Language Use and Preference in the Multilingual Context of Davao City, Philippines

This paper is a pioneering study on the language use and preference of the Davaoeños from generations X (born in the years 1965 to 1979) and Z (born in the years 1995 to 2015) towards the Cebuano, Filipino, and English languages. Being a linguistically diverse area, Davao is home to the emerging contact language Davao Filipino which is currently spoken by the various ethnolinguistic groups currently inhabiting the city. This study utilized mixed methods research, particularly a survey questionnaire and focus group discussions, to explore the perspectives of the respondents on the said languages. Two generations were investigated in this study, particularly those belonging to Generations X and Z. Data presented show that both generations consider themselves fluent in the languages of interest in this study. They primarily use Cebuano for everyday communication and both generations primarily use English in formal communication. However, a language shift was seen from the common use of Cebuano by the older generation to the use of Filipino by the younger generation. This shift was also reflected in the language preferences of the respondents on everyday communication. Lastly, both generations would like to maintain Filipino as the Philippine national language as it is the language that they usually use when talking to Filipinos from other provinces who also speak different Philippine languages.


INTRODUCTION
Since the rule of the Islamic sultanate of Maguindanao in the early 1500s, Davao continues to be the center of political leadership and development in Southern Mindanao. The area of what is currently known as Davao City has been reshaped and reoriented by its inhabitants, from the indigenous peoples who were impacted by the influx of Maguindanao Muslims, to the Spanish colonizers who brought the first Christian Tagalog settlers (Mangahas, 2004). From the early 1900s to the 1930s, sixty percent of the settlers were Japanese farmers who created a farm colony in the area, establishing communities referred to as Davaokuo (Fresnoza-Flot, 2008). A contemporary manifestation of the Japanese community in Davao, locally known as nikkeijin, is the establishment of the only Japanese college offering undergraduate programs in the Philippines. The largest waves of internal migration from the northern and central parts of the Philippines happened in the 1930s to 1950s, making Davao the only area in the Mindanao island group to have the most substantial and diverse migrant settlers (Wernstedt & Simkins, 1965). Out of the 183 local ethnic groups in the Philippines, 133 are represented in Davao City's population (Philippine Statistics Authority, 2000).  Sundita, 2006).
Such cultural diversity has produced a unique linguistic landscape in Davao City. Among the ten leading languages spoken in the city, five were brought by the Christian settlers and the other five are local. The two largest groups in Davao are the Christian Cebuano and Tagalog settlers which comprise 74.56% and 3.86% of the city's population, respectively (Demeterio & Dreisbach, 2017). Significant interactions in the cultural melting pot, most especially between the two leading ethnic groups in the city, lead to the emergence of a hybrid language known in the Philippine academic scene as Davao Filipino.
Despite the rich linguistic landscape of Davao City, there is a clear lack of studies done on its language situation. The only and most comprehensive study on both the Davao Filipino language and the city's language situation was done by Demeterio and Dreisbach (2017). Their study resulted in four individual analytical papers and a master's thesis that attempted to describe language contact phenomena in Davao City. They initially discussed the conceptualization of the hybrid language as a sociolect, for it was usually heard among financially-fortunate people, and, potentially, as a creole of the Filipino language (Demeterio & Dreisbach, 2017, p. 4). They, however, mainly focused on two statements that hypothesized the emergence of Davao Filipino (Demeterio & Dreisbach, 2017, pp. 5-6).
As a continuation of the initial theoretical exploration of the authors on the emergence of the Davao Filipino hybrid language, this article comprehensively delved into the actual language use and preferences of the Davaoeño people, for there is still a lack of published data and information regarding their linguistic landscape and context.

LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature review of this study initially introduces the conflicting viewpoints of Rubrico (2011) and Dolalas (n.d.) on the linguistic situation of Davao City. Further analyses, as provided by an initial study of the authors, collectively and theoretically disentangled the city's linguistic situation in relation to the emergence of the Davao Filipino hybrid language. The latter part implicated the potential development of the said contact language following the linguistic history of the city.
The first hypothesis was from linguist Rubrico (2011) who theorized that the hybrid language is neither Tagalog nor Cebuano, but the actual "germination of the Filipino language" as specified in the 1973 Philippine Constitution. This said germination would eventually lead to the emergence of other variations of the Filipino language. On the other hand, University of the Philippines student, Dolalas (n.d.), referred to the language as "Davao Tagalog" in her essay and predicted that its emergence will lead to the Tagalization of the Cebuano language spoken in Davao, which will, in turn, lead to the death of the latter. To analyze these hypotheses, Demeterio and Dreisbach (2017) utilized the concepts of convergence and divergence the primary tenets of Communication Accommodation Theory. Convergence is a communicative strategy wherein individuals or groups adapt the communicative behavior (linguistic, paralinguistic, and non-verbal) to become similar to that of their interlocutor. On the other hand, divergence is the non-adaptation of the interlocutor's communicative behavior to emphasize one's own linguistic identity and culture (Giles & Ogay, 2007). In situations of language contact, linguistic divergence may lead to language loss (Dal Negro, 2004). Demeterio and Dreisbach (2017) agree that the emergence of Davao Filipino would endanger the Cebuano language in Davao City. However, they do not agree that it would endanger the Cebuano language as a whole. For them, such language loss is a historical given and is only triggered by the multilingual context of the city. They also disagreed with Rubrico's (2011) hypothesis by emphasizing that the emergence of the hybrid language will not strengthen Filipino as a national language and it will not trigger the emergence of other Tagalog-based hybrid languages in the various regions of the Philippines. They, instead, proffered an alternative hypothesis that the "Davao Filipino language is a variety of the Filipino language that emerged in Davao City because of the communication accommodation that happened between its Cebuano and Tagalog/Filipino population" (Demeterio & Dreisbach, 2017, pp. 12-14).  Rubrico (2011) and Dolalas (n.d.) hypotheses using the Communication Accommodation Theory (Demeterio & Dreisbach, 2017, p. 12).
Being a microcosm of the general Philippine linguistic situation, the English language is also widely spoken in the city. It was the American-controlled government of the Philippine Commonwealth that brought the waves of internal migrants from the northern and central Philippines to Davao, most of them were already educated in English-speaking schools. Since then, the Americans were successful in embedding English in the Philippine education system as its primary medium of instruction (Reid, 2018).
As established above, only a handful of theoretical studies were done on the linguistic situation of Davao City. To further expand the initial study of Demeterio and Dreisbach (2017), this paper empirically investigated the language use and preferences of the Davaoeño people, particularly towards Cebuano, Filipino, and English languages. This is a pioneer study done on the collective communicative behavior of the Davaoeños on the said languages.

Research Design
This study employed a mixed research method design. The researchers concurrently collected qualitative (QUAL) and quantitative (QUAN) data to comprehensively look at the language use and preferences of the Davaoeño people. Ivankova and Greer (2015) mentioned that a concurrent QUAL + QUAN mixedmethod research design allows researchers to collect and produce well-validated and substantiated findings because concurrent strand implementation allows for obtaining 'different but complementary data on the same topic.

Participants
Two generations were investigated in this study, particularly those belonging to Generations X and Z (Betz, 2019). Generation X are the people born in the years 1965 to 1979. On the other hand, those from Generation Z were born in the years 1995 to 2015. During the data gathering for this study, the researchers only collected data from respondents who were born in the years 1995 to 2000 as they were already of legal age. This ensures that the study follows the ethical guidelines of researches involving human subjects.
There were 100 respondents from each generation (n = 200) (see Appendix A). The older generation had a mean age of 45.99, with 38.28 as the mean number of years of residency in Davao City. Most of them (n = 66) are college graduates and finished their studies in public higher education institutions (n = 62). Seventy respondents from the older generation reported that their annual income ranged from 0-250,000 Philippine pesos (USD 4,800). Meanwhile, the younger generation had a mean age of 20.65, with 13.04 as the mean number of years of residency in Davao City. All of the respondents from the younger generation were either college graduates or undergraduates. Fifty-six of them have graduated or are currently studying in private higher education institutions. It should also be noted that more than 90% of the respondents speak and understand all three languages: Cebuano, Filipino, and English.
The focus group involved four respondents from each generation (n = 8, see Appendix A), most of whom finished their studies in private universities (n = 7). All of the respondents earn between 250,000 -800,000 Philippine pesos (USD 4,800 -15,700) annually. All of them speak and understand Cebuano, Filipino, and English. The participants for both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the study were recruited through convenience and snowball sampling. The main author of the study is from southern Mindanao and has relatives and friends who are living and working in Davao City. It is through these people that the survey was distributed within their networks. They also helped in recruiting respondents for the focus group discussion. In case-oriented studies, such as this paper, a relatively small sample size was needed to investigate the phenomenon through the rich information provided by the respondents (Vasileiou et al., 2018). The viability of our study was already proven through the publication of our work based on the context of Cebu City (Dreisbach & Demeterio, 2020).

Instruments
Two separate research instruments were utilized for the quantitative and qualitative aspects of this study. A survey questionnaire (see Appendix B) collected the demographic profile of the respondents, particularly their age, gender, place of residence, number of years of residency, type of educational institution attended, income bracket, and languages spoken. The quantitative aspects of fluency and situational language use were measured through a five-point Likert scale. The third part of the questionnaire explored the respondents' language preferences to situational communication and their choice for the Philippine national language. Gonzalez and Bautista (1986, as cited by Borlongan, 2009), the leading Filipino sociolinguists who did national language attitudes surveys in the 1970s and 1980s, synthesized their studies and acquiesced that Filipinos give accurate reports of their language use when asked through a survey.
A 26-question structured interview guide was utilized for the qualitative aspect of this study. It explored the language use and preferences of the focus group respondents towards Cebuano, Filipino, and English. For the last question, they were asked for their perspectives on the Philippine national language. The focus group discussions of both generations were digitally recorded with the voice recorder applications of the primary author's smartphone and laptop computer.

Data Analysis
In assessing the numerical data provided by the Likert-scale, a t-test was run to identify significant generational differences between the Davaoeños. For this particular study, we employed the following interpretations for the mean of each item investigated: 4.50-above -Strongly Agree; 3.5-4.49 -Agree; 2.50-3.49 -Neutral; 1.50-2.49 -Disagree; and 1.00-1.49 -Strongly Disagree. The categorical data in the latter part of the questionnaire were run through a Chi-square test. This allowed the researchers to determine whether the language preferences of the respondents accepted the following null and alternative hypotheses: H0: There are no generational differences in the language preferences of the Davaoeños. H1: There are generational differences in the language preferences of the Davaoeños.
The focus group responses were analyzed using the rapid identification of themes from audio recordings (RITA) method, a qualitative data analysis technique that allowed the researchers to rapidly identify the primary arguments and themes of respondents' responses by directly dissecting verbal and nonverbal information and identifying keywords and phrases necessary for this study (Nevedal et al., 2018).
Both quantitative and qualitative data are then triangulated to form the overall comprehensive results of this study. Such convergence of both methodologies in applied linguistics research would benefit the researchers as they could utilize the relative strengths and minimize the weaknesses of each respective method (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This section is divided into two sections, namely the sections on language use and language preferences of generational Davaoeños towards Cebuano, Filipino, and English. Aside from the discussion of quantitative results directly proceeding the tables, data from the focus group discussion follows to directly converge the results and discussions of each method. As mentioned earlier, such data convergence provided a thorough explanation of the linguistic phenomena in the context of Davao City. Both generations agreed that they are fluent in Cebuano and English. With regards to Filipino, the younger generation was neutral when they were asked if they were fluent in the said language. However, no significant generational difference was found in the language fluencies of the respondents in the languages studied in this paper. Both generations mentioned in the focus group discussion that they are aware of the linguistic situation in the area, wherein they usually mix the three languages in casual settings. Empirically cementing the emergence of the Cebuano-Filipino hybrid language Davao Filipino is the use of the Cebuano and Filipino languages as both generations agreed that they use the said languages for everyday communication. They are also neutral on the use of English in casual settings. The elder generation emphasized the use of Filipino in home language settings as both generations speak Cebuano which is spoken predominantly by Davaoeño society. Both generations agree that they use English mostly for formal communication. There is, however, a language use shift from the use of Cebuano by the older generation to the use of Filipino by the younger generation. Proof of language shift can be seen in the significant results on the use of both languages by the generations studies. As mentioned earlier, the older generation uses Filipino in home language settings with their children. The increased use of Filipino by the younger generation was seen as paying respect not just to their parents, but also to people of authority. Table 5 shows the language preference for Davaoeños for everyday communication. Pearson chi-square 0.0000252* A significant language preference shift was seen between the two generations in everyday communication. The older generation preferred to use Cebuano, while the younger generation preferred to speak Filipino. This preference by generation X is mostly towards communicating with people of the same generation. As emphasized in the past section, they actually use the Filipino language while talking to their children as they believe that the younger generation can easily be exposed to the Cebuano language of the Davaoeño. This home language policy is reflected in the preference of the younger generation for the Filipino language. Furthermore, this preference shift in the younger generation is additional empirical evidence for the influence of the hybrid language Davao Filipino on the perspectives of the current generation towards the existing languages in Davaoeño society. Meanwhile, no significant generational difference was seen in the preference of both generations for English in formal communication. English has been embedded in the Philippine education system for a hundred years. The older generation's emphasis on English as an international language relayed that learning it would be beneficial for their children to communicate with foreigners within the country and during their travels overseas. Moreover, the younger generation critically-recognized the influence of American colonial education on the elder generation and their preference for English. They accept the current notion of English as a lingua franca. However, they also acknowledge the alienation that English brings towards its speakers within the countryside and amongst those without knowledge of English. The national language of the Philippines is Filipino, as mandated by the 1987 Philippine Constitution. This study saw no conflict between the preferences of each generation and the statute that considers Filipino as the national language. The elders preferred to maintain Filipino as the national language as it is the language that they usually use when talking to fellow Filipinos coming from different provinces who also speak different Philippine languages. They also mentioned that the Cebuano spoken in Davao is different from the Cebuano that is spoken on the island of Cebu, where their ancestors mostly came from. As such, there is no longer a need to change it as they have accepted the language to be essential for communicating with their countrymen. The younger generation collectively had an idealistic view with regards to their support for Filipino as the national language. For them, it is the language that connects the linguistically-diverse country, which can also be used for the genuine development of the country. They emphasized countries such as Germany and Japan, technologically and economically advanced countries whose population used their own languages for development, as examples that the Filipino language may also be essential for educating Filipinos to lead to such development, and not through the use of the English language.

CONCLUSION
This paper is a pioneering study on the language use and preferences of the Davaoeños from generations X and Z on the Cebuano, Filipino, and English languages. Being a linguistically diverse area, Davao is home to the emerging contact language Davao Filipino which is currently spoken by the various ethnolinguistic groups currently inhabiting the city. Data presented show that both generations consider themselves fluent in the languages tackled in this study. They primarily use Cebuano for everyday communication, particularly considering that 74.56% of the city's population are ethnic Cebuanos. As such, it is also the dominant language generally spoken in Davao. Both generations primarily use English in formal communication. However, a language use shift was seen from the common use of Cebuano by the older generation to the use of Filipino by the younger generation. This shift was also observed in the language preference of respondents in everyday communication. The use of Cebuano is common amongst the older generation. However, when communicating with younger ones, they use Filipino due to the belief that Cebuano can be learned by their children when they are exposed to the Davaoeño society outside their homes. As such, the Filipino language is used and preferred by the younger generation in both everyday and formal communication to extend respect to the elderly whom they commonly speak with. Lastly, both generations would like to maintain Filipino as the Philippine national language as it is the language that they usually use when talking to Filipinos from other provinces who also speak different Philippine languages. The younger generation particularly, expressed that like Germany and Japan, the Philippines would experience genuine development if they primarily utilized Philippine languages in the educational system.
This study limited its respondents to Generations X and Z which are considered to be close descendants of settlers from northern and central Philippines. A new generation (Generation Alpha) already started, specifically those who were born from the year 2012 onwards. As such, further exploration of the language use, attitudes, and the development of the Davao Filipino contact language is recommended. Moreover, there is also a need to analyze the existing teaching materials used in the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) program of the Philippines' Department of Education in relation to the actual language use of the basic education students to ensure its usability in the context of southern Mindanao.   Language and Education, 8(1), 313-327, 2021