ELT 209: LANGUAGE PROGRAMS AND

POLICIES IN MULTILINGUAL SOCIETIES

MODULE: MIDTERM TO FINAL

ACADEMIC YEAR: 2021-2022

SUBMITTED BY:
EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

SUBMITTED TO:
ANNALIZA TIBAYDE Ph.D

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

I. LANGUAGE PROGRAMS AND POLICIES IN A MULTILINGUAL
SOCIETY
Terms to Ponder
 Language Diversity
This reflects the existence of the multitude of languages spoken in the world which is
variously estimated at between 6000 and 7000 languages.
 Majority Language
This refers to the language that’s usually spoken by a majority of the population in a
country or in a region of a country. In a multilingual society, this language is generally
considered the high-status language.
 Bilingual/Bilingualism
This pertains to one’s ability to speak another language aside from one’s primary
language.
 Official Language
This is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other
jurisdiction.
 Language of Instruction
This refers to the language used for teaching the basic curriculum of the educational
system.
 Minority Language
This pertains to a language spoken by a smaller number of the population of a territory.
 Mother Tongue
This is a traditional term for a person’s native language—that is, a language learned from
birth.
 National Language
This is the officially designated language of a nation or country, usually for cultural
and/or ethnic reasons.
 Bilingual Education
This refers to the use of two languages as mediums of instruction.
 Language Learning
This is where the grammar, vocabulary, and the written and the oral forms of a language
constitute a specific curriculum for the acquisition of a second language other than the mother
tongue.
 Linguistic Rights
This protects the individual and collective right to choose one’s language or languages
for communication both within the private and the public spheres.
 Multilingual Education
This refers to the use of at least three languages, the mother tongue, a regional or national
language and an international language in education.
 Language Policy
This is designed to favor or discourage the use of a particular language or set of
languages; many countries now have policies designed to protect and promote regional and ethnic
languages whose viability is threatened.
 Mother Tongue Instruction
This refers to any form of schooling that makes use of the language or languages that
children are most familiar with.

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

 Multilingualism/Multilingual
This is the ability of an individual speaker or community of speakers to communicate
effectively in three or more languages.

PHILIPPINES AND ITS LANGUAGES

 Philippines: Geographical Location

The Republic of the Philippines is an archipelago made up of 7,107 islands, located in the
Southwest Pacific Ocean, about 800 km off the Southeast Asian mainland. The island group is
bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea, on the south by the Celebes Sea and on the west and north
by the South China Sea. It has a land area of 298,170 sq. km. Terrain is mostly mountains with
narrow to extensive coastal lowlands.
 Philippines: Languages
Ethnologue reports 171 living languages spoken by different ethno-linguistic groups. There
are 8 major languages:
1. Bikol
2. Cebuano
3. Hiligaynon
4. Ilokano or Iloko
5. Kapampangan
6. Pangasinan or Pangasinense
7. Tagalog
8. Waray or Samarnon

 Philippines: Regional Languages

Philippine Languages are divided into subgroups, first three groups considered to be closely
related to each other:
 Northern Philippine Languages
 Meso Philippine Languages
 Southern Philippine Languages

Other three groups are more distantly related to the previously mentioned languages:
 Southern Mindanao Languages
 Sama-Bajaw Languages
 Sulawesi Languages

 Philippines: National Languages

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

 Executive Order 134 (1937) proclaimed adoption, development and use of national language.
 Nat’l. Language Institute (1936) recommended Tagalog as basis of national language.
 Use of “Pilipino” as official name of national language declared (August 13,1959) through
Department of Education Order No. 7.
 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines mandates that national language is “Filipino”
and further provides that for purpose of communication and instruction, official languages are
Filipino and until otherwise provided by law, English.

ISSUES AND CONCERNS

 In an article written by Mike Cabigon (published in 2015) states:
“… even if the Philippines is doing fine in terms of English competency, concerns on how
much of a competitive advantage it still is for the country were raised. The stakeholders agreed
that the country needs to step up its efforts in improving the teaching and learning of English,
developing it as a vital skill of the workforce.”
 In an article written by Vicente Rafael (published by Rappler in 2015) states:
“Those who teach and advocate the wider use of Filipino see CHED as threatening its place
with the current proposals to abolish its teaching as a language at the university level in the
coming years. Instead, universities would be left to decide which courses would be in Filipino
and which in English”.
 In an article written by Matthew Rachel Cruz (published by Inquirer in 2019) states:
According to the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), the Philippines has 183 living
languages—almost 96 percent of which are indigenous. The SIL lists 11 of these as “dying”,
while 28 are “in trouble”. But the actual number of threatened languages remains a mystery, as no
detailed and systematic census has been administered to test the SIL’s research in these
communities, said Jesus Federico Hernandez, a professor at the UP Department of Linguistics.

 In an article written by CNN Philippines published in 2020 states:

The Philippines suffered a seven-spot drop in this year’s English Proficiency Index released
this week by international education company Education First. For the past four years, the
country has been declining in the EF English Proficiency Index. It was placed in the 13 th spot in
2016, 15th spot in 2017, 14th spot in 2018, and 20th spot in 2019.
During the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment by the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Philippines ranked the lowest in reading
comprehension among 79 countries with an average of reading score of 340.

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

II. PHILIPPINES: A MULTILINGUAL NATION

According Jehonanan Caballes, multilingualism is “the ability of an individual speaker or community of

speakers to communicate effectively in three or more languages.”
 Why is the Philippines considered a multilingual nation?
Answer: Because Philippines has a lot of languages.
 Philippines has 185 languages.
 Out of 185 languages, there are 183 living languages.
 2 are extinct
 175 are indigenous languages
 8 are non-indigenous
 39 institutional languages
 67 developing languages
 38 vigorous languages
 28 languages in trouble
 11 are dying languages

Opportunities of Multilingualism
1. Job Flexibility
Multilingualism gives greater flexibility to move around in different positions within an
organization.

2. Skills Development
Multilingual speakers routinely strengthen complementary workplace skills while using their
language talents on the job such as expanded vocabularies, better problem-solving skills, listening skills
and interpersonal skills.

Challenges in Multilingualism
1. Loss of Native Language
Miscommunication with the community
2. Threatens Nationalism
Communicational Challenges within a country can act as an impediment to commerce and
industry and disrupt the nation.
According to Curtis Mcfarlane (2004), the people of the Philippines are experiencing period of
language convergence marked by high level borrowing from large languages such as English, Tagalog, as
well as from regionally important languages. In this process, for better or worse, some languages are
abandoned all together and become extinct.

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

III. LANGUAGE POLICIES IN THE PHILIPPINES
Introduction
The 1987 Constitution defines Filipino as the country’s national language. It also acknowledges
that Filipino is evolving, and that it shall be developed and enriched on the basis of other existing dialects
and languages.
The Constitution directs the government to take steps that will initiate the use of Filipino as the
medium of official communication and as a language of instruction in the educational system.

1. 1987 CONSTITUTION
 Sections 6 to 9 of Article XIV outline the main language policy in the country.
 Section 7 states that for purposes of communication and instruction, Filipino and, until
otherwise provided by law, English are the official are the languages of the Philippines.
 Section 9 mandates the foundation of a national language commission tasked to
undertake, coordinate, and promote researchers for the development, propagation, and
preservation of Filipino and other languages. Pursuant to this section, the Komisyon ng
Wikang Filipino (Commission on the Filipino Language) or KWF was created in 1991.

2. EXECUTIVE ORDER 335

President Corazon Aquino ordered in 1988 all government departments, bureaus, offices,
agencies, and instrumentalities to take steps in using the Filipino language in transactions,
communications, and correspondence. This executive order assigns personnel in every office who will be
in charge of all communication and correspondence written in Filipino. It tasks government entities to
translate names of offices, divisions of instrumentalities, and even oaths of office into Filipino, and to
make proficiency in the use of Filipino in official communications and correspondences as part of
personnel training programs.
3. KWF RESOLUTION 1-92
The KWF passed in 1992 a resolution adopting a working description of Filipino for the purpose
of accomplishing Commission tasks. It describes Filipino as the native language spoken and written in the
National Capital Region and other urban centers in the Philippines, and is used as the language of
communication between ethnic groups.
Filipino, as with any living language, is recognized to be in the process of development via loans
from other Philippine languages and non-native varieties of the language for various social situations,
among speakers of different backgrounds, and for topics of conversation and scholarly discourse.
Due to the fact that there are 8 major native languages in the Philippines whose speakers
outnumber Tagalog users, the notion of a Tagalog-based national language has long been the center of an
ongoing argument regarding the national language of the Philippines, with debates dating as far back as
1937 when Tagalog was declared the basis of the national language.
4. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, CULTURE AND SPORTS (DECS) ORDER 81
In 1987, the DECS released the “Alphabet and a Guide for Spelling in the Filipino Language”,
laying down the letters of Filipino alphabet and rules on spelling.

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

 According to the order, the Filipino Alphabet is composed of 28 letters — the original 26 letters
of the English alphabet, plus letters Ñ and Ng. The order also details how the letters should be read. It
discussed grammar and spelling in the Filipino language — rules regarding diction, spelling, translation,
how and when to use loanwords, syllables and syllabication of words, and the use of dashes, commas and
accents.
5. BILINGUAL LANGUAGE POLICY
The Bilingual Language Policy in the country’s education system seeks to attain Filipino and
English competence at a national level through their use of media of instruction at all levels. This policy
aims to propagate Filipino as a language of literacy, to cultivate and develop Filipino as a language of
scholarly discourse, and to further its development as a national language. The policy also states that
original dialects shall also be used as auxiliary media of instruction and the initial language for literacy
when needed.
DECS issued this policy in 1974, along with DECS order No. 25, which allotted Filipino as the
medium of instruction for social sciences, arts, physical education, home economics, practical arts and
character education subjects. In turn, English is the medium of instruction for Mathematics and science
and technology.
With the signing of the 1987 Constitution, Filipino and English are mandated to be used as media
for instruction.
6. COLLEGE GENERAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM’S LANGUAGE POLICY
The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) issued in 1994 the New General Educational
Curriculum (GEC) under CHED Memorandum Order 59.
The GEC requires Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to have at least 9 units of Filipino
language courses. In addition, to coordinate with the Department of Education (DepEd’s Bilingual
Education Policy, language courses, whether Filipino or English, should be taught in that language.
Courses in Humanities and Social Sciences should be taught in Filipino. Furthermore, at the discretion of
HEIs, literature subjects may be taught in Filipino, English, or in any other language so long as there are
enough instructional materials, students, and instructors competent in the language. A revised Syllabi of
Filipino courses 1, 2, and 3 was issued in 2007 under CMO 54.
The CHED has been under fire by proponents of the Filipino language and language education
since CMO No. 20 s. 2013 was issued, which outlined a new revised GEC set for 2018 that contained no
Filipino language courses. Filipino language education proponents accused CHED of failing to
intellectualize Filipino and that the new GEC would displace thousands of Filipino professors and
instructors.
CHED defended its decision by stating that the planned new GEC will work in conjunction with
the K-12 program and that many remedial courses, like Filipino and English, will be taught in senior high
school years, thereby making them redundant in college. CHED also pointed out that Filipino’s status as a
medium of instruction in higher education courses shall not be affected. CHED also noted that Filipino
faculty members aren’t the only ones affected by the new GEC, as literature, mathematics, humanities
and social sciences courses were also removed.
In July 2014, the House of Representatives committee asked the CHED to report how many
educators will be affected by the K-12 system as a prerequisite to a proposal to fund displaced education
workers.

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

 7. K-12 PROGRAM AND THE MOTHER TONGUE-BASED MULTILINGUAL
EDUCATION (MTB-MLE)
DepED launched in 2011 the K-12 program, which became law only in 2013. Along with other
curricular and policy reforms introduced, the K-12 program sought to build proficiency through language
via MTB-MLE, introduced in 2012. The mother tongue or first language refers to languages or dialects
first learned by a child and with which the child identifies with.
MTB-MLE aims to develop Filipino and English proficiency by starting basic education with the
first language of learners. Starting in Kindergarten up to Grade 3, the medium of instruction shall be in
the mother tongue of the students. Beginning in Grade 1, Filipino and English will be taught as subject
areas.
Come Grades 4 to 6, DepEd shall formulate a mother tongue transition program in which English
and Filipino are introduced as media of instruction so that by Junior High School and Senior High School,
the two can become the primary languages of instruction.
Initially, there were 12 regional languages under the MTB-MLE program: Tagalog, Cebuano,
Hiligaynon, Iloko, Bikol, Kapampangan, Maguindanaoan, Meranao, Pangasinense, Bahasa Sug (Tausug),
Chabacano and Waray. In July 2013, Ybanag, Ivatan, Sambal, Aklanon, Kinaray-a, Yakan, and
Surigaonon were added to the program.

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

IV. BILINGUAL LANGUAGE POLICY IN THE PHILIPPINES
BACKGROUND
 81 Provinces
 17 Regions + 1 new addition in 2017 (Negros Island Region) = 18
 145 cities
 171 living languages spoken by different ethnolinguistic groups
 8 are considered major languages (Bikol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Ilokano, Kapampangan,
Pangasinan, Tagalog, Waray)

LANGUAGE POLICY: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

1. Spanish Period (1565 - 1898)

 Lingua franca was Spanish

 Purpose: Spread their religion

2. American Colonization (1902 - 1946)

 Lingua franca was English

 Free public school education with American teachers
 Media of instruction in schools were English, teachers were trained to teach English, and IMs
were all in English
 1930 - need for a national language as part of the quest for political independence from the
Americans
 1937 - Executive Order 134 proclaimed the adoption, development and use of national
language
 National Language Institute recommended Tagalog as basis of national language
 August 13, 1959 - Tagalog was renamed to “Pilipino”; official name of national language
declared through D.O. 37.
 Pilipino as the national language and English as its co-official language

BILINGUAL EDUCATION POLICY (BEP)

D.O. # 25, s. 1974
“Implementing Guidelines for the Policy on Bilingual Education”
 English is used as medium of instruction for science and mathematics and the use of Pilipino as
medium of instruction for all other subjects in the elementary and high school levels.

Bilingual Education in the Philippines

 The separate use of Filipino and English as the media of instruction in specific subject areas.

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

D.O. 52, s. 1987
 (Pilipino) Filipino the official language, English as provided by law (Article 14 Section 7 of the
1987 Constitution)
 Regional languages as auxiliary official languages
 Recognized as one of the earliest comprehensive Bilingual education experiments in the world
(Tupas and Lorente, 2014)

AIMS OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION POLICY

1. For the achievement of competence in both Filipino and English at the national level in teaching
of both languages and their use as media of instruction at all levels
2. Regional languages shall be used as auxiliary languages in Grades 1 and 2
3. In order for the Filipino people to perform their functions and duties as Filipino citizens and in
English to meet the needs of the country in the community nations

FUNCTIONS OF FILIPINO LANGUAGE

 As language of literacy
 A linguistic symbol of national unity and identity
 Language of scholarly discourse in the intellectualization of the language

FUNCTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

 An international language
 Non-exclusive language of science and technology

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BEP: IN THE EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

 Filipino and English used as media of instruction for 5-year old children in pre-school education
 The learning of the two dominant languages - Filipino and English-produced childhood
bilingualism through classroom activities
 In non-Tagalog areas, teachers translated Filipino and English words to local language, children
answered in mixed language.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BEP: IN THE PRIMARY GRADES

Children used Filipino in learning:
 Civics and Culture (Sibika at Kultura) in Grades 1-3,
 Geography, History, and Civics (Heograpiya, Kasaysayan at Sibika) in Grades 4-6,
 Makabayan which includes Character Education, Music, Arts, and Physical Education in Grades
1-6,
 Home Economics and Livelihood Education (Edukasyong Pantahanan at Pangkabuhayan) in
Grades 4-6.
 Children learned Mathematics (Grades 1-6) and Science (Grades 3-6) in English
 Filipino and English are learned as subjects in all grade levels

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

TEACHERS BELIEVE THAT USE OF FILIPINO AS MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION:
 Promotes oneness in thoughts as nation and pride in being Filipino, preserves cultural and
national identity
 Promotes development of reading skills because Filipino is the language of mass media which
most children have access to
 Children were observed to learn Filipino easier because of regular transparent orthography and
mother tongues of children have Filipino vocabulary.
 Learning of English is supported by most teachers and parents
 Early exposure of children to sounds (phonology and semantics) of English language promoted
familiarization
 Enhanced by educational programs in radio, television and print materials which were widely
present in many environments
 In classroom, more reading materials in English are available than Filipino and in different
learning areas

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BEP: IN THE GOVERNMENT

Executive Order No. 335
Government: Use Filipino in official transactions, communications and correspondence in
national or local; translate into Filipino names of offices, buildings, signboards with English translation
below

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BEP: IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION

 Lead in the continuing intellectualization of Filipino
 Updated the General Education (G.E.) Curriculum
 Language courses, whether in Filipino or English, should be taught in that language
 Literature subjects may be taught in English, Filipino, or any other language, upon the discretion
of the higher education institution
 Humanities and Social Sciences courses are preferably taught in Filipino

What TEACHERS do?

 Speak the local language in teaching non-Tagalog speaking children
 Teach subjects in Filipino or English as MOI (stated in the Dept. order)
 Teach English and Filipino as language subjects to promote bilingual competence
 Attend in-service trainings
 Provide assistance or prepare instructional materials
 Display competency in English and/or Filipino language

CHALLENGES OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION POLICY

BILINGUAL EDUCATION POLICY (BEP)

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

  Academic Marginalization (Tupas and Lorente, 2014)
 Tagalog-speaking children vs Non-Tagalog-speaking children

MOTHER TONGUE-BASED MULTILINGUAL EDUCATION (MTB-MLE)

 Implemented in 2012 under D.O. 16, s. 2012 as part of the K-12 Curriculum on Basic Education
Program
 Argument: Pupils learn best through the primary or home languages that they bring to school
 Researches (UNESCO and DepEd) show that learning among Filipino children in school is
facilitated best through the mother tongues

Regional languages shall be used as auxiliary languages in Grades 1 and 2

BPE and MTB-MLE

 Run simultaneously in the current Philippine education
KINDERGARTEN TO GRADE 3 (MTB-MLE)
 Use of regional or native tongue in instruction, education and teaching materials and assessment
GRADES 4 - 6 (BEP)
 Gradual transition from mother tongue to Filipino and English as medium of instruction until
becomes the primary means of instruction

MOTHER TONGUE-BASED MULTILINGUAL EDUCATION (MTB-MLE)

Preliminary Challenges:
1. Lack of instructional materials
2. Teacher’s language competency (mother tongue)
3. Exclusion of other languages in the policy (19 identified)

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

V. LANGUAGE POLICY AND PLANNING
Meaning of Language Policy and Planning:
The field of language planning and policy (LPP) is concerned with the policies both explicit and
implicit that influence what languages are spoken when, how, and by whom, as well as the values and
rights associated with those languages.
Importance of Language Policy and Planning:
These decisions influence the right to use and maintain languages, affect language status, and
determine which languages are nurtured. Language policy and planning decisions have a major impact on
language vitality, and ultimately, on the rights of the individual.
Types of Language Planning:
The term language planning refers to measures taken by official agencies to influence the use of
one or more languages in a particular speech community.
Four major types of language planning are:

 Status Planning
 Corpus Planning – deals with the structure of a language
 Language-in-Education Planning – learning the language
 Prestige Planning – phrasing prestige language to developmental positive attitude on language.
Language planning may occur at the macro-level (the state) or the micro-level (the community).

What is meant by language policy?

Language Policy is what a government does either officially through legislation, court decisions
or policy to determine how languages are used, cultivate language skills needed to meet national priorities
or to establish the rights of individuals or groups to use and maintain languages.
What are the major goals of language policies?
The goal is to sustain, reinforce and expand our local languages and to provide the foundation
skills for acquisition of English and other international languages.

VI. LANGUAGE AND POWER

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

What is POWER?
 Power is the influence that you can have over other people.
 Can be physical but the most powerful people often use words
Examples of Powerful Language
 No uhms, uhs, likes
 Use direct statements
 Use a clear voice with no shaking
 Speak at a medium volume
Language Power for English Language Learners
 Language gives us access to the world
 The better a person’s language, the more power they have
 Less power in both languages due to less language abilities
 Less power for non-white people and non-citizens
Our Role as Teaching Professionals
 As students are learning, we must advocate for them
 They have little power and no way to express it
 It is our job to create that power in themselves
 Eventually, we must teach them to advocate for themselves
Self-Advocacy
 Practice what you teach
 Use power language in your own life and model it for your students
 By self-advocating, you will be able to share that skill with your students
Powerless Language
 Asking people rather than ordering them (would you mind getting my mail vs Get my mail)
 Used when speaking to a superior or asking a favour
 More complex language and takes more instruction to learn
 Leads to better work relationships

VII. CRITICAL SOCIOLINGUISTICS: APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE

AND POWER

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

James Scott’s onstage/offstage behavior
Historical Background:
Long ago, before mechanization, peasant labour was needed and desired to look after the rich
farming. For this reason, the rich respected and awarded them. Soon after mechanization was introduced,
the peasants labor became devaluated. Then came the linguistic change as means for the peasant to
express opposition and resistance.

The study of Peasants and landlords in Sedarka

This was practiced through:
- Onstage Behavior: the linguistic choices they adopted in the presence of the landowners and the elites.
This behavior was characterized by the high censorship and use of respectful nicknames such as “Haji”,
implying the holiness of one who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca, and the use of euphemisms close to
the language used by the rich.
- Offstage Behavior: this is the “free” language the peasants used among each other in the absence of
their landlords. It is free from censorship and stripped from any nicknames; they even sometimes replaced
them for other offensive ones such as “Ceti”, a non-Muslim money lender associated with usury.The
Peasants’ use of naming provides an evidence to Voloshinov’s view of the sign as an arena of class
struggle.
Class Struggle: the conflict of interests between the workers and the ruling class in a capitalist society.

Political correctness: It is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to
avoid offensive or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society. It is how the political status
of the Masters put pressure on them to make the linguistic choices which are correct for them to keep
their face.

Case Study
An example Franklin Southworth provides us with is from a field study he conducted in South
Indian Villages, and he concentrated on the use of the term to former “outcastes” in Tamil Nadu. The
term that was used to describe this group of “Untouchables” is paraiyan and the more modern and
acceptable one is harijan. The latter was introduced by Gandhi to mean “God’s people”.
This change in terminology was part of the Reformation movement which aimed to improve the status of
the untouchables.
An interview was conducted with an ex-president of the town where he used the modern term, harijan, to
refer to this group of people but was interrupted by his wife referring to them as paraiyan.
The euphemistic use of the language practiced by the ex-president proves how the reformation resistance
movement succeeded to put pressure on him to use their terminology.

Anti-Language

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

 It is the language used by an anti-society. This term was coined by Halliday to refer to a group of
people who reveal their oppositional status to a dominant society by several means, including their use of
language.
He pointed out three main characteristics of anti-languages: relexicalization, over-lexicalization,
and inversion.

Characteristics of Anti-Languages
 Relexicalization: the replacement of old words for new ones in anti-languages. An example is the
lexicon called “pelting Speech” used by criminals in the Elizabethan England where they changed
the meaning of certain words such:

 lift: one who steals a package.

 Market: one to whom a package is handed.

 Over-lexicalization: the creation and use of many words or lexical items for a single entity or
concept. An underworld language in Calcutta, for example, contains 21 words for “bomb”.
 Inversion: this includes the inversion or exchange of elements within words as a metaphor for the
inversion of the world, and as a response to the repressive apparatus. The Calcutta underworld
anti-language, for example, replaces the word kodan for dokan, and karca for cakar. This is done
for the effect of verbal display, humor and rebellion.

Language and Gender

Critical sociolinguistics shed light on this issue as a form of resistance and opposition to the
power and dominance of men over language. And as other movements of resistance, the feminist
movement applied their own changes on language in order to serve their goals and eliminate
inequality or bias towards males.
 Man-hour = work-hour
 Manpower = workforce
 Man needs water to survive = Humans need water to survive.

Symbolic Domination
Bourdieu believes that every linguistic interaction takes place within a social structure. He also
believes that the institution is what gives meaning to the utterance, because it is the social person who
speaks not the language itself.
 Communicative economy: socialization is a system of linguistic exchanges.
 Symbolic power: the assets that certain patterns of language from which can receive different
values depending on the market in which they are offered.
 Symbolic domination: the process whereby the ruling class is able to impose its norms as the
sole legitimate competence on the formal linguistic markets.
The domination leads the dominated to accept the authority and correctness of the dominating variety.
It also leads to euphemism. People start applying self-censorship after assessing the markets condition
accurately and producing linguistic expressions that are appropriate and suitably euphemized.

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

Once one masters the rules of politeness and accommodates his language to the market, he,
subconsciously, acknowledges the socio-political hierarchy, which is the case in the language of the
peasants in Sedarka.

Unifying A Linguistic Market

Authority legitimates a standard language, which all members of the society should use. The choice is
made upon which language is to become dominant over the entire state either to crush local
characteristics and varieties, which was the case with the French language, or as a principal tool in the
process of colonization, which was the case with English and Nigeria.

VIII. HOW LANGUAGE AFFECTS THE PHILIPPINE CULTURE AND

SOCIETY
Getting integrated: Social context influences the ways in which we use language.
 We have been socialized to follow implicit social rules like those that guide the flow of
conversations including how we start and end our interactions and how we change topics.
 The way we use language changes as we shift among academic, professional, personal, and civic
contexts.
 The language that we speak influences our cultural identities and our social realities.
 We internalize norms and rules that help us function in our own culture but that can lead to
misunderstanding when used in other cultural contexts.
 We can adapt to different cultural contexts by purposely changing our communication.
 Communication accommodation theory explains that people may adapt their communication to
be more similar to or different from others based on various contexts.
 We should become aware of how our verbal communication reveals biases toward various
cultural identities based on race, gender, age, sexual orientation, and ability.

IX. THEORIES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

 Nativist/Innatist
 Children are born with the ability to learn language.
 It is a theory by Noam Chomsky in which he thinks that humans have something called
Language Acquisition Device or LAD in their brains that allowed them to learn language.
 He thinks that all languages shared a universal grammar or the same basic elements.
 LAD enables the child to pick up on and understand those type of words and their
organization within a sentence for any language.
 According to Chomsky, there is a “critical period” or a “sensitive period”, in which it is
thought to be from birth until about age eight or nine, and it’s the period of time in which a
child is most able to learn a language.

 Learning Theory
Learning theorists think that children aren’t born with anything. They only acquire knowledge
through reinforcements.

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

  Interactionist Approach
Biological and factors have to interact in order for children to learn language. This approach is
proposed by Vygotsky.

X. THEORIES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING

What is language learning?

It is the process by which language capability develops in a human.
A. Usage-Based Theory
Theorist: Michael Tomasello (1950)
Definition: This is an input-based learning and various approaches to second language acquisition (SLA).
Principles:
 meaning is use (functional or semantic)
 structure emerges from use (structural or grammatical)
Sets of Cognitive Skills
Intention - reading (to determine the goals)
Pattern - finding (to extract abstract linguistic schemas)
Examples:
“Can you open the door for me?” (functional)
“Jane kicks the ball.” (grammatical)

B. Theory of Language Acquisition

Theorist: Noam Chomsky (1928)
Chomsky on Language Acquisition: Noam Chomsky postulated that the mechanism of language
acquisition is derived from the innate processes.
Definition: This theory shows the way children acquire language and what they learn it from.
Evidences:
 The child notices the grammar mistake
 Children don’t learn language through imitation
 Children would use and make up words while learning to speak
Noam Chomsky vs John Locke:
“People were born blank slates.” Vs “Children learning to speak cannot possibly start as blanks slates.”

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

 C. Language Acquisition Device
Theorist: Noam Chomsky
Definition: LAD is a hypothetical module of the human mind posited to account for children’s innate
predisposition for language acquisition.
 LAD is a Nativist Theory.
Chomsky’s Argument
 A child’s ability to acquire language was inbuilt
Summary of LAD
 Languages are infinite pertaining to the sequence of word forms and grammar
 These words form organize grammatically correct sequences of words that can be pulled over a
limited lexicon of each independent language.

D. Theory of Acquisition
Theorist: David Crystal
This is where children say things for three purposes:

 To get something they want

 To get someone’s attention
 To draw attention to something
This is where children usually ask questions.
 Where questions come first
 Questions often begin with interrogative pronouns, followed by a noun or verb such as “where
gone?”
This is where children ask lots of questions.
 Gives signal that they ask questions with intonation
 Express more complex wants by using more grammatically correct language
 Usually talk about continuing action
 Basic sentence structure has expanded

This is where children use increasingly complex sentence structures and begin to:
 Explain things
 Ask for explanation using the word: “Why?”
 Making a wide range of requests: “Shall I do it?”

This is when children regularly use language to do all the things they need it for.
 Give information

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

  Asking and answering questions
 Requesting
 Suggesting
 Offering
 Stating
 Expressing

XI. THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ORIGIN

Hackett (1958) states that:
Language is the most valuable single possession of human being.

What is Language?
Language is a tool that we use to communicate with each other. It may be written form such as
text, or it may be spoken words, and sometimes a sign or gesture.

THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ORIGIN

A. Echoic (Bow-Wow Theory)
 Language imitates sounds in nature.
 Onomatopoeic - marked by echoic words such as moo, meow, splash, cuckoo, and bang.
 Relatively few words are onomatopoeic, and these vary from one language to another.

B. Interjectional (Pooh-Pooh Theory)

 Language arose from instinctive emotional cries.
“The clicks, intakes of breath, and other noises which are used in this way bear little relationship to the
vowels and consonants found in phonology.”
C. Nativistic (Ding-Dong Theory)
 Words are inherent with what they describe.
 This theory is favored by Plato and Pythagoras.
 Speech arose in response to the essential qualities of objects in the environment.
 There is no persuasive evidence, in any language, of an innate connection between sound and
meaning.

D. Jespersen Hypothesis (Woo-Woo Theory)

 Language may have developed from sounds associated with love, play and specially song.
 However, this theory still fails to account for “the gap between the emotional and the rational
aspects of speech expression.”

E. Labor (Yo-He-Ho Theory)

 Language arose from noises made by people engaged in joint efforts.
 This theory states that language evolved from grunts, groans and snort evoked by heavy physical
labor.
 However, it doesn’t go very far in explaining where words come from.

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A

 F. Oral Gesture (Chew-Chew Theory)
 Language resulted from people making gestures with their mouth.
 Though, most of the things we talk about do not have characteristic gestures associated with
them.

But where did language really originate?

 In a Christian view, it is believed that God is the one who created language.
 According to Genesis 11:1-8, the story of the Tower of Babel.
It says: “Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one
another’s speech.”
 It is believed that this is the reason why there are a lot of languages all over the world.

-end-

EICYL GWYNE L. SANTOS BSED ENGLISH 3-A