101 © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
I. P. Martin (ed.), Reconceptualizing English Education in a Multilingual Society,
English Language Education 13, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7528-5_7
Chapter 7
An Endocentric Approach to English
Grammar Teaching
Alejandro S. Bernardo
Abstract This chapter discusses the endocentric approach to English grammar
teaching that Filipino ELT practitioners may adopt as a pedagogical philosophy. In
this approach, language teachers adhere to General American English (GAE) and
educated Philippine English (PE) in teaching grammar. Doing this entails making
grammar instruction corpus-driven, designing Philippine and American English-
based ELT syllabi, conducting pedagogical acceptability judgment tests, featuring
both Philippine English and American English grammar in ESL textbooks and work
texts, incorporating the World Englishes (WE) framework in textbooks and work
texts, and testing learners on varieties of English.
Keywords Endocentric approach to grammar teaching · Philippine English · World
Englishes · Pedagogical acceptability judgment tests
Introduction
What is more remarkable than the historical accounts of English in the Philippines
is the fact that the nonnative speakers’ constant use of the transplanted language has
given birth to a local variety, known as Philippine English. A survey of foreign and
local studies published in the past years shows that there has been a sustained
attempt to advocate the use of local norms as a teaching model in academic settings.
As early as the 1980s, the formal appreciation of the different varieties of English in
the educational system, particularly in the English as Second Language (ESL)
enterprise and pedagogy, has been advanced. Further, now that language learners
thrive in a classroom environment that is no longer monolingual and monocultural,
language teachers are confronted by the complexities of teaching in multilingual
contexts. And if the language taught is English, the questions that may be raised are
countless. These questions may include the following: “Which variety or varieties
of English must students learn and internalize?” “Whose norm(s) or standard(s)
A. S. Bernardo (*)
Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines
e-mail: alejandro.bernardo@ust.edu.ph