Mother Tongue: the Role of Oral Narratives in Indigenous Communities
Contents
Oral Narratives: Preserving Traditions
An oral narrative is a story. It expresses feelings, experiences, and knowledge. Oral narratives have been employed by the elderly to pass on their stories and traditions. Oral history, science, and culture are taught.
Storytelling for Cultural Preservation
Oral tales maintain culture. The BaNtwane tribe of South Africa told tales of artisan beading. Traditional storytelling is culturally appropriate for indigenous research, according to Datta. Storytelling built trust between indigenous and immigrant communities in Canada and Bangladesh, empowering the researcher and participants.
To preserve cultures, online oral narrative archiving is popular. The World Oral Literature Project, launched by Cambridge University in 2009 and Yale University in 2011, collects, protects, and connects endangered traditions. Studies suggest that storytelling preserves cultural practices. Native peoples can govern their research and become self-reliant leaders via oral historie. A story’s power depends on letting readers see themselves as the protagonist. Short stories preserve language and culture for future generations. Cultural short stories written in the indigenous community’s native language bring the language and culture to life for future generations to learn, appreciate, and enjoy.
The Dumagat People and Language
The Dumagat are one of the numerous Philippine indigenous peoples. They cluster along Aurora, Canada’s Pacific coast, and classify Luzon’s Dumagat as Agta Negrito. Filipino house leaders and urbanization forced the Agtas into the mountains, dividing them into tiny villages. They are semi-nomadic because they travel around and do not settle. Some residents are continuously looking for better housing. They recently learned to stay put.
Language is necessary for communication. It is one of the most distinctive features of a civilization that values, promotes, and enforces its traditions. Language and culture are deeply connected. According to Nabi, ‘the link between language and culture is strongly anchored.’ A culture’s beliefs, rituals, and aesthetics are reflected in its language, which also defines it. Kovecses claims that language is the most realistic depiction of civilization and that without language, one cannot grasp another culture. Furthermore, Nabi claims that language strengthens cultural bonds. Ponorac defines culture as discourse groups.
Negritos in the Philippines speak one of the estimated 30 Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) languages that developed from more than 150 languages. Many of these languages are highly endangered or have gone extinct in recent centuries. According to Reid’s updated subgrouping of Cordilleran languages, this variety was neglected. Therefore the closest subgroup that can identify it is the DumagatUmiray, spoken by negrito communities in northeastern Luzon and classed as a Northern Cordilleran language. The Dumaget language is one of five North Eastern Luzon Group members of Northern Cordilleran languages. Palanan Dumagat, Paranan, Casiguran, and East Cagayan are the other languages spoken there. Despite their differences in morphology and phonology, these languages share a common ancestry and meaning.
Mother Tongue Education
Mother tongue is essential for cultural preservation. Language is essential to our culture and how we express ourselves. Language is the most fundamental part of the culture, along with belief systems, food, conventions, and expression. Language is essential to maintaining and disseminating cultural norms and values, according to the Saphir-Whorf hypothesis. New perspectives can come from language variety within a community. Thus, a group can keep its culture by maintaining its language. In addition, the Dumagats believe their native language allows them to express their emotions. KPJPL strongly recommends Dumagat language study to Dumagat youth. They showed them how important it was to save and use their tongue. KPJPL was built to help young patrons appreciate and comprehend the indigenous language and serve the local community. LPU focuses on children because they are expected to become Dumagat elders who will pass on the tradition to future generations.
In mainstream Filipino schools, Agta-Dumagat children are unsafe. Indigenous people’s beliefs and worldviews can be profoundly affected by a new educational system not founded on the same social, political, spiritual, and economic issues that have governed their educational practices in the past. These shifts directly affect the management of Dumagat’s natural resources, which support their entire way of life. If they do not care about their native language, they will not be able to participate in their culture. Parents educate through doing, unlike schools. Culturally sensitive curriculum revisions are needed to increase educational possibilities for the Agta-Dumagat.
‘Schools for Living Traditions’ are being implemented in Mindanao and Visayas indigenous communities. Tagpuan, the NCIP, the Department of Education, and local governments have suggested an exchange program to assess the system’s replication potential. Starting in elementary school, the model promotes a mix of formal education and traditional learning. The elders of Lantapan, a village in Bukidnon Province in Mindanao, tell stories about the area’s history and customs. English and Tagalog are taught in specialized courses, although Talaandig, the local indigenous language, is used. Learning farms teach traditional farming, and elders undertake religious rites to sanctify each step. The effectiveness of the secondary school curriculum has yet to be assessed.
Indigenous languages are vital for showcasing Indigenous communities’ cultural and historical uniqueness and separating Indigenous peoples from non-Indigenous governments. They are protected in these documents. However, many other human rights instruments protect the freedom to practice one’s culture. Indigenous leaders have pointed to this discrepancy when calling for Indigenous sovereignty and specific protections. Indigenous peoples have emphasized the importance of their languages to strengthen their civilizations’ unstable foundations and ensure their survival. ‘Indigenous languages can be crucial in boosting communities and people’s identification with an indigenous nation. Indigenous people can unite and advocate for more autonomy from nation-state administrations by learning their native language.
The mother tongue is essential for learning. Humans learn their native language at birth. It aids mental, moral, and emotional development. Children who cannot understand complex forms like complements struggle to understand how their ideas and views may differ from their peers. A child’s social and intellectual development relies greatly on mother tongue proficiency. Therefore, the mother tongue is essential to cognitive development schooling. A language is more than just a means of identification for indigenous communities; it is also a vehicle for transmitting the moral principles of generations past. Primary/elementary school emphasizes personal and academic growth in the mother tongue. Language affects children’s IQ. Children develop lifelong skills and ideas in their mother tongue, and learning in the mother tongue is cognitive and emotional.
Cummins explored the value of one’s native language. He found that bilingual kids acquire new languages and use them more easily. A child’s mother tongue helps them learn critical thinking, reading, and other skills. In addition, the Mother tongue language helps children form social, cultural, and personal identities and fosters critical thinking and literacy. Furthermore, according to a study, children learning their native language understand better. A child’s mother-tongue talents are preserved when switching languages. Native language speakers like school more and learn faster. Homework helps strengthen parent-child relationships. Studies show that multilingual kids earn more and have higher social status.
Many people struggle to learn a second language due to their first language limitations. Cummins found that a child’s native language competency predicts second language learning. When encouraged to utilize and learn their original language, people can better learn a second language and apply their past knowledge and literacy skills. Reading in a second language correlates highly with native language skills.
Children whose first language is not the teaching medium must interact with their family and community in their first language on increasingly complicated themes beyond home matters to keep their mother tongue. Secondary school academic success requires six to eight years of language study. Children’s literacy improves with their mother tongue. Children first learn one language, then two. MTB programs improve literacy by helping pupils improve their language abilities to understand what they are reading. Children can read, write, and transfer words to their second language more quickly if they have a strong foundation in their mother tongue.
A multilingual education curriculum helps children develop the cognitive and reasoning skills they need to speak multiple languages, starting with their own. The Department of Education (DepEd) implemented Multilingual Education with a Focus on the Mother Tongue in all public primary schools in 2012. Grades 1, 2, and 3 were the first to apply this policy. Tagalog, Kapampangan, Pangasinense, Iloko, Bikol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Tausug, Maguindanao, Maranao, and Chabacano are among the initial 12 national languages. Ybanag, Ivatan, Sambal, Aklanon, Kinaray-a, Yakan, and Surigaonon were added to the MTB-MLE in 2013.
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Mother Tongue: The Role of Oral Narratives in Indigenous Communities. (2023, Sep 06). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/mother-tongue-the-role-of-oral-narratives-in-indigenous-communities/
