EDUCATING FILIPINOS ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE
By: Raymund F. Antonio

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Is the fast slipping mastery of English language a grave threat in our economy? Is the proposed law by some legislators designating Filipino, the national language, as the sole medium of instruction in school, not realistic? Or has it affected the decline of English teaching through the years?

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After the recent remark made by the US ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone about the Filipinos’ incapability of English usage, many scholars reacted, and have started to raise questions if we really are literate enough when it comes to oral and written English communication.

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The U.S. ambassador has urged the government to improve English Education in the country or lose foreign investment to other countries.

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Professor Jose Wendell Capili, a former Associate Dean of UP College of Arts and Letters (CAL) and currently a Ph.D. candidate at The Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies of Australian National University agreed with Ricciardone’s observation. “I think U.S. Ambassador Ricciardone has articulated what has been happening all along. While I maintain that Filipinos do have a higher functional command of the English language compared to most of our Asian neighbors, we are slowly losing our competitive edge, because our political leaders are less concerned about investing in good teachers especially in the primary and secondary level,” he explained.

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Capili, however, argued that Filipinos are not illiterate. “It is amazing how Filipinos use English visa vis the other Philippine languages to enrich their daily lives. Meanwhile, how many Americans or British would actually take the initiative in learning a language other than English? Certainly, many Filipinos do not speak with an American or British twang, but they use English to fit their respective styles and exigencies. Compared to the rest of the world, Filipinos have a respectable command of functional English.”

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Michael Andrada, another professor from UP Departmento ng Filipino at Panitikan ng Pilipinas (DFPP), said that Ricciardone’s concept of development is tied in the proficient use of English. He views the Ambassador’s effort to urge the government to improve the country’s English literacy as a way of reinforcing English as the global language. However, he thinks that the problem is not in the language itself but in the ideology the language has. “Implementing Filipino is still problematic because it’s not yet systematized and homogenized. The more if we promote English which is complicated to learn,” Andrada explained.

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Meanwhile, Virgilio Almario, dean of UP College of Arts and Letters (CAL), thinks that it is natural for the U.S. ambassador to make such comments and actions. “He’s a good Ambassador and should be lauded by their president. As the Ambassador of U.S, it is his duty to promote the interest of the Americans, and the propagation of the English language is one way to do that,” he added.

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LEGISLATORS PROPOSE FILIPINO AS THE MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION

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In the recent statements made by Ricciardone, he also said that the legislators’ proposal of a law to designate Filipino as the medium of instruction in schools was “not realistic,”citing the difficulty of foreign companies as outsourcing firms to hire good English speaking Filipinos.

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From Almario’s point of view, he explained why “Why not realistic, Because it’s not in favor of the Americans, and it’s not according to their interest.”

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Almario cited countries that use their own native language but have been experiencing progress without the help of the English language. “European countries like Russia don’t use English but it’s a developed country. Japan as well uses its native language and yet it’s competitive when it comes to technological innovations.”

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Capili agreed in the importance of using the national language. “In Europe, people speak several languages, but they do not lose facility in their own. Similarly, Filipinos should master Filipino as well as Bisaya, Ilocano, and other dialects, while achieving mastery in the foreign languages. We must be Filipinos first and citizens of the world subsequently.”

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DECLINE IN ENGLISH PROFICIENCY MEANS LOSS OF FOREIGN INVESTMENTS?

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According to Ricciardone, “If the Philippines won’t invest in improving education, particularly English proficiency, it would lose investments, such as outsourcing companies, to countries like China and India.” He noted that in the call center business, only three to five percent of applicants had good language skills, and “even they need further specialized training.”

All three academicians agreed that the rise of outsourcing companies is not the answer to the country’s problems. Andrada believes that the boom of call centers in the country is an upsurge of a neo-colonial system as a way to eradicate the Filipino language.

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Almario asserted that “it doesn’t mean that if the whole nation speaks English, there will be more job opportunities that await them. How many millions of Filipinos can call centers accommodate? The call center business is not the hope of the country, but producing more scientists and engineers will help the country while improving math and science.”

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Capili believes that globalization is important, but Filipinos should know which aspects of globalization should be embraced and which ones should not. He said a policy shouldn’t be blindly and wholeheartedly accepted simply because a powerful nation like the United States insists about accepting it.

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EDUCATE FILIPINOS IN ENGLISH OR EDUCATE PER SE?

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Ricciardone warned that the mastery of the language was fast slipping and that the government must invest more in educating Filipinos in English. “English teaching in the Philippines has declined in the last 15 to 20 years,” he noted.

Capili, also a Carlos P. Romulo Professorial Chair holder, believes that the problem is in the Philippine educational system. He said that “we do not attract the best teachers. We no longer have a competitive public school system, and even many private schools have become diploma mills.”

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Meanwhile, he appealed that “the government should raise the salaries of teachers to encourage the best minds to remain in the teaching profession and train our young people to master not just English but several other components of basic and advanced forms of learning.”

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He also suggested that graduates of top educational institutions should be required to teach in a grade school or high school from the region where they came from (for at least six months to one year) before they embark on other career choices. “This is in fact a worthier substitute to ROTC. We need good teachers in the primary and secondary school systems. Our college students are not competitive compared with the rest of the world because the basic things had not been mastered,” he pointed out.

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Capili challenged the government that “we do not need foreigners to remind us of our problems particularly in our deteriorating educational system. More importantly, we do not have to wait for foreigners to tell us what is genuinely wrong with our country. What we need are committed political leaders who can live by example and implement policies that are sympathetic to the improvement of our educational system. Good teachers and good students will only come when there are enough incentives created for them.”

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On a final note, Capili stressed that “we must naturally uphold our roots as Filipinos by sustaining the multicultural and multilingual contexts and nature of our country. To be globally competitive, many Filipinos should gain a mastery of speaking foreign languages and not just English. We should never succumb completely to certain perils of globalization by mimicking blindly the hegemony of the West and consequently lose our identity as Filipinos.”

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The Manila Bulletin Online