Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T15:30:47.540Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Internet and indigenous language use: A Filipino case study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

Maya F. Watters  and
Paul A. Watters
Maya F. Watters
Affiliation:
Science and Mathematics Education Centre, Curtin University of Technology WA 6845, AUSTRALIA
Paul A. Watters
Affiliation:
Department of Computing, Macquarie University NSW 2109, AUSTRALIA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Internet is a potentially non-coercive technology which has the capacity to facilitate the development and dissemination of locally-relevant and culturally-appropriate discourse. Many countries, especially those in Europe, have moved to utilise the Internet as a resource for expressing and revitalising their autochthonous languages, in response to cultural pressures from globalisation. However, there has been little evaluation of whether the Internet might give rise to a renaissance of indigenous language use in the postcolonial Asia-Pacific region. In this paper, we examine the case of the Philippines, which this year celebrates a centenary of independence from Spain, to determine whether introduction of the Internet has in fact enhanced the provision of indigenous language information services. We sampled 1% of the Internet sites listed in a popular search engine, in each second-level domain (educational, commercial, government and non-government organisations), and found very little evidence of indigenous language use in any of the sites in these categories. This suggests that the Internet has not yet realised its potential as a medium for indigenous language use in the Philippines, but that greater awareness of its capabilities in this arena might change the situation in the future.

Type
Part II. Contemporary Perspectives
Information
South Pacific Journal of Psychology , Volume 10 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Asia-Pacific Language Research , 1999 , pp. 54 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © University of Papua New Guinea and the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Territory University, Australia 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Augoustinos, M., & Walker, I. (1995). Social Cognition: An Integrated Introduction. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Bernardo, A. (1996). Task specificity in the use of words in mathematics: Evidence from bilingual problem solvers. International Journal of Psychology, 31, 13–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Can, S.C. (1996). Social psychology in Malawi: Historical or developmental? Psychology and Developing Societies, 8, 177–197.Google Scholar
Cair, S.C., McAuliffe, E., & MacLachlan, M. (1998). Psychology of Aid. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dixon, R.M.W. (1997). The Rise and Fall of Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gergen, K. & Gergen, M. (1971). International assistance in a psychological perspective. In Keeton, G.W. & Schwarzenberger, G. (Eds.). The Yearbook of World Affairs, 1971. London: Stevens and Sons.Google Scholar
Gleesen, F. (1995). The impact of globalization on the representation of Australian English in the media: Casual speech patterns: What can they reveal? Working Papers in Linguistics (University of Melbourne), 15, 38–44.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, A. (1996a). Incongruity between the Language of Law and the Language of Court Proceedings: The Philippine Experience. Language and Communication, 16, 229–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gonzalez, A. (1996b). Using two/three languages in Philippine classrooms: Implications for policies, strategies and practices. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 17, 210–219.Google Scholar
Gottlieb, N. (1998). Language nationalism? Kanji on the Internet. South Pacific Journal of Psychology: Asia-Pacific Language Research Special Issue, 10.Google Scholar
Lo Bianco, J. (1996). Institutional responses: Empowering minority children. TESOL Quarterly, 30, 586–590.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Machill, M. (1997). European Journal of Communication, 12, 479–509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malone, A. (1995). Orality and communication on the Internet. Working Papers in Linguistics (University of Melbourne), 15, 57–76.Google Scholar
Marai, L. (1997). The development of psychology in Papua New Guinea: A brief review. South Pacific Journal of Psychology, 9, 1–6.Google Scholar
McArthur, T. (1997). The printed word in the English-speaking world. English Today, 13, 10–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKay, S. (1997). Multilingualism in the United States. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 17, 242–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montanano, R. (1993). Higher order cognitive skills in Filipino: Towards measurable criteria for describing Cummins' CALP. Philippine Journal of Linguistics, 24, 73–85.Google Scholar
Quilis, A. (1995). Spanish in the Philippines. In Silva-Corvalan, C. (Ed.), Spanish in Four Continents: Studies in Language Contact and Bilingualism. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, pp 293–301.Google Scholar
Rafael, V. (1995). Taglish, or the Phantom Power of the Lingua Franca. Public Culture, 8, 101–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santos, H. (1998). Extinction of a Philippine script. South Pacific Journal of Psychology: Asia-Pacific Language Research Special Issue, 10.Google Scholar
Scott, P. (Unpublished). What do we have to know this for? The broadcasting for remote aboriginal communities scheme and tertiary curricula. Available on the WWW at [http://www.newcastle.edu.au/department/ma/research/respscot.htm].Google Scholar
Social Weather Station Survey. (1994). Survey findings on the use of the English language. Philippine Journal of Linguistics, 25, 85–93.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. & Yavalanavanua, S. (1997). Linguistic relativity in Fiji: A preliminary study. South Pacific Journal of Psychology, 8.Google Scholar
Tollefson, J. (1993). Language Policy and Power: Yugoslavia, the Philippines, and Southeast Asian Refugees in the United States. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 103, 73–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watters, P.A. & Watters, M.F. (1997). Implications of distributed information technology for South Pacific development. South Pacific Journal of Psychology, 9, 75–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watters, P.A., Watters, M.F., & Carr, S.C. (1998). Evaluating internet information services in the Asia-Pacific region. Internet Research, 8, 266–271.Google Scholar