lecture 2 dr isabel martin

The ‘Variousness’ Perspective:Are teachers ready?

Isabel Pefianco MartinDepartment of EnglishAteneo de Manila [email protected]

• English language proficiency and the

„teacher factor‟

• Beliefs and attitudes about the English

language

• The „variousness‟ perspective (Kachru

1995)

92% of elementary school children are

enrolled in the public schools

(as of 2009-10)

private school enrolment(1.1 million)

public school enrolment (12.8 million)

80% of secondary school children are

enrolled in the public schools

(as of 2009-10)

private school enrolment(1.3 million)

public school enrolment(5.4 million)

Proportion of public to private

elementary school teachers

(as of 2009-10)

87%

13%

Proportion of public to private

secondary school teachers

(as of 2009-10)

72%

28%

School Year English MPS

2003-04 49.92

2004-05 59.15

2005-06 54.05

2006-07 60.78

2007-08 61.62

2008-09 61.81

2009-10 67.81

NAT Elementary School Results

NAT Secondary School Results

School Year English (MPS)

2003-04 50.08

2004-05 51.30

2005-06 47.73

2006-07 51.78

2007-08 53.46

2008-09 52.90

2009-10 46.95

• deteriorating mastery of English

• the „teacher factor‟

• teacher competence?

• beliefs and attitudes about the

English language?

• the study: 185 public school teachers

throughout the country

English you teach?

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0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

American

English

British

English

Philippine

English

just

English

Why Philippine English (PE)?

• All my pupils are Filipinos

• Because my pupils are Filipinos

• All pupils are Filipinos

• Because we are Filipinos

• As a Filipino, it is essential

• To introduce stories based on the Philippine

setting

PE as rooted in Filipino culture and identity

Why Philippine English?

• Whatever is in the Philippine Curriculum and based

on the Basic Education Curriculum, I just follow the

competencies to be taught

• Based on the textbook provided by the DepEd

• Objectives are specified in the RBEC

• I teach Philippine English provided it is found in the

scope and sequence of the subjects I handle

• The books are from Philippine authors


• Because we're using books mostly by Filipino

authors

• We use textbooks by Filipino authors

• The textbooks and other references used are

Philippine made

• Philippine English is suited to our educational

setting

PE as prescribed by official policy and practice


• Philippine English is free from slang and words

are pronounced more clearly

• My students can only understand Philippine

English

• They sound clear to Filipino students

• English (that is) most commonly used in the

Philippines

• It can be easily understood


• The usual way Filipino students understand my

delivery of English

• It is commonly used as medium of instruction.

Students are used to it, and it could be easily

understood by the pupils. It is not slang.

• Philippine English is easy to understand and I

will start from where I am

• It‟s the first English learned

• It is easily understood by the pupils


• I am used to Philippine English rather

than any other English

• Philippine English because that is easy

to teach to my pupils

PE as familiar and accessible


• Because it is what the pupils can relate

to and understand (Taglish)

• English with matching Filipino or

Taglish and sometimes English,

Filipino and vernacular

• Teaching them with the vernacular

language

PE as Taglish (Tagalog-English)


• I teach them Philippine English, but I try to

introduce to them American English, the

grammar and accent.

• I‟m correcting student pronunciation and

informing them about errors in Filipinism.

• As a Filipino teacher, of course my English is

Philippine English, but as an English teacher, I

am trying to use and introduce American and

British English to my students so that they will be

aware of English often used in our country.


• I don't only teach Philippine English but

also American as well as British

English.

PE as inferior to inner circle (native

speaker) varieties

Target language?

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

American

English

British

English

Philippine

English

just

English

Why American English (AE)?

• They [Filipino students] have to learn first

the basics.

• Knowing American English can avoid

arguments and debates about the correct

spelling and pronunciation.

• The pronunciation of some words is

conventional.

• An approximately correct English—

understandable and acceptable

internationally

Why American English (AE)?

• Since it is the most accepted English.

• It‟s the ideal, the standard in terms of

language usage.

• So that pupils will become more

eloquent, smart in talking, and can

communicate the language not only in

speaking but in writing as well.

AE as the only acceptable standard

of correctness

Why American English?

• You could use American movies as

patterns for [teaching] speaking skills.

• It‟s widely used in communicative

learning.

• American English is applicable

nationwide.

• It is a global language.

• American English is the universal

language.


• American English is the standard

international language.

• American English is universally

accepted.

AE as widely used in various domains


• Because the expressions used are

familiar to us having being under the

American regime/way of education.

• Because the Americans were the first

to teach English to the Filipinos.

AE as part of Philippine history


• [It is] easier for us to speak and apply

[for a job abroad].

• It‟s clearer, more widely used and a lot

of Filipinos go to the USA to work.

• This is preferred by companies with

networks abroad.

• For wherever [my students] may go,

they will be able to survive.


• So we can cope up [in communicating]

with other countries.

• To make the children more globally

competitive.

AE as providing access to economic opportunities

Why Philippine English (PE)?

• My pupils are all Filipinos

• We are Filipinos

• Because my pupils are Filipinos

• Because I'm dealing with Filipino pupils

PE as rooted in Filipino culture and

identity


• Because textbooks use the Philippine

English language

• Textbooks use the Philippine English

language as a medium of instruction

• Textbooks and manuals use the

Philippine English language

PE as prescribed by official policy

and practice


• It is because, Filipino pupils could easily

understand the way we use the English

language here in the Philippines.

• Students should learn English commonly used

in the Philippines

• Philippine English is their second language.

• Philippine English, because the words used

are American and some are British, but

sometimes our pronunciation and diction are

Filipino.


• Pupils easily relate to it

• To speak in a conversational way, not

so slang

PE as familiar and accessible.

Beliefs do not match realities

Beliefs

• PE is the English spoken in the Philippines

• PE is more familiar, less formal, more conversational and more accessible

• PE is prescribed by the DepEd

Realities

• PE is a variety with its own features

• PE is used widely, but by the educated class

• PE is not identified in any official document

American English as superior

• the only acceptable standard of correctness

• provides access to jobs

Model Dependency Myth (Kachru, 1995)

• exocentric models of inner circle varieties are standard models that must be promoted

English changing

Bautista‟s (2000) grammatical features of PE:

1. Liquidity problems of rural banks on a massive scale

is [are] being experienced for the first time.

2. * [A] Majority of the public school teachers do not

want to serve as poll officials in the May elections.

3. This results to [in] a better quality of life.

4. But it was only in 1510 that a more authentic

epidemic has been [was] described.

English changing

Bolton and Butler‟s (2008) “localized vocabularies of English usage” in Philippine dailies:

…Politicians are found guilty of economic plunder („large-scale embezzlement of public funds‟) or challenged by the press in ambush interviews („surprise interviews‟); corrupt cops are accused of coddlingcriminals („treating leniently‟), or mulcting(„extorting money from‟) motorists. ..

English changing

Bolton and Butler‟s (2008) “localized vocabularies of English usage” in Philippine dailies:

…Hapless citizens borrow money from five-six money lenders („borrowing at high rates of interest,‟ i.e. borrowing five thousand and returning six…). Meanwhile, motorists stuck in traffic get high blood („enraged‟) in frustration, and the affairs of various topnotchers („high achievers‟) fill the gossip columns.

English changing

From the Anvil-Macquarie Dictionary of PE for HS (2000):

• academician noun Philippine English a teacher in a college, university, or institution of higher education. NOTE This word is from the French acadèmicien.

• bedspacer noun Philippine English someone who stays in a dormitory or shared room of a board house but does not take meals there.

• dirty kitchen noun Philippine English a kitchen for everyday use or use by maids, as opposed to a kitchen used for show or by the owner of the house.

• Lack of awareness about the existence of a PE variety

• Canagarajah (2006): “... multilingual users of the language will be about 30 million more than the „native‟ speakers by 2050.”

• “This changing demography of English has profound implications for language norms. At its most shocking, this gives the audacity for multilingual speakers of English to challenge the traditional language norms and standards of the „native speaker‟ communities.”

Canagarajah (2006)

Not WE WE

Developing mastery of a

single “target language”

Striving for competence in

a repertoire of codes and

discourses

Joining a speech

community

Shuttling between

communities in

contextually relevant ways

Not WE WE

Focusing on

correctness

Approaching “error” as the

learner‟s active negotiation and

exploration of choices and

possibilities

Teaching

grammatical rules in

a normative and

abstract way

Teaching communicative

strategies (creative ways to

negotiate norms in diverse

contexts)

Canagarajah (2006)

Conclusion

• Certain beliefs about the English language may

hamper the successful teaching and learning of

the language.

• The surfacing of teachers‟ beliefs and attitudes

about English presents an opportunity to develop

a more realistic perspective for ELT in the

Philippines—the „variousness‟ perspective, which

may offer an alternative, real-life response to the

challenges of teaching a changing language.

References

1. Anvil-Macquarie Dictionary of Philippine English for High Schools. (2000) Pasig

City: Anvil Publishing Inc.

2. Bautista, Maria Lourdes. (2000) The grammatical features of educated

Philippine English. In Parangal Cang Brother Andrew: Festschrift for Andrew

Gonzalez on his sixtieth birthday. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines,

pp. 146-158.

3. Bolton, Kingsley and Butler, Susan. (2004) Dictionaries and the stratification of

vocabulary: towards a new lexicography for Philippine English. World

Englishes, 23 (1), pp. 91-112.

4. Canagarajah, A. Suresh (2006) The Place of World Englishes in Composition:

Pluralization Continued. The CCC Online 57 (4), 588-619.

5. Kachru, Braj B. (1995) Teaching world Englishes without myths. In by S. K. Gill

et al. (eds.), INTELEC „94: International English Language Education

Conference, National and International Challenges and Responses. Bangi,

Malaysia: Pusat Bahasa Universiti Kebangsaan.

6. Kachru, Braj B. (1997) World Englishes and English-using communities. Annual

Review of Applied Linguistics 17. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.

66-87.

7. Kachru, Braj B. (2006) World Englishes and culture wars. In The handbook of

World Englishes. Edited by Braj B. Kachru, Yamuna Kachru, and Cecil L.

Nelson. UK: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 446-471.

The ‘Variousness’ Perspective:Are teachers ready?

Isabel Pefianco MartinDepartment of EnglishAteneo de Manila [email protected]

lecture 2 dr isabel martin

Documents

private school enrolment

isabel pefianco martindepartment

public school enrolment

variousness perspective

world englishes

teachers ready

philippine english

public schools