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Sterling Plata, Associate Professor in the Department of English and Applied Linguistics of De La Salle University in the Philippines, is a person with strong interest in testing and assessment methods of the English language, who combines well research and practice. She believes that the English language skills are essential for the Philippines in order to achieve economic growth in the advancing economic exchange in the ASEAN, and she challenges the technique called "portfolio assessment" to help the students learn independently. Her viewpoint had much in common with Kanda University of International Studies’ longtime commitment to the "Independent learning" education style. (Text: Takeshi Yamaguchi, Photos: Yutaro Yamaguchi, /titles omitted)
For Sterling Plata who was fond of reading English books from an early age, it was perfectly natural to major in English. When Plata entered the Graduate School of De La Salle University, she majored in "English for specific purpose". Together with her academic study in the field, in order to teach English as required in the field of work, Plata had to build a curriculum, and got involved in various training projects.
For example, in a project for the Philippine Airlines, she did training on the topic how to write "adjustment letters" to the staff who works in the luggage claim area. Plata taught the English expression required for the processing of these letters when an airliner passenger has lost his or her baggage.
In addition, the labor costs in the Philippines are cheap compared to Europe and the United States, and since English is the official language, there are many call center companies with U.S. capital. The query calls made from the United States are answered by staff who is on the other side of the Pacific Ocean in the Philippines. Plata was involved in one company’s project that made her study thoroughly the differences between the Philippine and the American English.
"Philippine English problem is in the subject-verb agreement. When the subject changes, the verb does not change. In the background of these issues there are Philippines-specific circumstances. First of all, we do not have a reading culture in the Philippines. Much of the information is obtained from the TV rather than a newspaper or a book. The parents who are struggling cannot buy a book to their children. Schools lack budget, and sometimes there are cases when not enough teaching materials can be distributed."
Plata says there is also a problem with the English education in school. Many of the junior high school and high school English classes dedicate a lot of time on grammar, reading comprehension, and writing. On the other hand, listening and communication lessons seem to be put off. In high school, some English tutors teach very difficult grammar.
Plata is currently responsible for courses to train English teachers at the university, so she sometimes emphasizes that "since high school students won’t necessarily become linguistics scholars, it is not necessary to teach them such a difficult grammar". Plata points out that reading environment at home as well as teaching materials shortages and tutoring content biases in school are stopping the Filipinos to improve their English ability.(1/4)