Filipino English and Taglish: Language switching from multiple perspectives (review)

This volume, part of a series on world Englishes, describes two distinct varieties of English found in the Philippines: Filipino English and the code-switching variety known as Taglish. The book’s fourteen chapters are divided among three themes relevant to the development and use of these varieties of English.

Ch. 1 (1–7) begins with a hypothetical scenario of a day filled with English, the national language Filipino (also known as Tagalog), and Taglish in Metro Manila, the environs of the Philippine capital. Roger M. Thompson presents the goal of the study as showing the relationships between these three spoken codes and their consequences for future English proficiency in the Philippines.

The first part, ‘Taglish in the life cycle of English in the Philippines’ (Chs. 2–5), illustrates the emergence of English and (more recently) Taglish in the Philippines. Ch. 2 (13–26) discusses the social implementation of English in the Philippine educational system that occurred between 1902 and 1935. Ch. 3 (27–36) discusses the rise of nationalism and the subsequent rise of Tagalog as a national language between 1936 and 1973. Ch. 4 (37–58) discusses bilingual education and the rise of Taglish that occurred between 1974 and 1998. Ch. 5 (59–66) illustrates the development and decline of Spanish in the Philippines, serving to foreshadow the national use of English.

The second part, ‘Social support for English after 100 years: Comparing usage in Metro Manila and the provinces’ (Chs. 6–8), illustrates the trends of English language support via social institutions such as schools and the media. Ch. 6 (77–93) examines the relationship between English teachers from the areas of Metro Manila and the Visayas (i.e. the central island group of the Philippines) and language exposure from the media, both broadcast and printed. Ch. 7 (95–105) examines the relationship between the same teachers and language use in interpersonal relations. Ch. 8 (107–22) examines on a smaller scale the same issues discussed in the previous two chapters (i.e. English teachers and language use in the media vs. interpersonal relations) with respect to English teachers in northern Luzon (i.e. north of Metro Manila) and Mindanao (the southernmost island in the Philippines). T finds a gradual shift from English to Filipino for most media (except for cable television, interestingly), while regional languages dominate within interpersonal interactions.

The chapters in the third part, ‘Modeling English to the masses: A look at the media’ (Chs. 9–14), examine more closely the media’s role in supporting English among the Filipino population at large. Ch. 9 (127–54) has an initial linguistic analysis of Taglish within a stretch of televized basketball commentary. Ch. 10 (155–76) considers the role of television commercials as language teachers, while Ch. 11 (177–90) considers the social messages of language use conveyed by these commercials. Continuing with the television theme, Ch. 12 (191–209) looks at language use within television interviews, while Ch. 13 (211–30) looks at the overt promotion of Tagalog and Taglish over English within movies and sitcoms. The final chapter, Ch. 14 (231–55), examines the complex relationships between language use and readership of English newspapers versus Tagalog/Taglish tabloids. T finds that the media is presently shifting toward Tagalog and Taglish, with the attitude that English is not a socially valuable commodity but a sham.

Finally, Ch. 15 (257–65) relates the still-resonating struggle between English and Tagalog to the ouster of former Philippine president Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada, an action many of the poor and uneducated interpreted as an attack by the educated elite. T concludes that given present social circumstances, English, like Spanish, may cease to be a functional language in the Philippines before long.

This volume is the most current account of the social underpinnings of code-switching in the Philip-pines. At certain points, however, T appears to ‘call’ for the ‘preservation’ of...