Philippine English Proficiency of the K12 students: Basis for the improvement of the English Curriculum

Philippine English Proficiency of the K12 students: Basis for the improvement of the English Curriculum Lemuel R. Fontillas, PhD Sherrilyn B. Quintos, EdD Cynthia M. Ronquillo, MAEd. Bataan Peninsula Bataan Peninsula Bataan Peninsula State University State University State University lhemf@yahoo.com sbquintos@bpsu.edu.ph cmronquillo@bpsu.edu.ph Abstract This study attempted to assess the Philippine English proficiency of the students who took the K to12 curriculum. The study dealt with the speaking and comprehension skills of the students. The main aim of the study is to show the need to have proficiency in using the Philippine variety of English. The re- searchers interviewed students who were 18 to 19 years of age, male or female, and were enrolled for the first time in any of the pro- grams offered by BPSU on the Main Cam- pus. The recorded material exhibited each respondent's English comprehension and speaking skills; anonymity and privacy were observed. Recorded conversations were lexi- cally transcribed hence forming a 336,828- word corpus. The analysis was done using 1) relevance of the answer, 2) eloquence, 3) grammatical content and 4) time of response. The study found that students can speak the language but use the Philippine English vari- ety (Bautista, 2000a). Hence, we recommend that ELT teachers should have the acceptance of Philippine English. This can be done by having different awareness campaigns for the academic community. A curriculum modifi- cation for both the tertiary level and DepEd can be done to realign the use of Philippine English. 1 Introduction In 2018, a new curriculum for the tertiary level was released by the Commission on Higher Edu- cation (CHED). The said curriculum was said to be more focused on the major subjects of the pro- gram. Many minor subjects such as Maths, Sci- ences, and languages were removed from the old curriculum and transferred to the Senior High School level. Language courses, particularly Eng- lish, are not exempted from this. Specific courses such as Speech and Oral Communication, Writ- ing in the Discipline, Study and Thinking Skills, Oral Diagnostic English and Communication Arts 1 & 2 were removed from the tertiary level. They were transferred to the new basic education pro- gram. These courses are avenues where our own variety of English can be introduced to students. As these courses were transferred to basic educa- tion, it is now the responsibility of the teachers to establish learning in the Philippine variety of English. This is despite the Philippine English (PE) paradigm still facing opposition from tradi- tional teachers, or some teachers haven't entirely accepted the idea of having a Philippine variety of English at all Some teachers have the idea of having PE but are not confident enough to teach them to students. As the issue of having this vari- ety is being taught in schools, it is evident that it already exists among Filipinos (Gonzalez, 1997). Teachers may have been teaching it unknowingly but lacking knowledge that they are dealing with PE already. This study attempted to assess the Philippine English proficiency of …

Content truncated to 500 words