Language policy

Each of the nations' governments has its own set of rules and regulations pertaining to their country's use of certain language(s), often times favoring one language over another. Having a languag policy promotes a national language or official language/s. A national language is a "language in widespread and current use throughout a specific country or in parts of its territory, and often representative of the identity of its speakers. It may or may not have the status of an official language."^[1] Official language is "a language that has legal status in a particular legally constituted political entity such as a State or part of a State, and that serves as a language of administration."^[2] A nation's language policy also protects regional and ethnic languages from extinction by giving it prominent status in their respective regions and ethnicities.

Barnard Spolsky, a leading Language professor and researcher, considers language policy as having three components: language management, language practices, and language beliefs or ideologies^[3]. Language management refers to the planning of how the selected language policy can be enacted and practiced. Language practices refer to the selection of the language to be used on the policy, and language beliefs or ideologies refer to the reasons why such language was chosen.

Spolsky's three components of language policy are seen in the Philippines' language policy.

Language Policy in the Philippines

Overview: There are about 55 countries whose official language is English or has English as one of its official languages, and this includes the Philippines.^[4] The Republic of the Philippines is located in the Southeast Asia. It is comprised of 7,107 islands and has three main divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. According to Ethnologue, there are 175 individual languages in the country, 4 of which have no known speakers. ^[5]

Language Management: The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines (the present constitution), Article XIV defined the nation's national language and official languages:^[6]

Article 6: The national language of the Philippines is Filipino. As it evolves, it shall be further developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages. Subject to provisions of law and as the Congress may deem appropriate, the Government shall take steps to initiate and sustain the use of Filipino as a medium of official communication and as language of instruction in the educational system.

Article 7: For purposes of communication and instruction, the official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and, until otherwise provided by law, English. The regional languages are the auxiliary official languages in the regions and shall serve as auxiliary media of instruction therein.

The use of Filipino and English as mediums of instructions in schools are regulated by the Department of Education, Culture, and Sports (DECS) since 1974 on their Department Order No. 25, s 1974 "Implementing Guidelines for the Policy on Bilingual Education." The English language is used for the classes on English, Science, Mathematics, and other technology subjects, while Filipino is used for the rest of the subject areas. Regional languages can be used as initial literacy languages, especially for Grades 1 and 2.^[7] This is to ensure that the children understand the concept of language learning.

Language Practices and Beliefs or Ideologies:The aim of the language policy is to instill national pride, identity, and unity among the Filipinos by the use of one national language (Filipino), and to enhance learning and develop international relations through another language (English).

Currently, most business transactions are dealt with in English (for major corporations) and Filipino (mostly for local businesses). International travelers should not have any problem conducting any transactions in the nation as long as they can communicate in English with the locals. The media is also dominated by these two languages, ranging from newspapers, TV shows, and radio broadcasts, to literature.

References

1. ↑ Glossary of Terms for the Standardization of Geographical Names, United Nations Group of Experts on Geographic Names, United Nations, New York, 2002.
2. ↑ Glossary of Terms for the Standardization of Geographical Names, United Nations Group of Experts on Geographic Names, United Nations, New York, 2002.
3. ↑ Spolsky, B. (2004). Language Policy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
4. ↑ The World FactBook. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2098.html
5. ↑ Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International.
6. ↑ 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines.Retrieved from http://www.chanrobles.com/philsupremelaw2.html
7. ↑ Espiritu, C. (2007, June 6). Language policies in the philippines. Retrieved from http://zzanggurl.blogspot.com/2007/06/language-policies-in-philippines.html