Mother Tongue-based Literacy Programmes: Case Studies of Good ...

The second phase of the programme, which is the bridging stage, introduces oral Khmer lessons usingTotal Physical Response (TPR) lessons. Along with TPR, the students continue to go through a fluencyprimer with relevant life skill topics. These texts were written by the teachers after having invited otherNGO’s to teach in areas of their expertise. The fluency primer introduces new technical vocabulary inBunong, which includes many loan words from Khmer as a help in the bridging process. After readingeach text, the students discuss the topics and write longer texts together and individually based on adiscussion question.After six months of learning oral Khmer and getting a strong foundation in Bunong, the students progressto the Transition Primer. This book is aimed at explaining the differences between the Bunong andKhmer writing systems to allow the students to start transferring their skills from their mother tongueto the national language. Each lesson provides a word bank of Khmer and Bunong words, enabling thestudent to read and write texts using the vocabulary which they have learned in the oral Khmer lessons.Khmer is less phonemic than Bunong and, therefore, more whole language techniques (such as sightword matching games) are used to reinforce word level reading. Teaching of the Transition Primer takesan estimated 6 months.The third phase of the programme is the Khmer stage, in which the focus is on learning the nationallanguage. The adult bilingual literacy classes in the province have not yet reached this stage, but plan onusing the Khmer literacy books developed by the MoEYS that have been adapted for highland minoritypeople in Ratanakiri Province. These books are estimated to be much easier to learn because they includea firm foundation in the mother tongue and a good bridge into the national language.Although the focus of the third phase is on the national language, classes will be encouraged to discusstopics in the mother tongue to enhance learning in Khmer and to continue using literacy skills in themother tongue to preserve the minority traditions and culture.Cost of the ProjectThe POEYS has been able to focus on the actual implementation of the programme and not on theproduction of materials. Each student received a primer for each stage, which cost a total of approximatelyUS$1.25 per book. The teachers also received a set of easy readers to complement the primers, most ofthem costing less than US$0.5 per book to reproduce. The Director of Education in the province feltthe cost of salaries for personnel was expensive. Costs of training has also been a challenge, since theteachers needed to travel to the provincial capital for training and be paid per diems for each day theyhad been away from their home villages. In addition, monitoring costs are difficult to keep low due tothe bad road conditions.Category of ExpensesCostPersonnel $3,000Training $3,643Materials $2,128Monitoring $1,484TOTAL $10,255[ 63 ]