Expanding Philippine Language Education through Offering Ilokano as a Foreign Language Elective

Ruiz, Joy Angelica Olay Frieda

大阪大学大学院人文学研究科

Ilokano

Starting from April 2022, an Ilokano language elective began to be offered in Osaka University. This paper is a report on this Ilokano class, フィリピン語 Va (Filipino Va), and focuses on description and evaluation of class activities and challenges faced. The class is open to undergraduate students. There was a total of six third year students from the undergraduate Filipino program. The students enrolled are multiple language learners of Filipino, English, and other foreign languages. Disadvantages on simultaneous learning of two foreign languages have been observed. The students in this Ilokano class often mix Ilokano and Filipino words. However, the students seem to show confidence in constructing sentences using various patterns that have not yet been discussed in class. In addition, examination of dialogue construction and final drama presentation showed that the students who had prior experience learning Filipino were creative in making dialogues and created original plots and sentences. This is attributed to their awareness of the similarities in linguistic features of llokano and Filipino.