manila the award-winning Anacbanua (The Child of the Sun), the first full-length digital feature film in the Pangasinan language with English subtitles, on February 24, 2010, 7 pm at the Cine Adarna, U.P. Film Center, U.P. Diliman in Quezon City.

Written, produced, directed, and edited by Pangasinan filmmaker Christopher Gozum, the experimental film won the Digital Lokal Lino Brocka Grand Prize as well as the Digital Lokal Best Director Award during the 11th Cinemanila International Film Festival in October 2009.

Using the Pangasinan poetry of Santiago Villafania, Erwin Fernandez and Melchor Orpilla and Pangasinan oraciones as well as the ancient Calatagan pot script as voice-over narration, Anacbanua is a story of an exiled Western-educated Umaanlong (poet) who, suffering from an unknown illness, decides to return to Pangasinan, the land of his birth. Upon his return, he encounters the Musia (muse) who would seek the cure to his illness. While in half-sleep, the uprooted poet would meet the Ogaw (child) who would guide him in his cosmic immersion testing him in the ways of the fermented fish sauce, butchered livestock, burned metal rods, molded clay and the baked bricks leading him to finally reclaim his primal connection to the water (danum), land (uma) and his people (katooan). Upon surviving the series of tests, the poet would return to the real world ready to offer himself towards the cultural renaissance of his own people; thus, he would become one with the Musia (muse).

By Robby Tantingco
SunStar Pampanga

Robby Tantingco

Dr. Anicia Hizon del Corro’s lecture last Saturday on DepEd Order #74 (the Department of Education’s directive making regional languages the primary medium of instruction) was a gathering of hawks and eagles refereed by a dove.

The hawks were the cultural advocates: Fr. Venancio Samson (translator of the Kapampangan Bible and Bergaño dictionary), cultural activist Siuala Pangilinan, Prinsipe ning Parnaso Romeo Rodriguez, Rey Maniago (representing ANASI), Edwin Camaya (DILA), Dr. Lino Dizon, Abraham Tayag, Kragi Garcia, Fray Francis Musni, the officers of the HAU Center for Kapampangan Studies, TSU Center for Tarlaqueño Studies, AUF Institute for Kapampangan Studies BSU Center for Bulacan Studies and representatives of groups like Katatagan, AGTACA and Akademyang Kapampangan.

Across the meeting hall were the eagles: Division officials of Pampanga and Angeles City, District supervisors, school principals, and teachers from both public and private schools from towns as far as Arayat, Macabebe, Masantol, Apalit, Minalin, Tarlac and Concepcion.

We expected only 25 attendees but more than 70 showed up—a sign that DepEd #74 was, indeed, a hot topic.

Thank God we had the brilliant and articulate Dr. Del Corro as guest lecturer. Her gentle demeanor and stature as the highest authority on Kapampangan linguistics calmed the tension that potentially existed between the cultural advocates who were pushing for Kapampangan above all other languages, and the educators who wanted only the child’s education regardless of what language was used.

Jesli A. Lapus

In  a Jan. 20, 2010 press release, the following is DepEd Secretary Jesli A Lapus’ response to the Philippine Inquirer article regarding the United Nation’s concerns about the state of education in the Philippines:

The Philippines continues to implement education reforms as it remains on track in meeting its Education for All (EFA) goal by 2015, the deadline set by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The six EFA goals which the Philippines has committed itself include expanding early childhood care and education; providing free and compulsory education for all; providing learning and life skill to young people and adults; increasing adult literacy by 50% percent; achieving gender equality by 2015 and improving the quality of education.

The Philippines has been steadily making progress in education in the last few years contrary to perception that standards are dropping. After a temporary decline, the Philippines has posted a modest but consistent gains since 2006. This provided hope that the country can still meet its EFA targets by 2015.

By Philip Tubeza
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:48:00 01/20/2010

Filed Under: Education, Poverty, Annual Reports

Ban Ki-Moon

MANILA, Philippines—The United Nations has warned that the Philippines is in danger of leaving the poor behind when it comes to their education.

Noting an “absence of decisive political leadership,” a major UN report on education on Tuesday said the Philippines was in “real danger” of missing its target of providing universal primary education by 2015.

The 2010 Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report, which was launched by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon at UN headquarters in New York cited the Philippines as a “particularly striking example of under-performance” in educational reforms as its current polices were failing to make a difference in improving the education of the poorest Filipinos.

“Education indicators for the Philippines are below what might be expected for a country of its income level … With an average income four times that of [African countries] Tanzania and Zambia, it has a lower net enrollment ratio,” the report said.

“The unfavorable comparison does not end there. Whereas Tanzania and Zambia have steadily increasing net enrollment ratios, the Philippines has stagnated,” it said.

Jesli A. Lapus

In a December 11, 2009 press release by the Department of Education (DepEd), it directed the inclusion of Spanish as a language course in the secondary curriculum of 15 initially chosen high schools (see list below).  This is interesting, considering the fact that we’re having issues mastering English, one of our national languages.  Here’s the press release:

The Department of Education and the University of Alcala (Alcalá de Henares, Spain) recently signed an agreement to strengthen the education and cultural ties between Spain and the Philippines. DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus signed the agreement along with University of Alcala Rector (President) Professor D. Virgilio Zapatero Gόmez.

The University of Alcala in Madrid is one of the oldest universities in Europe with more than 500 years of history. The university is known for its ctive efforts to promote Spanish language in both studies and the Cervantes prize — an award given by the King and Queen of Spain for lifetime achievement of an outstanding writer in Spanish language. The university was also declared by
UNESCO as a World Heritage Site due to its contribution to arts and sciences. DepEd and University of Alcala have agreed to implement programs that will strengthen the academic, educational and cultural activities that will benefit both parties. One of these is the inclusion of Spanish language in the curriculum of 15 pilot secondary schools in the Philippines.

In the days following DepEd Order No. 74 s. 2009, otherwise known as “Institutionalizing Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MLE)“, there’s absolutely no pronouncement, memorandum, advisory, or press release by the Department of Education regarding what it plans to do to implement the order.  None, zero, zilch, nada.  That’s odd, considering DepEd 74 is designed to create an ocean change in education policy within the entire educational system.

In an ironic move, DepEd issued a press release dated Sept. 28, 2009 (two and a half months after DepEd 74 was issued) which said, among other things:

“Focused in preparing Filipino students for their role as global citizens, the Department of Education (DepEd) is set to offer French classes in selected public high schools in the country starting next school year.

“On account of globalization, our graduates are competing with people from other countries when they join the workforce. Learning a widely used international language early on will give our graduates that competitive advantage,” said Education Secretary Jesli Lapus…..”

Now, that’s a stretch considering how many select high school students really need to learn French.  Even then, there are various ways for those really motivated to learn French without the DepEd’s involvement in time and valuable resources.  Right now, I can suggest an absolutely FREE resource where one can learn/immerse in any of quite a number of world languages, including French–something that provides a more rounded language learning experience which includes audio lessons from native speakers.  Here’s the link:  MERLOT’s (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) World Languages.  MERLOT boasts of more than 400 French learning materials.  Again, these foreign language lessons are LIBRE, gratis, free and the student learns at his or her own pace or he/she can revisit any lesson desired 24/7.

Anyway, given President Arroyo’s known preference as to the use of English (for math and science) and Filipino (for the social sciences, etc.) as MOI in our schools (Executive Order No. 210 s. 2003), are we to interpret that DepEd considers DepEd 74 as simply a hot potato, something which is not the political thing to touch or even mention in one’s breath?  Where’s the common sense and backbone of our DepEd administrators who are supposed to be better in the know regarding the empirical evidence of the pedagogical superiority of using a community’s mother tongue as its initial medium of instruction at school and as a bridge to learning other languages to learn the more meaty courses–all of which make up what we value as an education?

Where, DepEd & MLE, are we going?

Fools rush in
Where angels fear to tread…..

Fools rush in
Where wise men never go…..

Bill Dwyer, sports writer from the Lost Angeles Times. wrote:

Lightning kept striking in sharp, penetrating bursts Saturday night in the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Most of it was hitting Miguel Cotto’s face…..

In the end, Cotto’s face was battered, swelling and bloody. His white shorts had turned pink from his own blood. Like so many Pacquiao opponents in recent years, he had now experienced Pacquiao, a whirlwind wearing boxing gloves.

Pacquiao’s speed is much discussed, but it remains startling each time it is viewed in person. His offense consists of quick attacks from all angles. He is there, then he is gone. And in that time, four or five shots have been landed that quickly result in swollen cheeks and cut eyes and deflated expectations…..

Beep beep. Gone…..

After the fight, Cotto headed for the hospital for tests. He said he was fine, but wanted to be checked “because my health comes first.”

Pacquiao had something slightly different scheduled for his post-fight activity. He sings in a band, and they were going to play a late-night gig at Mandalay Bay…..

The Associated Press (AP) said:

Manny Pacquiao’s speed and power were way too much for Miguel Cotto’s heart.

Pacquiao put on yet another dominating performance Saturday night, knocking down Cotto twice and turning his face into a bloody mess before finally stopping him at 55 seconds of the 12th round.

The Filipino star used his blazing speed and power from both hands to win his seventh title in seven weight classes and cement his stature as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Cotto took such a beating that his face was a river of red from the fury of Pacquiao’s punches, but he refused to quit even as his corner tried to throw in the towel after the 11th round.

“I didn’t know from where the punches were coming,” Cotto said…..

Cotto’s wife and child, who were at ringside, left after the ninth round, unable to watch the beating any longer. They later accompanied him to a local hospital for a post-fight examination.

Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports wrote:

 

Pacquiao made history on Saturday when he battered Miguel Cotto over 11-plus brutal rounds, winning the World Boxing Organization welterweight title in one of the finest performances of a brilliant career.

Pacquiao dropped Cotto in the third and fourth rounds, landed 43 percent of his punches and mercifully stopped the game Puerto Rican 55 seconds into the final round when referee Kenny Bayless jumped in to save Cotto.

Cotto’s trainer, Joe Santiago, ought to be flogged for not stopping it sooner. Cotto never recovered after the second knockdown, which came in the fourth round, and spent most of the final seven-plus rounds trying to fend off a man who was far too fast, far too slick and far too talented.

Pacquiao’s performance was so good that no one laughed when promoter Bob Arum said he believes Pacquiao is the best fighter he ever saw. And yes, Arum included Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvelous Marvin Hagler in that group….

Dan Wetzel, of Yahoo! Sports, concluded:  Just minutes after Manny Pacquiao had violently turned Miguel Cotto’s face into raw hamburger, the chant rose up from the stands of the MGM Grand Garden Arena:  “We want Floyd.”

Someone sent me a FORWARD of pictures of popular, well-traveled places in the Philippines.  Rather than scroll through the lovely images, I strung them together, chose a Raul Sunico piece as accompaniment and voilà, the following YouTube item. If someone should dare con you to believe it’s the next best thing to being there, think NOT!

By Tom Colls
Today programme

An estimated 7,000 languages are being spoken around the world. But that number is expected to shrink rapidly in the coming decades. What is lost when a language dies?

In 1992 a prominent US linguist stunned the academic world by predicting that by the year 2100, 90% of the world’s languages would have ceased to exist.

Far from inspiring the world to act, the issue is still on the margins, according to prominent French linguist Claude Hagege.

“Most people are not at all interested in the death of languages,” he says. “If we are not cautious about the way English is progressing it may eventually kill most other languages.”

According to Ethnologue, a US organisation owned by Christian group SIL International that compiles a global database of languages, 473 languages are currently classified as endangered.

Among the ranks are the two known speakers of Lipan Apache alive in the US, four speakers of Totoro in Colombia and the single Bikya speaker in Cameroon.

“It is difficult to provide an accurate count,” says Ethnologue editor Paul Lewis. “But we are at a tipping point. From here on we are going to increasingly see the number of languages going down.”