Using Two/Three Languages in Philippine Classrooms: Implications for Policies, Strategies and Practices

Abstract

This paper describes the background to the present education scheme that has been adopted in the Philippines. It describes a multilingual country in which difficult educational decisions had to be made and policies adopted which did not always concur with the implementational realities. Problems have arisen from the unequal developmental status of Filipino and English and the subsequent failure to meet manpower and material needs. The paper concludes with a call to use the synergy created by two languages in a society rather than by treating them as separate hostile entities and thus polarising popular opinion.