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.

MEASUREMENT OF INSTRUCTION

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"a" as in "at," or in "am," casting out of their speech the Spanish "a"
which now dominates it. If American-English is to become the language of the school and eventually of the Islands, teachers must work
hard at the correction of the errors (shown in table) which are so
prevalent in their own speech. They must learn to say:
is, was, and has instead of iss, wass, hass,
can instead of caan,
river instead of reevair,
servant instead of serbant,
go instead of gu,
do instead of do,
stream instead of strim,
of instead of off,
put instead of poot,
the instead of de,
what instead of wat,
peach instead of peetz,
family instead of farmily,
child instead of chil,
late instead of let,
pen instead of pin,
threshold instead of tressold,
tooth instead of tut
progress and perceive instead of frogress and ferceive
If the teachers of the Islands will make themselves masters of these
basic sounds and of the others in the list of Table 5, an important step
forward will have been taken in the setting up of American-English
in the Islands. For, no fact is of more moment in the present situation
than that of the correctness of the models of speech which these teachers
are setting before the pupils.
The Bureau of Education should establish provisions for the systematic and continuous training and testing of Filipino teachers in oral
English. At the present time effective measures are not being taken.
Training exercises should be set up at an early date in the Academic
Division to be given to the teachers in every province of the Islands.
The basic sound mutations of word enunciation can be practically eradicated from the schools of the Islands only if they can first be eradicated
from the speech of the teachers. The problem therefore of getting
teachers to develop skill in oral speech is of prime importance. It
should be one of the first problems to be attacked by the Bureau.
Are the Sound Mutations which are Typical of the First Grade
Perpetuated into the Higher Grades?
It has been made clear that a scheme of instruction in oral English
must be based on an analysis of the most common sound mutations.
In the construction of a working plan a second question is also of major
importance: Do the sound mutations reveal themselves even in the higher
grades or are they obliterated as the pupils mature?