Multimodal Literacies MOOC’s Updates

Bilingual Method in addressing Colonialism as an underlying cause of grammar errors (Wk 2, Update 3)

The different types of grammar were discussed in the previous videos, as mentioned by Dr. Cope, could be quite problematic, specifically, "Traditional Grammar" and "Chomsky's Grammar", to start with from perspective of a speaker or writer with English as first language, which could be due to patterns and structures that are complicated. 

As a Filipino, who's mother tongue is Tagalog and learned English at home and in school, I could attest that the patterns, according to Noah Chomsky, of English in particular are the same as that of Tagalog wherein for example, there is a format wherein subject comes first then there's a predicate which could be interchanged. I also agree that behaviorism comes as a factor as there are certain words, prepositions for example that are commonly used in the English language likle in, on, under, etc that are non-existent in Tagalog. In Tagalog, whether an object is in, on, or under, there's only one word that can be used as a preposition to refer to its location.

Such nuances makes it harder for Filipinos or Tagalog-speakers to follow such rules in grammar and a mistake could trigger, at worst, discrimination in workplace or even in applying for visa or work in English-speaking countries wherein IELTS or TOEFL are required of Filipinos to pass despite having English as an official language and as a medium of instruction in all levels in schools and universities in the Philippines.

There is an educational discourse on Twitter (https://twitter.com/JerryGracio/status/1355464493938040836) questioning the survey results of a global study that ranked Filipinos below the global average for Reading Comprehension and the primary reason was that "learners need to learn English before they can learn math and science. If the science problem is written in a language you do not understand, how do you answer the science problem, and you still have English problems?" to start off the Twitter thread, as translated in Google (as original tweet is in Tagalog).

There is a comprehensive study linking this to colonialism as English was imposed as the sole medium of instruction in the Philippines. (RAFAEL, VICENTE L. “The War of Translation: Colonial Education, American English, and Tagalog Slang in the Philippines.” The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 74, no. 2, 2015, pp. 283–302. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43553585. Accessed 20 Feb. 2021.)

There is also the social stigma and war of the classes wherein if a Filipino does not speak or write English fluently, or use apps like Grammarly, they are looked down.

In conclusion, I believe that these problems could be addressed if the national government, the country's department of Education, and perhaps social influencers (at this point in time where social media plays a big role in everyone's lives) would play an active part in the promotion of Bilingual Method (^ as developed by Prof. C.J. Dodson Wales (1967) as a counterpart and improvement to the audiovisual method. (Durga, http://jrspelt.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Satya-bilingual.pdf, 2018) of which its significant results can be observed in other countries where there is a local language and also has English as an official language.

  • Julie Leppert