Pinoy, How’s Your English?

by Mary Cherry Lynn Mencias – Dalipe

"You know what, sir, in my 22 years of existence, I can say that there’s nothing major major problem that I’ve done in my life because I’m very confident with my family, with the love that they are giving to me. So thank you so much that I’m here. Thank you, thank you so much!"

The above quoted paragraph is of the Philippines’ representative to the 2010 Miss Universe pageant, Venus Raj, her statement during the final round of the competition. Her "major major" expression which was widely celebrated all over the world and has received criticisms mostly from fellow citizens is but another indication of the Filipino’s casual disregard to the accuracy in the use of English language.

The Philippines is always referred to as an English-speaking country, with more than 95 percent of its population able to speak or understand the English language. It’s fifth country in the world which have the greatest number of English-speaking residents in 2010. Among the countries in Asia, the Philippines has the reputation to have the most superior English proficiency. This account is apparently proven by the thriving of call centers in the Philippines, the high export rate of Filipino labor, and the emergence of English language schools all over the country.

The economic importance of the lingua franca has grown, causing other Asian countries like China, Korea, and Japan to start paying English a greater attention, while the Philippines is found to have a deteriorating English.

Diminishing English in the Country, Facts. Some long time foreign residents in the Philippines say that in the late 1960s, it was a common thing to converse in English with a Filipino who had attended elementary school. These days, they profess they hardly find an ordinary Filipino below 40 who can speak in English confidently.

Although it’s still true that almost all Filipino’s speaking ability or understanding the language are quite high, current situation shows an apparent decline in the quality of Filipino’s English speaking ability. One indication of the decline is the low percentage of hiring over the number of applicants to jobs requiring proficiency in English. Some Call Centers are closing due to a shortage of applicants having the level of English fluency needed in the industry.

In a recent interview with John Langford, executive vice president for Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP), he stated that English proficiency in the country is waning relative to the growth of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry, despite the high demands for manpower in said industry. Only two out of a hundred applicants are being hired.

This deterioration in Filipinos’ English proficiency is already observed through the years in several studies and records.

In 2006, a study conducted by the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines revealed that among the more than 4,000 Filipino students that graduate from college each year, 75 percent have "substandard English skills". In that same year, a survey by BPAP shows that most call center companies in the country hired only 5 to 10 percent of the job applicants they interviewed, mainly because of inadequate English proficiency. Subsequently, the U.S. State Department, in its "2007 Investment Climate Statement," made a conclusion that English-language proficiency in the Philippines, while still better than in other Southeast Asian nations, is waning.

Philippines No Longer No. 1 in South East Asia. The top spot in English proficiency among South-East Asian countries was snatched from Filipinos by Malaysians. This is based on the 2008 test results released by the IDP Education Pty. Ltd. Philippines, an accredited group that governs the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) to Filipinos seeking to work and migrate abroad.

The results were from the test scores for IELTS, one of the world’s leading English language proficiency tests; participants of which were 20 countries. The Filipino test-takers were those wanting employment in nursing and engineering professions, among others. The Filipinos scored an overall mean of 6.69 for listening, writing, reading, and speaking English while Malaysians scored 6.71.

Observed Reasons Behind the Decline. Apparently, Filipinos’ English proficiency is moving on a reverse trend. The question now is, what happened? Possible reasons for the above mentioned trend may be chased back to several years or even decades ago, some of which are still subsisting. Some may have been brought about by the new changes in the country’s technology, culture, and others. Enumerations are made below in an effort to itemize the factors that have caused, or at the least influenced, the decline in Filipinos English ability.

The Bilingual Policy. In one of her articles, Philippine Star Columnist Babe Romualdez, opined, "Filipinos are clearly losing out because of that very big mistake to abolish the use of English as a medium of instruction…Today, a lot of employers are complaining about the deteriorating quality of our graduates, and the fact that majority of them lacks the required skill, and facility in the English language."

Romualdez was referring to the bilingual policy, which was first adopted in the country’s educational system in 1974, which compels schools to use English and Filipino (commonly known as Tagalog) separately as media of instruction in specific subject areas, deviating from the previous English-only medium. Filipino was used as medium of instruction in social studies, music, arts, physical education, home economics, practical arts, and character education subjects, pursuant to DECS Order No. 25. This policy was reiterated in Department Order No. 52 in 1987. It was then observed that the policy resulted to a weaker English ability among Filipino students, not to mention, teachers.

Defective English Textbooks. Another cause was pointed out by Antonio Calipjo Go, an academic supervisor in Marian School, Quezon City. He puts the blame to the problematic English textbooks provided by the government being used in the country. Go estimated that more than 75 percent of all elementary textbooks in public schools contain errors. In an interview, Go lamented, "I pity our children who are being fed these errors. This is one of the reasons why the level of education in our country is worsening."

Reduced Teacher Competency. A survey conducted by the Department of Education in 2009 reveals that 80 percent of secondary school teachers in the Philippines failed in an English proficiency exam. As one of the speakers in the CIE English Conference, Peter Wallace, a business consultant remarked, "In fairness, the Department of Education is trying its best, but unfortunately, this generation of teachers does not have enough capability". It is a sad reality especially to a teacher like me.

Andrew King, director of IDP Education Pty. Ltd. Philippines, attributed the decline of English proficiency in the country to the poor quality and training of local school teachers, as well as the continuing use of outdated or erroneous textbooks. As King stated, "students are not being taught correct English and the resources and materials they’re given are incorrect".

People’s Attitude. Even cultural prejudice and ignorance are still another factor. A common Filipino will try not to speak in English especially in ordinary day by day situations to prevent social criticisms, either for imperfect grammar, pronunciation, or for being pompous, or for being disloyal to the National language. As Andrew King noted, the society labels someone who speaks English a snob, contrary to a positive view that a person who speaks English is someone who’s committed to learn more than one language.

A relative observation was made by a Canadian English Program Presentor Brian Daly. In his blog, Daly expresses his wonder as to why Filipinos seem to refuse receiving presentations on English language proficiency programs from a native English (Canadian/UK) speaking such as himself. Quoting from Daly’s blog, "It is because of Filipino pride…they don’t think they need to improve their level of fluency? Is it because they don’t want to pay me the same as I received teaching Koreans, Japanese or Chinese? So some Call Centers accept lazy English and a lack of good grammar as being OK?"

Mass media, needless to say has been a big part of Filipino’s everyday lives and its influence to them is remarkable. Mass media molds everything, not excluding the languages in the country. And so the way English is used in mass media is the way most, if not all, Filipinos use it. Andrew King acknowledged this idea when he pointed out to local TV newscasts, newspapers, and English-dubbed cartoons using English incorrectly as another cause for deteriorating English in the Philippines. "Every day, on virtually all television and newspapers, you hear incorrect use of prepositions", said King. He criticized the confused use of "in" and "on" by the media as an example. He explained "You hear the car was driving on the lane, which would mean on top of, rather than in, as in within the two lines".

Consequence of Technology. Andrew King also faulted technologies, specifically the internet and cell phone text messaging, which favor speed and levity but compromise the correctness of written language. "We use abbreviations in chat rooms, and we have created a whole new language, and texting on cell phones has created a short language", said King.

Adding to King’s list is the present day’s "jejemon language", famous mainly among the youth. Roughly speaking, a jejemon word" is created by replacing vowels with consonants, or by using the letter "j" instead of "h". This flagrant misuse of not only English but as well as Filipino originated from an effort to shorten text messages in order to fit the 160-character limit of a cell phone short messaging service. But this seemingly innocuous act has caused confusion to many as to the real spelling or pro-nunciation of the word of words, thus contributing to the worsening quality of English in the country.

A contestant in an Environmental Essay Writing contest wrote, "We shud not wait 4 tomoro, we shud act now before its 2 late…Save Mother Earth, Save Lyf!". Upon seeing this, the judges dumped the paper. How come this student even forgot that she is joining an essay contest? If the coach will only know, he will grab and crumple the paper or worst, burn it. we may laugh at this but it’s for real.

Tolerated abuse of Enlish (Taglish). What’s more is the blatant use of "Taglish" the combination of Tagalog and English in constructing a phrase or a sentence, or even in forming a but one word. The most common, or rather, the most dangerous use of Taglish is the transforming of an English noun into a verb by adding a Filipino affix, such as "magmimilk" which means will drink milk, "make-upan" which means to put on make up, and "magtutoothbrush" which means "to brush teeth". Taglish also violates English tenses since the Tagalog affix attached to a verb determines the tense. Examples are "Nagdrive" for what’s supposed to be driven, "nagswimming" for swam, and "nagbike" for biking.

And there could be many other factors not mentioned above. But such enumerations would not mean anything unless efforts are made to reverse their adverse effects. Being aware of an issue and doing something to change it are two different things.

Challenged Response. The author acknowledges the actions of the government and some concerned institutions and individuals in reversing the downward trend in Filipinos English proficiency. But what is being hoped in fulfilling this article is every individual Filipino’s initiative to do what he can do about this major major issue. /MP