Philippine English Research Articles

EXPLORING PHILIPPINE ENGLISH IN STUDENT PUBLICATIONS: PERSPECTIVES OF ENGLISH TEACHERS ON LANGUAGE USAGE AND ACCEPTANCE

The study used a quantitative descriptive research method to investigate the use of lexical features of PE in news articles of student publication. A content analysis of 31 news articles identified 38 instances of Philippine English, categorized into coinages (24), preservation of items infrequent or lost in other varieties (5), normal expansions (5), and borrowings (4). Questionnaires were administered to 21 English teachers to assess the acceptability of these terms. The majority of the Philippine English lexical features found in the student publication were widely accepted by the English teachers. The results showed that terms such as “Fab Lab” and “U-Days” were widely accepted (100%), while others such as “blastful” and “sophomostrial” met with high rejection rates (90.5% and 100%, respectively). The study recommends inclusive language teaching practices that reflect the linguistic diversity of the Philippines. This study not only contributes to the understanding of PE but also provides practical implications for language teaching and curriculum development.

Inspired by Asian migrants: An adult English learner's imagined communities and study abroad trajectory

In today's globalized world, language learners gain inspiration for who they want to be and the community to which they want to belong through unconventional ways. This study investigates the unconventional language aspirations of a male Japanese adult sojourner who studied English in the Philippines and Canada and projected his imagined self as aligning with the Asian migrants he met in Japan. Data were collected through an open-ended questionnaire, two semi-structured interviews, and follow-up emails. In employing a critical event narrative inquiry approach, the study findings focus on two critical events that largely shaped this individual's imagined community and the desires shaping his English learning—the socialization with the migrants in Japan and his instructors in the Philippines. This study illuminates a nascent language desire that emerged in an internationalizing society and urges further exploration of unconventional aspirations that are situated beyond the dominant ideologies and transcend existing dichotomous boundaries.

Philippine English and commodity formation

AbstractThis article aims to expand the scope of Philippine English studies by investigating the viability of Philippine English as a resource for the contestation of the global–local interface, a perspective that remains understudied in Philippine English studies. We do this by analysing the language of t‐shirts that creatively reappropriate global brands into the local domain, demonstrating the dynamics of t‐shirt production and consumption in the Philippines. Our analysis shows that the use of Philippine English in these products can be viewed as a commodified resource for the expression of local sensibilities amidst the dominance of global consumerism. However, while this reappropriation can be viewed as a form of local expression, it is not devoid of ideological complexities. Although the linguistic market of pop culture provides people with opportunities to contest the global–local dichotomy, it may still tacitly reflect or reinforce structures of linguistic inequality.

Philippine Englishes in the Sino‐Philippine Lannang context: Towards a concentric‐pluricentric interactional‐interplanar model of English

AbstractThis article explores the relationship between Philippine English and the Lannangs, individuals with Filipino and Southern Chinese cultural heritage. It highlights the multifaceted nature of this English variety by discussing how it interacts with non‐English languages in contemporary Lannang communities located in Manila, Iloilo and Cebu. Using corpus data from 10 Lannang linguistic varieties used in these areas, I found that Philippine English has assumed three primary linguistic roles (that of a lexifier, a substrate and a lexical contributor)—dynamic roles that are conditioned by the (sociohistorical) context, domain of use and conventions of the specific community. In conjunction with existent accounts of non‐Lannang Philippine English(es), my findings justify complexity‐based representations or models of Philippine English that has multiple levels (degrees of English influence) and centres (ethno‐regional context) that interact with each other across different planes (e.g. social), such as the concentric‐pluricentric interactional‐interplanar (CPII) model proposed in this paper. They problematize and challenge the notion of a monolithic Manila‐based ‘Philippine English.’ The proposed model presents a framework/blueprint for analyzing English in multilingual settings.

The Holistic Advantage: Unified Quantitative Modeling for Less-Biased, In-Depth Insights into (Socio)Linguistic Variation

What happens when recognized and diverse conditioning factors of linguistic variation are omitted from analysis and/or are not analyzed under a single analytical procedure? This paper explores the consequences of such a choice on data interpretation and, consequently, (socio)linguistic theorization. Utilizing Twitter-style English in the Philippines (EngPH) as a case study, I employ the Twitter Corpus of Philippine Englishes (TCOPE) primarily to investigate and elucidate variations in three morphosyntactic variables that have been previously examined using a piecemeal approach. I propose a holistic quantitative approach that incorporates documented linguistic, social, diachronic, and stylistic factors in a unified analysis. The paper illustrates the impacts of adopting this holistic approach through two statistical procedures: Bayesian regression modeling and Boruta feature selection with random forest modeling. In contrast to earlier research findings, my overall results reveal biases in non-unified quantitative analyses, where the confidence in the effects of certain factors diminishes in light of others during analysis. The adoption of a unified analysis or modeling also enhances the resolution at which variations have been examined in EngPH. For instance, it highlights that presumed ‘universals’, such as the hierarchy of linguistic > stylistic > diachronic > social factors in explaining variation in some domains, is contingent on the specific variable under examination. Overall, I argue that unified analyses reduce data distortion and introduce more nuanced interpretations and insights that are critical for establishing a well-grounded empirical theory of EngPH variation and language variation as a whole.

Writing Culture through Metatext: A Contrastive Analysis of Philippine English and Chinese English in ESL/EFL Research Articles

Writing Culture through Metatext: A Contrastive Analysis of Philippine English and Chinese English in ESL/EFL Research Articles

Endonormative stabilization in Philippine English lexis

AbstractIn the past 10 years, we have seen an enormous increase in the interest in Philippine English (PhilE) vocabulary. This is especially documented by the new entries of distinctive PhilE words in the Oxford English dictionary. Thanks to the rise of electronic mega‐corpora, such as GloWbE and the NOW Corpus, it has become possible to discover even more lexical innovations in PhilE. In this article, I compare nominal and adjectival suffixes across the following varieties of English: India, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Great Britain. The comparisons were carried out on a quantitative and qualitative level, based on the findings in GloWbE, NOW and ICE. Apart from suffixes, the article also discusses less frequent and productive types of word‐formation, such as synthetic compounds and splinters (budgetarian).

Linguistic variation, Philippine English and mental health issues

AbstractThis article is a study of how Filipinos talk about their depression and recovery in Philippine English, as compared to how users from other Englishes talk about their experiences with the same illness. As such, this is an attempt at examining what contextual factors give rise to variations in Englishes. World Englishes research has posited that different geographical and cultural contexts engender ‘new’ Englishes; hence, different Englishes are named via country or culture and are considered to be distinct from each other. This article is concerned with the issue of how contexts of use, such as depression, can lead to systemic changes in the English that different individuals use. This study extends research on how particular discursive features may characterize one variety of English as compared to another by examing how ideational and interpersonal meanings relate to construe a ‘world’ of depression in Philippine English and Inner Circle Englishes.

Understanding inequalities of Philippine English in job interviews

AbstractThe job interview is an illustrative encounter where inequalities in relation to Philippine English can be apprehended. Drawing on the reported experiences of ten job gatekeepers from various institutions, this study examines the complex ways job candidates are accepted and rejected on the basis of their spoken languages. The findings are as follows: First, there are normative varieties privileged by gatekeepers in the job interview. Access to these languages is shaped by social class and ethnolinguistic membership. Consequently, candidates were rejected because they could not speak languages that gatekeepers regarded as legitimate. It is also found that interview decisions were influenced by local and global markets, which are themselves outcomes of globalization and capitalism. Based on these findings, two suggestions are made to further understand the ways Philippine English (re)produces inequalities. The first is a rethinking of its emancipatory effects and the second concerns the politics of recognition in Philippine English studies.

Research bibliography for Philippine English (2008–2023)

AbstractThe research bibliography presented here is intended to complement the earlier research bibliographies from Bautista on Philippine English (Bautista, 2004; Bautista & Bolton, 2008a). It includes 11 sections dealing with book‐length studies of Philippine English, as well as book chapters and journal articles on such topics as code‐switching, code‐mixing and linguistic hybridization; critical linguistics; discourse analysis; language attitudes and intelligibility; sociolinguistic description; language policies; multilingualism and multilingual education; Philippine literature in English; Philippine English features; and summative perspectives. While the bibliography is essentially contemporary in orientation, this article also emphasizes the foundational contributions of earlier scholars in the field.

Philippine English in the political speeches of President Rodrigo Duterte

AbstractThe rise of Rodrigo Duterte to power after the 2016 national elections in the Philippines quickly and drastically altered the country's political landscape. This is observed in the language choices of Duterte, in political speeches delivered during his administration. However, these ‘dutertisms’ have already been observed even before the national elections. This paper considers the years before Duterte became President and analyses his language practices in some of his campaign speeches. Using Davis's Lapu‐Lapu Factor as a lens, I attempt to trace how Duterte has successfully weaponised his brand of English, heavily textured by his heritage language Davao Bisaya, to win votes in the national elections.

Teaching Philippine English through schoolscapes

AbstractSchools in general and their so‐called linguistic schoolscape in particular have become an interesting object and subject of (socio)linguistic investigation over the past few years. This article, therefore, explores how schoolscapes may be turned into a potential pedagogical arsenal for teaching and learning a local variety of English – Philippine English – and an avenue for a conceptualisation that English is indeed a plural language. One may note that in spite of the fact that schoolscapes are (socio)linguistically intricate and a learning space itself, the literature about linguistic schoolscapes as an instructional apparatus for teaching English and its varieties remains scant, and thus this article hopes to be a touchstone for an ongoing conversation about the pedagogical promise of schoolscapes more specifically in English language teaching in the Philippine setting. Put more succinctly, this article hopes to further explore the fertile intersection between schoolscape and slanted towards Philippine English pedagogy.

Researching Philippine Englishes

AbstractThis article achieves two ends. First, it surveys recent research on the English language in the Philippines, and, second, introduces the research articles from the contributors to the special issue on Philippine Englishes. The special issue is divided into five sections, namely, linguistic description, sociolinguistics, educational linguistics, critical linguistics and bilingual creativity. The diversity of these topics thus provides a direct illustration of the vibrant nature of research on Philippine English.

Philippine English variation in police blotters

AbstractPhilippine English variation in lexicon is visible in the language of police blotters. In the process of police blotter writing, only the English written document is used as the basis of investigation, as an attachment to court documents and as a news source. To determine the Philippine English variation in the lexicon in the English transcriptions of Cebuano oral complaints, Y. Kachru and Nelson's perspective on creativity and innovation is used to analyse the police blotters. The Philippine English variation that appears in such blotters shows how Philippine English is not a monolithic construct, but is affected by the sociolinguistic realities of the Philippines.

Prejudice towards regional accents of Philippine English

Abstract This study examines linguistic prejudice towards the accents of three regional varieties of Philippine English: Cebuano English, Ilocano English, and Tagalog English. Data were collected using a verbal-guise technique taken by 982 listener-judges, who were selected using a purposive sampling technique. Results showed an overall more favorable attitude towards Tagalog English. Cebuano English and Ilocano English speakers were judged as less socially attractive and less competent compared to their Tagalog English counterparts. In the multilingual Philippines, where languages in the periphery, i.e. languages other than English and Tagalog, face negative stereotypes, the results indicate potential linguistic prejudice towards accents that individuals view as deviating from the standard, i.e. the Tagalog English accent as ‘the’ standard of Philippine English. The findings are discussed in light of the ongoing observation of the development of Philippine English in the Schneiderian model of postcolonial Englishes.

A corpus‐based analysis of adjective amplification in Hong Kong, Indian and Philippine English

AbstractThis study considers a corpus‐based approach for analysing adjective amplifier systems (very, really, so, etc.) in Hong Kong English (HKE), Indian Englsih (IndE) and Philippine English (PhiE) based on data from the International Corpus of English. The current study adds to existing research by providing insights into the understudied adjective amplifier systems of Asian Englishes. The study describes the amplifier systems in HKE, IndE and PhiE, and it ascertains if these amplifier systems are undergoing change. In the latter context, the analysis assesses if really or so is replacing very as the dominant adjective amplifier in these varieties—a trend shown to be at work in Inner Circle varieties of English. The results of Conditional Inference Trees show that the amplifier systems of HKE and IndE are very stable and amplifier choice in these varieties is determined predominately by intra‐linguistics factors (adjective type, syntactic context and semantic category). In contrast, the amplifier system of PhiE shows notable signs of ongoing change, which is driven predominately by social factors (age and gender of speakers). The results indicate that during stasis and initial stages of change, language‐internal factors determine amplifier choice, while social factors become more important once changes have reached the midrange. The paper argues that once certain variants (really and so) gain social meaning, it is this social meaning (the association with specific social groups) that drives and accelerates change as speakers want to associate with social groups that carry covert prestige.

A corpus-based study of word-formation creativity in Facebook Philippine English

<span lang="EN-US">This paper is a study of English as a second language (ESL) teachers’ and students’ newly coined Facebook (FB) lexical items and expressions. It presents sample FB Philippine English (PhilE) words found in ESL teachers’ and students’ FB posts and messages and the formation mechanisms evident in the lexical items. The lexical items are culled from the researchers-built 50,000-word corpus of FB and FB Messenger conversations posted and sent by the mentioned texts’ contributors from the last quarter of 2016 to 2022. The PhilE neologisms are identified from their surrounding English lexical items and analyzed based on a proposed framework for PhilE word-formation processes, and ESL Englishes well-motivated innovations and criteria in standardizing its usages. Data analysis reveals over a hundred PhilE lexical items that are coined through the analytical frameworks used with the present paper’s additional proposed processes for FB lexical formation, hypocoristic extension, and anagrammatic transposition or backward spelling. The lexical items, in general, are colloquial, marking the informality of the FB PhilE register, although written in English. In terms of lexicon, it is advanced that FB English in the country is a variety of Internet PhilE, which should be taught in Sociolinguistics and ESL classrooms.</span>

포스트식민 필리핀 사회의 변혁 가능성

This paper examines F. Sionil Jose’s Ermita, a seminal text of Philippine English literature since its publication in 1988, to explore the possibility of social change through Ermita’s prostitution, as well as Roland Cruz’s complicity with neocolonialism and his ensuing suicide. To that end, the paper focuses on demonstrating that Ermita’s body is not a mere national allegory for the Third World, but it serves as a scope of specific Filipino experiences which interrogate the establishment in cahoots with imperial powers, thus raising the possibility of resistance and solidarity. It also analyzes Cruz’s suicide from the perspective of not only the postcolonial nation’s failure but predatory neocolonialism as well, implying that his decision ironically serves to empower Ermita and other women to form solidarity against dictatorship and corruption for social transformation in the Philippines.

PINOYLISH: THE AWARENESS AND NOTIONS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN NORTHERN LUZON

Pinoylish (Philippine English) has made a mark in the literature, although research on the perspectives of university students on Pinoylish is still scarce. As a result, a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was undertaken to investigate the awareness and notions of 761 university students in Northern Luzon, Philippines. The results revealed that university students were not oblivious; however, they were marginally aware of the meanings, features, and uses of Pinoylish, implying that they do not possess a complete understanding of this variety of English. This study also unveiled that university students disagreed on negative notions while agreeing on positive notions of Pinoylish; this consensus can be interpreted as a positive attitude toward Pinoylish. Drawing on the findings, this study has implications for the pluricentric model of English Language Teaching (ELT) and suggests possible research trajectories.

Behaviorist Theory in Philippine English L2 Acquisition: Transition Point from L1 Contact

Skinner’s behaviorist theory delineates how a child acquires L1; notwithstanding, what sets the present study apart from Skinner’s findings can be culled-out from the research context itself. This paper validates the principles behind behaviorist theory as proposed by Skinner (1985) taking into account applied linguistics context. Careful scrutiny of data reveals that the explored theory also plays a vital role in the gradual L2 acquisition through meaningful linguistic attempts (e.g., There are persons cutting trees without replanting; His friends Marilyn and Alicia clean the classroom) and reading activities by fostering affirmative learning atmosphere to induce positive language attitude towards L2 acquisition and functionality. Negligible errors in the process of L2 acquisition are attributed to linguistic variability, interlanguage, and inflectional morphology component. This study is advantageous to EFL learners and teachers globally for it highlights some linguistic implications indispensable to interpret the learning rate, lexical range, comprehensible input (CI), and language cognition of L2 students specifically in early language education. EFL educators may be able to provide meaningful linguistic activities by considering the essential tenets of this academic piece as well as the multiculturalism factor to L2 acquisition.