By Chatty Tolentino

Parents worry when their children receive low grades in their Filipino subjects. However, there are parents who also worry even if their kids get high grades, because their Filipino communication skills remain poor.  “Nakakaintindi, pero hindi nakakapagsalita,” is how many of them are described. 

At THE LEARNING LIBRARY, we go beyond grades in assessing our students’ language skills. Since 2009, we have helped parents identify and address children’s learning needs in Filipino through our flagship program, WIKA’Y GALING!  Here’s how! 

Expressive Language vs. Receptive Language

When determining how good your child is in the language, differentiate between these two. Expressive language is important to state needs and wants, to develop writing, and social communication. This type of language refers to how a child uses words, sentences, and gestures to convey meaning. It is also associated with identifying objects and the ability to describe events. Receptive language pertains to the ability to understand words and language and is related to comprehending concepts. Read more about it here.

Take an objective look at your child’s abilities in both: if he or she is adept at receptive language only (can understand but cannot speak), then your child needs help to achieve fluency.

Use textbooks as benchmarks

THE LEARNING LIBRARY’S Filipino curriculum head, Niki Calma, suggests that parents should check if their children can do their homework on their own, without asking for any assistance. Use a prescribed current textbook for that grade level and pick a lesson from there. Test their reading skills by making them a page, preferably something they have yet to encounter in school. 

If your child’s skill level doesn’t seem to match their current grade level, what’s the next step? You may get a textbook from a lower year level and do the same test.  Repeat until you find the text that’s just for your child -- that would be a good approximation of their grade level equivalent for Filipino.

Check against storybooks’ recommended ages

Arlene Reyes, a member of THE LEARNING LIBRARY’s program development team and a teacher of two decades, suggests that parents should talk about a book after they read it. “When you discuss the story, you can determine their comprehension skills at the same time,” she says. “Younger kids can be asked objective questions: what, who, where, and when. Nothing too long so they don’t get overwhelmed. Older children should be able to explain things better so you can ask them subjective (how and why) questions.” 

Pay attention to how they answer and even the amount of time it takes them to process it. Be patient with smaller children since this may be a little hard for them. Older kids should be able to give quick answers; be concerned when they’re too slow because these questions are supposed to be too easy for them. 

Have them write a paragraph

To test their writing skills, you can come up with a question that requires an essay-type answer. You may also try a writing prompt (you can find many of these online, by grade level). Ask them to write 5-10 sentences on the given topic.  Is the sentence structure correct? Are the words being used properly? How long did it take your child to write these sentences and did they do it independently?

Young kids are expected to make some mistakes but as long as they try to get their point across, it’s valid! Kids in higher levels should be able to create longer sentences and give more detailed explanations.

(If you would like a benchmark for reading comprehension and writing ability per grade level, view this page on the WIKA’Y GALING! website.)

Ways to Close the Gap

If you find that your child’s Filipino is not up to standards, what can you do? Here are 3 scenarios and what you can do in each: 

In conversations, they can understand but not speak.

This can be solved with a lot of practice in speaking Filipino. “There’s no exact way to teach a child to speak a language that does not involve them speaking the language itself,” says Teacher Niki. Be involved in their language learning journey and show that you support them, this can motivate them and boost their confidence in speaking Filipino.

Look for opportunities to speak to them in the language and find teaching moments in their daily routines. Encourage them to construct sentences with complete ideas. Don’t let them just nod or shake their head as a response to a question. Using English words for the Filipino terms they don’t know is acceptable if they’re starting to learn, but encourage them to look up words they don’t know.  You can act as a living dictionary and provide the right Filipino word when needed. 

Pay attention to how long it takes for them to craft their responses, and see what exactly they have difficulty with. Is it vocabulary, prepositions, or conjugation of verbs? Knowing the problem helps you address it more effectively. 

They have difficulty understanding what they’re reading.

“If they can’t understand the texts given by the school, have them read storybooks at home,” Teacher Arlene suggests. Be on the lookout for stories that they can read and understand on their own. 

From Teacher Niki: “Find books that are similar in level and difficulty and then you can work your way up to more complex stories or texts. Don’t rush their process and make sure to take things slow so that they can be exposed to a lot of books that are within their capacity of understanding.”

As they start to read books and stories of higher levels, give students something reliable for translation. A dictionary can be physical, online, or an application on their phone. The next books you select for them shouldn’t be too hard since they might lose interest and give up: on the other hand, there wouldn’t be much progress if it’s too easy. 

If you need guidance on selecting an appropriate book for your child’s skill level, click here. If you want to know what you can do if you have an older child who finds it difficult to read in Filipino, click here.

Their grammar and sentence structure are incorrect.

Since writing isn’t a usual activity for a child at home, find ways to incorporate it into their home life. Make them write lists of things that they’re grateful for or what they want and include short descriptions (or an explanation as to why they deserve to have it) so that they’re motivated to write them down. You can also introduce them to journaling since it would be a good way to practice writing every day. 

Teacher Arlene highlights the importance of writing for the younger generation: “Writing is an issue now because everything is computerized. Writing strokes help their brains retain information”. Speaking and writing skills are ideally developed at the same time.

You can check their written work in school and point out mistakes, or ask them what they wanted to convey and provide a correct sentence structure they can use next time. “Teaching correct grammar and sentence structure is technical”, says Teacher Niki. There’s no easy way to do it: it really takes time and effort to learn how to write correctly in any language.

Exposure is key

In any scenario where children need help in fluency, there is one critical element missing: sufficient exposure. Children need to be exposed to Filipino in social situations, through books, while online; there cannot be too much of it. More than anything, regular conversation helps. “Learning to think in Filipino is most important. There should be no translation in their heads. That’s how you know if your child is really fluent in Filipino,” says Teacher Arlene. 

Learn more about teaching Filipino enrichment at home here.

Need more help?  

The mismatch between communication abilities and grade level requirements grows over time if not addressed. Close the gap early! Sign up for THE LEARNING LIBRARY’s free, detailed Filipino assessment of language skills via inquiry@learninglibraries.com. Learn more about our Filipino as Second Language programs at www.learninglibraries.com.