How is English in the Philippines?

How is English in the Philippines?

            Much has been said about the English proficiency of Filipinos. The mass education strategy of the Americans certainly left us with a considerable advantage in the English-speaking workplace. However, in recent years, stiff competition from other countries is undermining this advantage, and with the declining mastery of the English language by our college graduates, Filipino proficiency in English is said to be in a deplorable state.

            A survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations in 2007 shows the stark reality: out of 1, 200 respondents, only 32% could speak English, as opposed to 54% in 2000 and 56% in 1993; 65% of the respondents understood spoken English, 12% lower than the previous surveys; 65% could read English, compared to 76% in 2000 and 73% in 1993; and 48% could write in English, a decrease from 61% and 59% of the last two surveys, respectively.         

            2008 language test results released by the IDP Education Pty. Ltd. Philippines, an accredited group that administers the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) to Filipinos seeking to work and migrate abroad, also showed that the Philippines is no longer the top English-speaking country in Asia. Malaysia beat the Philippines with an overall score of 6.71, making them the most proficient Asian country in English. The Philippines placed only second with 6.69, followed by Indonesia, India and Thailand.

Still, a 2009 report submitted by the Universal Access to Competitiveness and Trade (UACT), the research consultative committee of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) showed that for every 100 applicants, only six to ten percent of the college-graduate applicants are effectively recruited and deployed for an entry level job.

And it looks like we wouldn’t be left in peace with all these findings. Filipino proficiency in English has been censured more recently as an Inquirer News on April 15 reported that Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Abrams of Hagatna, Guam criticized Filipino English as “not good enough”. This controversial comment was reportedly made during the Guam Board of Allied Health’s meeting, where members discussed a proposal to outsource a transcription task to a transcriber in the Philippines.

Abrams objected to the transcription outsourcing, saying, "I don't like the idea at all. Their English is not good enough. You're dealing with a third world country where English is a second language and we're dealing with tapes that are not crystal clear…We're dealing with a transcriber who may or may not know anything about legal proceedings and certainly can't pick up the phone... to get clarification as to what they might have said." Naturally, the Philippine Consulate General in Guam was incensed by these ‘racially-discriminating remarks’ as to prepare to file an ethics complaint against Abrams.

Yet, as though to counter these racially-discriminating remarks, less than two weeks later, on April 25, the Philippines was dubbed the world’s best country in business English, according to a Yahoo! Southeast Asia News update.

For 2012, results showed that from 76 represented countries worldwide, only the Philippines attained a score above 7.0, ‘a BEI level within range of a high proficiency that indicates an ability to take an active role in business discussions and perform relatively complex tasks’, according to the results of the annual Business English Index (BEI), the only index that measures business English proficiency in the workplace, conducted by the GlobalEnglish Corporation.

While the rest of the world ranked beginner and basic level, the Philippines was the lone country in the intermediate level, beating struggling economic powers such as Japan, Italy and Mexico and fast-growth emerging markets such as Brazil, Columbia and Chile with a score of 7.11, followed by Norway, Estonia, Serbia, and Slovenia in the top five and Malaysia (the most proficient Asian country in English based on 2008 IELTS results) in a distant seventh place. Even the United States gained a relatively low score of 5.09, a phenomenon attributed to a majority of test takers being foreign-born engineers and scientists, the study indicated.

 GlobalEnglish noted that a country’s business English capability is an indicator of its economic growth and business success. “This is particularly interesting because the Philippines, a country with one-tenth of the population of India, recently overtook India as a hub for call centers. Over 400,000 Filipinos are now employed in call centers, roughly 50,000 more than in India… It is not surprising that both the Philippines and Norway—the only two countries in the top five in both 2011 and 2012—are improving their economies, based on the latest GDP data from the World Bank,” according to the study.

  One would think that the Philippines is rightfully avenged against such mocking comments as Abrams’. Maybe, maybe not. Behind the bravado against his dishonourable comment, perhaps there really is some truth in Abrams remark after all. The BEI findings still do not eliminate the fact that there really are employees who do not speak acceptable English in the workplace. But then again, as the BEI findings show, these employees are considerably few in relation to the majority who can speak intermediate level business English, the best in the whole world. And even if only six to ten percent of every 100 college-graduate applicants are effectively recruited and deployed for an entry level job according to a UACT 2009 report, these six to ten percent are highly proficient, and significantly so.