A Favorable Climate and Soil: A Transplanted Language and Literature PDF

1 "~ A favorable climate and soil: A transplanted language and literature Andrew Gonzalez, FSC Introduction The American language has manifested a unique destiny in the Philippines. Remarkably soon after the occupation of the Philippines by the United States in 1898, it was spoke...

1 "~ A favorable climate and soil: A transplanted language and literature Andrew Gonzalez, FSC Introduction The American language has manifested a unique destiny in the Philippines. Remarkably soon after the occupation of the Philippines by the United States in 1898, it was spoken, based on the census of 1918, by an educated elite of 896,358 out of 10.3 million people in the islands, undoubtedly with various levels of competence. The reading levels of students in grade school were only two years below those of their American counterparts (Monroe, 1925). In 1910, the University of the Philippines made its first attempts at published literature through the studentjoumal, the College Folio (see Gonzalez, 1987). Without exaggeration, it seems that the English language had found a favorable climate and soil for transplantation in the new colony. Whatever the nationalist feelings of many may have been, Filipinos collectively took a liking to English, and until now the majority have clung to its continuing use for intemational contacts, intellectual work and higher education, and for certain types of everyday reading. ' The beginnings of the English language in the Philippines (1898- 1920) Even during the Spanish Period, individual Philippine scholars studied English on their own.]ose Rizalleamed English on his own and in his letters he urged his sister Satumina to leam English. Apolinario Mabini, initially the brains of the emerging Philippine Republic, prescribed the study of English in his second level academy (Majul, 1967). When the Military Chaplain of General Elwell Otis, W. D. McKinnon (a Catholic priest from Califomia), took the initiative soon after 1898 to teach English to the locals, he and his team of soldiers were welcomed. They taught  A favorable climate and soil 15 14 Andrew Gonzalez, FSC English via the direct method and found ready and willing pupils (Churchill, The second generation (1920-1941) 2003). Later, when the elementary schools were established and a more regular system of teaching English was in place, the method was initially the direct By 1921, at the end of the administration of the Democrat Francis Burton method followed by the grammar analysis and translation method as used in Harrison as Governor General, the civil service of the colony had become the public schools in the United States. The teachers were recruited from completely Filipino except for the military leadership and its top echelons, teachers in American schools and were called 'Thomasites' because the first including the Department of Public Instruction. The Thomasites who had batch of some 523 teachers arrived aboard the US Army Transport Thomas in come to the Philippines in the twenty years from 1901 to 1921 had retumed August 1901, and thus began the tradition of teaching English analytically, to the United States or had chosen to remain in the Philippines as private via grammar, definitions of parts of speech, exemplification, and numerous employees marrying into local families (Gonzalez, 2003a). Only the exercises of what we.would now call testing rather than teaching exercises superintendents of English in the Department of Public Instruction continued (Gonzalez, 2003a; Alberca, 1994, 1996). American phonology was not formally to be Americans, the rest Filipinos. In fact, at no time except for the first taught, but a form of oratory and declamation overladen with the traditional months of the Thomasites were American teachers in the public school system Filipino oratorical style and manner of delivery (not the micro exercises in in the majority, the rest were Filipinos. The people who spread the Philippine phonemic distinctions which were used in ESL after World War II) was quite variety of English among Filipinos were Filipino teachers under the tutelage common. Reading was done via phonics although, in 1925, when the first of their American mentors. national measure was taken of achievement in English by Filipinos by the Paul In this period, a total of 209 Filipinos were sent as scholars to the United Monroe team, it was reported that the children read like 'birds', a simile to States as pensionados (supported fellows) to pursue their college degrees, describe the accented Philippine English used (Monroe, 1925). As noted including some graduate studies in law, medicine, and veterinary science. above, these children were only two years behind their American counterparts Empirically based on a small sample is a study by Gonzalez et al. (2003), in in reading achievement, no small accomplishment for a people who had begun which we did sample testing of written and oral structures of Filipinos leaming English only in 1903. By 1918, 8.7% English speakers were reported belonging to five generations. The second generation, those who had finished among a total o£10.3 million people in the system (for the census period 1903- their high school in 1931, were found to be the ones who had the best written 1918). outputs, although Filipinos of the 1970s, the younger ones, scored better in The students wrote compositions in a comprehensible but antiquated grammar and mechanical tests. This second generation of Filipinos who had Victorian style of English writing which I have described elsewhere as eventually been taught according to the grammar analytic method and by traditional evolving into the Philippine classroom composition style of writing in English methods ended up writing the best and most 'correct' English compositions. (Gonzalez, 1991). What was remarkable was that literature in American and Various causes may be cited to explain the success of the second generation. British English varieties was learned quicldy and that within less than a decade, It was not so much their exposure to formal and traditional grammar the University of the Philippines produced its first printed College Folio of instruction but their exposure to native speakers and models, the availability student literary writing and the first harvest of writers in English appeared. of good texts for reading and writing imitation, and occasions for sustained among the locals, thus giving birth to Philippine literature in English, which writing, which were the practice in those days, plus the lack of a competing contributed to the growth of Philippine English as a transplanted variety of language in class like the national language in the post-World War II period. the language. This period was likewise the golden age of young writers of English who Thus from the first two decades of the English language in the Philippines had grown up and improved on the skills of the first generation and saw young was hom the transplanted variety of the language or 'Philippine English' with writers of the College Folio develop further as English teachers and mature in its distinctive pronunciation, its style of academic writing and an emerging their craft as poets, essayists, and fiction writers. The writers in English began Philippine literature in English, then for the most part still a Manila to manifest an identity of their own and began to constitute themselves into a phenomenon consisting of short poems, essays of a literary nature, and short 'school' that would be clearly identifiable once the beginnings of a history of stories all hom on native Philippine soil. As an example of a transplanted Philippine literature in English began to be outlined in the post-war period. language growing so rapidly in new soil, the vitality and the quality of this new One thinks of essayists who flourished at that time such as Salvador Lopez and variety were nothing short of remarkable. Jose Garcia Villa; the latter likewise took part in experiments in poetry following American models. The younger set participated in competitions such 16 Andrew Gonzalez, FSC A favorable climate and soil 17 as the annual Connonwealth contests in poetry; one thinks of Rafuel Zulueta a set of practices and materials (a methodology) which were introduced in da Costa, whose prize-winning long poem 'Like the Molave' became famous. the Philippines initially by Clifford Prator of UCLA and spread systemically More traditional was Alfredo Litiatco, who devoted his special gifts to as a result of the establishment of the Philippine Center for Language Study encouraging young writers to publish their work in the Graphic; his career was with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation at the Department of cut short when he died during the Japanese period from tuberculosis. Arturo Education, later, at Philippine Normal College, the latter institution supported Rotor, a trained physician, continued writing before and after the Japanese by the Ford Foundation (Prator, 1950). Period but retumed to his craft as a doctor afterwards. Going into exile to Subsequent documentation (see Sibayan et al., 1975) describes through work in the fields in Stockton, Califomia, was Carlos Bulosan, who had a light a case study how language innovation and developments in approaches to pen for comedy but also for the poignancy of exile. He began writing on the teaching in the public schools (the private schools were hardly touched) theme of the Filipino in exile in the United States, a theme that would be resulted in a change of methodology and the introduction of teaching repeated many times by other Filipinos in exile almost throughout the next materials designed by Filipino staff with the guidance of specialists from UCLA, twenty-five years, in Bienvenido N. Santos' fiction, some stories of N. V. M. factors which explain the success of the system-wide innovation. These Gonzalez, and the poems of Francisco Viray (Cruz, 2000). materials were distributed among the public schools and changed the The Philippine Commonwealth came into existence in 1935, and we had technology and practices of teaching English with an emphasis on the beginnings of self-rule even amidst the threat of an impending invasion pronunciation using contrastive microphonology, substitution drills on lexicon and war. From the point of view oflanguage and literature, the search for a and sentence pattems, and guided composition and initial reading. national language began with a mandated search by the 1935 Constitution, Contrary to initial expectations, however, the results were mixed: there which gave rise to a National Language Law in 1936, the choice of Tagalog as was a decided improvement in pronunciation as later tests would show, but the basis of the national language in 1937, the production of a bilingual communicative fluency did not always result, since much of the learning was wordlist (the beginnings of a dictionary) and a grammar. This in tum led to through memorization and repetition and was not genuine spontaneous the teaching of Tagalog at a summer teachers' institute and eventually to the communication. Sentence pattems were learned by rote rather than through introduction of Tagalog into fourth year of high school in 1940 and its efforts in genuine communication. With the emphasis on microreading skills, becoming an official national language in the same year (Gonzalez, 1980). traditional reading skills for longer texts were neglected, as were composition The Laurel Govemment was set up by the Japanese Military Govemment and the reading of longer texts. It did not help that in spite of the new under the rubric of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, and Tagalog materials, distribution was slow and for many years the textbook-student ratio was confirmed as the official national language although English continued was unsatisfactory. to be used for govemment functions. Mter July 4, 1946, attempts at the normal When the new advocates became aware of these limitations, lessons on functioning of govemment were made, and classes resumed, although many communication and interactive work were additionally supplied to remedy the teachers had perished during the war from illness or from the war itself. sometimes exaggerated rote drills which seemed to prevail. There was also an English continued to be used as the main medium of instruction, the only attempt to introduce extensive and intensive reading, but by this time there difference being that the national language was now taught daily as a subject was a problem in the supply of reading materials. The time of most teachers from grade one up to the fourth year of high school as Wikang Pambansa was taken up by other duties so that it became very difficult to impose on the (national language), later Filipino. teachers the assignment of frequent compositions or long themes (see Gonzalez, 2003b). In 1974, the TESL program was incorporated as part of a more comprehensive bilingual education program (with the use of Filipino), Post-war developments (1946-1980) and later in the 1980s English for Specific Purposes was introduced for classes in high school and in the last two decades for what we now call content-based The main characteristic of the period from the late 1940s to the 1960s was instruction (CBI). What seem to prevail at present across the system are the introduction of the Teaching of English as a Second Language approach, practices which try to incorporate all features. Within the bilingual education based on the technology leamed by the American structuralist linguists in system, principles of second language leaming are emphasized at the lower teaching foreign languages to Americans during World War II. The same grades, communicative language teaching at the intermediate grades, techniques and approaches were adopted for the teaching of English as a advanced reading and writing (including ESP) at the upper grades, and, where second language and were then incorporated into a theory, a psychology, and acceptable, content-based instruction and ESP for special classes. 18 Andrew Gonzalez, FSC A favorable climate and soil 19 Philippine English literature and language covered in the literature, beginning with Llamzon (1969) and expanded in more detailed studies from Alberca (1978), Gonzalez (1997), Gonzalez and In the meantime, Philippine literature in English has continued to flourish, Alberca (1978), and Tayao (2004). Cruz and Bautista (1995) did the first giving rise to new generations of writers both at home and abroad. Among inventory of the local Philippine English lexicon, while Bautista (2000) has Filipino writers in English abroad, the theme of the Filipino in exile has now begun work on the restructuring taking place in the grammar. Gonzalez become passe. Instead there is fiction (long and short) of a Filipino growing (1991) studied the writing characteristics of certain styles and made initial up as a first- or second-generation Filipino American in the United States and studies on the literature produced by Filipino writers (Gonzalez, 1987). the inner conflicts that this experience entails, along with the hybrid sensibility that is manifested among the current generation of Filipino Americans. Locally, the problem among Filipinos writing in English on native Filipino soil Linguistic features is to come up with new themes which are authentically Filipino, seen in such writers as Cirilo F. Bautista, Isagani Cruz, Ophelia Dimalanta, Maijorie Evasco, The main characteristics of Philippine English may be summarized as follows:_ and F. SionilJose, who write with genuine Filipino voices in English. Such the immediate impression when one hears Philippine English spoken (the writers are contributing to a clearly identifiable corpus of Philippine literature hearer being a native American English speaker) is that the variety being in English and are being published and translated internationally as writers spoken is syllable-timed rather than stress-timed with full pronunciation of the in English. These authors write from their own background as Filipinos not vowels (hence, the tendency toward a spelling pronunciation); intonation and in exile, but as bicultural internationally-oriented personalities in the other expressive features are clearly local, often with a rise in intonation in Philippines. They are in tune more with Asia than with the US or other English- wh- questions and in tag questions. In the segmental phonemes, the vowel speaking countries. inventory is reduced, with a tendency to substitute /a/ for jgj, the variable The context of Philippine English as a distinct variety is also where changes lack of distinction between the rounded and unrounded mid-back vowels in the English language are most interesting, not only in the lexicon but also /o/ and /o/, and the tendency to pronounce /u/ as /u/ (again a spelling in 'Filipinisms' (special loan translations from Filipino to English) and in the pronunciation). In the consonants, some members of cultural communities restructuring of English grammar (e.g. tense-aspect, article systems), which do not pronounce /f/ or /v/ but collapse them into /p/ or /b/. There is an are part of the Asianization of the English language. This language situation absence of the voiced I z/, which is rendered as Is/, and the absence of /s/ has resulted in language and literature becoming the expression of a culture and /z/. There is the use of the tapped /r/ rather than the retroflex /r/ of that now has ties with other English-using Asian societies. Contemporary American English. Stress is distinctively placed on syllables including two- Philippine English, after more than a century in the Philippines as a syllable words (e.g. publish), three-syllable words (semester) and in polysyllabic transplanted language undergoing its own evolution, is also undergoing a words, the stress is usually placed on the antepenultimate syllable (testimony). process of standardization. While the climate for the transplantation has been The lexicon has local names and terms, loan translations from local idioms favorable and the soil for the new English coming from the United States has e.g. 'open the light' from 'buksan mo angilaw' and 'open the radio' for 'buksan been rich and nourishing, the symbiosis between climate, soil, and plant never mo ang radyo' as well as the local use of prepositions after certain verbs and results in a perfect clone of the transplanted language. In fact, because the adjectives not in the native source (result 1Q instead of result irb different two- initial teachers of English were Filipinos themselves under the tutelage of the word and three-word verbs), and the recasting of American idioms as well as Thomasite Americans, replication of all features of the source language was direct translations from local phrases 'I am ashamed to you' rather than 'I never completely achieved at any time. am embarrassed in front of you'. The substrata! vernaculars of the Philippines, with their own Austronesian Writing was learned in school from original American models, and hence sound systems, heavily influenced the imperfect imitation of the sound system the rhetorical structure was based on American models which were taught in of the new code. Moreover, in the days of initial English language teaching, writing courses, but these structures tended to be imitative and to leave little the teaching of pronunciation was not stressed; nor did the technology ofTESL room for creativity except in mature writers, with the tone quite formal even have any influence, as TESL and its phonological teaching techniques did not when the context called for informality and whatJoos (1967) calls a arrive until the 1950s. From the beginning then, there were many local varieties 'consultative' or informal style (see Gonzalez, 1991). The ability to sustain of Philippine English based on the first language of the learners. The prose of a narrative nature is relatively new and now appears in novels, but description of the phonology of Philippine English has been extensively until the late 1940s, Philippine novels in English were rare. In general, 20 Andrew Gonzalez, FSC A favorable climate and soil 21 creativity and experimentation began earlier in poetry than in prose, although and which nowadays Llamzon no longer claims (personal communication). there are now such interesting non-traditional fictionists as Ninotchka Rosca There are still subvarieties especially if the speakers are Cebuanos, and Jessica Hagedorn. Hiligaynons, Maranaos, llocanos where one immediately detects what cultural community the speaker belongs to. Moreover, as noted above, there are lects, but the lects are not so much determined by socio-economic status but by the Code-switching and varieties of Philippine English type of school one has attended; one can be from the lower SES but be a scholar in an elite school and 'pick up' the accent. It seems that if there is to In addition to geographically-based lects, there are other lects of formality and be a standard that will be accepted by the elites and the educated, it will be informality. However, for informal communications, bilingual or multilingual the edulect from the elite schools where the dialectal substrata! manifestations Filipinos would rather use the national language Filipino or their home have been minimized in favor of the type of English already described with vernacular. When they have to speak English but would like to do so its specific and distinctive characteristics. One outside influence that will hasten informally, they deliberately code-switch, which presupposes competence in the acceptance of the standard is its acceptability in international both the local language and English. It remains to be seen whether such code- communications and in global conferences, which will act as a brake to any switching will give rise to a Philippine pidgin such as Chabacano (a blend of kind of excess differentiation. The use of Philippine English in international a local Central Philippine language and Spanish), since the social conditions communications and for the mass media (TV and radio) as well as the print which gave rise to Chabacano are not present. The speakers of pidgin Filipino- medium (daily newspapers) may promote the most acceptable variety, which Spanish (Chabacano) did not know enough Spanish but used a local in tum may become the standard. Indeed, this is taking place at present so vernacular and interspersed content words and sometimes even functors into that the Philippine English that will be a candidate for one of the Asian the local language from Spanish to make themselves understood by their Englishes will be this standardized variety of Philippine English (Bautista, 2000, Spanish masters, and this pidgin later became creolized. This is not the case Delbridge et al., 1981). with contemporary code-switching, where speakers are knowledgeable in both languages but switch to bring familiarity and informality to the situation. When they do not have enough English to explain themselves, they code-switch to The linguistic repertoire of the Filipino ·Filipino. On the other hand, when they have to discuss scientific and technical matters and do not have the language in Filipino for this, they code-switch to As far as prehistory is concerned, the inhabitants of this archipelago have been English. This is not to say that this situation is permanent, as it might change multilingual, speaking their local vernaculars but likewise speaking a regional in the future. lingua franca which allowed intertribal communication. With the coming of As Gonzalez and Bautista (1985) argue, the best way to describe the the Spaniards, the elites especially of Manila and the main urban centers began subvarieties of Philippine English is to refer to them as 'edulects' more than to add Spanish to their repertoire. With the Americans, still another foreign 'acrolects', 'mesolects', and 'basilects', since the levels are a function of the language was added, English. With the development of the national language education of the speaker and the kind of English language tuition he/she beginning in 1937, the use of Tagalog, renamed Filipino and later Filipino, received in school. English is learned for the most part in schools and the became widespread so that the latest census (National Statistics Office, 2000) type of school one attends pretty much determines the level and quality indicates that more than 85% of Filipinos now speak a:t least a colloquial variety (approximation to the American model) that one learns from the school. of this language or what we in psycho linguistic terminology would call Basic Ultimately, of course, since the quality of school is a function of tuition fees, Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS). the school is reflective of the socio-economic background of students' families. Prior to the rise of fervent nationalism, which began in the 1960s and rose There are exceptions, however, as the level of English spoken in some public to a peak in the 1970s, the repertoire of the educated Filipino was dominated schools (where the clientele and teachers tend to be less affluent) can be by the English language. With the younger generation, however, who adequate and compare equally well with the 'standard' of the private schools. condemned the 'miseducation' of the Filipino in a foreign language, there One issue which has not yet seen resolution is whether or not Philippine was a conscious attempt to use Filipino not only for everyday communication English has become standardized. Llamzon claimed as early as 1969 that, based but also for formal occasions and for class use. Thus, in the last 35 years, the on models of reputable English speakers in universities and among country domains of the English language have been reduced in favor ofFilipino except leaders, English had become 'standardized', a position which was challenged in the following, where English still plays a dominant role: print media, 22 Andrew Gonzalez, FSC A favorable climate and soil 23 especially the daily newspapers (21 out of 28 daily newspapers are in English), There are also large numbers of call centers located in the Philippines where and higher education, where interest in using Filipino as the medium of English-language spoken skills are given a premium. Whatever deficiencies instruction peaked in the early 1970s. To a large extent, many universities have there are in the undergraduate training of these workers, intensive English now reverted to using English, although in the more popular schools, a code- language courses are given with a view to improving their competence, switching variety is used. Among college students who have not learned English although in the end only a minority qualifies. These developments have had well, the tendency is to answer in Filipino if the teacher asks a question in a healthy influence in helping people become aware of the need for the second English. For international business, diplomacy, and at the highest level for language and of the quality that is to be aimed for, and has resulted in board meetings in the country's business centers, English still dominates. The determined attempts to attain this quality especially at the level of spoken other domains are now in Filipino, including the entertainment domain where proficiency. more than 65% of TV is in Filipino and close to 90% of radio is in Filipino. The funds generated by more than close to 7.5 million overseas Filipino There are popular tabloids in Filipino, and now it is considered somewhat chic workers (2.5 million in the United States) amount to a conservative US$7 to see movies in Filipino and not just in English. With the availability of cheap billion yearly, and are increasing (Calucag, 2004). This amount is recorded VCDs and DVDs, English movies have become more widespread even in the in official channels and excludes the informal channels. The largest source remotest barrios which have electricity (Dayag, 2004). The stable domains of of foreign exchange is this OFW (Overseas Filipino Workers) contribution, English continue to be higher education, business transactions in multinational which is expected to grow. Hence, the prognosis for the restoration of English and internationally-oriented companies, diplomacy and international relations, language competence is favorable. and as a global lingua franca for relations with the world. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, concern was voiced by parents who complained to the Department of Education and to the national Conclusion leadership that English competence had 'deteriorated' and that it was time to renew the teaching of English. This began during the time of President The work of Chaplain McKinnon and his initial group of soldier-teachers of Corazon C. Aquino, and continued during the administrations of President English began a process which eventually resulted in the creation of a new Fidel V. Ramos and President Joseph Estrada, and was given new impetus by variety of English which has by now become a permanent feature of the the current President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. All of a sudden, in response communicative repertoire and culture of the Filipino. And while in 1918 the to this concern, there has been a return to the use of the English language in Filipino had to learn English from relative~y unskilled native and second seminars and meetings, especially outside of Tagalog-speaking areas, as well language speakers of American English (some of them immigrants themselves) as ari emphasis on the renewal of methodology and the retraining of teachers using questionable teaching methods, the new speaker of English in the in oral competence and reading skills, a movement that is ongoing. The biggest Philippines is not only bilingual (or multilingual) with his/her own indigenous drawback to any serious renewal is the quality of the teachers entering the transplanted variety of Asian English, but also relatively sophisticated and teaching force. For the most part, these have been trained in substandard relatively well-educated. Indeed, as mentioned above, some Filipinos are now colleges of education where the faculty themselves have problems with the being employed in small schools in the United States (parish schools and English language. Hence, unless there is a decided improvement in the quality Hispanic public schools) to teach Americans their variety of English and their of professors in colleges of education, little hope can be expected from short- experience of a Inixed culture. Their added voice will be even more formidable term summer programs. When these teachers start teaching, whatever errors in the future as there are more than two million Filipinos in the United States they commit in English are fossilized, there is a lack of fluency in the language, today, a number many times greater than the colonial civil service and military and the grammar becomes idiosyncratic and not the systematically structured who occupied the Philippines. grammar one associates with the standardizing version of Philippine English. Whatever one's feelings are about the American colonial experience in The great incentive for improving one's English language competence is the Philippines, English language and culture have become an integral part the foreign market, where Filipinos with English competence are very much of Filipino culture. To reflective and critically thinking Filipinos, the experience in demand not only as health professionals (doctors, nurses, medical has had both advantages and disadvantages. The advantages come from a technologists, x-ray technologists, and now midwives and caregivers) but also facility with a language that gives them access to the world of science and as elementary school teachers in parochial schools in the United States, and technology and world culture; the disadvantages come from their seemingly as hotel and restaurant workers all over the world, especially the Middle East. divided loyalty to their national identity as Malays and their internalization of 24 Andrew Gonzalez, FSC A favorable climate and soil 25 Western (American) ideals of democracy which make demands that the of education, social mobility and advancement, and indirectly, the hunger structure of their society and their culture are not equipped to handle. The created in the host population for education which was not accessible under inner contradiction is painful and the seeming paralysis of reform frustrating. Spanish colonialism. And yet it is this Filipino self-expression through the English language which Perhaps most interesting of all in the case of the Philippines (though it is makes them even more aware and sensitive about these contradictions. They not unique, as a similar situation is found in Singapore) is that a second speak English well by standards of intelligibility but not international elegance; language, English, has become a pennanent feature of society, and that the they express their insights about their colonial past with more facility in an use of English remains so important in higher education, business, and alien tongue than in their native tongue. In their reconstitution of reality international diplomacy. The transplantation has now reached full circle, not through cultural expression, they do so better in English than in Filipino - in linguistic extinction, not in deterioration or return to a foreign language, but for all that, they know they are Filipino and will never be American. But but as a second language with specific domains and standards. part of their new reality as Filipinos is that they are not willing to give up the by-now century-old heritage of English. They will have to work out the contradictions themselves. These have been References mirrored in the second-generation Filipinos who were born and grew up in the United States and are now writing of their experiences in America, not as Alberca, Wilfredo L. (1978) The distinctive features of Philippine English in the mass immigrants but as descendants of immigrants, writers such as Ninotchka Rosca media. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Manila: University of Santo Tomas. and Jessica Hagedorn, or their brothers and sisters who never left the Alberca, Wilfredo L. (1994) English language teaching in the Philippines during the Philippines and are writing of their own experiences of a seemingly tainted early American period: Lessons from the Thomasites. Philippine journal of Linguistics, 25(1 and 2), 53-74. past and now a continuing situation that refuses to right itself- the new voices Alberca, Wilfredo L. (1996) The Thomasites revisited: A few instructive notes on English of Paulino Lim's rebels, F. SionilJose's affluent but decadent countrymen, language teaching in the Philippines during the early American period. In Alay Cirilo F. Bautista's expressionistic world of past and present, and the early Nick sa Wika: Essays in Honor of Fe T. Otanes on her 67th Birthday. Edited by Emma Joaquin's archetypal symbolism of a living pagan past with a veneer of the West S. Castillo. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines, pp. 153-74. and of Western Christianity. Bautista, Ma. Lourdes S. (2000) Defining Standard Philippine English: Its Status and From a wider perspective and with the hindsight of a century of Grammatical Features. Manila: DLSU Press. experience in learning and using the English language on soil outside the Calucag, Emesto B. (2004) The economics of remittances. Business World. December United States, some insights may be evident. And one insight here is that what 9. 26-27. makes Philippine English different from other Asian Englishes is that it is a Churchill, Bemardita (2003) Education in the Philippines at the tum of the 20th century: Background for American policy. In Back to the Future: Perspective on the transplant from American English, itself a transplant, and from this point of Thomasite Legacy to Philippine Education. Edited by Corazon D. Villareal. Manila: view, shares common historical lines of developments with other transplants American Studies Association of the Philippines, pp. 21-52. not from the United States but from the British Isles in developing countries Cruz, Isagani (2000) The Best Philippine Short Stories of the Twentieth Century: An Anthology in Africa and Asia. ofFiction in English. Makati: Tahanan Books. One conclusion investigators can immediately draw from the Philippine Cruz, Isagani and Bautista, Ma. Lourdes S. (comps.) (1995) A Dictionary of Philippine English experience is that 'whatever is received is received in the manner of English. Pasig City, Philippines: Anvil Publishing, Inc. the receiver', to use an old Scholastic principle. V\That becomes of the Dayag, Danilo T. (2004) The English-language media in the Philippines. Special issue transplant is very much a function not only of geography but of the society on 'Philippine English: Tensions and transitions'. Edited by Ma. Lourdes S. Bautista and Kingsley Bolton. World Englishes, 23 (1), 33-45. which receives the transplant, which includes the types of languages already Delbridge, Arthur et al. (eds.) (1981) The Macquarie Dictionary. Australia, NSW: in use in the receiving country, the role if any of linguae Jrancae, the role if McMahons Point. any of a national language (there was none in the Philippines), the means by Department of Education (2002) Policy Framework. http:/ /www.deped.gov.ph. which the new transplant is propagated, and the social and economic Gonzalez, Andrew, FSC (1980) Language and Nationalism: The Philippine Experience Thus dominance of the language. It seems that the least important factor, most Far. Quezon City, Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press. humbling for the English teacher, is the method and the procedures by which Gonzalez, Andrew, FSC (1984) Philippine English across generations: The sound the language is taught. More important for explaining the continuing spread system. DLSU Dialogue, 20(1), 1-26. of English are the economic advantages of the new language and its promise