Philippines is
said to have diverse culture. Language
and culture are sometimes barriers to educational development. What then should be the role of education in
resolving the issue on language and culture in Philippine Education?
The role of
education in resolving the issue on language and culture in Philippine
Education is to serve as a guiding light in giving the relevance or significant
value of language and culture. As
Samovar, Porter, & Jain (1981) emphasize that culture and communication are
inseparable because culture not only dictates who talks to whom, about what,
and how the communication proceeds, it also helps to determine how people
encode messages, the meanings they have for messages, and the conditions and
circumstances under which various messages may or may not be sent, noticed, or
interpreted... Culture...is the foundation of communication.
The role of
education serves as an instrument of change. Educated persons should understand
their positions as members of both a local community and the world community
and they must believe that their lives can make a difference especially when
they give due importance to their
diverse culture.
Education is also
fundamental not only to the transmission of culture but to preparing the ground
for its continuous renewal. Learning is more than the assimilation of knowledge.
It is knowing how to create new knowledge ... and the true purposes of doing
so. Skinner was right when he said that "Education is what survives when
what has been learnt has been forgotten". It is in this sense that education
represents empowerment. By promoting creativity and humane values,
education becomes the ally of cultural responsiveness, which is itself the key
to positive relations between cultures. UNESCO is committed to preserving and
protecting what its Constitution calls "the fruitful diversity of
cultures". One reason for doing so is that cultural and linguistic
diversity represents a vital resource, a source of human enrichment. Each
culture or language system constitutes a unique mode of interpreting or
relating to a world so complex that the only hope of knowing it or dealing with
it is to approach it from as many perspectives as possible. At the same time,
culture is essential to human identity and therefore to human dignity. At the
heart of so many of our educational and social problems is the loss of cultural
identity that gives special value and meaning to life. As Carlos Fuentes so
aptly put it : "culture is a sea-shell in which we hear voices of what we
are, what we were, what we forgot and what we can be". Without the
sea-shell, young people have great difficulty in finding themselves and finding
their way. If we wish to build positive intercommunity relations, we must start
by protecting and promoting cultural identity.
The concept "culture" as cited in R. A.
7356, which has been translated in Filipino by the Committee on Language and
Translation, has five characteristics that constitute its principles:
(1) Culture is a right;
(2) Culture expresses the national identity;
(3) Culture is independent, dynamic, progressive and
pro-people;
(4) Culture is of the people and therefore the national
cultural policies and programs to be formulated are pluralistic, democratic,
free and liberative; and
(5) That culture is for the people.
Section 7 of R. A. 7356 makes the
Filipino citizen, responsible for the preserva tion
of the national historical and cultural heritage and its indigenous traditions.
The concept "culture" then as
characterized in R. A. 7356, using the Bierstedt model (The Social Order, R.
Bierstedt, 1970) has three main elements:
(1) The ideas, beliefs, attitudes of the people as
national community, which include their scientific knowledge and beliefs; their
religious beliefs; their myth, legends, folk literature, superstitions,
riddles, proverbs and sayings, literature, philosophy and such others;
(2) Their norms or ways of doing, which include those as
described by the Constitution; laws, rules and regulations, credo, customs,
habits, rituals, ceremonies, and modes;
(3) The material, or natural resources they have, which
include natural resources, flora and fauna, material wealth, infrastractures,
technology, artifacts, works of art, and the like.
Philippine Culture is a humanizing culture, a
culture of generally being for others such as indicated in terms like
"Kapwa Tao" (fellow human being), "Tao po;" (introducing
one's self at anothers house), "Tao ko" (my human being, husband, as
the wife calls him), or in the saying, "Madaling maging tao, mahirap
magpakatao:"It is easy to become a person, it is difficult to become a
human being."
The various ethnolinguistic communities, numbering
more than 76, through their folklores, riddles, proverbs, sayings, legends and
myths, are enriching and enriched as the national language propagates them.
The three main elements of
culture--ideas, norm and resources--are also to be found in the 11 basic
needs--food, water, shelter, clothing, livelihood, education, health, power,
mobility, recreation and leisure, and ecological balance. These basic needs are
articulated, acquired, sustained by processes of communication through
languages.
Republic Act 7356
calls for helping develop Philippine culture and the Arts in an atmosphere of
unbridled creativity and artistic freedom. Language and culture - inseparable -
are considered processes for national development.
The relation of Language and
Culture assumes cogency as Filipinos continue to celebrate the Centennial of
Philippine Independence and try to better their lives, their economic,
political and social culture. This cogency is underscored by present moves to
improve the education delivery system. As a national community, we are enriched
by the overlays of western and other cultures in the fabric of our historical
heritage, but because we indigenize these overlays, it might take some time
before the basic characteristics of Filipino culture concept are studied.
Language - the national
language, Filipino, in particular - when culturally enriched by regional and
sub-regional languages of various Filipino ethnolinguistic
communities through its intellectualization, preserves national identity,
even redeeming this from its inchoate political, economic and social
environments. This national identity is strengthened by the national language
as it continues to be developed and enriched by usage even as the Philippines
aspires to have an active part in the process of globalization of the economies
of the world.
In the study and use or application of regional
languages, including minor and major languages, culture is promoted and
developed.
Because both written and oral
language(s) and culture do not develop in a vacuum. By a continuing process of
acculturation through, among others, language planning, usage and through
translations, the national community of artists are also strengthened as
they learn from others through English and other languages.
The potential enrichment of language,
in this case, Filipino, begins, therefore, from an understanding of the concept
culture in its various elements and manifestations. This is especially true in
the context of Philippine historical and cultural heritage. Many more
substantiation, confirmation and affirmation can be done by research, academic
and otherwise - through the media of dissemination and communication and by
social interaction
Developing Filipino language and
culture, when planned and implemented as a national program for inculcating a
sense of national purpose and unity, can be a challenging project for
strengthening the national identity. It can also make the advocacy for an
understanding of the relationship of language to culture and vice-versa, a most
relevant program – not barriers to
educational development.
