Rosita G. Galang

Filipino-Americans, the second largest subgroup of the fastest growing Asian-
American group ( O'Hare & Felt, 1991), are a diverse population. This subgroup
includes immigrants from the Philippines and American-born or naturalized
American citizens who are of Filipino ancestry or mixed parentage such as the
American Indian Filipinos, Mexican Filipino-Americans, and Chinese
Filipino-Americans. It is therefore a myth that Filipino-Americans are only
those who were born in the Philippines and came here as immigrants,
sojourners, exiles, or expatriates. Like other Asian-Americans, their diversity is
a result of differences not only in their immigration history and experience, but
also in their regions of origin as well as linguistic, educational, religious, and
socioeconomic backgrounds.

The majority of Filipino immigrants grew up in the Philippine society with
values different from those held by U.S. society. Many born in the United States
grow up in a cohesive Filipino-American community which has a strong sense
of belonging to a unique group sharing a certain set of values similar to those
held by immigrants. Thus, there are Philippine-born and American-born
Filipino-Americans who may be in search of Filipino or American identity and
oftentimes are torn between two legacies, the Filipino and the American history,
language, and culture. These two groups should be considered when discussing
the education of Filipino-Americans.

In this chapter, the linguistic perspective on the education of
Filipino-American students is presented in five main areas: (1) linguistic
backgrounds of Filipino-American students, (2) their implications for instruction
in English, (3) contrastive description of Filipino and English, (4) possible
difficulties of Filipino-American learners of English, and (5) strategies and
suggestions for English language development.

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