PINOY ENGLISH AND INTERNATIONALISM: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Pinoy English and Internationalism talks about the contributions of English Language in our literature, culture, economy and society. It was also discussed in this chapter, what kind of English we are using and how we are able to accept it as one of our spoken languages.

In his paper entitled “Continuing Resitance: Criticisms of the Philippine National Language Policy”, Rufus Rey C. Montecalvo, a student of UP Diliman mentioned that there are two sides where the most well-formed arguments against the national language come from. The first is the non-essentialist/utilitarian side which says that the correspondence between language and national identity is an exaggeration and the second is from the regionalistic perspective, a much-maligned point of view among nationalist narratives.

More than forty years ago in his book 'The Language Problems of the Philippines', Isidoro Panlasigui, an educator at the University of the Philippines, stands on his argument about the use of the English Language to accomplished internationalism much easier. Panlasigui says that English is the best medium by which to foster unity and cohesion, being the language of international business and industry. In line with these facts, is the last sentence of the essay that the English Language also offers us the possibility of a global solidarity of justice.

However, in a transcript of the segment "Analysis by Winnie Monsod" which aired on News on Q on Jan. 26, 2009. Before she discussed about the Gullas bill or the proposed act strengthening the use of English as a medium of instruction from Grade 3 onwards, she mentioned the current state of education in the Philippines. 
How net enrolment ratios steadily decreasing, quality of education is abysmal and college graduates having inefficient English competence.

Because of these situations, we realized more that we really need English to be competitive in a globalized world but educators or those who have done education research will disagree that using English as the medium of instruction will accomplish that goal. It has been proven through many studies here and abroad that not using the mother tongue in teaching is a major barrier in the child’s learning. English may be very helpful to achieve a global solidarity but we still need to consider a lot of things like the learners’ needs and capacities.

Another article written by Isabel Pefianco Martin of Philippine Daily Inquirer, entitled “Fearing English in the Philippines” contribute important insights.  She shared her observation that the language most feared here in the country is English. It usually occurs in schools that enforced English-only zones. I agree to her that one important reality that many overlook is that students will not learn a language if they fear it.

It is a common joke to hear that our noses bleed after speaking in English for a longer time than the usual. Fear of English can be seen everywhere and it is a very important matter to handle carefully especially for students who fear in mispronouncing words, scared they may called stupid.

There are many research studies which proved that learning a language becomes more effective when emotional barriers are eliminated. Linguist and educational researcher Stephen Krashen refers to these emotional barriers as affective filters. According to Ms. Martin, the formula for success in learning a language is painfully simple: the lower the feelings of fear (low affective filter), the higher the chances of learning.

 All languages are equally perfect and complete. This means that there really is no reason to fear English. It is our attitude that elevates the language to a prestige form. It is this same attitude that makes it difficult or enjoyable to learn it.

In the end, learning English doesn’t define our whole personality. It can help us in our career but our attitude will bring us faster to success. Just like how Manny Pacquiao doesn’t fear English in spite of his accent and still succeed in life and in learning the language. In the end we can also say that as a famous Filipino boxer, in a way, Pacquiao became a representation on how an ordinary Filipino speaks in English.