It used to be that language was associated with nationality. English was long identified with the British or Americans, as Deutsch was to Germans, Spanish to Spanish people, French to the French, and so on. But how the world has changed. Today, we find many people in Africa speaking French as their official language, as others in South America speak Spanish or Portuguese. In Asia, the Philippines has had English as an official language since the turn of the 20th century, after being exposed to Spanish for more than 300 years.

The story does not end there. Many countries have more than one official language. Some even have three or four at the same time, such as Switzerland where the official languages are German, French, Italian, and Romansh, but not Swiss because there is no entity called the Swiss language. And South Africa has 11 official languages, English being one of them. Until recently, even the Philippines used Spanish, English, and Filipino as official languages all at the same time.

But to most people, the biggest surprise is that there are many kinds of English used by English-speaking people around the world. There is such a thing as British English, American English, Canadian English, Australian English, Indian English, and even Philippine English, to name a few.

Against this backdrop, the annual conference of the International Association for World Englishes (IAWE) was held recently in the Philippines’ historic city of Cebu and hosted this year by the Linguistic Society of the Philippines (LSP).

This year’s theme was “Connecting Cultures in World Englishes: Convergence and Diversity in Language, Literature, and Pedagogy.” The topic areas included the following: Literary creativity in South, Southeast and East Asia; Philippine English in the World Englishes paradigm; World Englishes, Asian Englishes, and competing norms; World Englishes and the ASEAN lingua franca; World Englishes and language use in media; World Englishes and the ASEAN workplace; and World Englishes vs. English as Lingua Franca.

The conference brought together almost a hundred authorities in linguistics and language education from 30 countries, who were joined by 40 select linguists/language educators from the host country, the Philippines. Among the Who’s Who from overseas were Dr. Larry Smith (executive director of the International Association of World Englishes), Dr. Daniel Davis (president of the International Association for World Englishes), Dr. Yasukato Yano (Professor Emeritus of Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan), and Dr. Eyamba Bokamba (Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).
They led a huge foreign delegation that comprised 80 percent of the attendees. The conference featured 13 thematic panel speakers and 120 paper presenters, 80 of whom were non-Filipinos.

But more than the number, the conference led to some important breakthroughs, one of which is the possible adoption of new concepts in teaching English as a second language (ESL) and the use of this concept in new instructional materials for ESL in major schools around the world.

On the human interest side, the conference projected an excellent image of the Philippines as a country using English as a second language. Thanks should be extended to the IAWE for supporting the LSP in its bid to play a more active role in the development of English as a world language, not only in the area of linguistics but also in pedagogy.

The IAWE is an international organization that provides a forum for the exchange of ideas among linguists, applied linguists, sociolinguists, writers, scholars, and educators on the philosophy of World Englishes and issues of convergence and diversity in the three major aspects of World Englishes, namely, language, literature, and pedagogy. Thus, the IAWE endeavors to make English a major tool for unity and development across cultures fostering respect for the various users of English, who are mostly non-native speakers of the language.

Correspondingly, the LSP has equally remained dynamic through the years. Its organization was patterned after the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) and was the brainchild of Dr. Bonifacio Sibayan of the Philippine Normal College (now the Philippine Normal University) and Dr. Ernesto Constantino of the University of the Philippines who worked together on language projects at the University of Hawaii in the late 1960s.

Committed to the advancement of research on Philippine languages, the LSP was formally established in 1969 with Dr. Teodoro Llamzon of the Ateneo de Manila University as president, Dr. Bonifacio Sibayan as vice president, Dr. Edilberto Dagot of the Philippine Normal College as secretary, and Dr. Fe Otanes also of the Philippine Normal College as treasurer. They were LSP’s first board of officers.

The next set of officers included the late Bro. Andrew Gonzalez, FSC, of De La Salle University, who provided a home to the LSP Secretariat at DLSU; the late Dr. Emy Pascasio of the Ateneo de Manila University, Dr. Ma. Lourdes Bautista of De La Salle University, Dr. Ma. Clara Ravina of the University of the Philippines (Diliman), Dr. Angela Sarile of the University of the Philippines (Manila), Dr. Stephen Quakenbush of SIL Philippines, Dr. Emma Castillo and Prof. Edilberta Bala both of the Philippine Normal University. Up to now, some of them provide direction to the LSP Board and serve as the organization’s esteemed advisers.

In 2006, the management of the LSP was handed over to a selected group of young linguists and language educators. Keeping with its tradition, the current officers have been active designing lasting programs and activities for LSP members and colleagues in linguistics and language education.
These activities include the hosting of an international conference in the Philippines on World Englishes in 2007, the offering of courses in Linguistics at the 1st Philippine Linguistic Institute (PLI) in the summer of 2008, and the recent holding of the 15th Conference of the International Association for World Englishes in Cebu City.

As conference director of IAWE 2009, I take this moment to thank the local and international paper presenters and participants, who showed active participation and provided full support to the LSP during the conference on October 22-24, 2009. The conference served as a means to bring new ideas to the fore, thanks to the LSP Executive Board led by Dr. Danilo Dayag of De La Salle University-Manila.

The event was also a fitting venue to pay tribute to one of LSP’s pillars and a towering figure in Philippine linguistics, Dr. Ma. Lourdes Bautista, who was given the first Br. Andrew Gonzalez FSC Lifetime Achievement Award for her invaluable contribution to the study of Philippine English in particular and Asian Englishes in general.

With such remarkable efforts being undertaken by major universities and professional organizations of linguists worldwide, it is no wonder that the momentum continues to grow for English (and the various Englishes) as the language for concerted unity and development, as well as lasting peace and understanding.