A Brief Ethnography on Philippine English
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Date
2014-04
Authors
Dr. Wa-Mbaleka, Safary
Blath, Claudia
Lloren, Janice
Duan, Wenwan
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Abstract
The Philippines is a nation with a rich culture and
heritage that reflects the indigenous diversity of the islands. Its
present identity and unique features are not whimsical. They are
mainly the result of a combination of events throughout its
history. Its linguistic diversity and cultural uniqueness—
e.g., being the only Asian Christian country—are clear evidence
of several colonial influences (Hechanova, 2012; Miller, 2014).
Using an ethnographic approach, this paper examines English,
Taglish, and pragmatic aspects in a suburb and a metropolitan
area of the Philippines. This study reveals that socioeconomic
status, educational attainment and background go hand in hand
with the level of exposure and usage of the English language.
It also shows that the interactional and speech acts that nine
participants demonstrated during the interviews, together with
the artifacts found on the research sites, are reflections of their
culture. The study also led to the conclusion that code-switching
or Taglish is common among English-speaking Filipinos. Finally,
more English proficiency was evidenced with people who had
attended private schools more than those who attended public
education.
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Keywords
Philippines, Ethnography, English, Tagalog, Taglish, Culture, Speech acts, Interactional acts, Code-switching