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Language in education

Building bridges through multilingual schooling: a mother-tongue pilot in East Timor is showing the way

By March 2, 2017July 19th, 201780 Comments6 min read8,155 views

Grade 2 Oral Tetun class

Editor’s note: As the Language on the Move team is busy preparing for the “Bridging Language Barriers” Symposium to be hosted at Macquarie University on March 16, Kerry Taylor-Leech introduces us to a mother-tongue education pilot in East Timor. Mother-tongue-based multilingual education is a key strategy for equitable access to education and Kerry explains how the pilot bridges barriers to learning faced by rural children in the global south.

Registration for the “Bridging Language Barriers” Symposium closes today but if you cannot attend in person, you can still join the conversation with our team of live-tweeters on the day. Our Twitter hashtag will be #LOTM2017.

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Hatudu ba malai iha ne’bé ho kámera! (Point to the foreigner with the camera!). Some thirty little faces and fingers swing round in my direction. I am at the back of a classroom observing a Grade 2 Tetun-as-a-second language lesson in a school in Lautém, East Timor. Turning observation on its head, this energetic and charismatic teacher has made use of me in his Total Physical Response (TPR) lesson. The children love it and I too am enjoying myself immensely.

Grade 1 child reading independently

The lesson is taking place in a school participating in a mother-tongue based multilingual education pilot. Known in East Timor as EMBLI (in Tetun: Edukasaun Multilingue Bazia Lian-Inan—Multilingual Education in Mother Tongues), the pilot is overseen by the Timor-Leste National Commission for UNESCO and supported by a network of agencies and organisations known as Repete 13. The lesson observation was part of several visits I was lucky enough to make to the pilot schools in 2016, accompanying EMBLI trainers on their regular monitoring tours. I’ve been visiting East Timor since 2001 for work, consultancy and research. I was making this trip to catch up with the pilot, which I have been following since its inception. I’ve also followed and been involved in the sometimes-heated public debates that preceded it.

Fataluku word recognition

In 2013 the East Timorese Ministry of Education implemented a three-year mother-tongue pilot in three districts with large communities of endogenous language speakers (Galoli in Manatuto District, Fataluku in Lautém District and Baikenu in Oecusse District). Operating from pre-primary to Grade 3 level, the pilot officially ended in 2015 but was extended for a further two years and will include Grade 4 in 2017. Now is a good time to be writing about the pilot because the first results of an Endline Survey have recently been released. Conducted by the well-known assessment specialist Dr Steve Walter, the survey compared children’s performance in EMBLI schools, government schools and Portuguese-immersion schools. Not surprisingly, the results show the benefits of learning in a language a child understands best. EMBLI children showed marked gains compared to the other children, especially in reading. While test results are only part of the picture, they are exciting for EMBLI as they provide quantitative evidence that MTB-MLE is effective. The results are particularly pleasing because the schools are located in remote areas, where children’s performance has traditionally lagged behind that of children in urban schools. One of the most conclusive pieces of evidence from the survey is that EMBLI has produced children who are independent readers by Grade 1 – a remarkable achievement considering the difficult physical conditions in which these children are expected to learn.

Fataluku reading books

EMBLI’s achievements overall in the last three years have been impressive. EMBLI has adopted the Two-Track Method for literacy teaching, advocated and adapted by the Summer Institute of Linguistics. This highly structured approach is used in many MTB-MLE programs around the world. It is based on a combination of meaning (i.e., understanding whole text) and accuracy (i.e., understanding and using word identification strategies).

The method appears to work well in low-resource settings where children come from pre-literate homes and parents cannot easily support their children’s literacy development. Despite the dilapidated conditions and lack of facilities in East Timorese public schools generally, EMBLI teachers make their classrooms welcoming places where children are exposed to attractive, colourful materials in their home language in the form of pictures, big books, activity books and readers that reflect images from their everyday life and cultural realities. Children’s own work also now brightens up the classroom walls.

Teaching aids made from local materials

In low-resource educational settings, teachers have no choice but to be creative. EMBLI teachers supplement professionally produced material with literacy and numeracy resources made from sticks and pebbles, coconut shells, palm leaves, seeds, cardboard, buttons and plastic bottles. For early writing the pre-school children often use slates, a cheap, sturdy, and easily renewable resource.

In addition to these models of sustainability, one of EMBLI’s greatest achievements in my view is its empowerment of teachers. EMBLI trainers report that since their involvement with the pilot, the teachers are happier, more confident and have a sense of agency. In this video teachers and students can be seen at work (note: the video is in the official languages, Tetun and Portuguese). The slogan on the T-shirts reads “I like learning in my mother tongue.”

The pilot teachers work in tandem with teaching assistants. Although this system is not particularly new in East Timor, previously the teaching assistant’s primary role was to keep order and this was often done by means of the stick rather than the carrot.  EMBLI has encouraged collaborative planning and team teaching as well as approaches to classroom management that respect children’s human rights.

Pre-school teacher helping a child with letter formation using a slate

EMBLI trainers make regular site visits and teachers also benefit from being able to attend mostly local workshops and seminars. Travel from the districts to Dili takes at least a full day and even to reach district centres, teachers often have to leave home before dawn and walk very long distances. EMBLI has shown that on-site teacher training is a viable and cost-effective alternative to training conducted in the capital.

EMBLI is also a model of how to build trust and sustain relationships with communities. Parents are supportive of the pilot as they are more able to interact with school and they see their children are learning to read and write. To date the EMBLI pilot has successfully put into practice three essential principles of MTB-MLE: promoting fluency in community and official languages, creating a supportive environment for literacy, and empowering teachers, learners and parents. As countries of the global South struggle to achieve effective universal primary education the EMBLI pilot provides a model of collaboration and sustainable practice. In its three-year life EMBLI has made a significant difference to children’s learning and the prospects for its future look bright. As they say in Tetun and Portuguese, Parabens! (Congratulations!)

Photos taken with permission by Kerry Taylor-Leech

Kerry Taylor-Leech

Author Kerry Taylor-Leech

Kerry Taylor-Leech is a senior lecturer in Applied Linguistics, TESOL and the teaching of second languages. She is based in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science at Griffith University. Her research is sociolinguistic, ethnographic and interdisciplinary in nature and explores language policy and planning, identity, education and literacy practices in multilingual settings. She has strong interests in all aspects of language and identity, especially in immigrant and postcolonial contexts. She is a co-editor of the international journal Current Issues in Language Planning. Visit ktlweb.wordpress.com for more.

More posts by Kerry Taylor-Leech

Join the discussion 80 Comments

  • Blade says:

    11. It is so good to read this blog post which is very interesting and fascinating. The EMBLI program is undeniable a great step of UNESCO to facilitate the study of minority languages speaking children. Mother tongue spoken in the very first days of school will be a perfect helping tool for those kids to learn new things. I hope that EMBLI could become a good method for education policies makers all over the world to apply and give minority languages speakers opportunities to have a strong education results in the future.

  • Nguyen Thien Duyen Ngo says:

    This article shows a great effort of the teacher to adapt students’ culture and literacy in literacy education. This is the essential way to support the multicultural students’ academic achievement because only when teachers come to a deep and comprehensive understanding of school and home cultural practices can they help minority students arrive at a cultural recognition of their social realities.

  • tting says:

    The multilingual language situation has generated much debate over the use of languages for instructional purposes. Educational reform and the new emphasis on social inclusion have prompted a reappraisal of language-in-education policy. The educational process itself is, perhaps, more multidimensional than it seems on the surface. In order for educational innovation to be the most effective and responsive to the needs of learners
    from non-dominant language communities, a number of components need to be considered.

  • Kim says:

    EMBLI is admittedly a smart initiative by UNESCO. There are a lot of short and long-term benefits, indeed, the key stakeholders may obtain from the program. The teachers have a golden opportunity to improve their teaching skills through the assistance provided by the program. The students, on the other hand, may receive the qualified learning experience that they may reflect to at some points later in their future language learning stages. It does provide access to a good education for the children in a remote area and chance to be equal in education with those in urban areas as well. There are some similar programs I had involved with in Indonesia such as English language teaching assistance provided by Australian government for teachers of Islamic school, Kangaroo Radio English program also by Australian government providing a short intensive teacher training course for Islamic school teachers and other programs, seminars and workshops sponsored by the USA and Australian government. These, as I have experienced, like EMBLI are a prestigious moment where I could improve my English through the direct context with the native speakers and so are the students. Not to mention that there were also a lot of fun and fruitful activities besides the learning.

  • Rochelle says:

    I like the contents and idea of this article which the teachers use the resources which they can find (sticks, pebbles, coconut shells, palm leaves, seeds, cardboard, buttons and plastic bottles) for the progress of the students to learn their mother tongue creatively. This is a good educational article which points out to us that we do not need any fancy resources to teach, and it matters a lot about the students’ interests and motivation in studying. As long as the students are motivated and have interest in learning language acquisition, then it will be easier for the teachers to teach.

  • Fern says:

    The project is fascinating and could be a pilot for many other contexts where remoteness and lack of resources are a barrier for literacy in early education. The significant features of this project are the teacher agency, parental and community involvement and the resource management. Empowering teachers is a vital part of educating children in their mother tongue which we can see possibly happening in the aboriginal context in Australia as well as in the remotest part of my country, Sri Lanka. Community and parental involvement give them ownership of the education process which otherwise would have been seen as responsibility of the government. Further, the traditions and practices related to the surroundings of children would encourage creativity of children. Resources not being limited to books but pictures and creative works of children all contribute to avoid the mismatch between the home environment and the schools’ expectations of the early educational stages of children.

  • Natalie says:

    The EMBLI pilot is an amazing initiative that I hope will influence education policies affecting other minority languages around the world. It is so unfortunate that due to globalisation and associated socio economic pressures as well as a government’s quest for national unity and control, that minority languages are being increasingly marginalised and in many cases disappearing. For a language to survive it is essential the younger generation embrace it and the EMBLI pilot is evidence that this can occur despite these external pressures. As we can see from the blog, not only are the children excited to learn in their mother tongue, but the teachers are excited to instruct in it and this is creating significant benefits for students’ learning outcomes. An existing initiative indeed!

  • Karly says:

    The article is a very heart-warming piece illustrating the lengths some teachers are going to in an attempt to improve the literacy of their students in low resource and difficult situations. Apart from this, the finding that teaching students in their mother tongue leading to strong education results is perhaps an expected but very important finding. The pilot should continue to its investigations, as the results from these studies appear to be very helpful to these low socioeconomic and rural environments.

  • Mengyao APPL941 says:

    The East Timor schooling example shows that mother-tongue based multilingual education pilot also effective for low-level young learners’ learning. As I know if education institution only considers teaching students through the target language, it probably hampers the students’ L2 language improvement, because students may feel confused about the content what they are learning when they can’t understand the teaching language, they probably lose confidence and motivation to continue their L2 language learning. Also, I really appreciate these teachers in this example, they can create innovative teaching materials for supporting students learning.

  • Xinyue Ji says:

    It’s really a great essay! Mother tongue can be bridge to connect students’ knowledge in school and their experience in different communities. From this blog, I also know that foreign languages can also be developed basing on the first language. It’s really useful because following from this essay, I can develop myself and bring my students effective ways in my teaching in the future.

  • AzPc says:

    I really like the point of using different materials in nature as the setting for language classed and I do love making my own materials. It is trued that it takes a lot of time but you will feel that it worths. Also, by using natural materials for language teaching and especially for young learners in a rural area is a good idea. Nature is not just the place for them to live but the place for them to learn, the materials from nature are the bridge between teachers and the students.

  • Yan Yan says:

    The EMBLI pilot provides a model for collaborative and sustainable practices. Compared with monolingual habitus of multilingual schools and submersion education, EMBLI trial has many advantages. The EMBLI pilot gives more rights to teachers, students and parents than to policymakers, which mobilizes the three’s enthusiasm for literacy. I am glad to see that the EMBLI pilot can be promoted to a greater extent

  • Camilla says:

    What a heart-warming blog! I feel that this is an example of teachers and children and local languages really being respected and valued. It must be really empowering to the teachers, whose commitment is demonstrated in their creative gathering of classroom resources, to see that children who once lagged behind many others are able to excel. This really reinforces how essential instruction in their first tongue is for children and the importance of policy in determining how well children can learn and how effective the teaching of even the most enthusiastic teacher can be.

  • Hasnahana Hasnahana says:

    The project EMBLI has shown the mother tongue based multilingual schooling process where the teachers encourage the learners with their active participations and interactions to make sure for effective and interesting learning. Their active participations will grow their confidant which will be helpful in their future lives. They not only make sure the involvement of the students but the parents too which is really a good initiative.

  • XQX says:

    The EMBLI teaching pilot presents a considerable result of developing students’ language literacy in the context of multilingual schooling. In other words, the EMBLI pilot contributed on the language education which reflects the facts of the learning circumstance can be preceded by individuals in the language learning process of students by the dual track adaptation. Also, the teachers play an important role in the language classroom. It is necessary for teachers to know more about the EMBLI.

  • Sirin says:

    (Week 11) It is pleasant to see that researchers try to find solutions to the “language-of-instruction“ issue that stands in the way of many students’ educational success around the world. Apart from the achievements described in the article, it was interesting to read about further sustainability efforts made by the pilot schools in this study. Making use of day to day objects for literacy and numeracy purposes, shows that even within low-resource educational settings it is possible to provide adequate education.

  • Piiigah (kamali) says:

    The results of the EMBLI teaching pilot are compelling and definitely worth further investigation. The author states that the positive results of the test are unsurprising and I agree – it just makes sense that teaching in a child’s mother tongue would result in this way. Empowerment of teachers in low resource schools is also a great outcome. However the article didn’t discuss any of the negatives – I’m assuming there have been some in the test results – or why there has been public debate. Both sides need to be evaluated here.

  • Duong Khanh Vu says:

    I can feel that their educators was making a decent attempt to show understudies; in spite of the fact that, they are not prepared in term of instructing offices. The key snag in giving training to youngsters in these nations is an absence of subsidizing which could bring about expanding rates of lack of education and school dropouts. The methodology taken by EMBLI pilot in East Timor with the emphasis on guidance in native language and teaching method is very compelling. This is a decent program that different nations which have less access to think about dialects ought to be connected so understudies can have a possibility of building up their dialect aptitudes.

  • Adia says:

    The article shows that the synergy that is created by the teachers, parents, learners and other agencies plays important role in the development of literacy in this place. However, this also reminds me of the previous article “The Schooling Challenges of Multilingual Children” in Zambia, where the students are taught in the language of instruction that they are not proficient in, so it causes some major problems for them. But, EMBLI has offered and facilitated their learners in advantageous ways. This is a great example to address some issues that may hinder multilingual learners from achieving reasonable educational outcomes. Even though the literacy practice in different places are influenced by different policy, it will be helpful to learn from EMBLI’s success.

  • Salam Moussa Oghli says:

    It was admirable to discover grade one students’ achievement with their reading skills through a new programme with its low-resource settings. There are certainly several aspects in this project that kept the levels of motivation and enthusiasm of the parents, children, teachers and supervisors high to overcome all the uncertainties and obstacles.
    At such a globalised world, the extraordinary success of such a programme asserts the need for more individuality and diversity that could be the key element to combat illiteracy.

  • AN says:

    This article reminds me of my volunteer experience as an ESL assistant tutor in Tamil- medium schools located within rural areas in Malaysia. Lack of teaching and learning resources required us volunteer teachers to work on our creativity in improvising available resources to suit our teaching needs, as well as to accommodate for the large class sizes (i.e. 50 students to a class) and limited language proficiencies (i.e. most students could not understand or speak English). There were however, limited models and resources for teacher development (i.e. permanent staff within schools) that the teaching approaches adapted were not as effective for the limited (teaching) duration available.

    The EMBLI pilot is indeed a helpful, as well as hopeful, effort taken in language teaching which sheds light on how one could optimise the learning environment for students’ language learning process through the adaptation of the two-track method, as well as the collaboration among teachers for the purpose of student literacy development in multilingual school settings. The emphasis on teacher empowerment as well as a supportive teaching and learning environment- the essential principles of the project- are key aspects often not focused on closely enough in multilingual classrooms (as may be evident in some Malaysian classrooms), The project thus provides a great example/ model that could be adopted in Malaysian classrooms, to achieve a more effective result in students literacy development.

    PS- Most Malaysian students are trilingual learners. We learn Bahasa Malaysia, English and our native language. In Tamil medium schools, more emphasis would be thus on Tamil (students’ native language) – as the primary mode of instruction- less on Bahasa Malaysia or English. Both languages are however mandatory for students to acquire to be able to progress to the next stages of their study.

  • Wendie LIU says:

    We could say that the EMBLI pilot is a successful model in cultivating the language literacy of students in multilingual schooling settings, and three key factors have contributed to the this achievement, consisting of advocating the equal stance of their community and official language rather than simply emphasizing on either of them, paying to attention to build a more beneficial and supportive socioeconomic, sociocultural and socioenvironmental context to in favor of their language use and literacy learning, and being engaged with maintaining more empowered and qualified teachers and faculty staffs in the mean time, without the collaboration of any of these components, it may more or less constrain the access of the parents and children to upward social and educational mobility.

  • E.T. says:

    I like how this project demonstrates the advantages of teaching children in their mother tongue, not only for the students, but also for the students and the community at large. Besides that, it is an example of how education can develop even without much monetary support from governments. Additionally, one of the points in the post that really made me reflect about my own teaching was this: “In low-resource educational settings, teachers have no choice but to be creative.” It made me think that sometimes we give too much value to resources though they are not indispensable in teaching.

  • F says:

    Different types of resources and technological advancement affect language teaching. Teachers has a important role in language classroom. These days, the teachers are emphasizing on EMBLI which make them more happier and confident which shows their ability and quality of teaching. Therefore, the teachers who are not yet familiar with the importance of EMBLI, they should be provided more training on this.

  • zhongliang lin says:

    In language teaching, some backward areas will inevitably encounter the lack of such as materials, equipment, and technology. Teachers play a particularly important role here. I am very happy to see that the teachers have been given more power in EMBLI which make them more happier and confident. At the same time, the ability and quality of teachers is also particularly important. Therefore, more attention can be placed on the training of teachers.

  • Ngoc Hiep Nguyen says:

    Multilingual schooling is of increasing concern among all the stakeholders (teachers, parents and educational planners, investors, et ceteral). The challenge this kind of schooling faces needs an comprehensive and integrating approach to be applied. The mother tongue pilot in East Timor is illustrated to be a successful project that builds bridges through multilingual schooling. Overall, two achievements of this project that impress me the most are: it successfully empowered the teachers and it established trust and sustain relationships to a certain extent.
    However, as the article indicated, this model is piloted in a remote area of the country where the conditions are different from other parts of the country. It is therefore still a long journey to go to demonstrates that this model could be also applied successfully in a broader scale. By the way, it is worth aprasing.

  • Anas says:

    EMBLI makes for an interesting study especially after the article on Zambia. I wonder if a variation of EMBLI can be adopted to suit the situation there. Nevertheless, the results from the 3 year pilot seemed to assist not only the students but empowered the teachers and encouraged dialogue with the parents. Doing my Master in this field of education, I would like to focus the discussion on the ‘collaborative planning and team teaching as well as approaches to classroom management that respect children’s human rights’ and ‘on-site teacher training’. Reading this, made me realise how teachers are the glue that brings things together. Without them, I am not sure how successful the programme will be. So, kudos to us, inspiring teachers and thank you Prof. Piller for including this article by Taylor-Leech. As they say in Portuegese (I am following the footstep of the author here 🙂 ) Felicidades aos professores – Cheers to teachers!

  • Luv says:

    This is an example that projects like EMBLI can work and they could be started in different places and see of they work as well. Training teachers could sound challenging but there is always a place to start. In Mexico, there are training courses for teachers that go the remote areas to teach and who have not finished their studies. There are also small projects of bilingual schools, but not enough. It would be great if these languages were taught in primary and secondary schools as part of the national curriculum.

  • Luis TV says:

    I would like to highlight two things. First, one of the key factor of EMBLI’s success is the empowering of teachers through training. This, as the article illustrates, represents a game changer element which makes teachers feel heard, as well as, prepares them to face the challenges their reality proposes. It is clear that any real progress in term of education could not be accomplished without having teachers and their professional development as a priority. Another achievement of EMBLI is to become a “model of how to build trust and sustain relationships with communities”. Multilingual communities were instruction is needed require to be handled respectfully and with a comprehensive and integrating approach. I am very happy to know that in places where economy is developing, like East Timor, a pilot like EMBLI is truly being so successful and improving communities’ future. A real example!

  • Thuy Linh Nguyen says:

    The EMBLI pilot have been successful, which made me impressed. This 3-year pilot has changed the students’ learning significantly and made their future brighter by empowering teachers, students and their parents, bringing an inspiring literacy environment and encouraging official languages.
    In Vietnam, there are more than 54 ethnic groups speaking different languages. At schools, some dominant languages are used as medium instruction but not all of the languages. I wonder if this pilot is practical to apply in Vietnam as it needs a lot of workforce and funds for training teachers as well as designing materials in each minority language.

  • Ary says:

    In certain ASEAN countries, access to education is already an issue by itself, either geographically or economically. The situation is even so much so for East Timor – a country that fought hard to have finally achieved the status of independence. Leading the next generation into a brighter future is arguably among the top missions of the East-Timorese people at this stage. For that reason, educational schemes and approaches, such as the “EMBLI”, are much needed. Such approaches not only allow literacy, and its later fruits, to flourish, they also take the national mother-tongue preservation into consideration , hence, uproot their cultural features, all of which the “young” nation of East Timor cannot afford to lose.

  • Chunja says:

    This blog really impressed me! As I have read some articles related to the use of L1 in teaching in L2 classroom, I personally believe that L1 still plays an important role in language teaching and learning process.
    Students, particularly those who are at the young age having no idea of L2 and easily get bored of learning something they hardly understand; therefore, it is essential for teachers to find out different interesting and comprehensible ways to convey the lesson.
    I have some experience teaching English to young learners who are aged 6-9. From my own experience, mother tongue is sometimes needed in giving instruction. Many parents nowadays think that its more effective to study with native speakers only; however, based on my own learning and teaching experience for many years, the role of L1 teachers in early language learning process can’t be replaced.

  • Au says:

    I had a chance to participate in a volunteer programme. In a lower secondary class, two teachers will take responsibility for the class. One of the teachers is an American teacher and the other is a Vietnamese teacher. We will teach the lesson by English first and Vietnamese later. Although, at this low level, it is really hard for students to understand the lesson in English, the point is to make a motivation for students to be willing to learn English for interest.

  • NW says:

    What a wonderful article! I feel happy for the kids who have creative and cheerful teachers. I can feel that their teachers was trying so hard to teach students; although, they are not ready in term of teaching facilities. What i am thinking is it does not matter that teachers will use L1 or L2 language to teach, what really matter is how they teach to make students always be active, ready to learn and acquire new knowledge.

  • Lai Ng says:

    This is an encouraging example illustrates how teachers can optimise the learning environment for their students in their L1 education. The empowerment of teachers are so obvious and successful in this programme in East Timor, although there is not much support from the students parents. There is a long history of research of whether L1 and L2 should be learnt in parallel bilingualism or L1 first and then L2 in transitional bilingualism. Recent researches find that there’s not much outcome difference. This article provides a good picture of a good foundation of L1 may be an advantage of learning good L2.

  • Orpheus says:

    This post reminds me of the time when I was a pupil at the primary school, which is located in an underdeveloped commune. Due to the lack of teaching facilities, the teachers faced a lot of difficulties to enhance the quality of the teaching-learning process. However, all of my teachers were highly creative as they create teaching materials to teach mathematics by using things that relate to the daily life such as chopsticks, buttons, and even fruits. I will never forget those memories and I will always appreciate the time and effort of those teachers who did everything that could to make learning more exciting and meaningful.

  • Nasser says:

    Jam-packed classes, small classroom size, outdoor classrooms in unpleasant conditions, inadequate teaching and learning facilities, long commuting distances, and a lack of trained teachers are only a few problems that developing countries are fraught with. The key obstacle in providing education to children in these countries is a lack of funding which could result in increasing rates of illiteracy and school dropouts.
    The approach taken by EMBLI pilot in East Timor with the focus on instruction in mother tongue and pedagogy is quite effective. The use of local languages as well as devising less ambitious strategies through utilisation of the affordances available notwithstanding the challenges mentioned above are viable alleviation strategies to address the existing issues in those countries.

  • Yuki says:

    EMBLI programme brings many benefits to both teachers and learners in East Timor in teaching and learning process of using their mother tongue. This is a very good programme that other countries which have less access to study languages should be applied so that students can have a chance of developing their language skills. Another interesting thing about this article is that it mentions a number of motivated teachers get involved in creating a learning environment for students by all available things that they have.

  • Nana says:

    What I find really interesting of the article is the role of the teachers, the teachers that are creative and recursive, who despite of the difficulties and shortcomings, find the way to create a nice environment for the students, creating materials, and transforming recycling objects into resources, but specially having a positive attitude towards their students. It is common to see classroom which are equipped with plenty of sources, having plain lessons; it is there where the attitude of the teacher come to transform the classroom into a scenario where students feel comfortable; because for many it can be the only space where they forget about their familiar concerns to enjoy a good time while they learn.

  • Preeya says:

    This article shows the rescue attempt of EMBLI teachers in East Timor teaching their children by using their native language. The mother tongue language based multilingual education encouraged the children to access in the formal education schooling. This is a good effort on the students to improve their learning abilities on their learning journey. In the first stage of learning, they have faced the difficulties in their learning such as lack of understanding as to what knowledge are and barriers to knowledge sharing culture which might obstruct their learning competence. This article gave readers good learning experiences and show the positive outcome of EMBLI programme are the key values based learning new languages as multilingual.

  • Arnon says:

    EMBLI pilot in East Timor is a wonderful model that shows persistence and creativity of teachers and trainers; although there is a low resources and technologies for teaching, they can keep going to work hard for the children and achieve their goal. I am motivated while reading this model to teaching in the future even if modern resources are nothing and ultimately they impress me to learn language for the long-term.

  • Yang says:

    This article is very impressive, and the voluntary teachers are very admirable. The passage tells us the importance that how a teacher uses the limited sources and materials to provide an interesting learning environment for those children/students in primary school in East Timo. It is difficult for the students to learn a second language in the poor learning condition. However, the teacher is responsible and used the suitable teaching methodology which attracted students’ learning motivations.

  • yym says:

    It is the first time that I know there is an organization named ‘EMBLI’ which has a highly structured approach to language teaching. Parents supported this pilot because they were able to interact with schools and they saw their children learning to read and write. EMBLI is also a model for building trust and maintaining relationships with the community. In my opinion, it is true to accept this approach to promote the education.

  • Farzaneh Morovati says:

    Hello,

    I think teaching in any fields needs creativity but in case of language teaching it would become tricky and a little bit hard. Nowadays, teaching language especially English has become more competitive and teachers usually attempt hard to apply the strategies which help the students in communicative purposes (in L2). The interesting point about this project was the usage of materials made from the environment. These kinds of facilities highly involve the students in the curriculum activities and motivate them, since they feel comfortable with materials (coming from their surroundings). Also, applying the mother-tongue can be a wise tendency, since it would bridge the students’ community to the classroom and teaching process would become more natural by sharing the real experiences. The use of mother tongue gives the students confidence to speak and tell their opinions without giving up in the early stages of the language learning. The teachers’ presence in the project was a very good opinion through which the instructors can strengthen their sense of belonging to teaching responsibilities and observe the teaching process in a classroom with simple facilities and materials (how to teach independently and wisely).

    Thank you
    Farzaneh Morovati

  • Masaki says:

    This reading implies it is not children’s abilities but pedagogical approaches that influence literacy skills. Teachers in this reading seem to utilize multimodal aspects effectively; they not only use their mother language to bridge the gap of complicated concepts, but utilize non-linguistic features, such as movements, gestures, classroom spaces, pictures, and so forth. Allowing children to get access to their experiences or books is also instructive for other language teachers.
    This reading also shows the benefit of using mother language in language learning. The sense of security is the biggest benefit for their language learning. Instead of banning their mother language use, allowing them to use their mother language avoids pressure in conveying ideas. Such a pedagogical approach should be widespread in children’s education with a minor language, and this would be an instructive model to all kinds of primary language education in the future.

  • Siyi Wu says:

    Teachers are the most important part in the education of languages. Considering some places without advanced materials, technologies and resources, teachers should take a much more bigger responsibility and ability in language teaching. It can be seen that the poor conditions can provide teacher more chances without the limitations of modern resources. Mother language is necessary to children and parents cannot assist them sometimes. EMBLI is obviously a big process for language learning and teaching.

  • J says:

    This article is really interesting. It shows that mother tongue based multilingual education could increase learners’ second language skills and knowledge. when children are able to access to their mother tongue during the second language classes, it provides more opportunities to be exposed to the additional language as well as their mother tongue. This means that it could be helpful for them to develop their L1 and L2 literate competences.

  • Thet says:

    First, I would like to thank our Professor Ingrid for selecting this article as a research blog post as the article is very encouraging for that are implementing the mother-tongue based multilingual education. With the theoretical knowledge as a counterpart in the national education reform process, I have an understanding of its importance for the better performance of children, and the aspects of inclusion and equity and access to education for all the children, specifically, for those from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

    This pilot is the very first practical and successful implementation I have ever come across. Now, my country is in the process of mother-tongue based multilingual education, and facing some challenges due to 135 ethnic groups and over 100 ethnic languages are children’s home languages, and there is more than one ethnic group children in a classroom so it is difficult to decide for the mother tongue.
    Again, it would be grateful if I could access to this EMBLI’s implementation report so that I can share the knowledge more for the betterment of the implementation.

    Thanks.
    Thet

  • Haley says:

    It’s wonderful to read about such a positive project, that actually seems to be working. It appears from the tone of this article that the implementation of learning and teaching in both languages has not only been successful academically but also enjoyable for both the students and teachers.

    It appears to me that being able to communicate in their first language is confidence building for the students, as opposed to being intimidated by an unfamiliar language. It is also positive that illiterate parents can have some understanding of their children’s education and are not completely alienated from the process.

    I believe many governments and institutions make financial and logistical arguments against implementing these kinds of programs. East Timor is a poor country, so this should be a good model of how this type of program can be implemented with minimal cost.

  • Gab says:

    That’s really fascinating! This article reminds me of the new MTB-MLE policy in my country. The Philippines has more than 170 languages being spoken in different parts of the country. With MTB-MLE, which was first implemented in 2012, 18 major languages in the country are used in classrooms as medium of instruction in all subject areas from pre-elementary to grade 3. According to studies about the the implementation and effectiveness of MTB-MLE, student learning and engagement inside the classroom are dramatically increasing. This only shows that using a language that is understood and most familiar by the students is tantamount to better learning.

  • gab88 says:

    This pilot program in East Timor seems to really be effective in achieving its goals. It may seem obvious that student usually do better when using their mother-tongue but it was proven.

    It was a great initiative which should be used a model in other places. I got a lot of joy and satisfaction reading this post and the success of this program.

    As a teacher, there is nothing better than seeing students thrive and do well though your guidance. This program highlights the importance of community relationships and support.

  • Ann says:

    It is interesting to read about the success of mother tongue based multilingual education programme (EMBLI) which was launched in East Timor. Efforts taken by the teachers are appreciated. In Sri Lanka teachers use similar creative resources in their class rooms to give the best to their students. Most of the students specially in rural areas come from economically disadvantaged families and parents are far away from education. They send children to school because it is compulsory. However, teachers are considers as angels/gods. I can remember that there are sand boards kept in a corner of a class room or go outside to write letters from fingers. Furthermore, there are black colour boards where students write with a piece of chalk. Teachers use materials from the nature to teach. Our mother tongue which is Sinhala, has very difficult formation of writing. If students are guided positively, there are clever students who can become stars. Therefore, i appreciate EMBLI and sharing the finding.

  • Sunny says:

    Firstly, I would like to use my own experience to show the importance of the ability to understand in learning. As an international student, English is not my mother tongue and I have already achieved at a certain level of English before I back to Australian to study linguistics. However, to be honest, I still always feel chanllenging and pressure bacause of the language and culture barriers. I need to spent lots of time to understanding the readings, as I need to check some of the meanings and concepts of the words. I need to prepare all these knowledge, otherwise it will struggle for me to understand each lecture (although some time I still can not understand very well). However, the most stressful thing for me is that I can not express myself completely by using English, maybe becusae of my limited vocabulary. But as an adult, I know I need to bear these pressure and overcome them.
    So, let us think about the children who need to study by using a second language. They may also feel struggle, stressful and low self-esteem. As they are young, they may give-up in the face of these problems. Therefore, the ability to understand and communication are very important in school learning. What is may why students who study with their home language preformed better then those who not. Therefore, teaching students by using their mother tongues is important in their early years learning.

    • M.E says:

      Thank you for that comment Sunny

      It’s something I often forget to consider. Beyond the mental effort and time and resources required to learn another language, I often neglect the difficulties one has trying to navigate a space in a second or third language on a more emotional or self-esteem based level. When I learnt a second language it was always in a space where I was able to talk to people and learn in my native language a few minutes away, I never had to deal with those same pressures and stress being immersed in an environment in a second language, and so I sometimes fail to consider how it may have been different for others. Your comment really has helped me and reminded me, allowing me to greater appreciate the importance of learning in one’s mother tongue.

      -M.E

  • Pegah Marandi says:

    Dear all,
    Teaching and learning are two challenging but at the same time straight forward careers to pursue. Being a teacher is highly reliable on the context s/ he is situated in along with her or his motivation, resources, knowledge, and so on. It is not necessarily fixed that if a student has good resources, good teacher, good environment, and so many more facilities, can become a highly literate one; on the other hand of extreme if a student lacks financially could not become a doctor for instance. I have seen this in remote areas of my country where students are highly intelligible and majority of them are accepted either for medicine, dentistry, law, and engineering, which obviously shows her or his motivation not the facilities s/ he has . However, facilities can make this journey easier but not necessarily 100 percent, which is clearly shown in the article above, where teachers teach and students learn within a very low facilitated and low sourced milieu.
    With regards,
    Pegah

  • Van Le says:

    I like this informative and inspiring article, which has shown me that there is more than one way to teach English and it is creative. I used to think that English is learnt best when we expose as much as possible to it and I also know that my students’ parents believe that native English speaker teachers are always better than Vietnamese teachers teaching English. I knew a bit about how L1 can assist teaching and learning L2 but had never thought that mother tongue- based method can actually work that much in teaching English. Now I think I’m more open-minded and glad that I can also learn more and take advantage of L1 to help my students.

  • student says:

    I am very impressed by this Timorese mother-tongue education pilot. I’ve had the privilege of studying overseas in a bilingual university with a strong mother-tongue program. This program is part of an indigenous linguistic revival effort by the local government. Whilst I speak only the official language of the country, many of my friends grew up speaking the local indigenous language. For them, it was an immense joy to be able to pursue an academic career in their own mother tongue.

  • Naoya says:

    Compared to the first article assigned for week 7, this article provides us with an answer to a question about how to effectively facilitate children’s language learning, which is a mother-tongue based bilingual education known as EMBLI in East Timor. Learning a different language involves a lot of work, such as grammar, vocabulary, other four macro skills consisting of reading, writing, listening and speaking, and therefore, it might discourage children from learning it more spontaneously. However, if they are allowed to learning it in their most easy way of understanding, namely their mother tongue, they are more likely to engage in language learning by themselves. In order to make that happen, as this article explains, it is essential for such a learning to be supported by many resources, such as creative teachers, their trainers and community members including parents. This might be a little challenging for teachers since they need to come up with creative ideas to make their lessons more attractive enough to direct students to learn, which means teachers also need to receive a variety of support through training.

  • Jun says:

    This is a really interesting article. I understand that even sometimes teachers have to work low-resource teaching environment, there are still many ways can create an effective learning environment for children. EMBLI teachers left an impressive impression on me. They used various materials such as sticks, coconut shells and so on as teaching literacy and numeracy resources. Also, for improving pre-school student’ hey skill, they can use slates for materials. They are very creative.

  • S_A_ says:

    Thank you for this informative article, I really enjoyed reading it. I love reading about positive educational experiences and I’m glad the program EMBLI is so successful. The sentence “in low-resource educational settings, teachers have no choice but to be creative” really spoke to me as I am a big advocate for teachers as well to get creative and use materials that are familiar to the students, since it makes such an enriching experience for teachers.

  • Yeji LEE says:

    Thanks to this article, I get a chance to think about how the education can be done and work in low-resource environment. Due to the development of technology nowadays, many teachers including me are trying to find out how to apply the up-to-date facilities and technologies to the class and teaching. Of course, it can be helpful in some ways. However, this EMBLI project in East Timor makes me realize that making use of the local things and something just around us can also be great resources for the education. What is familiar to learners can help them most to learn better!

  • Hayu Austina says:

    I am so happy to read this article. Congratulations on the success of EMBLI project. There are 3 inspiring aspects about this project. First, the use of mother-tongue is an accessible bridge connecting what the students learn at school with what they experience or face in their community. Secondly, it is great that the teachers explore their creativity to create learning materials from the environment. And the third is about the involvement of the teachers in this pilot project that will give them experience and more sense of belonging to develop it.

  • 44277660 says:

    Thank you for such an impressive article. I even get more impressed when watching the video to see vividly what the teachers and students actually do in class. Their work is so amazing. I used to be a voluntary teacher in a mountainous area in my home country where I worked in low-resource setting like this so I somehow understand how mental and physical demanding it is. Reading this article really brightens up my day and makes me get itchy feet. Can’t wait to go there again and try the two-track method and making teaching aids from local materials.

  • Deepak Bhandari says:

    The situation of East Timour somehow resembles the situation of Nepal. Nepal is also a country where the literacy rate is around 70 percent and there are about 123 different dialects. So, in my view Nepal also need EMBLI tutors to make the children more easy to understand the text in their perspective.

  • Brendan Kavanagh says:

    Very interesting project. I would like to see this type of thing done more here in the Northern Territory with local Indigenous languages. It is a great way to contextualise learning resources that learners can engage with, rather than imposing a foreign context with little relevance.

    More importantly, the increasing number of resources in local language help to boost the language’s status, recognition and overall value, rather than sidelining it as a ‘minority language’ at risk of extinction.

    Best of luck. I know how challenging it can be to work in bare minimum conditions. My hat goes off to the teachers for their persistence and creativity.

    • Kerry Taylor-Leech says:

      Mine too Brendan. The teachers are often so young and working for almost nothing. They show such commitment to the children. The ones that also impress me are the older teachers who have to overcome a different experience of teaching altogether. The EMBLI monitoring visits are critical to sustaining the pedagogic model and keeping teachers on track, as well as encouraging them to keep going. Kerry

  • Gloria Christabel says:

    I am absolutely in awe of this model. A teacher’s motivation is key to ensuring a successful and effective classroom environment. I like how a teacher’s needs are looked into as well, and they are constantly trained. A low-resource environment could put quite the pressure on teachers as they need to find a way to design a syllabus that encompasses the lack of resources. However, the fact that the EMBLI is able to ensure teacher’s are constantly motivated, as this would reflect directly in their classroom practices.

    Another aspect that I found to be very interesting is the fact that students did extremely well even though they were learning in a low-resource environment, all because of the learning strategies that were employed. This clearly demonstrates that one does not have to have the most expensive resources to establish an effective and successful learning and teaching environment. Sometimes, the little things matter the most.

    • Kerry Taylor-Leech says:

      My thoughts exactly Gloria. When you see the pride and pleasure on the teachers’ faces when the EMBLI trainers arrive to visit them, you feel quite emotional. EMBLI’s regular on-site visits help the teachers in these remote places feel supported; they know that someone cares about them and thinks what they are doing is important. Politicians could learn a lot from this approach. Some teachers are quite unconfident and they get a real boost when the trainers spend time with them and praise their efforts. Thanks for posting. Kerry

  • ROSE GARRY says:

    It is enlightening. When Papua New Guinea (PNG) had reform in the 1990’s, a Language Policy was formulated. The Language Policy states that the Elementary-Elementary 2 (age 6-8) learn in L1. As students move into primary level, from grade 3-5, they learn in both ENGLISH and L1. As learners ascend the grades in primary school, the percentage of L1 decreases making way for English. Due to our language and cultural diversities, elementary schools situated in urban schools were taught in Tok Pisin-lingua franca. A huge percentage of our Elementary teachers work in very low resourced areas. Elementary teachers are locals who are well versed in local knowledge.

  • LAILY HARTI says:

    This article really makes my day. ‘The benefits of learning in a language a child understands best’ is one powerful concept that I might have to give credit to. This practice is relatable to Indonesian context. As English is considered as Foreign Language, although many schools have taught English to their students, in which they might be considered as Second Language learner of English, many schools, especially those located in underdeveloped area in Indonesia, however, still have to struggle when it comes to teaching English to their students. Even making students to come to the school is a hard work for teachers, due to the very low literacy awareness of the students, and their parents. That is why reading this article really makes my day.

  • Padraig Leyland says:

    Is the full report available as I am especially interested in the assessment tools used? Although the results are remarkable, I would like to know more.

  • Miriam Faine says:

    It makes me happy too. But I am very wary of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, who are a fundamentalist Christian group who promote local languages, but at the same time have been accused of cultural genocide.

    • Kerry Taylor-Leech says:

      Hello Miriam, It’s important to be clear that the EMBLI mother-tongue pilot is not a SIL project. It is an East Timorese project. The decision to institute a pilot was taken by the MInistry of Education in consultation with UNESCO and the UNESCO National Education Commission in East Timor after a series of meetings with international experts from Australia and Portugal (none of whom were SIL members). There was also quite extensive public consultation and discussion with local NGOs and donor groups. SIL was not involved in any of these. But more important is the fact that the two-track method is a literacy teaching method — and not a doctrine. All the best.

  • This REALLY makes one happy! Wonderful results, and, OF COURSE, exactly what many of us have said for many years. Congratulations!!

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