Language Learning: Key Concepts

Groups

• Refers to sets or classifications within a culture with distinct norms and values.
• Encompasses learner, teacher, and community groups involved in Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE).

Family

• The primary social unit plays a crucial role in a child's early language development and cultural transmission.
• Highly relevant in mother tongue education.

Environment

• A classroom or learning space where students actively engage in learning.
• Includes social, cultural, and linguistic contexts that influence a child’s learning and language acquisition.

Sense-making

• The process through which learners construct meaning from experiences.
• It involves multiple representations of meaning based on different people's interpretations of objects or events.

Morphology

• Rules of language word formation, the study of word structure.
• Includes affixes and root words, crucial for understanding word formations and meanings.

Affixes

• Morphemes located at the beginning, middle, or end of a root word.
• Word parts (prefixes and suffixes) that alter a root word's meaning or grammatical function.

Root word

• The basic part of a word carrying the main meaning where affixes can be added.
• Usually nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs.

Idioms

• These are expressions with non-literal meanings (e.g., "kick the bucket").
• Knowledge of idioms indicates language proficiency.

Key Standard

• A broad statement outlining essential learning outcomes or expectations for a subject or grade level.

Learning Area Standard

• Broad outcomes for MTB learning area, a standard that defines what learners should know in a specific subject area, like Mother Tongue.

Grade Level Standard

• Defines specific outcomes for the language domain at each grade level.

Learning Materials

• Resources like textbooks and workbooks that facilitate teaching and learning.

Curriculum Guide

• Serves as a teacher's blueprint for curriculum planning and design.

Curriculum Development

• An ongoing process of designing, creating, and implementing curriculum learning experiences.

Constructive Alignment

• An educational principle where learning activities and assessment tasks align with intended learning outcomes.

Intelligence

• Cognitive abilities related to learning, understanding, and problem-solving.
• Various intelligence theories exist.

Cognitive Development

• The interconnectedness of knowledge
• The development of thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving skills throughout life.

Teaching Method

• A systematic approach used by teachers to deliver instruction and facilitate learning.

Pedagogy

• The art and science of teaching, encompassing teaching methods, learning theories, and educational practices.

Creativity

• The ability to generate new ideas and connections to produce original work.

Strategy

• A plan or approach to achieve a learning goal or execute a task.

Pres. Benigno Aquino III

• Former president of the Philippines under whose administration the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 (K to 12) was implemented.
• Significant implications for Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education.

Inference

• The perceivers of additional not provided utterance to understand the message

Deixis

• Words that are unidentifiable without context (e.g., "here," "yesterday").

Pragmatics

• Study of unseen or hidden meanings in different language apart from its content, how language conveys meaning in context, including social conventions and implications.

Task-based Language Teaching

• An approach organizing language learning around completing meaningful tasks, identifying a target for teaching.

Forward Language Design Teaching

• An approach starting with desired learning outcomes, then planning curriculum and instruction accordingly, including choosing a topic.

Culturally Responsive Education

• Integration of students' lifestyles and experiences into instruction and curriculum.

Learning Theory

• A framework explaining how people learn, providing principles, and models for effective instruction.

Academic Development

• Progress and growth of a student’s knowledge, skills, and understanding in academic subjects (acquisitions necessary).

HOTS (Higher-Order Thinking Skills)

• Cognitive skills beyond recall, involving analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and problem-solving.

Review

• Revisiting previously learned material to reinforce understanding and retention.

Knowledge

• Information, facts, and understanding acquired through learning and experience.

Prior Knowledge

• Learning that builds upon what a student already knows.
• Information and understanding that a learner possesses before engaging in new learning.

Drill

• Repetitive practice to improve fluency and automaticity in specific skills or concepts.

Silent Period

• A stage in second language acquisition when learners primarily listen and observe without actively speaking.

Generation Z

• People born roughly from the mid-1990s to the early 2010s.

Generation X

• People born roughly from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s.

Millennials

• People born roughly from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s.

Alpha Generation

• People born roughly from the early 2010s to the present.

Tabula Rasa

• A philosophical theory stating that individuals are born as a "blank slate," with knowledge from experience and perception.

Toddler

• A child approximately between 1 and 3 years old.

Education

• The process of teaching and learning that aims to develop knowledge, skills, and character.

Language Acquisition

• The natural, unconscious process of language exposure through speaking, rather than studying.

Lev Vygotsky

• A Soviet psychologist known for his sociocultural theory of cognitive development, emphasizing social interaction and cultural context.

Malone

• Learners must listen, read, speak, and write with understanding to effectively communicate ideas through experience and diversity.

John Dewey

• An American advocate for experiential learning and connecting education to real-life experiences.
• The core idea expressed by it have been clearly enunciated actual doing reflective action

Jean Piaget

• A Swiss psychologist with a theory of cognitive development stages and active learning through constructing meaning from the environment.

Norms

• Socially accepted standards of behavior, attitudes, and values within a group or society.

Values

• Principles or beliefs guiding an individual's or group's behavior and judgments.

Culture

• Encompasses values, language, norms, symbols, shared beliefs, customs, and behaviors of a group or society.

Humanism

• Philosophical stance focusing on the value and agency of human beings, emphasizing critical thinking and evidence over dogma.

Constructivism

• Emphasizes active learning, social interaction, and real-world application in constructing knowledge through experiences and reflection.

Empiricism

• The philosophical view that knowledge comes primarily from sensory experience.

Behaviorism

• The learning theory based on observable behaviors learned through reinforcement and conditioning.

Understanding

• The ability to comprehend and make sense of information.

Comprehension

• The capacity to grasp the meaning of written or spoken language.

Part-to-Whole

• Teaching approach beginning with the most basic language units and building up to understanding the whole.

Whole-to-Part

• Teaching approach starting with an overview of the whole concept or task before breaking it down.

Balanced Method / Balanced Teaching Method

• Develops all four skills and combines different teaching strategies.
• Focuses on a range of skills, such as balancing grammar, vocabulary, and communication in language learning.

Speaking

• Verbally expressing thoughts, ideas, or information.

Listening

• Understanding critically and responding creatively.

Reading

• To decode and understand written language.

Writing

• Ability to order and communicate thoughts and experiences in written form.

Backward Design Language Teaching

• Develops a curriculum starting with the desired learning outcomes, then determines assessments before planning learning experiences and instruction.

ADDIE Model

• An interactive instructional design process with five phases: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation.

Performance Area Standard

• Defines the expected proficiency level and answers what students should do with their learning and understanding.

Key Stage Standard

• The specific outcomes for key stages like kinder grade 3 4 5 6 7 8 10.
• Outlines expected learning outcomes for a stage of education (e.g., primary, intermediate, secondary).

Time Allotment

• Minimum duration of time allocated for a particular subject or activity in the curriculum.

Target Competency

• The specific skills, knowledge, or abilities learners are expected to acquire per instructions.

Planning Mother Tongue-Based Education Programs in Minority Language

• Organizing programs using learners' mother tongue as the primary instruction language, especially in minority communities.

Technology for Entertainment Designer

• A new technology and revolution in education revived in power of storytelling to disseminate ideas and innovation.

Reading and Viewing

• Language arts skills involving understanding and interpreting written and visual texts.

Viewing and Listening

• Language arts skills involving understanding and interpreting visual and auditory information.

Viewing and Visually Representing

• Language arts skills involving understanding visual information and creating visual representations.

Visually Representing and Reading

• Language arts skills involving creating visual representations and interpreting written texts.

Pre-viewing

• Activities activating prior knowledge and setting a purpose before reading or viewing to prepare students to view.

Goodman

• Defined reading as relating symbols to oral language.
• Influential in reading education, known for psycholinguistic model.

Mendelson

• Posits theories in the methodologies in the teaching (1994).

Doige

• Believed that student achievement improved with culturally relevant education.

MTBMLE (Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education)

• A distinctive feature of the K-12 program, signed into law on May 15, 2013.
• Learners start education in their mother tongue and gradually transition to other languages.

Language

• The foundation of all human relationships are established on the ability of people to communicate effectively with each other.

K – 12 Curriculum

• The basic education system in the Philippines, encompassing Kindergarten to Grade 12.

Alphabet

• A standard set of letters representing phonemes (basic language sounds used for writing).

Instructional Materials

• Resources used by teachers to support instruction and help students learn (e.g., textbooks and visual aids).

Artifacts

• Objects belonging to a group, providing cultural information.
• Used as learning resources in education.

Syntax

• The set of statutes and principles that govern system structure and word order in language with rules governing word arrangement for forming sentences.

Anomaly

• Something unconventional or deviates that deviates from what is standard, normal, or expected.

Phonemes

• The smallest units of sound distinguishing words in a language.

Allophones

• Variations in pronunciation of a single phoneme, not changing the word’s meaning.

Phonology

• The study of sound systems in language.

Development

• Writing and producing educational materials.

Design

• The process of planning and creating something for instruction, such as a curriculum or instructional materals.

Analysis

• The process of defining what it is to be learned.
• Examining components to understand something in detail and its relationships.

Implementation

• Delivering actual instruction after a plan has been set in effect in the classroom, computer base or in the lab.

Unpacking

• Extracting knowledge and skills and breaking down learning standards into more specific objectives.

Content

• The subject matter or information that is taught and learned.

Competency

• Ability to do something successfully or efficiently, and the clue as the type assessment strategies.
• Encompasses the skills, knowledge, and attitudes learners should demonstrate.

First Language Acquisition

• The natural process of learning a native language through exposure and interaction.

Native Language

• The first language a person learns, typically in early childhood and at home.

Second Language Acquisition

• Learning another language after acquiring one's native language through exposure and interaction.

Content Standard

• A broad statement describing what students should know and do in a subject area/grade level.

Planning Instruction

• Organizing and preparing to teach by establishing learning outcomes for each subject by selecting materials, and designing activities.

Performance-based

• Requires students to exhibit learning through completing tasks or creating products, specifically addressing the expected proficiency level.

Teaching Strategies

• Methods and techniques teachers use to facilitate learning.

Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 (Republic Act 10533)

• Highlights the reality and relevance of mother tongue-based multilingual education.

Matatag Curriculum (K to 10)

• An educational approach that revised basic education curriculum for Kindergarten to Grade 10. Encompasses foundational skills and a decongested curriculum.

Lingua Franca Education

• Defines a national bridging program from the vernacular Filipino.
• It uses a common language for instruction in multilingual settings, which isn't the native language of all learners.