The (mis)uses of essentialism in a language policy-making context
Issue: Vol 11 No. 1 (2015)
Journal: Linguistics and the Human Sciences
Subject Areas: Writing and Composition Linguistics
Abstract:
In recent years, it has been much more common to ground sociolinguistic studies in concepts of language practices, language crossings and communicative repertoires, owing to the field’s growing recognition of the complexity and dynamism of language use. However, in language policy-making in many parts of the world, where language and education specialists are directly involved in language and education policy-making, linguistic essentialism is prevalent but sometimes a necessary component of struggles for the official recognition of marginalized languages and communities. Linguistic essentialism mainly refers to the belief that languages are separate, idealized entities, and that they represent identities and cultures which do not intersect and remain unchanging. Yet, many deployments of linguistic essentialism have led to reconfigured systems of education which have, in many contexts, resulted in more democratic and more equitable learning spaces. How can/should we respond to such kind of essentialism? These could be strategic uses of essentialism because of their deployment as provisional necessary conceptual tools for specific political projects (Spivak, 1988). However, an examination of these essentialisms shows their unchanging nature or their lack of critical self-reflection, thus failing to account for changing sociolinguistic and socio-political realities. In the Philippines, linguistic essentialisms helped institutionalize the national language, Filipino, as a medium of instruction by discursively promoting it as the language of nationalism, cultural expression and identity, and anti-colonial struggle. In the process, these discourses undermined the hegemony of English as the sole language of instruction in the country, thus resulting in the promulgation of the bilingual education policy in 1974. At the same time, however, the same discourses marginalized the role of the country’s more than a hundred mother tongues as languages of instruction, nationalism, cultural expression and identity and political struggle. Linguistic essentialisms are part and parcel of language policy-making and should be viewed and appraised in the light of historically contingent political projects that deployed them. However, they must continuously change to remain relevant, self-critically nuancing their own positions and always open to reconfigurations of languages in society.
Author: Ruanni Tupas
References :
Agcaoli, A. S. (2010). Revaluating regionalism, revaluing our languages. In R. M. D. Nolasco, F. A. Datar and A. M. Azurin (Eds), Starting Where the Children Are: A Collection of Essays on Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education and Language Issues in the Philippines, 165–158. Diliman, Quezon City: 170+ Talaytayan MLE Inc.
Agoncillo, T. and Guerrero, M. C. (1960). History of the Filipino People. Quezon City, Philippines: R. P. Garcia Publishing Co.
Azurin, A. (2010). Reinventing basic education: The shift to mother tongue-based instruction. In R. M. D. Nolasco, F. A. Datar and A. M. Azurin (Eds), Starting where the Children are: A Collection of Essays on Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education and Language Issues in the Philippines, 1–6. Diliman, Quezon City: 170+ Talaytayan MLE Inc.
Bello, W., Kinley, D. and Elison, E. (1982). Development Debacle: The World Bank in the Philippines. San Francisco, CA: Food First Books.
Brown, M. E. and Gunguly, Ŝ. (Eds) (2003). Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnic Relations in Asia. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Canieso-Doronila, M. L. (1998). The emergence of the Schools of the People and the Transformation of the Philippine Education System. UP-CIDS Chronicle, 3 (1): 63–97.
Constantino, R. (1970). The mis-education of the Filipino. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 1 (1): 20–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00472337085390031
Dekker, D. and Young, C. (2005). Bridging the gap: The development of appropriate educational strategies for minority language communities in the Philippines. Current Issues in Language Planning, 6 (2), 182–199. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14664200508668280
DeVotta, N. (2004). Blowback: Linguistic Nationalism, Institutional Decay, and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
Eide, E. (2010). Strategic essentialism and ethnification hand in glove? Nordicom Review, 31 (2): 63–78.
Espiritu, C. (1999). The Cebuano response to the language controversy in the Philippines: Implications for the intellectualization of Filipino. In M. L. S. Bautista and G. Tan (Eds), The Filipino Bilingual: A Multidisciplinary Perspective, 65–69. Manila: De La Salle University Press.
Espiritu, C. (2015). Filipino language in the curriculum, accessed on May 17, 2016, from <http://ncca.gov.ph/subcommissions/subcommission-on-cultural-disseminationscd/language-and-translation/filipino-language-in-the-curriculum/>.
Executive Order No. 134 (1937). Proclaiming the national language of the Philippines based on the ‘Tagalog’ language. Official Gazette, access on 11 March 2014, from <http://www.gov.ph/1937/12/30/executive-order-no-134-s-1937/>.
Gonzaga, E. (2008). Globalization and Becoming-nation: Subjectivity, Nationhood and Narrative in the Period of Global Capitalism. Quezon City, Philippines: University of the Philippines Press.
Gonzalez, Andrew. (1991). Cebuano and Tagalog: Ethnic rivalry redivivus. In J. R. Dow (Ed.) Language and Ethnicity. Vol 2, 111–129. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/z.fishfest2.08gon
Gonzalez, A. and Sibayan, B. (1988). Evaluating Bilingual Education in the Philippines (1974–1985). Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines.
Gonzalez, A. (1980). Language and Nationalism: The Philippine Experience Thus Far. Quezon City, Metro Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
Graff, H. F. (1969). American Imperialism and the Philippine Insurrection. Boston, MA: Little, Brown.
Gunigundo, M. T. (2010). The right to learn in one’s own language. In R. M. D. Nolasco, F. A. Datar and A. M. Azurin (Eds), Starting where the Children are: A Collection of Essays on Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education and Language Issues in the Philippines, 78–80. Diliman, Quezon City: 170+ Talaytayan MLE Inc.
Hau, C. (2000). Necessary Fictions: Philippine Literature and the Nation, 1946–1980. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
Hau, C. (2005). Rethinking history and ‘nation-building’ in the Philippines. In G. Wang (Ed.), Five Southeast Asian Histories, 39–67. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Hau, C. S. and Tinio, V. L. (2003). Language policy and ethnic relations in the Philippines. In M. Brown and S. Ganguly (Eds), Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnic Relations in Asia, 319–352. Cambridge, MA: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
Ileto, R. (1998). The ‘Unfinished Revolution’ in Political Discourse. Filipinos and their Revolution: Events, Discourse and Historiography, 177–201. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
Kobari, Y. (1999). Reassessment after 15 years: Attitudes of the students of Cebu Institute of Technology towards Filipino in tertiary education. In M. L. S. Bautista and G. O. Tan (Eds), The Filipino Bilingual: A Multidisciplinary Perspective (Festschrift in Honor of Emy M. Pascasio), 56–64. Manila, Philippines: Linguistic Society of the Philippines.
Könnig, M. (2002). Cultural diversity and language policy. International Social Science Journal, 51 (161): 401–408. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2451.00208
Kosonen, K., Young, C. and Malone, S. (2006). Promoting Literacy in Multilingual Settings. UNESCO, Bangkok.
Laquian, A. (1996). The multi-ethnic and multicultural city: An Asian Perspective. Social Science Journal, 48 (147): 43–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2451.1996.tb00055.x
Lo Bianco, J. (2010). The importance of language policies and multilingualism for cultural diversity. International Social Science Journal, 61 (199): 37–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2451.2010.01747.x
Lumbera, B. (2000). Harnessing Regional Literature for National Literature: Writing the National/Pak-akda ng Bansa. Diliman, Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press.
McFarland, C. D. (2008). Linguistic diversity and English in the Philippines. In M. L. S Bautista and K. Bolton (Eds), Philippine English: Linguistic Literary Perspectives, 131–156. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.5790/hongkong/9789622099470.003.0008
Miralao, V. (2004). The impact of social research on education policy and reform in the Philippines. International Social Science Journal, 56 (179): 75–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0020-8701.2004.00476.x
Nical, I., Smolicz, J. J., and Secombe, M. J. (2004). Rural students and the Philippine bilingual education program on the island of Leyte. In J. W. Tollefson and A. B. M. Tsui (Eds), Medium of Instruction Policies Which Agenda? Whose Agenda?, 153–176. Mahwah, NJ and London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Nolasco, R. M. D. (2013). ‘Castrated’ MTB-MLE. Philippine Daily Inquirer, accessed on 15 September 2013, < http://opinion.inquirer.net/61025/castrated-mtb-mle>.
Nolasco, R. M. D., Datar, F. A. and Azurin, A. M. (Eds) (2010). Starting Where the Children Are: A Collection of Essays on Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education and Language Issues in the Philippines. Diliman, Quezon City: 170+ Talaytayan MLE Inc.
Phillips, A. (2010). What’s wrong with essentialism? Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, 11 (1): 47–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1600910X.2010.9672755
Rafael, V. (2000). White Love and Other Events in Filipino History. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University.
Saleeby, N. M. (1924). The Language of Education of the Philippine Islands. Manila, P.I.
Schirmer, D. B. and Shalom, S. R. (Eds) (1987). The Philippines Reader: A History of Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Dictatorship and Resistance. Quezon City: KEN Inc.
Spivak, G. (1988). In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics. London: Routledge.
The 1935 Philippine Institution (1935). Official Gazette, accessed 12 March 2014, from http://www.gov.ph/constitutions/the-1935-constitution/.
The Philippine Independence Act (1934). Public Law 73-127, accessed 12 March 2014, from < http://www.philippine-history.org/tydings-mcduffie-law.htm>.
Tinio, V. L. and Hau, C. S. (2003). Language policy and ethnic relations in the Philippines. In M. E. Brown and S. Ganguly (Eds), Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnic Relations in Asia, 319–349. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Tinio, R. (1990). A Matter of Language: Where English Fails. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press.
Tollefson, J. (1991). Language policy and the radical left in the Philippines: The New People’s Army and its antecedents. Language Problems and Language Planning, 10 (2): 177–189. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/lplp.10.2.04tol
Tope, L. R. (2008). Negotiating language: Postcolonialism and nationalism in Philippine literature in English. In M. L. S. Bautista and K. Bolton (Eds), Philippine English: Linguistic and Literary Perspectives, 261–278. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.5790/hongkong/9789622099470.003.0014
Tsui, A. B. M. and Tollefson, J. W. (2004). The centrality of medium-of-instruction policy in sociopolitical processes. In J. W. Tollefson and A. B. M. Tsui (Eds), Medium of Instruction Policies – Which Agenda? Whose Agenda?, 1–18. Mahwah, NJ and London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Tucker, R. (1998). A global perspective on multilingualism and multilingual education. In J. Cenoz and F. Genesee (Eds), Beyond Bilingualism: Multilingualism and Multilingual Education. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Tupas, R. (2015a). Inequalities of multilingualism: Challenges to mother tongue-based multilingual education. Language and Education, 29 (2): 112–124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2014.977295
Tupas, R. (2015b). The politics of ‘p’ and ‘f’: A linguistic history of nation-building in the Philippines. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 36 (6): 587–597. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2014.979831
Tupas, R. (2009). Language as a problem of development: Ideological debates and comprehensive education in the Philippines. AILA Review, 22: 23–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/aila.22.03tup
US Bureau of Education (1902). Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1900–1901. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
Villareal, C. D. (2010). Demons, saviours and narrativity in a vernacular literature, Asiatic, 4 (2): 49–67.
wa Thiong’o, N. (1986). Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, London: Currey.