Literacy in the Facebook Era - Waray Dictionary and Language ...

Fullmer 5
The knowledge of English among Filipinos has been on a steady decline. The second
language is now a very far second especially among graduates. Consider the following
instances. A study showed that only 3 percent of those who apply at call centers pass
the English proficiency test. Recently, a big bank in Makati wanted to hire a new
batch of candidates for their Information Technology Department. The starting pay
was high; the potential for growth is great. But it took quite a while to have the
needed minimum number. One of the reasons for rejection of many applicants: poor
English.
Is English fluency really declining? The answer is more complicated than a simple yes or no.
First, in my experience teaching at the Eastern Visayas State University, language competence varies
greatly from student to student. Some possess better English than my students in the United States;
others lack either the confidence or skill to speak anything more than halting words and phrases.
This is supported by the Heyneman-Loxley Effect, a theory that states that socioeconomic
background and school-level factors have a greater effect on students’ performance than their
intelligence or aptitude (1983).
Second, outside of professional situations, in practice what is spoken is a mixture of English,
Tagalog and the local mother tongue. For example, the Tagalog for “Have you finished your
homework?” is transformed from “Natapos mo na ba yung takdang-aralin mo?” to “Finish na ba
yung homework mo?” As this example demonstrates, L1 (Tagalog) grammar is preserved while
vocabulary is replaced by L2 (English). Is this hybridization a good thing? Will speaking “Taglish”
socially help or hinder our students from speaking English professionally?
Third—and here is the topic of my research—the English that students are exposed to
currently is fundamentally different from English in the Philippines a generation ago. The substance
of school textbooks has not changed much: Roger Thompson (2003) notes that one sample
textbook of 400 pages contains 42 pages of authentic texts (want ads, editorials, sample telephone
conversations) and 37 pages of literature (mostly 3-4 page selections by Filipino authors), the rest
composed of exercises and quizzes. Thus, according to Thompson, all the English language readings
for four years of high school education could be read aloud in 12 hours. But outside the Filipino
classroom, the English language has changed drastically.