Dr. Alejandro S. Bernardo

Silencing Englishes in ‘E’LT: The Philippine Experience

This presentation examines how silent about Englishes an ELT (English Language Teaching) curriculum can be. It takes the case of Philippine ELT to gather further insights on how World Englishes (WE) is (un)represented in its written or enacted curriculum. A content analysis of the K-12 English curricula implemented in the Philippines was undertaken by looking into its core claims, assumptions and silences. Based on the analysis, it then forwards another perspective of reconceptualizing ‘E’ in ELT by arguing that English language teaching considers the plural nature of English and the plurilithic nature of communicative competence and by proposing an approach by which the ELT curriculum (or syllabus) and its intended learning outcome may become WE-inspired and local-variety-based.