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MCkinley's Bequest
McKinley's questionable bequest: over 100 years of English in Philippine education In 3 sentences: The document discusses the history of English language education policy in the Philippines over the past 100+ years, beginning with President McKinley declaring English as the medium of instruction in 1900. It analyzes the debates around English-only vs bilingual education policies and the various experiments with different language models over time. The conclusion is that while English still plays a major role, its privileged status of 100 years ago has diminished with questions around its effectiveness and impact on national identity.
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MCkinley's Bequest
- 1. McKinley’s questionable bequest: over100 years of English in Philippine education ALLAN B. I. BERNARDO Allan Bernardo Ph.D. is a cognitive psychologist and educational psychologist who received his advanced training from Yale University, USA. Professor and University DLSU Manila Chair of the Education and Training Committee of the Asian Association of Social Psychology, Director and President-Elect of the ASEAN Regional Union of Psychological Societies and Chair of the Technical Panel on Teacher Education of the Commission on Higher Education. His research interests includes: achievements motivation, mathematical learning & problem solving, language and learning. He has receive various award for hid prolific research including: the Outstanding Young Scientist Award by the National Academy of Science and Technology,
- 2. INTRODUCTION The Englishlanguage has enjoyed a privileged status in Philippine formal education for more than a hundred years. In the Letter of Instruction to the Philippine Commission issued on April 7, 1900, US President William McKinley declared that English be the medium of instruction at all levels of the public educational system in the Philippines.
- 3. A BRIEF HISTORY Although there were schools established during the Spanish colonial period from 1565 to 1898, the colonial government did not establish a systematic program for education. Indeed, the generally accepted policy was not to educate the Filipinos because the Spaniards feared that the Filipinos would revolt against Spain if they knew too much. (Bernabe, 1978)
- 4. THE ENGLISH-ONLY POLICY According to Martin (1999: 133-4), the American colonial government decided to adopt the English-only policy for several reasons: 1. The American teachers could more effectively teach in English 2. English was thought to be the language that could unite the Filipinos from the different regions who spoke different languages or dialects 3. English was thought of as the language that would provide the Filipinos access to civilization… the life of reason or prudence
- 5. THE ENGLISH-ONLY POLICY English was used as a medium of instruction with a pedagogy that assumed English was the primary language of the students (Alberca, 1994; Gonzales, this issue; Sibayan, 1967). The curriculum was largely filled with literacy-building courses such as reading, spelling, writing, composition, rhetoric, and literature (Martin, 1999:134). Both students and teachers were not allowed to utter a word in any language other than English.
- 6. EARLY CRITICISMS ONENGLISH-ONLY POLICY According to Salamanca (1968:86), two American scholars studied the state of public education in the Philippines (in 1904 and 1913) and both found low levels of English language proficiency among Filipino students. Based on his own studies, Saleeby (1924) recommended that three regional languages should be used together with English in elementary education. In 1913, theVice Governor General of the Philippine Islands, George C. Butte, declared that all instruction in the elementary schools should be given in one of the nine native languages which is appropriate to the locality, as soon as the necessary textbooks can be provided and qualified teachers obtained (cited in Martin, 1999: 133)
- 7. EXPERIMENTINGWITH BILINGUAL EDUCATION The first real threat to the ascendancy of English in Philippine education came in 1939, when Jorge Bocobo became Secretary of Education. He issued an order to the effect that English be continued as a medium of instruction but that primary school teachers be allowed to use the local languages as a supplementary tool for instruction. According to Sibayan (1978), this order effectively began the bilingual policy in the Philippines, although the policy was never labeled as such.
- 8. EDUCATION USINGTHEVERNACULARS ANDTEACHING ENGLISHAS A SECOND LANGUAGE The Revised Philippine Education Program (Bureau of Public Schools, 1957), provided the use of vernaculars as language of instruction for the first two graders of elementary school. At these grades, English was taught as a subject but was not used as a medium of instruction. A shift to English as medium of instruction from third grade through college. EDUCATION USING THE VERNACULARS AND TEACHING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE
- 9. THE NATIONALIST RESISTANCETO ENGLISH A stronger threat to the pre-eminence of English came during the late 1960s with the rise in the nationalist movement and of anti- imperialist, i.e., anti-colonial and anti-American sentiments. The use of English in the formal educational system became a target for this movement, and the writings of nationalist scholar Renato Constantino were particularly potent in crystallizing the negative attitudes towards the use of English in schools. Proponents of a nationalist educational system advocated the abandonment of English as the medium of instruction because the continued use of English perpetuated a colonial mindset among Filipinos.
- 10. THE BILINGUAL EDUCATIONPOLICY The Bilingual Education Policy (BEP) of 1974 mandated the use of English and Pilipino as media of instruction in elementary and high schools according to a set timetable. The goal was to develop students’ language proficiencies in both languages. In 1987, the BEP was reiterated by DECS. Filipino was mandated to be the language of literacy and the language of scholarly discourse while English was described as the international language and the non-exclusive language of science and technology.
- 11. BILINGUAL EDUCATION INPHILIPPINE CLASSROOMS TODAY Today, it is possible to evaluate how English is used in Philippine schools by referring to recent studies of the use of language in Philippine Education. Brigham and Castillo (1999) conducted the most recent one, and they found that the implementation of the BEP was flawed on many counts. Some of their observations include the assertions that: 1. Language instruction in the Philippines, both in English and Filipino, emphasizes mechanics, structures and rules of language, and neglects the more important functional, creative and communication skills.
- 12. BILINGUAL EDUCATION INPHILIPPINE CLASSROOMS TODAY 2. Many Filipino teachers are not adequately prepared to teach in either English or Filipino. In some cases, the language proficiency scores of the teachers were lower than those of their pupils. 3.There is a significant amount of resistance to the BEP, many teachers, students, and administrators, particularly in big cities in the southern islands of the Philippines, prefer an English-only policy for instruction. These sectors perceive that English is the language of power, upward social and economic mobility, global communication and competitiveness (Castillo, 2000).
- 13. COMPETING AGENDA, COMPETING DISCOURSES English for social integration and/or control The utility of English The pragmatic difficulties in shifting away from English The colonizing power of English The damaging effects of English for learning
- 14. PROSPECTS FOR ENGLISHIN PHILIPPINE EDUCATION Presently, English is still the principal language of instruction in Philippine formal education. This status is maintained by discourses that emphasize the role of English in integrating an ethnolinguistically diverse nation, in gaining access to intellectual and socioeconomic advancement, particularly in a global cultural and economic environment.
- 15. English hadfailed as a language for developing national identity and national consciousness, and as a language for effective learning, particularly at the most critical stages of basic education. Today, the failure of English is particularly felt by the overwhelming majority of Filipinos who live in environments where English is an alien language and who go to schools that provide poor quality education in English.
- 16. CONCLUSION English nolonger enjoys the sole privileged role it enjoyed a hundred years ago It is uncertain how the specific role of English in Philippine education will develop in the near future.
- 17. Education, after all,is not simply about acquiring skills and knowledge. More importantly, education is about developing perspectives and tools of analysis with which people can come to understand and engage the problems in their personal and social environments. -Allan Bernardo
Editor's Notes
- #2 Discusses the five dominant themes in the competing discourses regarding the role of English in Philippine Education. Describes the changing status of English as a medium of instruction and the competing discourses surrounding the use of English in Philippine Education.
- #4 The history of the language of instruction issue in the Philippine Education might be said to begin during the American Colonial period from 1900 to 1941.
- #5 Assumed that a civilized citizenry was not prone to rebellion. The colonizer was lending its language to civilize the subjects of the colony so that they might participate in the society that was determined by the colonizer.
- #6 Bonifacio P. Sibayan is founding member and President emeritus of the Linguistic Society of the Philippines. He is recognized as one of the pioneer scholars in the development of Sociolinguistics.
- #7 An official evaluation of the Philippine Education system has conducted by the Monroe Survey Commission of 1925 actually found out that no other single difficulty has bee so great as that of overcoming the foreign language handicap.
- #8 Dr. Jorge Bocobo (1886-1965) was a renowned Philippine scholar, lawyer, journalist, leader, and educator. He was the fifth president of the University of the Philippines from 1934-1939. Known to be moralist and disciplinarian, he was influential in the development of education in the Philippines. After the World War II, Pilipino was a required subject in the primary and secondary school curriculum. An experiment made by Jose V. Aguilar in Iloilo using Hilagaynon as the medium of instruction in elementary education. It provides empirical evidence that children learned more effectively, and were able to apply what they learned in schools in their home and communities when the vernacular was used.
- #9 Grade 3 -4 English as MOI vernacular as auxiliary language Grade 5 -6 English as MOI Pilipino as Vernacular language
- #10 Constantino : With American textbooks, Filipinos started learning not only the new language but also a new way of life. Alien to their traditions.. This was the beginning of their education, at the same time it was the beginning of their miseducation.
- #11 Gonzales and Sibayan conducted an extensive study about the BEP. 1 ) BEP benefited students from Tagalog-speaking regions 2) Students educated under the BEP did better in social studies and worse in English than the nonBEP students.
- #13 How English is taught and used in the classrooms today. Vilches (2000) suggests that the way of English is being taught in schools does not allow students to learn how to use the English language effectively to communicate and engage udeas in a more intellectually sophisticated manner. Sibayan (2000) the consequences of the BEP produced semilinguals. Semilinguals which defines as individuals who have inadequate command of English and Filipino and inadequate command or knowledge of subject matter content in the two languages.
- #14 Answer maybe yes or no. But has English actually unified the Filipino People. According to Constantino (1974) Filipinos may identify themselves with a common nationality there is still no shared consciousness of sense of oneness. Instead it seems that Filipinos today share the aspirations, responses and octions of their colonizers. Yes for others, that the use for English and the American Educational system has been too successful in unifying the Filipino people. Controlling domains –domains of power and prestige (sibayan 1994) government admistration, legislation, judicial system, business and commerce, professions, mass media, higher education and science technology. Is such a daunting task that at least a hundred years would be needed to effectively meet such goals. According to Sibayan and Gonzales, socioeconomic status is the most significant and influential factor in gaining access to competence in English through schools. As Toffelson( 1991) has suggested, English might not be a solution to the poverty experienced by some children instead it may actually be part of the cause of their poverty. Studies in 1940 and 1950s shows the empirical evidence that students are not learning much as they could if they were studying in their mother tongue. Constantino (1982) why is there a need for empirical research on what is rather obvious. students learn better in their mother tongue Students do no learn as well in English or they don’t learn at all Using English in some subject areas prevents students from learning as much as they could The ones who will benefit most from the education in the language are those who have good levels of proficiency.Those who grow up on environments where inputs materials and resources are abundant.