1. The ‘Variousness’ Perspective:
Are teachers ready?
Isabel Pefianco Martin
Department of English
Ateneo de Manila University
mmartin@ateneo.edu

2. • English language proficiency and the
„teacher factor‟
• Beliefs and attitudes about the English
language
• The „variousness‟ perspective (Kachru
1995)

3. 92% of elementary school children are
enrolled in the public schools
(as of 2009-10)
private school enrolment
(1.1 million)
public school enrolment
(12.8 million)

4. 80% of secondary school children are
enrolled in the public schools
(as of 2009-10)
private school enrolment
(1.3 million)
public school enrolment
(5.4 million)

5. Proportion of public to private
elementary school teachers
(as of 2009-10)
13%
87%

6. Proportion of public to private
secondary school teachers
(as of 2009-10)
28%
72%

7. NAT Elementary School Results
School Year English MPS
2003-04 49.92
2004-05 59.15
2005-06 54.05
2006-07 60.78
2007-08 61.62
2008-09 61.81
2009-10 67.81

8. NAT Secondary School Results
School Year English (MPS)
2003-04 50.08
2004-05 51.30
2005-06 47.73
2006-07 51.78
2007-08 53.46
2008-09 52.90
2009-10 46.95

9. • deteriorating mastery of English
• the „teacher factor‟
• teacher competence?
• beliefs and attitudes about the
English language?
• the study: 185 public school teachers
throughout the country

10. English you teach?
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
American British Philippine just
English English English English

11. Why Philippine English (PE)?
• All my pupils are Filipinos
• Because my pupils are Filipinos
• All pupils are Filipinos
• Because we are Filipinos
• As a Filipino, it is essential
• To introduce stories based on the Philippine
setting
PE as rooted in Filipino culture and identity

12. Why Philippine English?
• Whatever is in the Philippine Curriculum and based
on the Basic Education Curriculum, I just follow the
competencies to be taught
• Based on the textbook provided by the DepEd
• Objectives are specified in the RBEC
• I teach Philippine English provided it is found in the
scope and sequence of the subjects I handle
• The books are from Philippine authors

13. Why Philippine English?
• Because we're using books mostly by Filipino
authors
• We use textbooks by Filipino authors
• The textbooks and other references used are
Philippine made
• Philippine English is suited to our educational
setting
PE as prescribed by official policy and practice

14. Why Philippine English?
• Philippine English is free from slang and words
are pronounced more clearly
• My students can only understand Philippine
English
• They sound clear to Filipino students
• English (that is) most commonly used in the
Philippines
• It can be easily understood

15. Why Philippine English?
• The usual way Filipino students understand my
delivery of English
• It is commonly used as medium of instruction.
Students are used to it, and it could be easily
understood by the pupils. It is not slang.
• Philippine English is easy to understand and I
will start from where I am
• It‟s the first English learned
• It is easily understood by the pupils

16. Why Philippine English?
• I am used to Philippine English rather
than any other English
• Philippine English because that is easy
to teach to my pupils
PE as familiar and accessible

17. Why Philippine English?
• Because it is what the pupils can relate
to and understand (Taglish)
• English with matching Filipino or
Taglish and sometimes English,
Filipino and vernacular
• Teaching them with the vernacular
language
PE as Taglish (Tagalog-English)

18. Why Philippine English?
• I teach them Philippine English, but I try to
introduce to them American English, the
grammar and accent.
• I‟m correcting student pronunciation and
informing them about errors in Filipinism.
• As a Filipino teacher, of course my English is
Philippine English, but as an English teacher, I
am trying to use and introduce American and
British English to my students so that they will be
aware of English often used in our country.

19. Why Philippine English?
• I don't only teach Philippine English but
also American as well as British
English.
PE as inferior to inner circle (native
speaker) varieties

20. Target language?
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
American British Philippine just
English English English English

21. Why American English (AE)?
• They [Filipino students] have to learn first
the basics.
• Knowing American English can avoid
arguments and debates about the correct
spelling and pronunciation.
• The pronunciation of some words is
conventional.
• An approximately correct English—
understandable and acceptable
internationally

22. Why American English (AE)?
• Since it is the most accepted English.
• It‟s the ideal, the standard in terms of
language usage.
• So that pupils will become more
eloquent, smart in talking, and can
communicate the language not only in
speaking but in writing as well.
AE as the only acceptable standard
of correctness

23. Why American English?
• You could use American movies as
patterns for [teaching] speaking skills.
• It‟s widely used in communicative
learning.
• American English is applicable
nationwide.
• It is a global language.
• American English is the universal
language.

24. Why American English?
• American English is the standard
international language.
• American English is universally
accepted.
AE as widely used in various domains

25. Why American English?
• Because the expressions used are
familiar to us having being under the
American regime/way of education.
• Because the Americans were the first
to teach English to the Filipinos.
AE as part of Philippine history

26. Why American English?
• [It is] easier for us to speak and apply
[for a job abroad].
• It‟s clearer, more widely used and a lot
of Filipinos go to the USA to work.
• This is preferred by companies with
networks abroad.
• For wherever [my students] may go,
they will be able to survive.

27. Why American English?
• So we can cope up [in communicating]
with other countries.
• To make the children more globally
competitive.
AE as providing access to economic
opportunities

28. Why Philippine English (PE)?
• My pupils are all Filipinos
• We are Filipinos
• Because my pupils are Filipinos
• Because I'm dealing with Filipino pupils
PE as rooted in Filipino culture and
identity

29. Why Philippine English?
• Because textbooks use the Philippine
English language
• Textbooks use the Philippine English
language as a medium of instruction
• Textbooks and manuals use the
Philippine English language
PE as prescribed by official policy
and practice

30. Why Philippine English?
• It is because, Filipino pupils could easily
understand the way we use the English
language here in the Philippines.
• Students should learn English commonly used
in the Philippines
• Philippine English is their second language.
• Philippine English, because the words used
are American and some are British, but
sometimes our pronunciation and diction are
Filipino.

31. Why Philippine English?
• Pupils easily relate to it
• To speak in a conversational way, not
so slang
PE as familiar and accessible.

32. Beliefs do not match realities
Beliefs
• PE is the English spoken in the Philippines
• PE is more familiar, less formal, more
conversational and more accessible
• PE is prescribed by the DepEd
Realities
• PE is a variety with its own features
• PE is used widely, but by the educated class
• PE is not identified in any official document

33. American English as superior
• the only acceptable standard of
correctness
• provides access to jobs
Model Dependency Myth (Kachru, 1995)
• exocentric models of inner circle
varieties are standard models that must
be promoted

34. English changing
Bautista‟s (2000) grammatical features of PE:
1. Liquidity problems of rural banks on a massive scale
is [are] being experienced for the first time.
2. * [A] Majority of the public school teachers do not
want to serve as poll officials in the May elections.
3. This results to [in] a better quality of life.
4. But it was only in 1510 that a more authentic
epidemic has been [was] described.

35. English changing
Bolton and Butler‟s (2008) “localized
vocabularies of English usage” in Philippine
dailies:
…Politicians are found guilty of economic
plunder („large-scale embezzlement of
public funds‟) or challenged by the press in
ambush interviews („surprise interviews‟);
corrupt cops are accused of coddling
criminals („treating leniently‟), or mulcting
(„extorting money from‟) motorists. ..

36. English changing
Bolton and Butler‟s (2008) “localized
vocabularies of English usage” in
Philippine dailies:
…Hapless citizens borrow money from five-
six money lenders („borrowing at high rates
of interest,‟ i.e. borrowing five thousand
and returning six…). Meanwhile, motorists
stuck in traffic get high blood („enraged‟) in
frustration, and the affairs of various
topnotchers („high achievers‟) fill the gossip
columns.

37. English changing
From the Anvil-Macquarie Dictionary of PE for HS (2000):
• academician noun Philippine English a teacher in a
college, university, or institution of higher education. 
NOTE This word is from the French acadèmicien.
• bedspacer noun Philippine English someone who stays
in a dormitory or shared room of a board house but
does not take meals there.
• dirty kitchen noun Philippine English a kitchen for
everyday use or use by maids, as opposed to a kitchen
used for show or by the owner of the house.

38. • Lack of awareness about the existence of a PE
variety
• Canagarajah (2006): “... multilingual users of the
language will be about 30 million more than the
„native‟ speakers by 2050.”
• “This changing demography of English has
profound implications for language norms. At its
most shocking, this gives the audacity for
multilingual speakers of English to challenge the
traditional language norms and standards of the
„native speaker‟ communities.”

39. Not WE WE
Developing mastery of a Striving for competence in
single “target language” a repertoire of codes and
discourses
Joining a speech Shuttling between
community communities in
contextually relevant ways
Canagarajah (2006)

40. Not WE WE
Focusing on Approaching “error” as the
correctness learner‟s active negotiation and
exploration of choices and
possibilities
Teaching Teaching communicative
grammatical rules in strategies (creative ways to
a normative and negotiate norms in diverse
abstract way contexts)
Canagarajah (2006)

41. Conclusion
• Certain beliefs about the English language may
hamper the successful teaching and learning of
the language.
• The surfacing of teachers‟ beliefs and attitudes
about English presents an opportunity to develop
a more realistic perspective for ELT in the
Philippines—the „variousness‟ perspective, which
may offer an alternative, real-life response to the
challenges of teaching a changing language.

42. References
1. Anvil-Macquarie Dictionary of Philippine English for High Schools. (2000) Pasig
City: Anvil Publishing Inc.
2. Bautista, Maria Lourdes. (2000) The grammatical features of educated
Philippine English. In Parangal Cang Brother Andrew: Festschrift for Andrew
Gonzalez on his sixtieth birthday. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines,
pp. 146-158.
3. Bolton, Kingsley and Butler, Susan. (2004) Dictionaries and the stratification of
vocabulary: towards a new lexicography for Philippine English. World
Englishes, 23 (1), pp. 91-112.
4. Canagarajah, A. Suresh (2006) The Place of World Englishes in Composition:
Pluralization Continued. The CCC Online 57 (4), 588-619.
5. Kachru, Braj B. (1995) Teaching world Englishes without myths. In by S. K. Gill
et al. (eds.), INTELEC „94: International English Language Education
Conference, National and International Challenges and Responses. Bangi,
Malaysia: Pusat Bahasa Universiti Kebangsaan.
6. Kachru, Braj B. (1997) World Englishes and English-using communities. Annual
Review of Applied Linguistics 17. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.
66-87.
7. Kachru, Braj B. (2006) World Englishes and culture wars. In The handbook of
World Englishes. Edited by Braj B. Kachru, Yamuna Kachru, and Cecil L.
Nelson. UK: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 446-471.

43. The ‘Variousness’ Perspective:
Are teachers ready?
Isabel Pefianco Martin
Department of English
Ateneo de Manila University
mmartin@ateneo.edu