The Program
Description
The US Department of Education, Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad (F-H GPA) program awarded funds to the University of Hawaii to conduct the Advanced Filipino Abroad (AFA) Program in the Philippines from 1991 till 2011 (a total of twenty summers). These summer immersion programs provided scores of American teachers and students the opportunity to learn Filipino (Tagalog) in a Philippine rural and urban environment. Two hundred participants have been trained by AFAP since 1991. This program draws on the rich experience that the American Project Directors have gained through 19 years of conducting this program.
The program’s goals are to provide American students and teachers advanced instruction in Filipino language and culture; promote scholarly cooperation between the US and the Philippines; provide participants the skills necessary to do research in the Philippines; and provide as well as test a body of pedagogical materials for intensive advanced language study abroad programs and finally field test proficiency examinations in Filipino.
The AFA Program was the recipient of two prestigious awards. In 2008 it was recognized by the Filipino Language Commission for having trained almost 200 American students and teachers in advanced level Filipino. In 2007, AFAP was recognized for its significant contribution to the promotion of Filipino language in the United States. This award was given by De La Salle University-Manila.
The Advanced Filipino Abroad (AFA) program is an intensive eight-week advanced Filipino languagetraining program held in Bulacan and Ateneo in Quezon City. It aims to fill a void in the academic community by providing 3rd year level students a one-of-a-kind opportunity to acquire the linguistic foundation necessary to engage in academic research, professional discourse, and cultural interaction with all segments of Philippine society. An important aspect of the program will be a four-week stay with Filipino families in Bulacan, a rural area. This helps immensely in enhancing cultural thrust of the Program.
This coming summer, June 11 – August 6, 2011, the program will be at Bulacan State University (June 11 – July 10, 2011). This University is in the province of Bulacan considered the center of the best variety of Tagalog spoken in the country. It is also the seat of many important Philippine historical events. The second site will be at Ateneo De Manila University (July 11 – August 6, 2011). Ateneo, like De LaSalle is one of the very few top private universities in the country.
Schedule
This immersion program focuses on advanced-level language acquisition and consists of a structured academic program of four hours of language instruction every morning and two to three hours of taskbased activities in the afternoons and field trips during weekends as a group. The AFAP intensive program is equivalent to two semesters of language study. Instruction is given in small groups taught by in-country language teachers. They have extensive experience in teaching Filipino as a foreign language. Topics for instruction in Filipino will focus on culture, history, literature, arts, economics, political issues, and globalization. One topic is discussed each week and capped by a lecture in Filipino by an expert on the subject.
Requirements
The eight-week program ends in the completion of three projects: a research paper, a formal debate, and a presentation of a novel and its analysis, all in Filipino. All these major activities are presented before an audience of students of the University and judged by selected members of the faculty. Participants are encouraged to select their own topic at the beginning of the program. This experience not only adds immeasurably to their language competence; it develops greater awareness and sensitivity about another culture, and possibly of their own. In language study, immersion is the best guarantee for increased proficiency. The language immersion provided by this program is only possible in an in-country setting. An innovative activity introduced in 2008 was the immersion of a group in a town unfamiliar to them. They are assigned to write about the place’s history, food, family, etc. The product is an attractive coffee table book which is left in the town as AFAP’s gift.
Advanced Filipino Credits
Participants are required to enroll in Filipino 303 (Advanced Filipino), 6 credits, and pay an administrative fee of about $200. This arrangement with the University of Hawaii Outreach College is not funded by the Department of Education grant. Regular tuition at the University of Hawaii is $600- $800 per credit.