The English curriculum is first based on the Taft Commission which was established by former United States President William McKinley on March 16, 1900. The commission establishes English as a medium of instruction in the Philippine education system. William Howard Taft, the head of the Philippine Commission at that time implemented highly centralized public school systems and brought around 600 American teachers to teach English to the Filipinos. The implementation of English subjects has been around since this time until now; various orders such as 1989 NSEC, 2010 SEC, RA 10533, etc. have English as apparent in the curriculum of the students.
Terms such as language, learning, and thinking are all interrelated. The basis of all communication is language. Because of language, rules and systems can be systemized within a community and are used to explore, communicate, and molds culture which is an important factor in understanding the identity of the self, and establish friendly relationships (which makes language and communication as the foundation of the relationships between people), creating experiences, the reflection of an individual's thoughts and actions, and contributing to the betterment of the community. People might encounter language barriers that might confuse people, English as a medium helps enable people to communicate information which helps engage to a more diverse society. Thus, language is central to the development of learning areas for people.
The English language is also a dynamic social process which integrates social environments and conditions that also incorporate values, traditions, cultures, and beliefs in the thinking process of the people. By having multi-literacy skills, students will be able to respect and be tactful when it comes to sociocultural diversity and learn that every communication greatly depends on the purpose, context, and audience. The English curriculum aims to develop literacy skills that enable the learners to learn, understand, and acquire knowledge regarding the English language, which is the most widely used language of communication in the world.
The core learning area standard of the English curriculum is for the learner to exhibit proficiency and ability in the mastery of English language basic skills, communicate appropriately, become fluent and accurate in oral and written language for the purposeful diversity in a different academic and social context while performing real life tasks required to cope with the requests of a functionally literate and efficient and capable citizen.
There are 4 key stage standards in the K-12 English Curriculum
As a summary:
Grade 3: Learners will be able to show motivation and curiosity to explore and experience the written and oral English language for them to express themselves and also communicate to fellow learners proficiently.
Grade 6: Learners will be able to create deep meanings from texts and analyze them using creative and suitable written and oral language that is grammatically correct.
Grade 10: Learners will be able to explain/clarify, assess, and constitute relevant information in texts and discussions of the learning area.
Grade 12: Learners will be able to analyze and assess the integration of communication and language skills in the construction of deeper understanding of meanings using the written and oral language, unique genres, and digressive contexts for the personal and professional purposes of the learning area.
Listening Comprehension: encapsulates the understanding of multiple procedures involving the oral/speaking of the English language.
Oral Language: development of expressing speech and words to convey knowledge and feelings.
Phonological Awareness: develop the awareness and the ability to work with the phonological/sound structure of different words to understand word reading.
Grammar: develop the correct grammatical structure of the English language, including sentence structures.
Vocabulary Development: Learn various acquisition of the English words for learners to understand and also use in communication.
Book and Print Knowledge: Understand the essence of books and prints as well as acquire knowledge on the text contained inside.
Alphabet Knowledge - Learn, recognize, write, name, and identify the sounds of the English alphabet letters.
Attitude: Develop the expression of attitudes regarding the feelings and thought processes about a certain topic.
Study Strategy: Applying the best setup of study materials that greatly benefit the student’s learning style.
Reading Comprehension: develop the ability to process texts, analyze and understand the meanings regarding the text, and to incorporate with the learner’s prior knowledge.
Writing/Composition: develop the ability to compose writing structures similar to that of a writer.
Phonics and Word Recognition: Recognize the spoken phonological/sound structure of different words to understand and relate the patterns of letters in word reading through patterns in generalizable ways.
Fluency: develop the expression of speaking the English language easily and accurately with good articulation of the spoken words..
Spelling: develop the understanding and composition of forming words through letterings from the accepted usage of these letters.
In implementing the curriculum from a teacher’s perspective, the curriculum’s goals should be able to incorporate and integrate with the modern and current trends of the society. This involves planning a curriculum while keeping in mind the Covid-19 pandemic which brings learners, teachers, and the school organization to online learning. Additionally, curriculum should be based on the essentials of the current society. This includes molding learners to become the ideal citizen people expect to be. With this in mind, curriculum should be carefully planned, alongside with the teachers, with deep and analyzed context, stemming from past experiences of the teachers, with its corresponding reflection and evaluation on each stage/process of the development of the curriculum. Therefore, gradual intervention and upgrading of the curriculum is a definite must.
When producing the curriculum, the curriculum development teams/specialists and the teachers, with great knowledge on implementing education and promotion of differentiated learning, should act as an important element/factor that represents the agent of the demands of the community; thus, they are vital and essential in creating the curriculum needed for the learners. The teachers have many responsibilities that need to be incorporated into the curriculum. This includes appreciation and love for the job as well as developing learner interests and skills in a certain area. This brings to lesson/learning plans that are implemented from the curriculum which includes categories such as topic learning outcomes (which articulates the learning competencies from the curriculum guide), prelectio, lectio (or the development of the lessons), reflection, action, and evaluation which greatly gives opportunities of the learners to learn and apply the lessons not just in the classroom setting but also in real life situations.