Does passing any of the required English proficiency tests a measure of a Filipino nurse's fluency in the English language?
I have read many of the messages posted here and to be honest and frank with everyone, I think that the quality of the English classes taught in Philippine schools has definitely deteriorated and is reflected in the way the Filipino nurses express their thoughts in English when posting their messages here.
Granted that English is a second language to the vast majority of the Filipinos, and to the Filipino nurses in particular, in the Philippines English is taught in grade school, in high school and in college. Therefore, is it fair to expect a college educated Filipino nurse to be fluent in English, or is it not?
If a Filipino nurse is not fluent in English, should that nurse be required to take remedial English classes before that nurse can be hired overseas?
What are your thoughts? Come on, don't be afraid to post your message ...in English!
Yes we Filipinos were taught the English language since we were in Kindergarten but let me ask you this question...do you think person "A"s English proficiency who was educated in a public school all his life (except of course during his nursing student years) could compare to that of person "B" who was taught in a private school? Of course not!
I'm sorry I'm not following you joyee0221. What do you mean exactly? I don't know how it's structured there in the Philippines, but here in the US, you have some excellent public schools and some horrible public schools. You also have some excellent private schools, and some horrible private schools. Yes, there are some horrible private schools in the US, and it might not be academically but in other areas. There are some public schools that are excellent that they also are competitive with the private schools. So I'm not understanding what you mean. You have to be a little more specific on what you're asking exactly.
I believe that you were taught English since kindergarten, but do you really use it a lot outside of school? Is it used a lot at home? I took the same foreign language in junior high and high school, and although I did learn the language, we didn't use it outside of school as much. We used both English and Spanish at home depending on who we were speaking with.
I work with some Filipino nurses who have excellent English skills, and I also work with some Filipino nurses who have horrible English skills. Could it be that maybe not all Filipinos practiced it outside the classroom as much compared to those that did and have excellent English skills?
Specializes in Neuro-Surgery, Med-Surg, Home Health.
I'm sorry I'm not following you joyee0221. What do you mean exactly? I don't know how it's structured there in the Philippines, but here in the US, you have some excellent public schools and some horrible public schools.
Generally speaking, the public schools in the Philippines are inferior to most private schools in the Philippines. In the elementary levels in the public schools, the classes are as big as 75 pupils per one teacher! How can the Philippine public school teachers become effective educators when they are so overwhelmed with so many pupils to teach? And the pay is so low that the public schools can't attract enough teachers with good scholastic background. I've heard several of these Philippine public school teachers speak horrible English grammar when they were interviewed on t.v. and the clips were shown here in the U.S. via cable channel. Poor quality of teachers oftentimes produce poor quality of students. Garbage in, garbage out. This is the sad state of the public education in the Philippines.
And many elected politicians would rather steal from the public coffer rather than improve the many dire situations existing in the Philippines, particularly public education.
Thank you DailyRN it makes perfect sense now. It's good that it was clairfied because I wasn't understanding what the original poster meant. That is a very brutal teacher:student ratio. WOW, how can anybody learn anything. Those classrooms must be very big to house all those students.
Specializes in Neuro-Surgery, Med-Surg, Home Health.
Thank you DailyRN it makes perfect sense now. It's good that it was clairfied because I wasn't understanding what the original poster meant. That is a very brutal teacher:student ratio. WOW, how can anybody learn anything. Those classrooms must be very big to house all those students.
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I'm glad I was able to clarify some particular topics for you. Also in many public schools, there are not enough classrooms to go around. So some classes are conducted from 6am-10am, 10am-2pm, and 2pm-6pm. Therefore, students get only four hours of instructions per day.
Some of the classes are taught in hallways, stairs or even outside. These are the sad situations in Philippine public education. Some of the graduates from these public schools go on to nursing schools. Their basic knowledge and command of the English language leaves a lot of room for improvement.
The upper middle income families and the rich can send their children to top private schools in the Philippines that have excellent teachers. Many of the kids from these families learn English well early in life, but some of them are spoiled and don't think education is important because they think their parent's money 'will take care of everything for the rest of their life'. But this is another topic altogether.
joyee0221
4 Posts
Yes we Filipinos were taught the English language since we were in Kindergarten but let me ask you this question...do you think person "A"s English proficiency who was educated in a public school all his life (except of course during his nursing student years) could compare to that of person "B" who was taught in a private school? Of course not!