In an auspicious occasion as Linguistic Society of the Philippines celebrated its 50th founding anniversary, MSU-IIT’s delegates participated and presented their papers at the Linguistic Society of the Philippines (LSP) International Conference in De La Salle University, Manila, last March 7-9, 2019.
“LSP@50: Celebrating the Golden Era of Linguistics in the Philippines” was the theme of the #LSPIC2019. It provided a venue for researchers to discuss issues and themes on linguistics and its hyphenated fields, language education, and English Language Teaching.
The LSP’s Immediate Past President and LSPIC Convener, Dr. Shirley Dita, faculty from the Department of English and Applied Linguistics of DLSU said that three hundred papers from local and international institutions were received. Prof. Edgar W. Schneider of the University of Regensburg (Germany) delivered his keynote address. Dr. David Gil of Max Plank Institute (Germany), Prof. Low Ee Ling of Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and Dr. Marilu Madrunio of UST (Phils) were plenary speakers.
As for the MSU-IIT delegates, Prof. Venus Parmisana and Prof. Merceditha Alicando were invited as session chairs and presented their papers: “#LookAndFeel: Cultural and Language Semiology in University Websites” and “Evaluation Schema in the Narratives of Sendong Survivors”, respectively.
Other presenters were Claire Anne D. Jimenez and Jan Paul Daigdigan (AB English students), together Prof. Gergie Ambato (now faculty of MSU-Naawan) and Joseph Casibual (lecturer at Western Mindanao State University), both were MAELS alumni.
Another worthy of MSU-IIT’s laud is Prof. Honeylet Dumoran who bagged as one of the 7 shortlisted for Outstanding Graduate Paper. Dumoran, an APDP grantee from the Department of English, is pursuing her Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics at the University of the Philippines.
“As a student of linguistics, I have never been as excited as I am today about the direction of language scholarship in the country. I hope it will all redound to us making better judgments and more informed decisions about language policies—may they be academic or social”, said Prof. Dumoran.
Also in attendance was Prof. Maridette Molina, a candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in UP. Engaging with fellow linguists, language education scholars and some mentors, the conference participants rendered not only insights into new teaching paradigms and directions but also opportunities to forge international and national collaborations.
The De La Salle University professor who famously lambasted in a Facebook post the actress Agot Isidro for her “shallow understanding of international relations” is set to visit the campus next month to speak at a forum being organized by the Department of Political Science of the College of Arts and Social Sciences.
Political scientist Dr. Antonio Contreras will be here on November 10 as one of two resource speakers for the department’s forum entitled, “Policy Shifts in National Governance,” to be held at the Amphitheater of the College of Engineering and Technology.
Contreras reacted to Isidro’s viral post where the actress said that President Rodrigo Duterte was a “psychopath” and that the Philippines would probably starve if the United States should leave.
Contreras’s Facebook post, which lectured Isidro on international relations and contained an offer for a free consultation on political literacy, generated a lot of attention, and was picked up by news agencies and shared all over social media.
Contreras will speak at the forum together with Dr. Clarita R. Carlos of the University of the Philippines.
Carlos is a professor at the Department of Political Science of UP and the executive director of the Center for Political and Democratic Reform, Inc. She is the former president of the National Defense College of the Philippines.
The forum, which is organized by the political science department in collaboration with the Department of Research of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension (OVCRE) aims to arrest people’s growing reliance on certain inaccurate sources of information regarding policies of the new administration.
It will stress the importance of sourcing information from persons in authority rather than from sources like social media to ensure that people understand the thrust of the government.
The holding of the forum is considered timely by the organizers in light of the changes sweeping the landscape brought on by Duterte’s election and the accompanying confusion regarding government policies due to misinformation and disinformation.
In a joint letter to Chancellor Sukarno Tanggol, department chairperson Atty. Felicidad Gadiano and Institute Director for Research Dr. Franco Teves expressed concern over people’s practice of gathering information “from just anywhere or anybody else” regarding new government policies and their implementation.
“We believe that the holding of this forum is timely and imperative in view of the radical changes in policies implemented by the new administration under the leadership of President Duterte,” the two said.
