3.

Trace the spread of English in the Philippines

 The first significant exposure of Filipinos to the English language occurred in

1762 when the British invaded Manila, but this was a brief episode that had no
lasting influence.
 English later became more important and widespread during the American
Occupation between 1898 and 1946, and remains an official language of the
Philippines.
 English-medium education began in the Philippines in 1901 after the arrival of
some 540 US teachers. English was made the language of education and as its use
extended it became indigenized through the inclusion of vocabulary from local
languages, the adaptation of English words to local needs, and modifications in
pronunciation and grammar. English was also adopted for newspapers and
magazines, the media and literary writing.
 Spanish was the national and official language of the Philippines for more than
three centuries under Spanish colonial rule, and became the lingua franca of the
Philippines in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
 Under the U.S. occupation and civil regime, English began to be taught in
schools. By 1901, public education used English as the medium of instruction.
 The 1935 Constitution added English as an official language alongside Spanish. A
provision in this constitution also called for congress to “take steps toward the
development and adoption of a common national language based on one of the
existing native languages.
 On November 12, 1937, the First National Assembly created the National
Language Institute.
 Over the decades, Philippine English began to develop a “variety” of English in
its own right, associated with a distinct accent, a localized vocabulary, and even a
body of creative writing by Philippine writers in English.
 When the Military Chaplain of General Elwell Otis, W.D. McKinnon took the
initiative soon after 1898 to teach English to the locals, he and his team of soldiers
were welcomed.
 They taught English via the direct method and found ready and willing pupils.
Later, when the elementary schools were established and a more regular system of
teaching English was in place, the method was initially the direct method
followed by the grammar analysis and translation method as used in the public
schools in the United States.
 The Second Generation (1920-1941)

 The Thomasites who had come to the Philippines in the twenty years from 1901
to 1921 had returned to the United States or had chosen to remain in the
Philippines as private employees marrying into local families.
 The people who spread the Philippine variety of English among Filipinos were
Filipino teachers under their American mentors.
 In this period, a total of 209 Filipinos were sent as scholars to the united states as
pensionados to pursue their college degrees, including some graduate studies in
law, medicine, and veterinary science.
 This period was likewise the golden age of young writers of English who had
grown up and improved on the skills of the first generation and saw young writers
of the college folio develop further as English teachers and mature in their craft as
poets, essayist, and fiction writers.
 The writers in English began to manifest an identity of their own and began to
constitute themselves into a school that would be clearly identifiable once the
beginnings of a history of Philippine literature in English began to be outlined in
the post-war period.

1. Cite the DEPED (DECS) and CHED (Comm. On High Educ.) orders and memoranda
regarding the use of English as a medium of instruction.

The Philippines Bilingual Education Policy (BEP)

 Consistent with the 1987 constitutional mandate and a declared policy of the National
Board of Education (NBE) on bilingualism in the schools. The Department of Education,
Culture and Sports (DECS) promulgated its language policy.
The policy was first implemented in 1974 when DECS issued Dept. Order No. 25, s.
1974 titled, Implementing Guidelines for the policy on Bilingual Education.”
Bilingual education in the Philippines is defined operationally as the separate use
of Filipino and English as the media of instruction in specific subjects areas. As
embodied in the DECS Order No. 25, Pilipino (changed to Filipino) shall be used as
medium of instruction in social studies/ social sciences, music, arts, physical education,
home economics, practical arts and character education. English, on the other hand is
allocated to science, mathematics, and technology subjects.

The policy is as follows:

 The policy on Bilingual Education aims at the achievement of competence in both

Filipino and English at the national level, through the teaching of both languages and
their use as media of instruction at all levels. The regional languages shall be used as
 auxiliary languages in Grades I and II. The aspiration of the Filipino nation is to have its
citizens possess skills in Filipino to enable them to perform their functions and duties in
order to meet the needs of the country in the community nation.

The Language Policy of the Commission on Higher Education

 In 1994, Republic Act No. 7722, creating the Commission on Higher Education was
signed. This act which is known as Higher Education Act of 1994 provides that the
CHED shall be independent and separate from the DECS and attached to the office of the
president for administrative porpuses only. Its coverage shall be both public and private
institutions of higher education as well as degree-granting programs in all post secondary
educational institutions, public and private.
In consonance with the Bilingual Education Policy underlined in DECS Order No.
52, series of 1987, the following are the guidelines vis-à-vis medium of
instruction, to wit:
1. Language courses, whether Filipino or English, should be taught in that language.
2. At the discretion of the HEI, Literature subjects may be taught in Filipino, English or any
other language as long as there are enough instructional materials for the same and both
students and instructors/professors are competent in the language.