The Lubuagan First Language Experiment

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The Lubuagan First Language Experiment

• Reduce repetition and dropout
• Raise Literacy and numeracy rates
• Raise education and labor market relevance

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The Lubuagan First Language Experiment

• It is estimated that more than 70 of Philippine
  children enter the classroom unable to speak and
  unable to understand the languages of
  instruction.
• Dr. Ricardo Nolasco

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The Lubuagan First Language Experiment

• Lubuagan children already know their own
  language.
• We do not need to teach them a language they
  already know.
• We need to teach them English especially, so they
  can get jobs and
• We need to teach them Filipino, so they can be
  part of the fabric of the nation, the
  Philippines.
• They also need to learn English immediately, and
  well, in order to perform well in subjects which
  utilize the English language, like math, and
  science.

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The Lubuagan First Language Experiment

• For 2nd language learners (of English and
  Filipino), what model of education comes the
  closest to achieving educational parity with 1st
  language English and Filipino children at the end
  of their educational experience?

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The Lubuagan First Language Experiment

• Since 1998 the Lubuagan district hosts an
  educational innovation in language of instruction
  known as the First Language Component (FLC).
• children receive instruction via their first
  language grades 1-3
• children also receive instruction in oral English
  and oral Filipino as preparation for learning to
  speak and read in these languages later.

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The Lubuagan First Language Experiment

• The assumption the more a child is exposed to
  English in school, the better he or she will
  learn English.
• If some of something is good, more of that
  something has to be better.

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The Lubuagan First Language Experiment

• The critical variable in second language
  development in children is not the amount of
  exposure, but the timing and the manner of
  exposure.
• Cf. Thomas and Collier, 1997

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The Lubuagan First Language Experiment

• To the surprise and consternation of many
  educators (and parents), those children who
  received ALL of their education in English
  learned the least amount of English and scored
  the most poorly on nationally normed and
  standardized tests of academic achievement
  finishing, as a group, at the 11th percentile
  nationally (the bottom ten percent).
• They were also the most likely to drop out of
  school before finishing

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The Lubuagan First Language Experiment

• Conversely, children participating in one of the
  6-year programs actually completed their
  secondary education scoring well above the
  national norm established for their native
  English speaking peers.

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The Lubuagan First Language Experiment
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The Lubuagan First Language Experiment