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.

162 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

tion of presumably correct English words to the singing monotone of
the Tagalog, the Ilocano, the Malay "tunes." These reading tunes
dominate the use of English in the schools. They vary widely. There
is the soft-pitched musical monotone, often shrill on a note higher than
the conversational, falling, often abruptly to the last word two notes
lower. There is the tune pitched high at the beginning, dropping in
a cadence to the inevitable ending two notes below. There are the
less frequent tunes that end with a final rise of two notes. Our examiners have not been able to make an exhaustive, even an adequately
illustrative study of these tunes. They have simply observed them and
noted enough of them to fix firmly their importance in the oral-language
problem. All that was said in an earlier section about the difficulty
of securing the widespread speaking of American English is confirmed
by the revelation of the importance of the unstressed reading and speaking "tunes" of the Filipino people. It is becoming increasingly clear
that the schools must first of all institute a deep scientific study of the
huge and complicated linguistic problem which confronts the system.
That study must not only include the analysis of the role of stress and
rhythm; it must also cover syllabication. The Commission's examiners
made a very tentative classification of 5,712 errors in syllabication chosen
by chance from the pronunciation of 51,500 words by 515 pupils.
That significant findings can be gotten from a more extensive investigation is brought out by the statistical results of this preliminary one.
Of the 5,712 errors in syllabication:
3,852 were caused by syllabication for each syllable.
810 were caused by insertion of a syllable.
796 were caused by insertion of a vowel.
254 were caused by omission of a syllable.
Of 10,198 errors made by 498 students:
7,001 were wrong by accenting the penultimate.
3,096 were wrong by accenting the ultima.
101 were wrong by accenting the other syllables.
Of 224 errors of third-year normal students:
119 were wrong by accenting penultimate.
81 were wrong by accenting ultima.
24 were wrong by accenting other syllables.
These little studies are not conclusive; they are merely illustrative.
They are reported here to press home the point that the development
of a sound oral English program must wait upon the carrying on of
scientific studies of the language problem in the Philippines. In spite
of the fact that they are fundamental the school system has never carried
on such studies. That an imperative obligation to do so is laid upon
the present administration is very clear.