Exploring the language attitudes of stakeholders of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) in Linguistically Diverse Contexts (LDC) in Central Mindanao

This study explored MTB-MLE stakeholders’ (learners, parents, and teachers) language attitudes towards Tagalog, English, and the mother tongues: Maguindanaon, Maranao, Iranun, Cebuano, and Hiligaynon. Using Exploratory Sequential Mixed Methods, qualitative data gathering through the individual interview was first carried out to five learners, five parents, and five teachers. They were selected based on their ethnicity Maguindanaon, Maranao, Iranun, Cebuano, and Hiligaynon. Following the tripartite model of language attitudes (Rosenberg & Hovland, 1960), themes such as Beliefs about the Language, Uses and Domains of Use of the Language, and Exemplified Emotions towards the Language were generated from the interview data. Moreover, language attitudes survey questionnaires for Tagalog, English, and the mother tongues were designed from the qualitative data. These survey questionnaires were administered to 404 grade three learners, 404 parents, and 88 mother tongue teachers. Results revealed that learners had positive attitudes towards Tagalog, English, Iranun, Cebuano, and Hiligaynon and showed slightly positive attitudes towards Maguindanaon and Maranao. Moreover, their parents manifested positive attitudes towards all the languages. Meanwhile, all the teachers expressed very positive attitudes towards Tagalog and positive attitudes towards English and the mother tongues. Furthermore, advanced statistics were also used to determine whether social factors such as SES and ethnicity, play a role in their language attitudes. Multiple regression results showed that learners’ language attitudes towards the mother tongues were statistically significant with social factors, particularly with SES. Moreover, one-way ANOVA findings indicated that teachers’ language attitudes towards Iranun were statistically significant when grouped according to SES. In addition, the Pearson Correlation Coefficient was employed to determine the relationship between learners’ and parents’ language attitudes. Data showed that there was a positive but weak correlation in their attitudes towards Maguindanaon and Maranao. Also, learners and parents belonging to 75,001-100K income bracket were found to have a positive but weak statistical correlation in their attitudes towards English. Likewise, a positive but weak statistically significant relationship in their language attitudes towards the mother tongues was found for those who come from 25,001K-50K and 50,001K-75K monthly income. Therefore, a statistical model for learners’ language attitudes was derived using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The results in general may inform the current status of language-in-education policy, MTB-MLE that follows a Lingua Franca Model implemented in a linguistically diverse context (LDC). Ultimately, recommendations for future research were provided