Speakers' Ambivalent Attitude toward Philippine English: An Issue for Integrating the Variety into ESL Instruction

Abstract

Philippine English (PhilE) evolution and its roles have brought challenges and issues to the Philippines' English Language Teaching (ELT) classrooms. Filipino ESL teachers are confronted by issues regarding the appropriate variety to teach and whether or not the local variety should be taught or integrated into the teaching of American English (AmE) or British English (BrE) varieties. World Englishes (WE) and PhilE scholars have asserted the variety's legitimacy and intelligibility, and some have been recommending the integration of the variety into the teaching of ESL and assimilating it in English language programs of all curricular levels from elementary to college. However, studies suggest that the PhilE paradigm is not reflected in the country's English curriculum blueprint and college English textbooks. This conceptual paper presents a revisit to PhilE literature that suggests the issue of its speakers' attitude towards it. It claims that ESL teachers and students have an ambivalent attitude toward PhilE and are not yet open to celebrating its existence. It argues that these PhilE users' ambivalence and unwelcoming attitude toward their English variety possibly hinder the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Department of Education (DepEd) from integrating the variety into the English language curricula.