It is a fact that the average Filipino of today is sorely wanting in his communication skills in English. Study after study show that while our Asian neighbors are vastly improving in their English language skills, the majority of us here in the Philippines seem to get worse in every passing moment notwithstanding the fact that English has always been a medium of instruction.

If we are really that dead serious in salvaging our pathetic ability in the English language, we have to act now and do some drastic and effective measures if we want to preserve our competitive edge in the global job market.

I have two suggestions which I believe can address our communication problems relative to the English language.

First, we should have the best models for language learning and acquisition. It is no secret that we have done some interventions to restore the excellence we had in terms of English language proficiency. We have trained teachers and have written good books but the results are still mediocre, if not poor. This is because we lack the best models in our interventions. Yes, we train our teachers but their models are also secondary models–Filipino teachers training Filipino teachers. The better strategy in training teachers is to put them under the tutelage of a first-language speaker of English.

It is highly expensive, you might say, to get the services of native speakers of English to come here. Yes it is, but the results will be far better. And besides, it is perfectly logical to pay a high price for the best quality of service.

And before we forget, history shows us that the best Filipino speakers and writers in English were taught by the Thomasites–American teachers.

We can actually do something to neutralize the prohibitive cost of training. We don’t have to hire flesh-and-blood first-language speakers of English. All we have to do is to harness the resources available to us. Cable television, the Internet and motion pictures are just within our grasp. Let us use them in teacher trainings. Let us use them in classrooms and, expectedly, there will be more meaningful and diverse language learning.

This leads me to my second suggestion, which is to put educational investments where they will bring maximum returns. Time and again, we have emphasized that the budget of education should be properly invested. In the area of improving the communication skills in English of the average Filipino learner, the investments leave much to be desired. There is so much focus on textbooks instead of the more stimulating instructional materials, such as audio-video tapes and CDs. In language learning, there can be nothing more effective than a highly visual and auditory atmosphere. Books do their share of the job but they should be ably supported by the animated and response-rich stimuli of nonprint resources. To this effect, I am dreaming of every classroom equipped with a television and players of audio and video productions. Of course, this goes without saying that educational funds should be used for this purpose.

If these two suggestions will become department orders of the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the English language competency of teachers and learners will suddenly become alive and the Filipino learner’s sense of international communication will grow deeper. This deeper growth will be his internal motivation to excel in English language communications so that when he is to meet the world outside, his excellent English proficiency will set him apart from the rest of the global inhabitants who also have to learn English as a second language.