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.

166 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

than that the Filipino people shall know their language capacity and
that their school officials shall properly gauge the extent of the educational program that will be necessary to develop it adequately.
How Can Correct Models of English Speech Be Given to Filipino
Teachers and Pupils?
The results of the testing have now been presented. The imperative
need has been revealed of improving radically the teaching of spoken
English in the schools. The situation must be attacked at two points.
The first thing needed is a phonic scheme of instruction based on the
most common sound mutations. The second is a method of setting
before Filipino teachers and pupils correct models of English speech.
The point was emphasized in a foregoing section that skill in speaking
a language can be gotten only by direct imitation. A correct model
must be heard, and heard accurately if correct speech is to result. Such
models Filipino children do not now hear because Filipino teachers
cannot present them. Training in clear discrimination of refinements
of sound must precede their accurate reproduction. Under the present
conditions, then how can correct models be given to Filipinos and how
can guidance be given in correction of errors of enunciation?
Only one way can be employed which will positively guarantee the
widespread of American English. That method is the importation
of thousands of American teachers to staff the normal schools and the
first grades of the primary schools of the Islands. By no other way
can a conclusive solution for the oral-language problem be worked out.
The investigation of educational finance which the Commission has
made, however, makes very clear that it is utterly impossible to import
thousands of American teachers that would be necessary to staff the
normal schools and the first grades. The Islands cannot assume the
very great cost of that enterprise. A makeshift can be resorted to
which will definitely improve the speaking of English, but it is only
a makeshift. That is, the widespread use of the phonograph.
The Widespread Use of the Phonograph Is Recommended
as a Makeshift
No problem has been debated more thoroughly by the Commission
than this one of the training of teachers and pupils in the speaking
of English. It is only after long consideration of the matter, therefore, that the judgment is given that financial limitations make it
impossible to develop a form of spoken English which is definitely
American in its intonation, accent, syllabication, and enunciation. It