Notes on the use of Philippine Literature in Spanish in Teaching Spanish in the Philippines

Abstract

Language and culture are interrelated. In the Philippines, Spanish is at the core of the postcolonial Filipino cultural identity. This found expression in Fil-hispanic literature. Yet changing networks of power relations have gradually revalued it: while it was once one of the country’s official languages, it is now taught as a foreign language, its literature unread and unknown. This paper is a theoretical approach to the possibility of integrating Fil-hispanic literary texts in teaching Spanish in the Philippines. It proposes didactic activities to be piloted at the University of the Philippines Diliman. In rationalizing this possibility, these premises must be considered: that there is an undergraduate program in Hispanic Studies in this university and that with Spanish as both cultural and linguistic patrimony in the country, students can take advantage of the cultural component of the language in a way that is experiential and personally relevant. This paper aims to contribute to the development of curricula and teaching materials that promote the study of Spanish in the country not as a foreign language but an integral key to understanding the Filipino identity in the modern world.