Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Arts and Sciences | Vol. 1, No. 4 | September 2014 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 109 P-ISSN 2362 – 8022 | E-ISSN 2362 – 8030 | www.apjeas.apjmr.com Variations of Sorsogon Dialects as Mother Tongue-Based Medium of Instruction in Grade School Mathematics RYAN V. DIO and MICHAEL JOHN A. JAMORA Sorsogon State College, Sorsogon City, Philippines sorsogonstatecollege.edu.ph@gmail.com, dioryan@yahoocom, mjjamora@yahoo.com Date Received: July 15, 2014; Date Published: September 04, 2014 Abstract - One of the salient features in the implementation of K to 12 curricula in the Philippines is the use of the Mother tongue or lingua franca of the area as the medium of instruction from kindergarten to Grade 3 which brought significant effects to the Mathematics classroom situation. Sorsogon province with fourteen municipalities and one city has several local languages that varies from district to municipalities. This descriptive–comparative study using survey- questionnaire and unstructured interview was conducted to describe, illustrate and compare dialects in the Province of Sorsogon as Mother Tongue-Based (MTB) medium of instruction in grade school Mathematics. A stratified sampling technique was utilized in determining the representative area for each of the identified four language varieties existing in the province such as Masbate Sorsogon dialect, Bikol Sorsogon, Waray Sorsogon, and Miraya Sorsogon dialect. Findings revealed that variations in the mathematical terms of Sorsogon dialects within and between the representative areas include lexical and orthographical variations as used by the respondent grades 1 and 2 teachers of the identified four dialects. On the other hand, syntactic variations are visible in the mathematical statements as translated by the respondents in their own dialect. The difficulty of translating technical terms in mathematics and insufficient MTB-based instructional materials are the top problems met by the grade school teachers. A translation dictionary was developed as ready reference that could be validated and be utilized by the grade school teachers in the sample area of the study. Keywords – Variation, Sorsogon, Mother tongue, mathematics I. INTRODUCTION The teaching of elementary school children is a difficult and demanding job. An elementary school teacher’s knowledge must be broad enough to teach language skills, reading and writing, mathematics and science; direct a child’s social and moral development; and also encourage creative and artistic expression in a child. Swetz (2003) added that teaching is basically a process of communication and interaction. Although a teacher may use concrete materials to introduce a concept in a lesson, the teacher still remains the guide for learning, structuring the learning situations through the use of verbal suggestions, directions, questions, and encouragements. Mathematics is one subject that pervades life in any circumstance and its value goes beyond the four corners of the classroom and the school. Therefore, it must be learned comprehensively and with much depth as a school subject. It is explicitly stated in the Department of Education (DepEd) K to 10 Mathematics Curriculum Guide (2011) that one way of achieving goals of mathematics is through organized and rigorous curriculum content and recognizing the different contexts of Filipino Learners. One of the salient features in the implementation of K to 12 programs is the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) which was already implemented nationwide last SY 2012-2013. The lingua franca in the area shall be used as the medium of instruction from kindergarten to grade 3 (http://mlephil. wordpress.com). This scenario brought significant effect to the classroom situation in all subject areas particularly in mathematics subjects due to the changes in medium of instruction. Mathematical terms should be realigned with the dialects of the learners understandable to them. The aforementioned paragraphs support the idea of the study that teacher’s language affects the teaching – learning process. Teacher’s verbal communication remains the primary means of instruction that influence student’s capacity to learn. With the implementation of the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE), the teacher must be knowledgeable of the