Variations of Sorsogon Dialects as Mother Tongue-Based Medium of Instruction in Grade School Mathematics

One of the salient features in the implementation of K to 12 curricula in the Philippines is the use of the Mother tongue or lingua franca of the area as the medium of instruction from kindergarten to Grade 3 which brought significant effects to the Mathematics classroom situation. Sorsogon province with fourteen municipalities and one city has several local languages that varies from district to municipalities. This descriptive?comparative study using survey-questionnaire and unstructured interview was conducted to describe, illustrate and compare dialects in the Province of Sorsogon as Mother Tongue-Based (MTB) medium of instruction in grade school Mathematics. A stratified sampling technique was utilized in determining the representative area for each of the identified four language varieties existing in the province such as Masbate Sorsogon dialect, Bikol Sorsogon, Waray Sorsogon, and Miraya Sorsogon dialect. Findings revealed that variations in the mathematical terms of Sorsogon dialects within and between the representative areas include lexical and orthographical variations as used by the respondent grades 1 and 2 teachers of the identified four dialects. On the other hand, syntactic variations are visible in the mathematical statements as translated by the respondents in their own dialect. The difficulty of translating technical terms in mathematics and insufficient MTB-based instructional materials are the top problems met by the grade school teachers. A translation dictionary was developed as ready reference that could be validated and be utilized by the grade school teachers in the sample area of the study.