Another Look Into Philippine English: Towards Users‟ Awareness and Celebration
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International Journal of Advanced Research and Publications ISSN: 2456-9992 Another Look Into Philippine English: Towards Users‟ Awareness And Celebration Nimfa G. Dimaculangan Laguna State Polytechnic University Sta. Cruz, Laguna, Philippines [email protected] Abstract: This paper is a review of literature and studies on Philippine English (henceforth PhilE) which have been conducted in almost two decades. I argue that a big number of Filipino speakers of English, particularly the ESL/EFL teachers in the provinces are either incognizant or still unopen to the thought of celebrating Philippine English; hence, I present briefly the concept of World Englishes (WE), review the existence of PhilE, and briefly describe its lexicon and grammar, as well as teachers‟ attitude towards the language which has become one among more than a hundred Philippine languages. I advance its implication to ESL/EFL teaching while encouraging readers, especially my fellow speakers of PhilE to respect World Englishes paradigm and to celebrate PhilE. Keywords: World Englishes, Philippine English, ESL/EFL teaching, language attitude 1. Introduction been in the Philippines for less than 10 years show the same My interest in writing and talking about Philippine English incognizance of the World Englishes paradigm that (henceforth PhilE) is triggered by a number of observations subsumes PhilE. My classmates seemed to insist and fight gathered in at least five (5) years. My casual and formal for the teaching of what they perceive is the only standard observations of obvious incognizance or misconceptions of variety of English, the British or American English. most of the Filipino speakers of English concerning the Finally, my casual indirect explanation of the World plurality of English urge me to scribble this article primarily Englishes phenomenon to my colleagues as well as to Basic for Filipino ESL and EFL teachers from Basic Education to Education teachers in our province disheartened me, for they University Education. Some of these observations include, too, revealed their complete incognizance or among others, 1) Filipino English speakers, especially misunderstanding of this sociolinguistic phenomenon. The teachers of English (ESL) and all content area teachers who same truth has been repeatedly revealed by my 2005-2017 keep on correcting other speakers‟ diction, structure, and graduate students from Laguna and neighboring provinces vocabularies even when its impractical to; for instance, there (MAED-Physical Education, Science, Technology and Home are teachers who reprimand Refrigeration and Air- Economics, and Speech Communication, MA in English, and conditioning (RAC) students for not articulating the schwa MAED-English) whenever I would introduce the concept of lexes correctly. Where and with whom will these vocational World Englishes. experts use the schwa sound anyway? Secondly, there are I am convinced, therefore that it may be necessary to Filipino English speakers who stigmatize PhilE variety but revisit the history of the English language very briefly. The unconsciously speak it. Thirdly, I also remember an mother English is the British variety named Old English or Australian father of my old student who got mad with a Anglo-Saxon English from about 450-1150. The language colleague after telling him that his son who received a final (i.e., pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling) is grade of 80 was quite good. Indeed, many educated Filipinos very different from what is now called modern English. By still equate the semantic meaning of the adverb quite to a bit; 1553, English ships traded with West Africa (now Nigeria), however, L1 quite means exactly, precisely, or completely. and in the 1580s, the first English settlements were made in The fourth and fifth factors that made me write this article North America, Canada, and to the state now called North include revelation of unawareness of ESL teachers in the Carolina. Scholars show that the traces of their varieties of nonurban areas of New Englishes/World Englishes English can still be found in North American English, sociolinguistic reality. My personal communication with a particularly in the eastern seaboard dialects of Virginia. friend and fellow ESL teacher, (January 15, 2015) about an The Middle English had changed a great deal. It lost many awakening incident in connection with her attendance in a of its inflections, spelling, and words in favor of French 2014 National Conference held at the Teachers‟ Camp in words brought by the Norman conquerors. The eighteenth- Baguio City intensified all the more my desire to write this century modern English period introduced and brought article. According to her, a language teacher presented a English to many parts of the world such as: New Zealand, study on PhilE to some 30 teachers of English from higher Australia, South Africa, and North America through traders education institutions across the Philippines. She was thrown and scholars. Bauer (2002) says that by the opening of the questions and suggestions by another teacher who was nineteenth century, English had spread to every corner of the supported by fellow attendees. The skeptical listeners world, and in the course of the nineteenth and twentieth questioned the existence of Philippine English and claimed centuries, its number of speakers and its own prestige grew. that the language has to be proven original of the Filipinos English has become the Lingua Franca of the world and its before it should be called Philippine English. regions. It has become one of the Asian languages (e.g., The sixth strong motivator for the publication of this paper Singlish, PhilEnglish/Taglish, IndiEnglish). Studies prove was the discussion that we had on our very first TESOL class that it serves a multitude of purposes for its different owners. meeting. The first day discussion‟s revealed the participants‟ English has been globalized and been called English as an and the L1 English speaker‟s, our British teacher who has international language (EIL) e.g., Jenkins, 2000; English as a Volume 2 Issue 8, August 2018 17 www.ijarp.org International Journal of Advanced Research and Publications ISSN: 2456-9992 lingua franca (ELF) e.g., Seidlhofer, 2001; English as a spread throughout the islands. The rapid spread of the global language e.g., Crystal, 1997; English as a world English language in the Philippines was unprecedented in language e.g., Mair, 2003; and English as a medium of colonial history. “Within 41 years, the American regime had international communication e.g., Meierkord, 1996. Each of done more to spread English than the Spanish government these Englishes is not the English spoken by the Londoners, did in 333 years (1565-1898) of colonization, for after the Americans or Australians but the English spoken and Spanish period, only 2% spoke Spanish” (Gonzales as cited understood by the nonnative speakers i.e., EFL and ESL in Bautista & Bolton, 2009, p.4). The 1980 Census gave an speakers. When English comes to an ESL or EFL country, it estimated 64.5 percent of the 48 million Filipinos speaking in penetrates, adapts to the culture of its new ecology and English. multiplies i.e., produces varieties. Both the less informed The 1974 Bilingual Education Policy which was revised and well informed users of a variety reshape it creatively, in 1987 mandated its use as the medium of instruction for consciously or unconsciously. Science, Mathematics, and English Communication Arts, as The Englishes spoken in the different parts of the world well as the use of Filipino as the medium for Social Studies, give rise to different registers and dialects, just as the UK Arts/Music/Physical Education, and Filipino Communication and U.S.A. Englishes have. Their lexicon and grammar show Arts. The 1987 Constitution recognized it as an official endonormative features that distinguish them from the L1 language together with the national language, Filipino then English. New Englishes, World Englishes or Dialects of Pilipino). Being an official language in the multilingual English inevitable sprung. World Englishes refer to Philippines, it has been the major lingua franca among indigenous nativised varieties that have developed around Filipinos in the different regions. the world and reflect the cultural as well as pragmatic norms Bautista and Bolton (2009) claim that by 1921, 91% of of their speakers (Kirkpatrick 2007, p3). This paradigm Filipino teachers of English were native born Filipinos; thus, recognizes the different Englishes used around the world as almost from the beginning, Filipinos learned English from more than just imitations of American or British varieties; fellow Filipinos and Philippine English began to evolve they are languages in their own rights, and they are not (Gonzalez, 1997). “English is now ours. We have colonized measured against the more established varieties (e.g., Kachru it too”, declares Abad (as cited in Tupas, 2009, p.77). From 1987, 2005, 2012; Kirkpatrick 2007, 2010). WE‟s concentric circles view, Tupas (2009) identifies the we Bauer„s (2002) hypothetical partial Family Tree for as the people who speak English in the Philippines, and this Englishes, McArthur„s (1987) Wheel Model of World English is presumably different from one being spoken by Englishes, Gorlach„s (1988) Framework of World Englishes native speakers in the inner circle. Nonetheless, he explains and other models of World Englishes explain this that from the perspective of class, the we is the much more unprecedented sociolinguistic phenomenon; however, exclusive group of people whose English is correct and who Kachru‟s 1985 Model which has been modified in the later share with other educated speakers of Englishes a sort of years seems to be the most acknowledged framework. The international mutual intelligibility based on received notions heart of the definition is found in the following quote: of grammatical correctness and appropriateness of use. The current sociolinguistic profile of English may be Philippine English as suggested by Ansaldo‟s (2011) viewed in terms of three concentric circles.