Governing Language Ideologies of Philippine English Learners: A Literature Review

Abstract

The historical and theoretical advancements of Philippine English (PhE) are evident in the existing pieces of literature related to it. Through these, this paper employed a descriptive qualitative research design to review and synthesize Filipinos’ language ideologies (LIs) toward PhE. As guided by modified thematic synthesis, this review analyzed 37 related pieces of literature published in peer-reviewed journals between 2013 and 2025. The analysis emerged 4 general LIs toward PhE: Existence and Persistence of Linguistic Imperialism, Legitimate Variant of English, Ambivalence and Resistance toward PhE, and a Tool for Socio-Economic Advancements. Moreover, 3 LIs emerged in the macro-level domain: Gatekeeper of Global Economic Position, Policy-Practice Disjunction and Covert Linguistic Imperialism, and Linguistic Assimilation and Dominance. Conversely, 3 LIs also emerged in the micro-level domain: Linguistic Stratification in Local Social Contexts, Stigma and Preference for External Standards, and Localization, Endonormative Assertion, and Pedagogical Shift. Through these results, it is concluded that Filipinos view English as the central language while other minority languages are peripheral. Moreover, it is asserted that the language policies of the government cause a linguistic divide in the micro-level domain, which results in linguistic stratification that favors PhE. Finally, an ethnographic or case study is recommended to capture the language practices of Filipinos.