THE SENTRO ti Iluko ken Kultura ti Amianana (SIKA) sponsored a lecture-workshop on Ilokano Morphosyntax, May 13-14, at the Center for Teaching Excellence, MMSU Laoag campus.

The two-day event was attended by elementary teachers from the Department of Education, faculty members and researchers from various state universities and colleges in Region I, and staff of the Ilocos Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium. Officers and members of Nakem International and Nakem Philippines (NP), likewise, attended the activity which aimed to study, understand, and appreciate Ilokano culture through its language. Dr Alegria T. Visaya, SIKA chief, is also president of NP.

Prof. Elizabeth A. Calinawagan of the University of the Philippines Baguio served as lecturer. A renowned scholar on the Ilokano language, she has a long list of published researches in prestigious academic journals.

The lecture-workshop is a fitting response to DepEd Order No. 74, series 2009 Institutionalizing Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education or Mother Language Education, which mandates the use of the pupils’ first language as medium of instruction.

With improved facility of the vernacular, researchers hope to improve the transfer of knowledge and technology to their clientele in the grassroots level.

Among the topics discussed were: linguistics as social science, phonology, ortography and graphology, morphology, sub-disciplines of linguistics, and cultural research.