Lesson 4

Language policy: what is it what it can do?

I. ACTIVATE
Below are some public signs that you will see in Metro Manila.

What do these signs tell you about the language choice?

Do you think such public discourse is aligned with our language policies? Why or why
not?

In your area, how do your public signs look like? Is it aligned with our language policies
and your local beliefs? If you can take a picture and share it with the class, please do
so.

II. ANALYZE

Model of Language Policy

Language Policy

Language Language
Practices Language Beliefs Management
(Ecology) (Ideology) (Planning)
According to Spolsky (2007), language policy had three “interrelated, but
interdependent” components: language practices, language beliefs, and language
management

Language practices are the “observable behaviours and choices”—what people

actually do”. (p.3)

Language beliefs are “the values assigned to te varieties and features” (p.4)

Language management is “the explicit and observable effort by someone or some

group that has claims to have authority over the participants on the domain to modify
their practices and beliefs”

Based on there descriptions, try to classify the following statements whether they
belong to the component of Practices, Belief, or Management. Prepare to explain your
answer.

_____ 1. Roman Catholic church changed its policy of requiring Latin for mass.

_____ 2. Immigrant parents persuade their children to learn the new language.

_____ 3. Immigrant parents persuade their children to use their mother tongue at home.

_____ 4. The ongoing debate if Filipino should be the national language.

_____ 5. You use your mother tongue in your daily

III. ABSTRACT

Key Terms

As a group, identify 10 key terms (preferably new terms) that you encountered on
reading the article. Write a brief definition for each term based on how you understood
it.

Insights

Discuss and write down your groups insight about language policy after reading the
article. List at least three significant insights.
IV. APPLY

Topic 1

The Four Layers of Language Policy

1. The Policy on Bilingual Education aims at the achievement of competence in both
Filipino and English at the national level, through the teaching of both languages and
their use as media of instruction at all levels. The regional languages shall be used as
auxiliary languages in Grades I and II. The aspiration of the Filipino to enable them to
perform their functions and duties as Filipino citizens and in English in order to meet the
needs of the country in the community of nations.

The goals of the Bilingual Education Policy shall be:

1.Enhanced learning through two languages to achieve quality education as called for
by the 1987 Constitution;

2.the propagation of Filipino as a language of literacy;

3.the development of Filipino as a linguistic symbol of national unity and identity;

4.the cultivation and elaboration of Filipino as a language of scholarly discourse that is

to say, its continuing intellectualization; and

5.the maintenance of English as an international language for the Philippines and as a

nonexclusive language of science and technology.

2. Filipino and English shall be taught as language subjects in all levels to achieve the
goals of bilingual competence.

3.Since competence in the use of both Filipino and English is one of the goals of the
Bilingual Education Policy, continuing improvement in the teaching of both languages,
their use as media of instruction and the specification shall be the responsibility of the
whole educational system.

LEGISLATION AND POLITICAL PROCESSES

This refers to what a government does either officially through legislation, court
decisions or policy to determine how languages are used, cultivate language skills
needed to meet national priorities or to establish the rights of individuals or groups to
use and maintain languages. The implementation of language policy varies from one
State to another. This may be explained by the fact that language policy is often based
on contingent historical reasons. Likewise, States also differ as to the degree of
explicitness with which they implement a given language policy.

Language Policies in the Philippines

STATES AND SUPRANATIONAL AGENCIES

WHAT DOES SUPRANATIONAL MEANS?

It is a multinational union or association in which member countries cede authority and

sovereignty on at least some internal matters to the group, whose decisions are binding
on its members. It is also refers to an international group of states that gives the union
negotiating authority to interfere in matters concerning each member state’s
sovereignty. It also holds legislative power over state affairs to avoid confrontation and
collaborate on economic and military fronts.

These are the example of Supranational Organization:

1. European Union -Each member of the European Union (EU) votes on policies
affecting the sovereignty of union members.

2. World Trade Organization -The World Trade Organization (WTO) is responsible for
formulating international trade law

3. European Stability Mechanism -Another supranational organization that operates

specifically to ensure the stability of its members is the European Stability Mechanism.

4. International Monetary Fund -The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a

multinational monetary cooperation body comprising nearly 200 countries.

INSTITUSIONS

The Philippine Bilingual Education Policy (BEP) - Consistent with the 1987 constitutional
mandate and a declared policy of the National Board of Education (NBE) on
bilingualism in the schools (NBE Resolution No. 73-7, s.1973) the Department of
Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) promulgated its language policy.

“Implementing Guidelines for the Policy on Bilingual Education. ” - The first implemented
policy in 1974 when DECS issued Dept. Order No. 25, s. 1974.

The goals of the Bilingual Education Policy: 1. enhanced learning through two
languages to achieve quality education as called for by the 1987 Constitution. 2. the
propagation of Filipino as a language of literacy. 3. the development of Filipino as a
linguistic symbol of national unity and identity. 4. the cultivation and elaboration of
Filipino as a language of scholarly discourse, that is to say its continuing
intellectualization.

The Language Policy of the Commission on Higher Education - In 1994, Republic Act
No. 7722, creating the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) was signed. This Act
which is know as the “Higher Education Act of 1994”

CLASSROOM PRACTITIONERS

WHAT IS CLASSROOM PRACTITIONERS?

They are practitioner-teachers who work, research and educate in their fields, and
perceive the quality of their teaching as being enhanced by their practicing in the field.
Send a message to everyone
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF CLASSROOM PRACTITIONERS IN IMPLEMENTING
LANGUAGE POLICY?

Language policy implementation is ultimately a series of decisions by a range of

influential stakeholders regarding which language they will speak in which context

The primary role of the teacher in a language class is to establish conditions and
develop activities so that students are able to practice the language in a meaningful
context. It is the teacher who acts as facilitator, resource person and language model
for the second- language classroom.

Another role of practioners in language policy is they are charged with the process of
modification. Students vary of course on a number of critical dimensions: age, gender,
ability level, and motivation, for example. They vary also in the variety or varieties of
language that they know and in their level of proficiency.

There are other potentially significant participants in the school domain. The first among
these are the professional administrators – principals and department heads in schools,
provosts and deans and chairs in universities – who may be selected from the same
group as the teachers and who may be responsible to authorities outside the school for
management of its educational and language policies. A second significant group may
be the non-academic support staff – the bus drivers, secretaries, cleaners and cooks.

There are schools where management is essentially internal, with the school staff
(principal, teachers, and other relevant professionals) determining their own educational
and linguistic goals and choosing their own appropriate method of achieving them.

More commonly, there is some individual or group external to the school domain with
the authority to establish goals and methods. In some cases, this may be the parents of
the students, working as members of an elected school board or through their financial
power to influence school policy. In other cases, the school will be under the authority of
a religious leader or religious organization. Sometimes, this authority is assigned to a
local body such as a city council.16 In other cases, the authority is centralized and
under the control of the central government or, in a federal system, of state or provincial
governments. In colonial systems, authority was commonly placed on the metropolitan
home government.

IV. APPLY

Topic 2

The Four Common & Co-existing Forces of Language Policies at the National Level

 National ( or ethnic ) ideology or claims identity.

- Refer to the infrastructure of belief and principles relevant to a collective

psyche that may manifest in language policy.

 The role of English as a global language

- Refer to what spolsky (2004) calls the tidal wave of English that is moving
almost every sociolinguistics repertoire, through out the global language
ecology. As the language of global communication, English has come to
index as cosmopolitan social and economic mobility.
 A nation’s sociological situation.

- Refer to the number and kind of languages, the number and kinds of
speakers of each, the communicative value of each language both inside
and outside the community being studied.

 An increasing in linguistic interest right with in the human and civil rights
framework.

- Language is positioned as an element of human right, urging nations to

offer language right to their minorities in since way, such as provisions for
curiosity language medium schooling.

 IV. APPLY

Topic 3

The Four Phases of Language Planning (How Languages are Developing)

Topic 4

What Language Policies Can Do vis-à-vis the Different Domain