Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

MANILA - Read to your kids even when they’re still in the womb, but don’t sound like actress Kris Aquino when she’s speaking Taglish (Tagalog or Filipino mixed with English).

Organizers and participants of the First Philippine Summit on Early Childhood Education on Wednesday urged parents to “read aloud” to their children, including the unborn ones, to help improve their literacy later in life, but they warned against mixing languages or dialects.

Answering questions from reporters, educator Carolina Gustilo de Ocampo said Aquino, a sister of presidential candidate Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, should set an example to Filipino children and avoid mixing Filipino and English when talking.

“That one is really very bad because she's a lit (literature) major. She reads very well. She's very intelligent,” De Ocampo told reporters after a media briefing at the Shangri-La Hotel Makati.

“She should be a good model for language because she's excellent in both English and Tagalog. She should not mix it (sic). She has so much power. Everybody looks up to her. Everybody finds her wonderful, so use that opportunity to be good in both languages,” De Ocampo added.

American literacy specialist Laura Benson, a professor at the University of Colorado and a speaker at the summit, said it was important not to mix languages, adding that studies by Harvard University show that the language used at home “primes, prompts, patterns our children’s thinking.”

“Talk to them in the language of your community. If one parent is really good in that language, then speak in that one,” said De Ocampo.

“Speak in the language of your home, not Taglish, Pampangueñoish, or Ilonggoish. The most important thing is for the parent to be very clear. She cannot mix it,” she added.

De Ocampo said parents at home oftentimes inadvertently switch from one language to another even in just one sentence.

“We end up using two languages like `Eat now or else hindi ka tataba.’ or `Come here now. Sit down now. Dalian mo,” she said.

“I'm embarrassed that I’m very bad in Talagog but I'm trying my very best,” added De Ocampo, an Ilonggo from Bacolod City.

Around 750 educators, program administrators, school supervisors, social workers, psychologists, parents and developmental pediatricians are expected to attend the conference to be held on Thursday and Friday at The Fort in Taguig.

The conference, sponsored by Wyeth Progress Pre-School Gold and Maximus Inventus, aims to promote the importance of early education in the country.

Early learning expert George Morrison, a University of North Texas professor and another speaker at the conference, said parents should read to kids even before they are born, not only for their children’s benefit but also for the parents’ because "we need moms who know how to read to their children.”

“Mothers are important persons in this literacy development so we have to start early and make sure they do a good job on that,” he said.

Morrison said that the Philippines should give more importance to early childhood learning, adding that the United States has not done a good job on this and was now having problems with adolescent literacy.

“We’re finding our adolescents can’t read and are turned off by reading. We should get kids hooked on reading so this can be carried throughout their lifetime,” he said.

“What kind of books? All kinds of books. Read all genre. You want to read fiction, non-fiction, or alphabet books. The alphabet is extremely important,” he added.

With globalization, Morrison said countries should invest more in early childhood education to help with their literacy rates and remain economically competitive.

“Anytime a country losses a business, we ask what can we do better. One of the answers is we can do a better job of educating children so that these jobs don’t go any place else,” he said.

Benson said that parents could start at home by reading aloud to their children “every day,” encourage them to ask questions, and later encourage them to write.

“Marinate them with literacy. When we read to children, one fills their ears with the language of books, authors, poetry, cadence, different styles of talking,” she said.

“It takes multiple exposure to a word for children to learn them …12 to 21 encounters,” she added.

Benson noted that teaching children early about language was “really training the brain and developing neurological pathways” for children to be able to learn more languages other than their mother tongue.

She added that children exposed to languages other than their mother tongue have an easier time learning other languages when they grow up.

Benson also said that children who are taught early also have a bigger vocabulary and learn more quickly in school compared to those who only know a few words.

“And the gap grows pretty quickly because their brain is now wired and they learn at a very drastic rate. It’ll be much easier for them to learn,” she said.

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