IN A country where education is widely viewed as the most reliable path out of poverty and toward national progress, classroom experiences deserve closer public attention—especially when they quietly undermine learning rather than strengthen it.
This is a familiar experience for many Filipino students. You have studied for the lesson. You have read the assignment. But when the test sheet is put before you, your heart beats fast, your mind goes blank, and the words seem heavier than they otherwise should be. It does not always have to do with the topic—it has to do with the language that delivers it.
This experience might strike you as contradictory within a country that has been hailed as one of the largest English-speaking populations in Asia. English is extensively integrated into Philippine education, government, and business. It is largely regarded as our ticket to entering the realm of international competitiveness. However, behind most classroom doors, English operates in a different capacity—this time, as a generator of stress and pressure.
A recent study conducted among young Filipino university students enrolled in business, entrepreneurship, and other professionally oriented programs offers a crucial perspective on this paradox. The study reveals that difficulties with academic English knowledge are not merely hindrances to knowledge acquisition. Rather, they lead to persistent academic stress, which ultimately culminates in test anxiety. In other words, students do not go into panic mode during exams simply because they are not adequately prepared. Rather, they panic because they have already exhausted their mental energies before taking the exam.
English in class is more than grammar and vocabulary for students, especially those in technical courses such as business and entrepreneurship. It includes the process of decoding intricate texts, terminologies, and instructions, all while under time constraints. This sustained mental effort builds up over weeks and months and gradually turns into stress. By the time examination periods come along, stress is no longer unexpected but almost a certainty.
What makes this finding especially striking is the fact that the stress does not go away with time. Students in their first year and second year experience the same level of academic stress and test anxiety. Simple exposure to academic demands does not ease the burden. This suggests that the problem is not simply a temporary adjustment period.
This is, of course, not an isolated phenomenon in the Philippines. Across the globe, there are millions of learners who study in a second language—English, French, Mandarin, and other dominant languages of instruction. In Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe, higher education is increasingly based on global languages, which many learners speak easily in their environments but struggle with in their studies. The impact is much the same: quiet stress, unspoken fear, and underperformance that is not a reflection of their intelligence or abilities.
But the burden is often individualized. When students struggle, the message is to read more, work harder, or “get used to it.” It is seldom asked whether the system itself is placing an unnecessary burden on cognition. We rarely recognize that language, when left unsupported, can become an unseen obstacle to learning.
This has implications beyond grades and lecture halls. Protracted academic stress impacts motivation, confidence, and mental well-being. Students who persist in experiencing academic overload risk alienating themselves from school, losing faith in their ability, and forgoing their dreams altogether. For societies that invest heavily in education as a strategy for development, this is a loss we can ill afford.
Parents and schoolteachers are also part of this dialogue. Parents who judge success solely by grades may not know that anxiety is already affecting achievement even before grades come in. Teachers, who are often pressed for time to cover curriculum requirements, might inadvertently link rigor with difficult language as opposed to complex understanding. However, rigor does not necessarily mean linguistic difficulty. Simple explanations, strategic readings, and consideration for second-language speakers do not dilute education but enhance it. If students grasp what is required of them, they will be more invested, more analytical, and more genuine in their efforts.
An educational institution that prioritizes language-informed teaching is not reducing standards but making standards achievable. As such, they emit a strong message to students: that confusion is not failure, that struggling is manageable, and that education is meant to instill confidence, not fear. This is important because these shifts take effort, practice, and understanding, but the rewards are incalculably greater than academic performance. They foster resilience, trust in the educational system, and a generation of young people who connect school with learning, not pure distress. This is valuable at the family and societal levels.
For higher education institutions, curriculum planners, and education policymakers, the message is clear: supporting students’ language needs within content classes is not remedial—it is strategic. Clarity strengthens rigor, and comprehension fuels critical thinking.
The solution is not to abandon English or any global language of instruction. It is to use English more mindfully. Language support must be integrated into content classes, not treated as a separate concern.
When we begin to recognize language as central to learning—not merely as a conduit—we move closer to an education system that is both challenging and humane. For students, the problem is not that learning is hard, but that too often the language of learning makes it harder than it needs to be.
————————————————————————————————-
Mhel Cedric D. Bendo is an undergraduate researcher and opinion writer at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. His research focuses on educational psychology and educational technology. He also serves as an invited peer reviewer for an international journal focusing on technology-enabled and open and distance learning (ODL).
