Ever since the introduction of English in the country through the American teachers called Thomasites, Filipinos have already adopted into their lives English as their second language (Atencio, 2001).
According to Mariñas & Ditapat (2000), English is already part of the educational curricula in the primary, secondary, and even tertiary levels, which in fact, should be an indicator that Filipinos are proficient in the language. 2 However, the proficiency of Filipinos in English have slowly deteriorated, according to Fernando & Azucena (2006), despite the fact that many of these people have gained access to the advanced technological devices that would aid them to learn English easier. According to Macasinag (2011), the SWS survey was commissioned by Promoting English Proficiency (PEP) in March 2006. The largest deterioration was in the self assessment of ability to speak in English which fell from 54% in September 2000 to 32% in March 2006, a deterioration of 22% in six years.
This actuality may negatively impact the Filipinos’ global competitiveness when it comes to foreign trade, communication, and others. If this problem further resonates, not only will the Filipinos have a hard time adapting into environments where English is frequently involved, they will also lose the recognition of the world as the best speakers of English in Southeast Asia.
