Philippine English

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy Literature Studies grade: 20 Martin Luther University course: Postcolonial English language: English abstract: The spread of English around the world has offered us a diverse range of varieties of English.Within the framework of Postcolonial English varieties I have investigated the Philippine variety of English which was a result of and emerged from its colonial background. In Braj Kachru's model of World English dialects Philippine English belongs to what are called the 'outer circle' countries and is used in the major institutions as a legacy of colonisation. As a result English has a great historical importance and serves as a lingua franca between the different ethnic and language groups.To fully understand the make-up of Philippine English we need to take a look at the derivation and spread of the language. Aside from introducing general facts about the country I will examine the origins of the language and the arrival of English in Philippine history. Furthermore I will briefly explore the present-day language situation especially the different local languages and the code-switching or code-mixing between the two official languages Filipino and English. By looking at the characteristic features of Philippine English I want to show the general phonological morpho-syntactical and lexical differences from General American English. Finally I want to discuss the significance of Philippine English for a teacher of foreign languages and to draw conclusions regarding the impact of English on the Philippines.II. Basic facts The Philippines are located in Southeast Asia archipelago between the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea east of Vietnam. The land has an area of 298170 km² and is slightly larger than Arizona. The Philippines consist of 7107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean of which only eleven are bigger than 2500 km². The bigg