Research in world Englishes (WE) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) have long been promoting what Pakir describes as ‘common working axioms’ (2009: 228) which uphold the pluricentricity of English: the existence of varieties, the acceptance of language change and adaptation, and the highlighting of discourse strategies. These principles have had profound effects on our understanding of the English language and, consequently, on the teaching of the language. In this paper, I argue that, for all the benefits offered by varieties of English, it might not be appropriate to teach varieties explicitly as a model to non‐native learners of the language. I make this argument with the Philippine education context in mind, and propose a framework for Philippine ELT that recognizes both the identity and communication functions of the language.
In this article, I survey studies about English in the Philippines, many of which have been heavily influenced by the world Englishes paradigm. It was Braj Kachru himself who brought world Englishes to the Philippines in 1996, at a conference in Manila. About a hundred wide-eyed Filipino teachers, who grew up believing that only American English existed, were never the same again. This contribution to a special issue in honor of Braj Kachru is an expression of utang na loob, our debt of gratitude to him for changing the course of English language studies and scholarship in the Philippines.
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