2. ❝If you talk to a man in a language he
understands, that goes to his head. If
you talk to him in his own language, that
goes to his heart.❞
‒Nelson Mandela
3. Presentation Outline :
• Definition
• Objective and Purpose
• Why mother tongue ?
• Theoretical framework
• Challenges
• Questions and important issues.
4. Definition
• Mother Tongue :
▫ The home language of learners (L1)
▫ That one has learnt first
▫ One identifies with or is identified as a native
speaker of by others
▫ One knows best
▫ One uses most
• In the case of TL 32 local languages.
5. Definition (Mother tongue-based multi
language)
• An approach that uses a language in which the
learner is proficient (L1) to teach beginning
literacy (reading and writing) and curricular
content (maths, physics etc).
• One or more new languages (L2, L3) are taught
systematically, beginning with oral
communication, so that learners can transfer
literacy and knowledge.
6. Objective and Purpose
Objective :
1. Cultural Identity
2. Enhanced and Transferable Literacy
3. Educations access, attainment and success
4. Preparation for later learning in official and
international languages
8. Why Mother tongue? (History)
• Colonization history
▫ 450 years under Portuguese (Portuguese and
European culture)
▫ 23 years under Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia
and melayu culture)
• 1,1 million of population with 32 local languages
• State constitution :
▫ Tetum (lingua Franca) as National Language.
▫ Tetum and Portuguese as Official languages
▫ English and Bahasa Indonesia as “ working
languages”
▫ Portuguese as “Education Language” … ?????
9. Why mother tongue (Education
indicators…..)
• High repetition and drop out rates
▫ One in five children must repeat the first year of
schooling
▫ half of the students who enroll in primary school
do not complete their studies.
▫ Alienation and disengagement of student.
• Population composed mostly of young people
(55% of population aged below 15).
• Low adult literacy rate in Portuguese..(impact
on parent engagement with their children
education)
10. Why mother tongue?
• Poor education quality
▫ Last Early Grade Reading assessment (EGRA) in
2009 showed a shocking result
▫ More than 70% of students at the end of grade 1
could not read
▫ 40% of children were not able to read a single
word at the end of grade 2.
▫ 20% at the end of grade 3
11. Theoretical Framework
• MTBME is in line with the concept of place base
pedagogy and critical pedagogy
▫ Builds on what learners know
▫ Valorize and builds upon local community
languages
▫ Preserve local culture and tradition
▫ Community based
▫ Makes learning relevant and enjoyable
▫ High degree of parent involvement
▫ Promotes learner-centered methodologies
12. Challenges
• National unity and social issue
• Sensitiveness of the society regarding social
issue. (ethnic tension)
• Lack of writing system (orthographies and
alphabets)
• The problem of learning resources
• Teacher ability to cope with new language of
instruction
• Teacher and student mobility
• Financial issue
13. Issues and Questions ….
• Why it is called mother tongue and not “father
tongue” ?
• whether to use a „mother tongue‟ or home
language for the first years of education or
whether to focus on building Tetum as a national
language .
• National Disunity issue
14. “Those who know many languages live as many
lives as the languages they know.”
Thank you
