Prof. Ma.Joji B. Tan and her 'Applied Linguistics for Communication Arts' Class -- At the University of the Philippines Visayas, Iloilo City Campus, October 2010

Getting in the Graduate Education Program of the University of the Philippines Visayas wasn't easy for me. The entrance examination was super difficult. The exam was composed of two parts - the cloze test and the essay writing part. It took me around four long hours to finish everything. Yes, that hard!

When I was finally accepted, I was in for more and bigger challenges. My first 'Language Education' class was 'Applied Linguistics for Communication Arts' under Prof. Ma. Joji B. Tan, an Associate Professor of English in the Division of Professional Education, College of Arts and Sciences, University of the Philippines Visayas. It was a morning class which started at 8 o'clock and ended at exactly 12 noon. It was a four-hour weekly session of lectures, reportings, group discussions, and language analyses.

Basically, a course in Applied Linguistics aims at making students become knowledgeable about the nature and structure of language and how first and second languages develop. Here, students explore language teaching strategies consistent with the current understanding of the nature, structure, and development of language. Teachers investigate best practices and current research and consider how to adapt and integrate these principles into their own educational practice. For me, the course wasn't really difficult since I had a few Linguistics classes back in college at West Visayas State University-College of Education. Dr. Yolanda Janay's 'Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics' class was a big help. That prepared me for higher linguistics courses.

Prof. Ma. Joji B. Tan was such. In UP Visayas, she's the most authoritative to teach this course because of her educational qualifications and experience. She has two master's degrees stamped on her neck - Master in Education ( M.Ed. ) major in English as a Second Language ( ESL ) from the University of the Philippines Visayas and Master of Arts ( MA ) in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages ( TESOL ) from the Teachers College of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. Heriot-Watt University is one of the oldest higher institutions in the United Kingdom ( UK ), and gained university status by Royal Charter in 1966. 

As part of her work as a language teacher and researcher, Prof. Tan has traveled abroad, notably in such countries as Canada and Jamaica. She has been tapped several times by the Iloilo City Government in its efforts to upgrade the teaching skills of English teachers in all public schools in Iloilo City. Aside from teaching in the Graduate School, she also handles English classes in UP High School Iloilo. 

Prof. Tan is one of the most challenging professors I have ever had. She was never late for class. In fact, she always arrived 5 to 10 minutes earlier. I felt guilty every time I came to class late. Throughout the trimester, I struggled not to be absent from her class. One time, she gave out different topics for reporting. I personally chose 'Grammar' because that's what I was most confident about. Based on the syllabus she had handed to us earlier, I would be the third reporter. I wasted no time preparing for my report. I didn't want to disappoint the professor I admired so much. She was expecting us two things - the oral report in class as well as the written one. It was a bit demanding but I managed to deliver both quite well. At that time, I wasn't adept at making powerpoint presentations yet, so I just settled for the old but reliable transparencies. 

Prof. Tan's exams were hard yet reasonable. "Answer the question befitting a master's degree student," she would always say. We had two major exams with her - midterm and final exams. I found the midterm exam difficult because it required much reading since the questions were all theory-based. When Prof. Tan revealed our scores, I was expecting the worst. I got 32 points out of 100. I just had one consolation, though - my score wasn't the lowest. I took this setback as my prime motivation to do well in the finals. I always believe that we can draw good out of evil and convert losses into gains. Since then, I studied every night. I took down notes religiously. I did advance reading. Eventually, all my efforts paid off. I scored 91 out of 100 in the finals. At the end of the trimester, Prof. Tan gave me a grade of 1.5. It might not have been very high, but it's well above the norm. When I saw this figure reflected on the UP-CRS, I just smiled and told myself, "It's hard to enter UP Grad School; but it's even harder to stay inside its sphere.