A survey of the educational system of the Philippine islands by the Board of educational survey, created under acts 3162 and 3196 of the Philippine Legislature.

158 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

Table 5 presents the frequency with which each type of sound mutation occurs in the testing of 2,524 pupils from Grades I through first-year
high school. No less than 49 types of mutations were recorded by the
examiners.
One conclusion stands out clearly from the study of the two tables:
As far as word enunciation is concerned the task of eradicating the
mutations of sound most common to Filipino children is not an impos.
sible one. Twenty types comprise eighty per cent of all the sound
mutations. Sixty per cent are accounted for in the first ten types.
Table 5 merits the most careful study by the teachers and administrators of the system. The tables provide data from which a definite
system of oral word pronunciation can be formed for the schools of
the Islands. The testing of the 3,400 children, even though it is but
a sample measurement, has resulted in facts of basic importance for the
improvement of language instruction in the Philippines. The officials
of the Bureau have known, of course, the prevalence of the most obvious
of these sound mutations. Nevertheless they have not acted upon them.
There is not to be found except in isolated classrooms, systematic
training in correct word enunciation based upon a comprehensive
analysis of the difficulties. The members of the Commission observed
oral English in hundreds of classrooms. In only three schools did they see
oral English exercises which were designed with clear recognition of the
dominating importance of these basic types of marked word enunciation.
In those isolated cases progressive administrators had set up practice
exercises in which words were so arranged in pairs as to make the pupils
conscious of refinements in enunciation.
For example, in one school, observed by the Commission, practice
devices are being used in which pupils are trained to discriminate the
vowel sound by setting it up in pairs of words in which it is pronounced
differently. The most common sound mutations in Filipinized English
is the pronunciation of "i" as ee; as in "eel" for "ill"; een" for
"in"; etc. Such pairs of words as the following illustrate the method:
ship sheep
mit meat
sit seat
grin green
In the instance observed the teacher's pronunciation was excellent and
the skill of the class was markedly better than that rank and file of
classes which were observed.
Great stress must be laid on the fact that a few of these mutations
play a predominant role in the carrying on of communication in English
in the Islands. Teachers can and should make themselves masters of the