Today was a change of pace, considering some of us did not have to wake up at the crack of drawn. None the less, the day started at 7:40 am, “The tires need to be moving by 7:45!, said Dr. Litton. We began driving to De La Salle University were we where going to listen to the first presentation. As expected, traffic was horrible. You would figure that living in Los Angeles would help you prepare for being stuck in traffic. Philippine traffic is a beast of its own; it took us 45 minutes to cross a bridge that was roughly 1/3 of a mile long. YES! 45 minutes!
We finally arrived, got some coffee and were ready to listen to a talk by Dr. Sterling Plata, an Associate Professor from De La Salle University. Dr. Plata spoke about the English Language Education in the Philippines. She began her presentation with a quick overview of the levels of the educational system. She explained that English is introduced in schools by the 3rd grade, and by high school, instruction is all in English. Dr. Plata informed us that English is important to learn in the Philippines for many reasons. For example all the court documents are in English and English is the key to a good job. Many Filipinos are employed at Call Centers where they are expected to understand and speak English fluently. English has become so important that other languages are not as valued.
In the 1900s the Americans introduced English as a medium of instruction in public schools. Since then, a bilingual education policy was implemented to incorporate different languages in the Philippines. The Department of Education (DOE) had trouble deciding what language would become the official language of the Philippines. Considering that there about 71 different languages spoken all across the Philippines, other than English. In 1987, Pilipino (sometimes also referred to as “Filipino”) became the national language.
Despite the economic importance of being fluent in English, significant research has shown that mother tongue instruction is important. Multilingual education facilitates learning of a second language (such as English) and improves learning outcomes. Similar research has ben cited to support bilingual education in the United States. This year, the Department of Education in the Philippines started implementing the new K-12 system (which added 2-4 years to the school system). Thus, currently mother tongue is the medium of instruction from K-3 and English is taught as a subject to increase critical thinking skills for all students. Dr. Sterling Plata recommends that schools should adopt a literacy framework to help both teachers and students. For example she believes that creating assessments to measure proficiency for students is important to help track and document student success in schools.
Dr. Plata’s talk was truly enlightening. We saw a lot of similarities between the struggles around language education in the Philippines and in the United States.
We finally arrived, got some coffee and were ready to listen to a talk by Dr. Sterling Plata, an Associate Professor from De La Salle University. Dr. Plata spoke about the English Language Education in the Philippines. She began her presentation with a quick overview of the levels of the educational system. She explained that English is introduced in schools by the 3rd grade, and by high school, instruction is all in English. Dr. Plata informed us that English is important to learn in the Philippines for many reasons. For example all the court documents are in English and English is the key to a good job. Many Filipinos are employed at Call Centers where they are expected to understand and speak English fluently. English has become so important that other languages are not as valued.
In the 1900s the Americans introduced English as a medium of instruction in public schools. Since then, a bilingual education policy was implemented to incorporate different languages in the Philippines. The Department of Education (DOE) had trouble deciding what language would become the official language of the Philippines. Considering that there about 71 different languages spoken all across the Philippines, other than English. In 1987, Pilipino (sometimes also referred to as “Filipino”) became the national language.
Despite the economic importance of being fluent in English, significant research has shown that mother tongue instruction is important. Multilingual education facilitates learning of a second language (such as English) and improves learning outcomes. Similar research has ben cited to support bilingual education in the United States. This year, the Department of Education in the Philippines started implementing the new K-12 system (which added 2-4 years to the school system). Thus, currently mother tongue is the medium of instruction from K-3 and English is taught as a subject to increase critical thinking skills for all students. Dr. Sterling Plata recommends that schools should adopt a literacy framework to help both teachers and students. For example she believes that creating assessments to measure proficiency for students is important to help track and document student success in schools.
Dr. Plata’s talk was truly enlightening. We saw a lot of similarities between the struggles around language education in the Philippines and in the United States.