Dagupan schools to use local dialect as medium of instruction

By Alex Romeo R. Fernandez

Sunday 3rd of June 2012

DAGUPAN CITY, Pangasinan, June 3 (PIA) -- Dagupan City schools will now use the Pangasinan dialect as medium of instruction during classes, except for one community.

Dr. William Macob, Education Program Supervisor of the Department of Education (DepEd) Dagupan City Division Office, said the T. Ayson Rosario Elementary School in barangay Calmay will use Ilocano as its medium of instruction.

The school is located in what is known as Calmay Ilocano whose residents predominantly speak Ilocano.

The community distinguishes itself from Calmay Pangasinan, which uses the local language. No political subdivision exists between the communities of the island barangay, however.

Recently, four members of the school were trained in La Union to make them more proficient in the language, he said during the KBP Forum at the Philippine Information Agency office on Thursday.

The K+12 program of the DepEd requires mother tongue-based instruction so that pupils can easily assimilate their lessons.

Using the local language, the new education system will try to develop the reading, speaking, writing and listening skills of the students, he said.

He noted that teachers in the province have already been introduced to the orthography, the behavior of words depending on their use, of the Pangasinan dialect to make them understand it better.

The orthography, he said, is difficult for the teachers to grasp, but they are slowly plowing through it.

Asked if the use of the local language early in their schooling would hinder the students’ proficiency in the English language, Macob said, “There is time for everything,” adding that English language would be taught in Grade 4. (JCR/ARRF-PIA1 Pangasinan)