ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES
NAME: ___________________________________________ DATE: _____________________________
GRADE & STRAND: _______________________________ TEACHER: MR. GERALD C. PALMA, LPT.
TASK 2
Read and evaluate these four texts and answer the following questions after reading them.
TEXT A
Why Do They Say That Our English Is Bad?
(An Excerpt)
Grace M. Saqueton
(1) English teachers in the Philippines often find themselves in a very frustrating situation – no matter how
hard they try to teach the rules of written English to their students, the students still commit errors in word
order, word choice, subject – verb agreement, tenses, prepositions, articles, punctuations, and the like.
Teachers get frustrated when they hear or read sentences such as “They decided to got married,” “What did
the students watched”?” or “Ana go to the canteen.” It is also alarming because the rules that apply to these
sentences are supposedly simple rules that the students should have learned in grade school. Yet, here they
are in college, still committing those same errors.
(2) Teachers and linguists alike have sought and probably are still seeking for ways and strategies to teach
English effectively especially in the light of teaching English as a second language or as a foreing
language. Different research studies have been conducted and different theories have been used to address
the situation. One of the tpics that the researchers have explored is the recurring errors in phonology,
morphology, syntax, semantics, and discourse of second language learners. They believe that studying
these recurring errors is necessary to address the supposed grammar problems of the Filipino college
students.
(3) In a paper titled, “Why Does They Say That Our Sentences Is Wrong When We Knows English? An
Analysis of The ‘Common Errors’ of Freshmen Compositions,” Saqueton (2008) identified some of the
common errrors found in the essays of first year college students. She provided explanations, using error
analysis, language acquisition theories, and Fairclough’s paradigm on the appropracy of “appropriateness,”
as to what caused the “errors.” This is the hope of helping English teachers develop teaching materials and
devise teaching strategies that are appropriate for Filipino first year college students of different linguistic
backgrounds.
(4) Saqueton (2008) found out that among the student’s essays, errors in the use of verns are the most common,
followed by errors in the use of perpositions, problems in word choice, and problems in subject-verb
agreement. There are also errors in the use of articles, conjunctions, pronouns; spelling problems are also
evident.
(5) These “errors” are considered errors because of certain standards that language teachers want their students
to follow. These standards are the ones prescribed by grammarians. Educators want their students to
master Standard English as second language learners of English. The problem here lies in the definition of
“Standard” English. Is there really a common standard? If there is, who uses it? Whose standard should be
followed?
(6) Answering the question would entail a lot of problems. First, there should be a clear definition of what
standard is. What kind of English is Standard English? Dr. Andrew Moody, when asked during the
International Conference on World Englishes and Second Language Teahcing on how to maintain
ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES
correctness and consistency when teaching English in the Philippines, said that it would be honest to teach
Standard English as if it exists.
(7) That answer alone could raise a lot of issues. It only shows that the concept of standard is problematic.
According to Faikrclough (1995), there is a need for a particular standard in order to rationalize policies on
teaching of Standard English. He further stated that appropriateness figures within dominant conceptions of
language variations (234).
(8) Is there an implied claim then that students of English as a second language or as a foreign language speak
a substandard kind of English because they do not follow the standards of General American variety? What
if they (Filipinos, for example) have accepted English and appropriated it to fit their needs and the context
of situation in their own places?
(9) Andrew Gonzales (1985), in his paper, “When Does an Error Become a Feature of Philippine English?”
pointed out that until Philippine English is really creolized English is still a second language in the
Philippines, and he believed that in teaching any second language, one must accept a standard. However, he
also stressed that no matter how hard the English teacher tries, a local variety will continue to develop
(186).
(10) There will always be different perspectives on this matter, especially that language issues seem to be a
highly emotional matter. Should language education then go for mutual intelligibility rather that subscribe
to a certain standard? Educators and language policy planners could go back to Fairclough’s model of
language learning. They have to decide how relevant English is to their students, and from there they have
to decide what to teach and how to teach it.
TEXT B
Mother Tongue
(An Excerpt)
Amy Tan
(1) I am not a scholar of English or literature. I cannot give you much more than personal opinions on the
English language and its variations in this country or others.
(2) I am a writer. And by that definition, I am someone who has always loved language. I am fascinated by
language in daily life. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language -- the way it
can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth. Language is the tool of my trade.
And I use them all -- all the Englishes I grew up with.
(3) Recently, I was made keenly aware of the different Englishes I do use. I was giving a talk to a large group
of people, the same talk I had already given to half a dozen other groups. The nature of the talk was about
my writing, my life, and my book, The Joy Luck Club. The talk was going along well enough, until I
remembered one major difference that made the whole talk sound wrong. My mother was in the room. And
it was perhaps the first time she had heard me give a lengthy speech, using the kind of English I have never
used with her. I was saying things like, "The intersection of memory upon imagination" and "There is an
aspect of my fiction that relates to thusand-thus'--a speech filled with carefully wrought grammatical
phrases, burdened, it suddenly seemed to me, with nominalized forms, past perfect tenses, conditional
phrases, all the forms of standard English that I had learned in school and through books, the forms of
English I did not use at home with my mother.
(4) Just last week, I was walking down the street with my mother, and I again found myself conscious of the
English I was using, the English I do use with her. We were talking about the price of new and used
furniture and I heard myself saying this: "Not waste money that way." My husband was with us as well,
and he didn't notice any switch in my English. And then I realized why. It's because over the twenty years
we've been together I've often used that same kind of English with him, and sometimes he even uses it with
me. It has become our language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the
language I grew up with.
(5) Lately, I've been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like others, I have
described it to people as 'broken" or "fractured" English. But I wince when I say that. It has always
ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES
bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than "broken," as if it were damaged and needed
to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness. I've heard other terms used, "limited
English," for example. But they seem just as bad, as if everything is limited, including people's perceptions
of the limited English speaker.
(6) I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother's "limited" English limited my
perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what
she had to say, that is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect. And I had
plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at
restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or
even acted as if they did not hear her.
(7) My mother has long realized the limitations of her English as well. When I was fifteen, she used to have me
call people on the phone to pretend I was she. In this guise, I was forced to ask for information or even to
complain and yell at people who had been rude to her. One time it was a call to her stockbroker in New
York. She had cashed out her small portfolio and it just so happened we were going to go to New York the
next week, our very first trip outside California. I had to get on the phone and say in an adolescent voice
that was not very convincing, "This is Mrs. Tan."
(8) And my mother was standing in the back whispering loudly, "Why he don't send me check, already two
weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing me money.
(9) And then I said in perfect English, "Yes, I'm getting rather concerned. You had agreed to send the check
two weeks ago, but it hasn't arrived."
(10) Then she began to talk more loudly. "What he want, I come to New York tell him front of his boss, you
cheating me?" And I was trying to calm her down, make her be quiet, while telling the stockbroker, "I can't
tolerate any more excuses. If I don't receive the check immediately, I am going to have to speak to your
manager when I'm in New York next week." And sure enough, the following week there we were in front
of this astonished stockbroker, and I was sitting there red-faced and quiet, and my mother, the real Mrs.
Tan, was shouting at his boss in her impeccable broken English.
TEXT C
Dear Prof. Lanuza:
Congratulations for being chosen as one of the recipients of the ASEAN Educational Program Award.
You are invited to the 5th Annual ASEAN English Teachers’ Conference. Our sponsors value the
important work done by English language teachers and they are willing to support your professional
endeavour by giving financial aid in the conference.
The conference organizers and sponsors want to know more about your work and how the ASEAN
English Teachers’ Conference will be able to help you. May we ask you to complete the attached
questionnaire to help us provide that information? Also, we would appreciate the opportunity for
members of our Sponsorship Profile team to talk with you about your work and the challenges and
opportunities that you have identified in your study.
If you have questions, just send me an email or check this link to the conference website. Thank you and
we look forward to meeting you.
Best regards,
Prof. Hannah Lee
TEXT D
Republic of the Philippines
REGIONAL TRIAL COURT
_________Judicial Region
Branch_______, ________City
EX-PARTE MOTION FOR EXTENSION
TO SUBMIT COMPROMISE AGREEMENT
Defendants, by the undersigned counsel and unto Honorable Court, respectfully state that:
(1) On 5 January 2015, the Honorable Court, in open court, directed the Parties to submit their Compromise
Agreement within ten (10) days therefrom, or on 15 January 2015. Said day being a Sunday, the Parties have until the
next working day, 16 January 2015, to submit said Compromise Agreement.
(2) Defendant Hannah Dy is presently abroad and needs to execute a Special Power of Attorney authorizing her
brother and Co-Defendant Roland Dy to sign the Compromise Agreement on her behalf.
(3) Thus, the Defendants respectfully pray that the Parties be given additional fifteen (15) days from today, or until
30 January 2015, within which to submit their Compromise Agreement.
(4) This Motion is not intended to delay the instant proceedings but filed solely by reason of the foregoing.
Moreover, the filing of the same will not result in any injustice or prejudice to any of the parties herein.
ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES
1. In your opinion, which of the texts is an academic text?
______________________________________________________________________________________
2. Why did you consider it/them an academic text?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
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How then do you distinguish an academic text from a business letter or a personal essay? Below is the table that will
help you answer this question. Reread the four texts and FILL OUT this table based on your evaluation of the texts.
TEXT A TEXT B TEXT C TEXT D
What is the text
about?
(subject/focus)
What is the writer’s
goal in writing?
(purpose)
Who is the target
reader of the text?
(audience)
What is the point of
view used in the
text? (first person,
second person, third
person)
How much does the
writer know of the
subject? (writer’s
knowledge)
How did the writer
organize the text?
(style)
Did the writer write
I a formal or
informal manner?
(tone)
How did the writer
choose the words
and organize the
sentences? Was the
language formal,
informal, or casual?
