Ending the English Superiority in Filipino Homes

ARTICLE: RIZZA MAE ESCIO | JANUARY 24, 2024

English is considered the second language of the Philippines. It was enforced upon us by Americans through their mass education program. The language created a social hierarchy gap due to the opportunities it brings.

This led to Filipinos creating a stereotype indicating that “English is a superior language.” Due to this, parents, nowadays, teach English as their child’s first language. Yet, it is also important to note that their child needs to have a sense of identity by learning Filipino as their first language.

“Ang tingin ng marami sa wikang Ingles, mas superior kaysa sa Wikang Filipino,” said Dr. Rakki Sison-Buban, a faculty at the Filipino Language Department of De La Salle University (DLSU).

But there is no such thing as a superior language and Filipinos just viewed English as prestige. Filipinos viewed it as prestigious, as the language drives the stratification in society.

It must be recognized that those who are fluent in English are those who are privileged to have access to the language. Bernardo, a sociolinguist and professor at DLSU, pointed out that “those who benefit most from education in the English language are those with good levels of proficiency in English to start with, and/or those who grew up in environments that abound with English language inputs, materials, and resources.”

Similarly, English linguistics professor Kingsley Bolton stated that English has a socially privileged status as it enables Filipinos to participate in an increasingly competitive global market. Proficiency in English is often a requirement in job positions.

The United States has successfully created a system that allows them to find employees in the country, and these opportunities are the reasons why Filipinos want to be proficient in English. Teacher Kat, a freelance Filipino teacher, shared sentiments that our system is designed for one’s education which leads to working abroad, thus one needs to be excellent in English.

University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman student Francine Yvonne Dela Cruz also experienced that, outside the university, those who do not conform to the ‘standard’ English are often laughed at and derogatively described as ‘barok’ or ‘English Carabao.’

Even if English is widely used in the country, this does not stop the Philippines from being ranked 77th out of 81 participating nations in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which means that there is a significant learning crisis.

This crisis proves that improving the English skills of children is not enough to ensure a better future for them. Parents must realize that one’s success does not only depend on how fluent their child is in English.

Reinforcing Filipino as an institutional language could help students better understand theories and concepts. The Department of Education (DepEd) started the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) in 2016 as part of the K-12 curriculum. In a multilingual country, the MTB-MLE enables those from minority ethnolinguistic communities to use their language.

Learners also understand concepts best in their mother tongue. The Filipino language must be accepted as an academic medium that could have the same function as English.

Parents and educators also need to recognize that their children must learn Filipino for them to have a sense of identity. They need the language to build a better relationship with anyone as there are still a much larger number of people who use Filipino as their native language. Using it in interacting will help them have better social skills.

We should not let the next generation continue to have the mindset about the English language. They must be completely free from it and have a good sense of identity by learning their language. Parents and every Filipino must realize that the English language is from the Americans and was used for their propaganda to colonize our country. We still suffer from the US imperialist influences, ideologies, and language. To be finally free from their holds, we must build our identity by using our knowledge and empowering it by teaching the child proficiency in our mother tongue as early as now.