The Century-Long Engineered Value of the English Language and the Neoliberal Labor in the Philippines

Mariyel Hiyas C. Liwanag

The neocolonial entanglements of the Philippines with the United States, as intensified by globalization, have maintained the status of English as a privileged language in the country. Learning and using English is inevitable in the Philippines, especially due to globalization. People across cultural, linguistic, and geographical boundaries are now closely intertwined with one another due to the advancement in technology and transportation. This research intends to investigate the link between English and globalized discourses of labor. This research asks the question: How is linguistic skill valued within the framework of neoliberal labor? This general question is answered through supplementary inquiries that each represents a site for the production and circulation of such discourses about English: 1) How does the semi-colonial, semi-feudal setup of the Philippines contribute to the construction of the neoliberal labor?; 2) How is the educational policy in the Philippines shaped by the global market historically? With the pending policies and mindset by the Marcos Jr. administration regarding the English language, further discussion on language policy is significant. This paper will explain the historical creative design of neoliberalism in creating an engineered economic value of English in a Third World country, creative in such a way that it creates an illusion of choice in employment and that it covertly encroaches on our language planning.