Language Unbound: The English Zone Campaign By Clara Mortel, High School Faculty Member, English Department Posted:

Friday September 03, 2010 12:40 PM "The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for." Ludwig Wittgenstein In an age when words seem to dissipate on a daily basis and when regard for stru cture has been reduced to what is convenient, language seems to have taken a bac k seat in terms of priorities in the life of modern man. Rarely are there peopl e who bother with syntax and spelling and instead choose to merely dwell on emot icons to serve their communication purposes. To make matters worse, this phenom enon is coupled with the mentality of language being an alienating device; depen ding on whether they can speak English fluently and on a regular basis. Being b orn in this generation, the youth of today seems to be confined to this reality; a reality from where they soon must break free. In an effort to address this growing concern, St. Scholasticas College-Manila Hig h School Unit, spearheaded by the English Area, has launched a vigorous campaign that focuses on the usage and practice of the English Language. Recognizing tha t there is a definite need to improve the students grasp of the language, the are a has created the English Zone Campaign. With the belief that practice makes per fect or at least leads the way towards improvement, the campaign transforms the entire High School Area into an English Speaking Zone. As such, all high school students are being encouraged to speak in English as they attend their classes a nd even as they go about their other daily activities outside the four walls of their classroom. Coming from the No to Nosebleed Campaign last year, the English Area recognized that efforts have to be taken to the next level to continue to work towards grea ter English proficiency among its students. If the focus of the previous campaig n was to weaken the notion that speaking in English gives people nosebleeds, thi s year it is centered on improving the comfort level of the students with the En glish language by emboldening them to actually make use of it. To provide luster to the campaign, the English Area awards English Speaker on th e Go badges to students who have been observed to align themselves with the visi on of the campaign. If they are heard speaking in English constantly, or have d one so in unexpected situations, or have been using words from their respective year levels vocabulary list, they are given the said badges. These badges are th en collected per section, and the section that garners the most number of badges in a month, provided that all of the students in that section have at least one badge, will be declared as the Best English Speaking Class for their year level . This award then corresponds to the availment of certain incentives that the m embers of the winning class can enjoy in their English classes. The campaign is set to run from July 2010 until March 2011. During this time, t he English Area hopes that students perspectives are adjusted and facility of lan guage is broadened. For as Wittgenstein did believe, "the limits of ones languag e can very well prove to be signposts of ones own intellectual ability."