PART I: THE
SOCIOLINGUISTIC
CONTEXT
A FAVORABLE CLIMATE AND SOIL:
COG - IPEP A TRANSPLANTED LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Issues and
Perspectives in
English
PREPARED BY:
Prof. Haya Jane E. Elan
INTRODUCTION
THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE HAS MANIFESTED A
UNIQUE DESTINY IN THE PHILIPPINES.
English was spoken by an educated In 1910, the University of the
elite of 895,358 out of 10.3 million Philippines made its first attempts at
people in the islands, undoubtedly published literature through the
with various levels of competence. student journal, the College Folio.
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN
THE PHILIPPINES (1898- 1920)
EVEN DURING THE SPANISH PERIOD,
INDIVIDUAL PHILIPPINE SCHOLARS
STUDIED ENGLISH ON THEIR OWN.
Jose Rizal leamed English on his own and in his letters he urged his
sister Satumina to leam English. Apolinario Mabini, initially the
brains of the emerging Philippine Republic, prescribed the study of
English in his second level academy.
When the Military Chaplain of General Elwell Otis, W. D.
McKinnon (a Catholic priest from California), took the initiative
soon after 1898 to teach English to the locals, he and his team of
soldiers were welcomed.
PLOT SUMMARY
Why?
Later, when the elementary The teachers were recruited from
schools were established and a teachers in American schools and
more regular system of teaching were called 'Thomasites' and
English was in place, the method thus began the tradition of
was initially the direct method teaching English analytically, via
followed by the grammar analysis grammar, definitions of parts of
and translation method as used in speech, exemplification, and
the public schools in the United numerous exercises of what we
States. .would now call testing rather
than teaching exercises
UNIVERSITY OF THE
PHILIPPINES, COLLEGE
FOLIO
What was remarkable was that
literature in American and British
English varieties was learned quickly
8.7% ENGLISH and that within less than a decade, the
SPEAKERS University of the Philippines produced
its first printed College Folio of
student literary writing and the first
harvest of writers in English appeared.
among the locals, thus giving birth to
Philippine literature in English.
A MANILA PHENOMENON
Thus from the first two decades of the
English language in the Philippines
was born the transplanted variety of
the language or 'Philippine English'
with its distinctive pronunciation, its
style of academic writing, and an PHILIPPINE
emerging
English.
Philippine literature in
ENGLISH
THE SECOND GENERATION (1920-1941)
BY 1921, CIVIL SERVICE OF THE COLONY
HAD BECOME COMPLETELY FILIPINO
THE THOMASITES WHO HAD COME TO THE
PHILIPPINES FOR TWENTY YEARS HAD
RETURNED TO THE UNITED STATES
The people who spread the Philippine variety of English among
Filipinos were Filipino teachers under the tutelage of their
American mentors. In this period, a total of 209 Filipinos were sent
as scholars to the United States as pensionados (supported
fellows) to pursue their college degrees, including some graduate
studies in law, medicine, and veterinary science.
THE SECOND
GENERATION
The second generation, those who had finished their high
school in 1931, were found to be the ones who had the
best-written outputs, although Filipinos of the 1970s, the
younger ones, scored better in grammar and mechanical
tests. This second generation of Filipinos who had been
taught according to the grammar analytic method and by
traditional methods ended up writing the best and most
'correct' English compositions.
THE PHILIPPINE
COMMONWEALTH
THE SEARCH FOR A NATIONAL LANGUAGE
The Philippine Commonwealth came into existence in 1935, and we had the
beginnings of self-rule even amidst the threat of an impending invasion and
war. The search for a national language began with a mandated search by
the 1935 Constitution, which gave rise to a National Language Law in 1936,
the choice of Tagalog as the basis of the national language in 1937, the
production of a bilingual wordlist (the beginnings of a dictionary) and a
grammar.
WIKANG
PAMBANSA
AFTER JULY 4, WIKANG
LAUREL
1946, PAMBANSA
GOVERNMENT
English continued to be
The Laurel Government attempts at the normal
used as the main medium
was set up by the functioning of
of instruction, the only
Japanese Military government were
difference being that the
Government and made, and classes
national language was now
Tagalog was confirmed resumed, although
taught daily as a subject
as the official national many teachers had
from grade one up to the
language although perished during the war
fourth year of high school
English continued to be from illness or from the
as Wikang Pambansa
used for government war itself.
(national language), later
functions.
Filipino.
TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS
A SECOND LANGUAGE
APPROACH,
There was also an attempt to
introduce extensive and intensive
reading, but by this time there was a
problem in the supply of reading
materials. The time of most teachers
was taken up by other duties so that it
became very difficult to impose on the
teachers the assignment of frequent
compositions or long themes.
In 1974, the TESL program was
POST-WAR incorporated as part of a more
comprehensive bilingual education
DEVELOPMENTS program (with the use of Filipino).
(1946-1980)
PHILIPPINE ENGLISH LITERATURE
AND LANGUAGE
THERE IS FICTION (LONG AND SHORT) OF A
FILIPINO GROWING UP AS A FIRST- OR
SECOND-GENERATION FILIPINO AMERICAN
IN THE UNITED STATES
Because the initial teachers of English were Filipinos themselves
under the tutelage of the Thomasite Americans, replication of all
features of the source language was never completely achieved at
any time.
The substratal vernaculars of the Philippines, with their own
Austronesian sound systems, heavily influenced the imperfect
imitation of the sound system
of the new code.
THE MAIN
CHARACTERISTICS OF
PHILIPPINE ENGLISH MAY
BE SUMMARIZED AS
FOLLOWS:
the variety being spoken is syllable-
timed rather than stress-timed with
full pronunciation of the vowels
pronunciation; intonation and other LINGUISTIC
expressive features are clearly local,
often with a rise in intonation in wh- FEATURES
questions and in tag questions.
In the segmental phonemes, the vowel
inventory is reduced,
CHARACTERISTICS
OF PHILIPPINE
ENGLISH
There is the use of the Stress is distinctively
In the consonants,
tapped /r/ rather than placed on syllables
some members of
the retroflex /r/ of including two-syllable
cultural communities
American English. words (e.g. publish),
do not pronounce /f/ or
three-syllable words
/v/ but collapse them
(semester) and in
into /p/ or /b/.
polysyllabic words, the
stress is usually placed
on the antepenultimate
syllable (testimony)
THE LEXICON HAS LOCAL
NAMES AND TERMS
loan translations from local idioms e.g.
'open the light' from 'buksan mo
angilaw' and 'open the radio' for
'buksan mo ang radyo' as well as the
CHARACTERISTICS local use of prepositions after certain
verbs and adjectives not in the native
source (result 1Q instead of result irb
different twoword and three-word
verbs), and the recasting of American
idioms as well as direct translations
from local phrases 'I am ashamed to
you' rather than 'I am embarrassed in
front of you'.
CODE
SWITCHING
CODE-SWITCHING AND VARIETIES
OF PHILIPPINE ENGLISH
In addition to geographically-based lects, there are other lects of formality
and informality. However, for informal communications, bilingual or
multilingual Filipinos would rather use the national language Filipino or
their home vernacular.
THE LINGUISTIC REPERTOIRE OF THE FILIPINO
THE INHABITANTS OF THIS ARCHIPELAGO
HAVE BEEN MULTILINGUAL
With the development of the national language beginning in 1937,
the use of Tagalog, renamed Filipino and later Filipino, became
widespread so that the latest census (National Statistics Office,
2000) indicates that more than 85% of Filipinos now speak a:t least
a colloquial variety of this language.
Prior to the rise of fervent nationalism, the repertoire of the
educated Filipino was dominated by the English language.
CONCLUSION
'WHATEVER IS RECEIVED IS
RECEIVED IN THE MANNER OF
THE RECEIVER'
