Bridging Mother Tongue Instruction: Linguistic Dilemma of Public School Teachers

This study unfolded the experiences of teachers of Talomo District, Davao City on the use of mother tongue instruction. There were eight (8) teachers who participated in the study. This study made use of a phenomenological approach to extract the ideas of the participants. The participants were purposely selected as representatives from the group of school teachers in the same division. The virtual in-depth-interview was employed to gather some information as regards to their respective experiences on the use of mother tongue instruction as part of the teaching profession. Using the thematic analysis, the following themes emerged as pertains to the experiences of the participants: inadequate learning materials, unfamiliarity on profound vernacular words, student relying on mother tongue. The coping mechanisms to address the struggles of Self Learning Modules were: Adaptability to challenges, utilizing online educational resources, taking advantage of the ease of speaking the mother tongue. The educational management insight gained from the experiences of the teachers was primarily focused on providing teachers with high quality instructional materials. The principals may be more receptive on the current problems and issues of the teachers. The school heads may equip the teachers and students with proper materials throughout the school year. The teachers may continuously adapt coping mechanisms to address issues and be vigilant in finding classroom solutions to their problems.