Language and Literature C Ms. Cruz
CRE: Bilingual Policy in the Philippines
By King Alandy Dy
Foreigners often perceive the Philippines as a country with excellent English. Many businesses rush to the Philippines to put up international call centers while Asian students come to the Philippines to learn English. This is largely due to the bilingual education which we receive in the Philippines. There are many laws which state that both English and Filipino must be used in education but the way these laws are stated change our perception of these languages.
It is stated in the Philippine Bilingual Education Policy (BEP) that both languages will be used for teaching in specific subject areas. Filipino is used in music, arts, physical education, home economics, etc. English, on the other hand is allocated to science, mathematics, and technology or more technical subjects. Studying our national history, music and art through the same language it was created in would help retain the context it was written in. Most information on the technical subjects are in English therefore I believe it would only be logical to teach the subjects in the same language. On the other hand, both languages must be used for instruction in all levels but professionals in the technical fields stated have higher mean and median salaries. This in a way decreases the value of the subjects associated with Filipino thereby devaluing the language itself. People would then correlate financial success to learning English. I believe that Filipinos generally hold more pride in being able to speak in English than in their national language. The government pushes citizens to learn Filipino to develop a linguistic symbol of national unity and identity and to invoke a sense of nationalism. This is stated as the third goal of the BEP. For some reason, the laws themselves are written in English, not Filipino which is the language they are trying to promote.
The bilingual policies in the Philippines show that there is a linguistic bias which exists. Proponents of the Filipino language use English to promote it. Fields where there are higher median and mean salaries aren’t taught in the national language. I don’t think that we should put the blame on law makers or that this is wrong. It just goes to show that there is bias.
Sources:
Espiritu, C. (n.d.). Language Policies in the Philippines. National Commission for Culture and the Arts.Retrieved from http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/articles-on-c-n-a/article.php?igm=3&i=217
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