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.

178 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

This transfer is certainly to be expected. A person who reads one
language, need not make a conscious effort to learn to read another with
which he becomes familiar in its spoken form, if the same alphabet is
used and the characters represent substantially the same sounds. The
literate English-speaking person who learns to speak Spanish develops
ability to read Spanish in the same measure as he learns to speak and
understand it.
It is reasonable to believe that the same situation will hold when the
mechanics of reading is gained in a new language by the person who
already speaks another but has not learned to read it. This probability
is greatly increased when, as is the case in Philippine schools, instruction
in phonics accompanies instruction in reading. The child learns to
attack new English words and to recognize the familiar spoken word
in its written form. If he is exposed to materials printed in the dialect
which is his ordinary spoken language, it is certainly to be expected that
he will use the ability he has gained to get meaning from the English
printed page, to get meaning from the dialect materials. Provided
always that he feels any interest in so doing.
It is possible to formulate the tentative conclusion upon the evidence
at hand, that children who learn to read and write English in the
school will develop a somewhat corresponding facility in use of their
native dialect if they are provided with materials in dialect which they
are interested in reading, and are placed in situations where they feel
the need of writing. It is probable that the first will develop more
readily than the second ability. The fact that the dialects are completely phonetic eliminates in large measure the problem of correct
spelling and therefore facilitates ability to write.
The problem of whether or not the school system should assume
responsibility for creating situations which shall stimulate the development
of ability to read and write the dialects is discussed elsewhere. The
present section is concerned only in determining so far as is possible the
degree in which this ability develops under present conditions.
All that has been said applies only to those dialects which use the
same alphabet as English. The situation is different in the case of
those dialects using a distinct written form. The Moro provinces present
a special problem and must be specially investigated.
IV. How WELL CAN FILIPINO SCHOOL CHILDREN UNDERSTAND
SPOKEN ENGLISH?
Comment has been made in other sections of the report on the observations of members of the Commission concerning the ability of pupils to
comprehend spoken English. They rarely saw instances in which
teachers' directions were not comprehended by the classes.