In celebrating Filipino Language Month in August, what is more timely than featuring our Victorian School of Languages (VSL) Filipino language instructor Mrs Rebecca Perez and some reflective excerpts on her VSL journey, valuable experience in teaching the Filipino language and culture, the celebration of Filipino Language Month, her experience with COVID-19 remote learning, recent statistics on the use of the Filipino language, and her views and great suggestions on the role of Filipino families and communities to support language teaching and learning to promote our language and culture across generations. Well done Mrs Perez, for keeping the Filipino Language and culture alive in Victoria!
With high hopes, great enthusiasm, extensive experience, genuine passion for teaching, and my registration with the Victorian Institute for Teaching, I felt I had the confidence to apply for a Filipino teaching role at the VSL-Dandenong High School in 2008. And at the start of the academic year 2009, I became part of the VSL, huge thanks to approachable VSL-Dandenong Supervisor Mr Alan Feher, who guided me through the application process.
As I started teaching, I felt so happy and proud that I started to look forward to my Saturdays preparing lessons and activities that would keep my students engaged however, there was pressure as I was teaching VCE students who face end-of-year assessments and exams. Their desire, interest and effort to come to school every Saturday after an exhaustive week at the mainstream school were very inspiring, not to mention the family support they receive.
Providing my students the opportunities to deeply connect with their Filipino heritage while fostering a lifelong love for developing new knowledge and skills remain my main motivation to teach at the VSL, a diverse and multicultural school of more than 12,000 students and teaching 40 different languages in various Centres across Victoria, sometimes through Distance Education. VSL gave me so much joy and pride to use my teaching skills to benefit students not just in the classroom but in the larger community.
Learning the Filipino language and culture also provides opportunities for the students to discover and connect with their cultural background. During the Language and Culture Week Celebration, students showcase their unique talents in music, dance, poetry, and arts, and academic competitions like essay and story writing. There is also great interest in family-oriented Tagalog movies and those with deeper social and historical relevance. Filipino traditional food prepared by parents also awaits on the table to share and savour.
Things changed unexpectedly in 2020 when the world was hit by COVID-19, and remote learning became the best option for students. While some remained highly interested, it cannot be denied that there were those who struggled and eventually gave up, thus the decrease in enrolment. During these challenging times, parents/family support was vital, and as a teacher, flexibility, creativity and determination to support students were equally important. Going back to face to face classroom setting has meant engaging students even more as physical and mental health and wellbeing are also major considerations.
It has always been acknowledged that family and community engagement can enhance a school’s effort to improve outcomes for language studies. The roles played by parents in developing their children’s interest is crucial, such as exposure to the rich Filipino culture and the use of Filipino at home to develop children’s interest. Informed Decisions survey in 2021 revealed that 34.1% of people in Greater Melbourne spoke a language other than English at home, and 0.9 % of those spoke Filipino/Tagalog (an increase of 0.1% from 0.8% recorded in 2016). It is also important to note that Filipino ranked 10th amongst 103 languages spoken at home, indicating our position in the community in terms of the use of our language.
Although we have secured our place in the top 10, parents can still do so much by providing opportunities that will help children develop their Filipino language skills. Some great options include a subscription to Filipino TV channels that will enable children, in particular, to watch and hear Tagalog programs regularly, listening to community radio programs, family karaoke sessions featuring Tagalog Original Pilipino Music (OPM), participation, or just a mere presence during community festivals and celebrations, all these are exciting and practical activities. Even a simple dinner at home with traditional Filipino dishes, while children are encouraged to speak Filipino and interact with other family members during dinner, will surely create an atmosphere of learning and fun.
Outside school, the knowledge, skills and services that community members and organizations can share will help fill the gaps in language-specific resources, a common issue that language learners and even teachers face. When community members respond to language schools’ call for volunteers to teach and reinforce learning, they are doing their share to promote the language. However, the bottom line is for the community to help increase awareness among families about the existing opportunities for children to learn and love the Filipino language and culture.
