Korean Educational Development Institute(KEDI)

Evolving a language policy for an institution requires careful formulation involving stakeholders which usually include the administrators, students, staff, and the community. In the Philippines where the top-down approach is the usual practice in developing a policy, the school administrators usually take an active role in the process. The language beliefs and practices of university administrators are determined to identify the language to be used for policy-making. Using Horwitz’s Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) and interview protocols as tools, the investigation explored the experiences of the university administrators at home and in the workplace. Findings reveal that among the languages used, English is still the preferred language for the workplace, especially the classrooms. Premium placed on the English language is evident in most of the participants. The use of the English language, however, was limited only to students and teachers; the practices reveal that administrators prefer the first language to English when communicating with the staff. Discussion of findings and implications for language use and language policy are provided.