Exploring the Intelligibility of Philippine English

Abstract

A review of the literature suggests that there have been very few studies on the intelligibility of Philippine English. The dearth of research in this area poses potential problems in defining standard spoken Philippine English and in providing inputs to initiatives aimed at establishing the international intelligibility of world Englishes, which, in turn, will help in bringing about effective cross-cultural communication. This study attempted to explore the intelligibility of Philippine English, in the hope of contributing to ongoing discourses on the intelligibility of world Englishes. To do this, speech samples of exemplars of Philippine English were audio-taped and then listened to by representatives of the Kachruvian circles, who wrote down what they heard. The paper presents the findings and discusses their implications for English language teaching.