INTRODUCTION

Using Filipino (also known as Tagalog) as the Medium of Instruction in Philippine Schools has been a hot topic again. Nationalists move that Filipino, widely accepted as “lingua franca” in the country, be use as the Medium of Instruction in schools. While on the other hand, some of our legislators in the Congress are against the move and instead supports that English be the Medium of Instruction in schools.

The use of Filipino as Medium of Instruction (MOI) has been tossed in to lots of controversies since its conception in 1937 by the “Ama ng Wikang Pambansa”, the late President Manuel L. Quezon. Even before its creation, people like Lope K. Santos (1930), Mr. Butte (1931), Representative Manuel Gallego (Bill No. 588 of 1932) push for the use of the vernacular as the Medium of Instruction. In 1965, some of the congressmen took the cudgels against the propagation of “Pilipino”, which to them is "Puristang Tagalog," as the national language. This period witnessed the purists coining words like salumpuwit (chair), salimpapaw (airplane), sipnayan (mathematics), etcetera. In 1969, some non-Tagalog speakers, like the Madyaas Pro-Hiligaynon Society and some Cebuano groups, complained against the movement of Manila toward "Purismo." This gave rise to the problems that needed to be resolved before the non-Tagalog speakers could accept Tagalog as their own "Wikang Pambansa." Then, in 7 August 1973, the Board of National Education introduced the bilingual approach to teaching - that is, using two languages as media of instruction in the schools. (Rubrico, 1998)

To this day, we still use the bilingual system of teaching. Nevertheless, there are moves for a change. A check on the bills filed in the 14th congress shows that there are three (3) bills in the Philippines seeking for either the re-instatement or enhancement of the Medium of Instruction used in teaching. One of them intends to fully adopt English as the Medium of Instruction in Philippine schools. This is despite numerous studies confirming that learning is faster when the native language is used. Representative Gullas, the proponent of the bill, justifies that there has been a steady decline in English proficiency of Filipinos, thereby deteriorating English competitiveness and offers less opportunities for the Filipino people in finding work abroad.

“Is it really better to use Filipino as the Medium of Instruction?” This study aims to answer that question. We also aim to improve the school’s competency towards education by having the teachers use the results of this study as their basis on whether what language is more beneficial to use while teaching.