Interesting Literature

A Summary and Analysis of Amy Tan’s ‘Mother Tongue’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Mother Tongue’ is an essay by Amy Tan, an American author who was born to Chinese immigrants in 1952. Tan wrote ‘Mother Tongue’ in 1990, a year after her novel The Joy Luck Club was a runaway success. In the essay, Tan discusses her relationship with language, and how her mother’s influence has shaped her use of English, as well as her attitude to it.

You can read ‘Mother Tongue’ here before proceeding to our summary and analysis of Amy Tan’s essay below.

‘Mother Tongue’: summary

Amy Tan begins her essay by offering her personal opinions on the English language. She recalls a recent talk she gave, when, upon realising her mother was in the audience, she was confronted with the fact that the formal standard English she was using in the public talk was at odds with the way she spoke at home with her mother. She then contrasts this with a moment when she was walking down the street with her mother and she used the more clipped, informal English she naturally uses with her mother, and her husband.

Tan calls this a ‘language of intimacy’. She points out that her mother is intelligent and reads things which Tan herself cannot begin to understand. But many people who hear her mother speak can only partially understand what she is saying, and some even say they can understand nothing of what she says, as if she were speaking pure Chinese to them.

Tan calls this clipped informal language her ‘mother tongue’, because it was the first language she learned and it helped to shape the way she saw the world and made sense of it.

Tan notes the difficulty of finding a term to describe the style of English her mother, as a Chinese immigrant to the United States, speaks. Many of the terms, such as ‘broken’ or ‘limited’, are too negative and imply her English is imperfect.

She acknowledges that when she was growing up, she was ashamed of the way her mother spoke. Her mother, too, was clearly aware of how her use of the language affected how seriously people took her, for she used to get her daughter to phone people and pretend to be ‘Mrs Tan’.

She observes that her mother is treated differently because of the way she speaks. She recounts a time when the doctors at the hospital were unsympathetic towards her mother when they lost the results of the CAT scan they had undertaken on her brain, but as soon as the hospital – at her mother’s insistence – called her daughter, they issued a grovelling apology.

Amy Tan also believes her mother’s English affected her daughter’s school results. Tan acknowledges that, whilst she did well in maths and science, subjects with a single correct answer, she was less adept at English. She struggled with tests which asked students to pick a correct word to fill in the blanks in a sentence because she was distracted by the imaginative and poetic possibilities of other words.

Indeed, Tan conjectures that many Asian American children are probably encouraged to pursue careers in jobs requiring maths and science rather than English for this reason. But because she is rebellious and likes to challenge people’s assumptions about her, Tan bucked this trend. She majored in English at college and began writing as a freelancer.

She began writing fiction in 1985, and after several false starts trying to find her own style and idiom, she began to write with her mother in mind as the ideal reader for her stories. Indeed, her mother read drafts of her work.

And Tan drew on all the Englishes , plural, that she knew: the ‘broken’ English her mother used, the ‘simple’ English Tan used when talking to her mother, the ‘watered-down’ Chinese her mother used, and her mother’s ‘internal’ language which conveyed her passion, intent, imagery, and the nature of her thoughts. When her mother told her that what she had written was easy to read, Tan knew that she had succeeded in her aims as a writer.

‘Mother Tongue’: analysis

The title of Amy Tan’s essay is a pun on the expression ‘mother tongue’, referring to one’s first language. But Tan’s language, or ‘tongue’, has been shaped by her actual mother, whose first language (or mother tongue) was not English, but Chinese.

The different forms of English that mother and daughter speak are also a product of their backgrounds: whilst Tan’s mother is a Chinese immigrant to America, Tan was born in the United States and has grown up, and been educated, in an English-speaking culture.

Much of Tan’s 1989 novel The Joy Luck Club is about daughters and their relationships with their mothers. But Tan’s interest in language, both as a cultural marker and as a way of expressing thought and personality, is also a prevailing theme of the novel.

In this respect, if the parable ‘ Feathers from a Thousand Li Away ’ acts as preface to the novel, ‘Mother Tongue’, in effect, acts as a kind of postscript. It helps us to understand the way Tan approaches and uses language within the stories that make up The Joy Luck Club .

An overarching theme of Tan’s novel is mothers emigrating to America in the hope that their daughters will have better lives than they did. This is a key part of ‘Feathers from a Thousand Li Away’, and it helps us to understand Tan’s conflicted attitude towards her mother’s use of language as explored in ‘Mother Tongue’.

Many of the mothers in The Joy Luck Club , such as Betty St. Clair in ‘The Voice from the Wall’, feel isolated from those around them, never at home in America, and hyper-aware of their outsider status, despite becoming legal permanent citizens in the country. Tan’s autobiographical revelations in ‘Mother Tongue’ show us that her own mother struggled to be taken seriously among Americans, and Tan diagnoses this struggle as a result of her mother’s different way of speaking.

Tan, by contrast, used standard English – what used to be referred to, in loaded phrases, as ‘correct’ or ‘proper’ English – and was thus able to succeed in getting herself, and by extension her mother, taken seriously by others. Language is thus more than just a cultural marker: Tan reveals, in ‘Mother Tongue’, the extent to which it is a tool of power (or, depending on the use, powerlessness), particularly for those from migrant backgrounds.

In this connection, it is noteworthy that Tan chooses to focus on the school tests she undertook before concluding that her mother’s ‘broken’ style of English has been misunderstood – not just literally (by some people who’ve known her), but in terms of the misleading perceptions of her it has led others to formulate.

The class tests at school which reduced English proficiency to an ability to recognise a ‘correct’ answer are thus contrasted with Tan’s resounding final words of ‘Mother Tongue’, which see her seeking to capture the passion of her mother, the ‘nature of her thoughts’, and the imagery she uses: all things which her daughter has clearly inherited a respect for, and which school tests fail to capture or observe.

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What is a Mother Tongue Essay, and Why do we need to write one?

mother tongue thesis statement examples

For high school and college students, writing a mother tongue essay is one of the typical assignments. If you’re stuck and don’t know where to begin or what to leave out, go through our guide, and you’ll know what to do when you’re required to come up with a Mother Tongue Essay.

Mother Tongue: Definition

Depending on the context, the concept of “language” has been given different connotations. We may define language as a set of particular characters and signs understood in a specific communicative setting. However, when we tackle this topic from a more emotional perspective, we see it in a far wider sense.

In all aspects of our everyday lives, our mother tongue is the most commonly used language. The mother tongue is the first language an infant learns while growing up. The term points to the language that we learn through our family, the language we are raised in, and the language that the inhabitants speak in the area where we were raised. Every country has its mother tongue. Culture and customs, as well as our heritage, are reflected in our mother tongue.

We chose to discuss the highlights of Amy Tan’s renowned “Mother Tongue” essay to comprehend better the methods of working on such an article.

What were Amy Tan’s views in her mother tongue essay? Amy Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue” is an excellent example of a mother tongue essay in her famous work, “The Joy Luck Club”. The author’s mother is a Chinese immigrant, and she grew up in California in an Asian-American family. Because she has encountered a variety of languages throughout her lifetime, non-standard English has been the focus of her research. Tan describes how she has used “several Englishes” in various contexts of her life. One of the most critical aspects of your Mother Tongue essay should be how your mother tongue shapes your life. Amy Tan believes that a person’s decisions and actions in life are determined by the language they speak. Unfortunately, Amy Tan’s mother didn’t speak excellent English. And it had an impact on her life. Tan shares examples of a missing CAT scan, terrible treatment in departmental shops, and taking IQ exams, SATs, and other aptitude tests to back up her claim that language plays a crucial role in society’s acceptance of immigrants. According to the author, just because someone isn’t a native English speaker or their language isn’t flawless doesn’t indicate they aren’t well-educated or bright. Amy understood that her mother’s English wasn’t exactly the best. But, on the other hand, she found her mother’s English to be incredibly natural. However, she did not employ the kinds of English she had mastered at a class when she was with her mother at home. On the other hand, Amy boasts about her mother’s intelligence, claiming that she can read Forbes articles and all the books written by Shirley MacLaine with ease. Because language is one of the essential values in the family, it plays a vital role. Tan discusses how tough it is to live with parents who do not speak English fluently. Amy describes how she frequently had to assist her parents with translation to make their life simpler. Amy’s phone discussion with her mother’s stockbroker in New York was particularly remarkable. Thanks to her impeccable English, she immediately addressed the difficulty that her mother couldn’t handle in a “broken” language. The following are the critical ideas of Amy Tan’s mother tongue essay

  • First, Amy’s parents found it challenging to adjust to a foreign linguistic setting without having a flawless grasp of the language.
  • The significance of linguistic variety in achieving goals: Amy shows how a stronger understanding of the English language might assist her parents in tackling challenging life issues on their own, using the instance of her parents.
  • Concerns of language and cultural recognition: linguistic prejudice exists in our society, and Amy’s family, like many others, continues to face bias based on their ethnicity. Nevertheless, the value of our thoughts is not diminished by the language we speak.

Examples of topics for your mother tongue essay

Upon first look, an essay about the mother tongue may appear to be a simple one. It may, however, be interpreted from various perspectives. Therefore, we’ve put up a selection of essay themes that are interesting to write about.

  • In bilingual households, how mother tongue is used.
  • The distinction between mother tongue and first language.
  • Is English displacing other countries’ local tongues?
  • What are your opinions on Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” essay?
  • The cornerstone of national identity is the native language.
  • Mother tongue used by immigrants.
  • As a way of reaching objectives, what is the need for perfect English?
  • What are the benefits of getting educated in your mother tongue?

Example of a mother tongue essay

My Mother Tongue’s Influence My native tongue is English, and I am a Native American. It is the language in which I think and communicate my opinions on any subject. It’s something I’ve known since I was a child. Furthermore, I first felt it when my mother spoke to me and sang before I was born. And I am sure that my native tongue is perhaps the most powerful language on the planet.

Knowing English, in my opinion, is a huge benefit for everyone. The strength of language, in my opinion, rests in its potential. The language of opportunity is good English. In addition, poor or weak English diminishes one’s likelihood of succeeding in a variety of areas. Why do I believe this? English has invaded the world like no other language in human history as a result of contemporary technologies. All nations acknowledge its distinctive role.

English is becoming the international economy’s and corporate environment’s primary language. Workers converse and interact in English regardless of whether the multinational firm is based in Sweden or Italy.

In a globalized society, English is the language of international communication since everyone speaks English, whether Chinese, Italians, Spaniards, or Germans. English serves as an ethnically neutral language in many nations where ethnic conflicts exist.

I have many more justifications to back up my position. Nonetheless, it is tough to debate here since my language possesses a power that no other tongue in the world possesses. That’s something I’m proud of.

How to write a mother tongue essay?

The mother tongue essay presents your opinions on a specific subject. It does not, however, imply that these are the only valid interpretations of the issue.

This kind of writing has a predefined framework that you can utilize.

Introduction : You need to begin by making the reader want to read the material all the way through. Try adding a famous quotation, a jest, or even a compelling fact. It is necessary to develop a thesis statement – the essay’s core concept – in the introduction.

Begin with a remarkable or fascinating fact about language, for example. Then, make a list of reasons why you are proud of your mother language, as well as some intriguing facts about it. It may well be helpful to compare several aspects of various languages. Here are some excellent introduction examples:

  • “Today, three times as many people speak English as those who do not speak it natively. English is the mother tongue of 500 million inhabitants on the earth, and it is the second language of another billion.”
  • “One may infer a person’s education, cultural level, and overall growth by the way they talk. Treating language haphazardly equates to thinking haphazardly, making it imprecise and generally incorrect. Mother tongue is a cognitive tool: it represents man’s knowledge, regard for others, and orderliness in the fullest sense.”
  • “Mandarin Chinese is perhaps the most widely spoken language in the world with over 885 million speakers. In the international arena, however, English has become the most extensively spoken language in the economic and political domains.”

A Good Thesis Statement The thesis statement expresses your primary point of view, a “tough” issue that you answer in the body of the paper. So, once you’ve finished your narrative, have a look at the following:

Is it true that I answered the question? Have I made my point?

If you don’t know what to write about for your thesis, you can utilize ours:

  • English is increasingly replacing other languages.
  • Language is a vital instrument for maintaining culture and the nation overall and a form of communication.
  • The ability to communicate in one’s native tongue is an essential aspect of one’s personality.
  • For the nation’s cultural conservation, the mother tongue should be conserved in any manner possible.
  • Their competency determines the cultural attitude in their mother tongue.
  • The population’s social adaptability is aided using their mother tongue.
  • With mother’s milk, we inherit the native language.
  • An infant would only have a single native language, even in bilingual homes.

Main Body Express your ideas in the form of brief theses and back them up with evidence in this section. The length of your thesis will determine the number of paragraphs in the main body of your essay. You should be able to express yourself clearly and professionally. Make use of your own experiences and appropriate illustrations to back it up.

Write on the strength of your language, for example: “I feel that English provides numerous chances for international students.” And back up your claim with the following assertion: “The greater a student’s command of the English language, the quicker he would be able to learn the subjects.” Finally, recall whether you had any international students in class and talk about their language learning experiences.

The following concept can be vibrant: “English is the most widely spoken language in travel and amusement. English is the language that helps you to blend into any situation, no matter where you go. It gives you confidence in English.”

Conclusion Outline your views and provide a precise response to the research question. Reiterate your viewpoint. As a result, I feel my native language is the most powerful language on the planet. It is a widely accepted language in this digital era, and studying English is inextricably tied to personal development.

It’s also vital to think about the following things when composing a mother tongue essay :

  • The topic should be emphasized in the introduction and conclusion (the problem should be stated in the introduction, and the author’s perspective should be presented in conclusion).
  • Selecting paragraphs is essential to create a logical relationship between them (and maintain the work’s integrity).
  • Mother tongue essays are known for their emotionality, expressiveness, and artistic quality.

Frequently Asked Questions

When do we need to write a mother tongue essay.

In college or high school, students are often assigned to write a mother tongue essay.

What is mother tongue?

The mother tongue is the native language that one learns while growing up. It is the first language that an infant learns.

What makes Amy Tan’s mother tongue essay so popular?

In her mother tongue essay, Amy Tan outlines her mother’s challenges in adapting to a new language and how the former helped her mother with several aspects of her life. The essay is written from a personal perspective and successfully underlines the issues of cultural and linguistic identification, making it an excellent example of such an essay..

What is the structure of a mother tongue essay?

Like any other essay, a mother tongue essay has an introduction, a thesis statement, body and conclusion.

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Amy Tan’s Story “Mother Tongue” Essay (Critical Writing)

A large number of Americans now speak English as a first language but what becomes rare is the fact that it is very difficult to find two people who speak exactly the same English. It is this argument that is made by Amy Tan in her story Mother Tongue.

Amy is a first-generation Asian American who migrated to Oakland from China. She became a famous writer in Oakland and in this story, she narrates her experiences about the English she uses and about how the people around her influenced the way she conversed. At home, she spoke with her mother in broken and uneven English so that she understood in view of her faint knowledge of the language. In speaking with people while she worked or with whom she dealt professionally, she used clear and grammatically correct English.

Amy’s mother dreamt of coming to America with her daughter in order to get away from poverty and to provide a better quality of life for her. Amy Tan became a writer and in Mother Tongue, she describes her relationship with her ancestry and traditions. For her English as a language becomes a creative tool and she shares how she was affected by the imperfect English of her mother. The story becomes very consequential and universal since it is not merely about the language itself; it also delves into the relationships with parents and about social and ethnic influences. One is bound to ponder about the consequences of leaving his or her country and then living in a new country. The questions and issues that arise pertaining to maintaining one’s identity and ancestral roots.

In writing about the limited knowledge that her mother has of English, Amy Tan is able to show how this lack of knowledge is perceived by others around her and how it impacted her while she was growing. Her audience is primarily her mother who has been reading her writings. But she also addresses a broader audience in terms of the entire generation of Americans who have immigrant parents. This is so because she wants to highlight the several problems faced by such children daily.

She has attempted to make people aware of the struggles faced by emigrants. In being inadequately equipped in regard to the command of the English language, they are not always viewed seriously. They are either ignored or people intentionally pretend as if they have not understood them. Amy Tan considers that it is alright to speak different kinds of English with different people which depends on the kind of person one is speaking to; whether it is a teacher, instructor, friend or a family member.

The story relates to coping with change and involving oneself in the balancing act. Amy Tan emphasizes the role of the generation gap and how difficult it becomes at times in avoiding having a complex in regard to the parents’ inability to keep up with the status that one expects from them in maintaining his or her professional image. Surely, all such meanings could apply to any of us without necessarily experiencing them upon leaving one’s home country.

Amy Tan has used rhetorical appeals, logos, ethos, and pathos in the story in attempts to appeal to the readers and to explain her messages by using emotion and logic. She explains that in growing professionally a person’s way of life is bound to change and there is a tendency to see the parent’s house as not meeting his or her expectations. Although the same language is spoken by all at home, there appears to be something lacking in terms of keeping up with the status that one reaches after having become professionally successful.

The story is ultimately about losing a lot and returning home, in some ways after a long gap, and then feeling proud again about what a person is and what his heritage is. While she was a child Amy Tan would feel embarrassed about her mother being unable to express herself clearly. She felt bad when children would say that her mother’s English is broken, “as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed” (Amy Tan, 2009).

She would believe people at that time when they said that “her English reflected the quality of what she had to say” (Amy Tan, 2009). She came to believe about her mother that she was wrong because she would express very imperfectly all that she wanted to say, which made her believe that something was lacking in her. Her mother taught her with different perspectives as compared to the way other children were taught, which was the reason why she did not fare well in achievement tests. Amy Tan grew up with the belief system that Asian students could not make a profession out of the English language and that they were best suited in professions such as accounting and engineering.

Only after she grows up does she realize the richness that lay in the different thought processes that she was exposed to. Since she “happens to be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenge of disproving assumptions” (Amy Tan, 2009), she started to concentrate on making a career in English and began to write in the language. It was at this time that she realized the importance of the heritage she inherited from her mother, which made it possible for her to use different aspects of the language. After mastering the language, she reminisces about her mother, “I wanted to capture what language ability tests can never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech, and the nature of her thoughts” (Amy Tan, 2009).

She realized the richness she got from her mother and had no qualms about making her the first reader and critic of her writing work. Indeed, it was a remarkable achievement for her which is evident from what she wrote: “I knew I had succeeded where it counted when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her verdict: so easy to read” (Amy Tan, 2009). From Amy Tan’s story, one does realize that each one of us has had similar experiences some time in life. We all have the hidden talent and in revealing the same we need to be away from the family, or more specifically to be separated from our heritage to realize and understand our true potential and capabilities.

Works Cited

Amy Tan, Mother Tongue. Web.

David Guy, Wheel of Fortune, 2003, The Washington Post.

  • Chicago (A-D)
  • Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2021, November 16). Amy Tan’s Story “Mother Tongue”. https://ivypanda.com/essays/amy-tans-story-mother-tongue/

"Amy Tan’s Story “Mother Tongue”." IvyPanda , 16 Nov. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/amy-tans-story-mother-tongue/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Amy Tan’s Story “Mother Tongue”'. 16 November.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Amy Tan’s Story “Mother Tongue”." November 16, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/amy-tans-story-mother-tongue/.

1. IvyPanda . "Amy Tan’s Story “Mother Tongue”." November 16, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/amy-tans-story-mother-tongue/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Amy Tan’s Story “Mother Tongue”." November 16, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/amy-tans-story-mother-tongue/.

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    Summary of Mother Tongue by Amy Tan. "Mother Tongue" is a personal essay that explores the author's relationship with the English language. Tan reveals that she grew up in a bilingual household where her mother's English was considered "broken" or "limited" by the dominant English-speaking community. Tan's mother's language proficiency was ...

  8. The Significance of Language: Essay on "Mother Tongue"

    Conclusion. This essay analyzed the importance of language using Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue". To summarize, Tan's story tells us that the main purpose of language is to enable people to express themselves and also be in a position to share the expression with others. That's the sphere where the significance of language is undoubted.

  9. Mother Tongue by Amy Tan

    She was using a formal, more complex English. Tan then goes on to explain the English that her mother uses. Her mother is an intelligent woman. She understands complicated forms of English writing ...

  10. How to write a mother tongue essay?

    Amy Tan's essay "Mother Tongue" is an excellent example of a mother tongue essay in her famous work, "The Joy Luck Club". ... It is necessary to develop a thesis statement - the essay's core concept - in the introduction. Begin with a remarkable or fascinating fact about language, for example. Then, make a list of reasons why ...

  11. Amy Tan's Story "Mother Tongue" Essay (Critical Writing)

    Amy's mother dreamt of coming to America with her daughter in order to get away from poverty and to provide a better quality of life for her. Amy Tan became a writer and in Mother Tongue, she describes her relationship with her ancestry and traditions. For her English as a language becomes a creative tool and she shares how she was affected ...

  12. Thesis of mothers tongue by Amy tan 2006

    Critical analysis of the essay mother tongue by Amy Tan in 2006 about a daughter and the struggles she had moving to a new country with her mother prompt: ... Use the framework below to help you construct your thesis statement: Mothers tongue main claim is to bring awareness to how poorly non native English speaking citizens are treated as well ...

  13. Thesis statement

    Thesis statement the main claim of mother tongue amy tan, is expressive and strong. the author takes experiences from her childhood to explain her present day ... Thesis statement. Course. Lifespan Development (PSY211) ... and she knew that she didn't speak that way with or around her mother. I would also say an example is the author and her ...

  14. How to Write a Thesis Statement

    Step 2: Write your initial answer. After some initial research, you can formulate a tentative answer to this question. At this stage it can be simple, and it should guide the research process and writing process. The internet has had more of a positive than a negative effect on education.

  15. PDF Effects of Mother Language Transfer on Second

    Mother tongue, or first language, plays a very important role in second language learning. And the precondition of people learning a second language is based on if "they have acquired their mother tongue" (Rod Ellis, 1986, p. 6). In the process of second language learning, "learners were strongly influenced by their L1 (first

  16. PDF A CASE FOR MOTHER TONGUE EDUCATION?

    This thesis is dedicated to: my mother, Jamila Desai, who kept my mother tongue, Konkani, alive, my father, Abdullatief Desai, who introduced me to English, ... 4.2.1 Mother tongue plus approach 74 4.2.2 Theoretical constructs 75 ...

  17. Literary Analysis of Mother Tongue by Amy Tan

    In "Mother Tongue", Amy Tan uses anecdotes and anaphora to emphasize that language is not about the surface structure, but rather about the underlying meaning the thoughts come from. Tan uses anecdotes throughout the essay to describe her growing wisdom of language and its evolving roles in her life. She found that while she is presents ...

  18. Accent and Identity: Navigating the Bias in Language

    This experience has led me to deeply resonate with Amy Tan's reflections in "Mother Tongue," where she explores the profound impact of language on our lives. Tan eloquently states, "I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth" (Tan 633).

  19. Mother Tongue

    in mother tongue, amy tan shares the difference of her talking english when her mother is present or her husband. the main idea or thesis is remembered one. Skip to document. University; High School. ... this is a clear example of the efect English had on her life. Based on her descripion, she was a smart student, but English stop her from ...

  20. PDF Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan

    English," for example. But they seem just as bad, as if everything is limited, including people's perceptions of the limited English speaker. I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother's "limited" English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what

  21. PDF THESIS-Analysis of the Influence of Mother Tongue on Performance in English

    4.3.1 Students' Response on Prevalence of Use of Mother Tongue ..... 53 4.3.1 Teachers' Response on Prevalence of Use of Mother Tongue ..... 56 4.4 Perception of Teachers and Students on the Influence of Mother Tongue on Performance of

  22. PDF Mother Tongue Based Language Education in Philippines And ...

    MTB MLE functions best when a child's mother tongue is used as the primary language of teaching, beginning in the first years of school and continuing for as long as possible. The mother tongue is considered the learner's first Language (L1), which remains the critical Language of education. For linguistic minorities, acquiring

  23. (PDF) The Experiences of Mother Tongue-Based ...

    Over a decade into the implementation of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) in the Philippines, program implementers continue to encounter challenges, especially in terms of ...