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.

42 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

American culture. The reading books should express Filipino ideas,
ideals, sentiments, and attitudes.
In the third place, reading instruction must be radically altered to
give adequate practice in rapid silent reading. Efficient silent reading
is an art that can be developed only by thorough practice in it.
Definite systematic instruction must be given which will teach children
to think by providing much practice in thinking, which will enlarge
their vocabularies, which will train in refined perceptions of meaning.
Teachers must be trained to stress meaning instead of mechanical pronunciation and to provide daily practice in thought-getting instead of
memoriter question and answer exercises.
All that has been said about reading can be repeated for spoken
English. In the first place, children must be kept at least four to five
years in school if they are to succeed in mastering the intricacies of
the English language. In the second place, teachers and pupils must
be trained in accurate pronunciation. At the present time, both teachers
and pupils use a type of spoken English that is thoroughly unlike the
English spoken in the United States. Chapter I presents an elaborate
analysis of the specific ways in which English is being modified in the
Islands. This analysis shows that twenty typical modifications comprise 80 per cent of all the "errors" in word enunciation which dominate
the Filipinized English now spoken throughout the Islands. The study
which the Commission has made throws out into sharp relief the need
for setting up a thorough investigation of the whole language problem.
As a result of it a new and extensive program of phonic instruction
should be experimented upon and gradually extended to all the schools of
the Islands. The investigation shows, furthermore, that an unmodified
English can not be expected to become the language of the schools
unless thousands of American teachers can be imported from the United
States. The financial study proves, furthermore, that the Islands cannot now finance that program. Until Filipino teachers can be given
more adequate training there remains, then, but one makeshift solution.
A scheme of phonic instruction based on the use of the phonograph
must be designed and given widespread use. Children can learn to
speak a language only by imitation. In order to pronounce correctly,
to learn to use rhythm and accent correctly, they must hear those elements of language spoken correctly and must be carefully trained in
the discrimination of minute refinements of speech. Auditory and articulatory training must go hand in hand and must be based on accurate
models. Because of their poor command of English, the Filipino
teachers cannot now set accurate models. It is feasible, however, to
design a system of phonic instruction to be taught by the teachers