A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF PHILIPPINE ENGLISH

A brief description of Philippine English Nguyen Thanh Binh
Philippine English is preferable to American English is that there are arguments of the
continued use of English in education which is a part of the ongoing American colonization to
make Filipinos think in a way that the Americans want them to think, not in ways that are good
for Filipinos (Lourdes, Bautista and Bolton, 2008). In this case, Philippine English can be seen
as a good alternative to American English. The nationalist scholar Renato Constantino (1982)
argued that American English led Filipinos into a strange, new world where they started
learning languages and new way of life and became alien to their own traditions. Therefore,
English should be nativized so that it becomes a part of the Filipino culture, not a separate
borrowed variety from the Americans. Furthermore, the development of the mixed code of
English and Tagalog known as Taglish causes Philippine English to be a popular variety of
English among Filipinos and “Taglish will eventually become the Filipino version of English.”
(Thompson, 2003, p. 57). These factors make Philippine English gain advantages over other
varieties of English, even American English. Nonetheless, there are still oppositions to the
promotion of Philippine English rather than that of American English in the Philippines.
Bautista (2000) stated that American English was seen as a basis for English instruction in
classrooms and it was an exonormative model in structure and target phonology. As mentioned
above in the section of phonology, Philippine English has produced a new system of English
phonology which is only used in this country. The consequence is that some Filipinos will find
it difficult to communicate with others who speak a different variety of English. Even though
English can be heard in every part of Filipinos‟ life, politicians, media practitioners and officials
in Department of Education always show their negative concerns about the current state of
English teaching and students‟ English proficiency in the country (Friginal, 2009). A report
from a US based think tank, John F. Kennedy Center Foundation – Philippines also stated that
the English proficiency of graduate students are declining. Thomson (2003, p.41) also claims
that the “falling language proficiency” will be real “concerns to all classes of Filipinos”. As a
result, most young Filipinos think that high school degree is much more important than English
language ability and that English ability should not be the criteria for university admission.
These raise a question for Filipinos whether they should switch to American English or continue
with their nativized English. Another consequence of the low level of English language is that
people who are trained at universities will have no confidence in business communication,
especially with other countries (Thomson, 2003). The choice of American English rather than
Philippine English is also shown in the trend of English use all over the world since American
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