“Politeness Strategies used in Everyday Communication inside the

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I. INTRODUCTION

Communication is inevitable, everyone has to communicate whether it is for simple

conversation, asking permission, or information. No matter what, how, and why they

communicate they use language that would make their conversation more comprehensible.

However, aside from language what makes the communication more interesting and

understandable is how people uses different ways of expressing themselves especially when

they are with a group of friends, and when they are surrounded with adults, or they are

attending some formal occasions. In a different situation people are obliged to adjust their

wordings in order to fit into different occasions. Some would use language itself, facial

expression, or non-verbal gestures and some would exhibit politeness.

According to Nordquist, n.d. “politeness allows people to perform many inter-personally

sensitive actions in a nonthreatening or less threatening manner” which means when you used

politeness in communicating the conversation would have a positive impact to a receiver. In

that way the receiver would not be frightened or offended. Usually, people try to avoid

embarrassing other people or make them uncomfortable by their words. Politeness is basically

talking to one another with respect. People can be the best speaker, best grammarian and

fluent talker but you have no match to the speaker who can talk to anyone with politeness.

Politeness is widely used around the globe. It is already in people’s mind that if they are going

to have a communication with another they have to show politeness therefore it is really

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individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
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important to life. According to Hursey, (2015), “there are many reasons why politeness is

important in life but one of them is that if you are polite, you are more likely to achieve your

objectives and get what you want, and people are more likely to take you seriously and deal

with you in a good way.”

Being polite may also be an indication of formality. Formal, in a way that people would

adjust their wordings according to how formal the topic is and how formal the hearer may be.

Formal politeness is once introduce by Urbanova and Oakland,(2002). They said that formal

politeness is “reflecting the social etiquette”. Of course, if there is formal there is informal

politeness. Informal politeness “indicating close relationship between the participants such as

members of family, friends, or worker mates”. There are various definitions on what is

politeness; it varies on how politeness is used. When it comes to oral communication it can be

considered an integral part of conversation, simply because, as stated it would lessen the

feeling of being frightened, intimidated or disrespected for both part of the receiver and

speaker. And because of the fact that politeness has a vital role on the communication process

different studies about different strategies in politeness is formed. One of such study is the

study of Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson. Politeness strategies are made to eliminate

the possible negative effect for both parties, what would help the speaker see if the receiver is

embarrassed or not is through his face reaction, these strategies would save the conversation

into a possible bad outcome and would help one conversation run smoothly (Brown and

Levinson, 1978). Despite the fact that there are a lot of politeness strategies that is present on

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“Total development of a God-loving, well disciplined, skillful, morally upright and globally competitive
individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
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Classroom”
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this study, as of today there is no assurance that politeness in a normal conversation is still

used. Although in the study of Ryabova (2015) she states that “Politeness is, evidently, a most

typical feature of their behaviour” Admit it or not the idea of using politeness in communicating

is really neglected especially in a communication between the younger and the elder.

Politeness strategies are varies depending on the field of the involve speaker or the principle of

a situation. In a study of Svarova (2008) she states that Politeness principle divided into four

strategies. These are the ‘direct conduct’, ‘positive politeness’, ‘negative politeness’ and

‘indirect conduct’ (Hirschova 2006). First, Direct conduct are the sentences or phrases that are

not long but enough to show requests and commands. It is usually used to the warnings.

Second, positive politeness is a used when two people talk to each other sharing the same

culture. They have an unsaid agreement to the words to use or to avoid during conversation.

Third, negative politeness is used in a formal occasion and stranger’s conversation. The

receiver will give indirect questions, that is connected to their conversation, to satisfy his needs

without hurting the speaker’s emotion. In short through giving indirect questions the receiver

will not harm the feelings of the speaker at the same time the receiver will get what he wants.

And fourth, the last strategy, Indirect Politeness is, as mentioned by Hirschova (2006), a

confusing and misleading among the strategies. In using this strategy, the speaker must be

careful on the way of delivery. The devices mostly used are Incomplete statements, irony or

rhetorical questions.

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“Total development of a God-loving, well disciplined, skillful, morally upright and globally competitive
individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
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Classroom”
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There are a lot of studies that would suggest how people use politeness strategies in

communication, and in conversation. Every study has its own way of showing how politeness

can be present in an interaction. However, there are some studies that do not emphasize the

diversity of culture, that there are times that every culture would vary in showing their own way

of politeness. There are words that may be present in a conversation but do not necessary

means that it shows politeness, same as the idea that if a word may not show a certain word it

does not suggest that the speaker is being impolite, this explains the differences of showing

politeness in different culture or values. In addition to that, if the speaker and receiver is on the

same culture and are native speaker of a certain language it would be easy for them to see if

politeness is present or not. On the other hand, if the two people came from different culture

and they had different way of showing politeness as they communicate others, there are time

that a person’s politeness is being misinterpreted as impolite because his strategy of showing

politeness may not fit into the standard of politeness used in the certain culture.

School setting is commonly known as academic training of every students. Aside from

that, it is also known as a training ground of the social life of every learner. It is unsaid law that

the conversation between the students and teachers needed politeness strategies to create a

good and fruitful outcome. Students used politeness markers to show politeness in every

exchange conversation with the teachers especially when giving or asking a request. In the

study of Barnes (2001), entitled “Politeness in English, Basque and Spanish: Evidence from a

triangular child” showed that children are using politeness markers to get what they wanted.

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“Total development of a God-loving, well disciplined, skillful, morally upright and globally competitive
individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
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Classroom”
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This study aims to know the different politeness strategies used in daily conversation

inside the classroom and on how these strategies can affect the outcome of the certain

conversation in a classroom.

Theoretical Framework

Communication is one means of how people will interact and communicate toward the

other. there are different ways of how people could deliver the idea that they wanted. The most

dominant way is through oral communication. Oral communication is basically expressing the

message verbally. And to successfully done that one should have a language, language will be

present in almost all the communication done by men, different countries, and places have its

own language and, in every language, it has its own politeness strategies present in it.

In the study of Romi Sinaga 2016 whereas the content of the study it used the most

common and famous framework done by Brown and Levinson where the framework is

formulated to save the hearers face, face refers to the “self-esteem” of the receiver, it will make

the receiver feel comfortable and confident about himself because of the way how the sender

treated the conversation. it is said that politeness strategies will help develop maintain the

positive relationship between the receiver and the sender. Brown and Levinson had developed

and summed up the politeness strategies into four strategies:

 The Bald on Record, this strategy does not consider the listener's reaction, it is direct

without considering to lessen the threats from the hearer's face.

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“Total development of a God-loving, well disciplined, skillful, morally upright and globally competitive
individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
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Classroom”
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 The Positive Politeness, in this strategy the speaker will understand and noticed that

his/her listener wanted to be respected. Like they are wishing that they are appreciated

and accepted.

 The Negative Politeness, this has a resemblance with the Positive Politeness. The

speaker will recognize the desire of the hearer to respected, what makes it different is

that this strategy has an indication that the speaker is imposing something to his/her

listener.

 Off Record, simply an indirect strategies. Its purpose is to avoid the possible negative

reaction of the hearer. In this case the speaker is trying not to directly tell of what he/she

really want to lessen the pressure from the listener. It is like the speaker is just giving a

hint to the hearer of what he/she is trying to impose on them.

The said theory or framework most specifically the framework of politeness strategies

will be used to identify where and how different words or sentences that teacher and students

uttered belongs to one of the strategies. It will serve as a guide on categorizing every

politeness strategies that may be present on the interaction between the students and the

teacher

It will analyze what is the most dominant politeness strategies present in daily

communication inside the classroom. It is important to give points to the politeness words used

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individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
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Classroom”
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by the teacher and students during interaction because it is the acceptable and preferable

strategies to show respect, request, confirmation, ask questions and many more.

Data Analysis

The interaction of the students and the teacher are the ones that is being observed in

the study and seek for the politeness strategies that both parties have used. To clearly see the

differences and the politeness strategies during that certain classroom interaction it will be

presented with the use of a table:

Strategies Teacher Students

Bald on record  Recheck the test paper

 Recount your score

 Look at your paper

Positive Politeness  Yes ma’am

 Question please?  “Opo”

 “Paki sabi ng maayos”  “Opo ma’am”

 Can I now get your final score?  Same po

 Ma’am same

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“Total development of a God-loving, well disciplined, skillful, morally upright and globally competitive
individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
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Classroom”
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Strategies Teacher Students

Negative Politeness  If your grade is lower than 2.75  “Ma’am? Paano

you can stay and retake your po yung

exam. additional

 Eugene it is up to you. points ng may

permit?”

ff-record

 Be honest

 I am very transparent

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“Total development of a God-loving, well disciplined, skillful, morally upright and globally competitive
individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
 “Politeness Strategies used in Everyday Communication inside the
Classroom”
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Since the teacher only asked the students to recheck and recount their own paper most

of the reaction of the students is confirming while the teacher reactions are asking and

clarifying. The table showed different words that both the teacher and the student used and

where does it belong among the four strategies that are based on the framework. Aside from

the fact that there are politeness in every strategy the words “po” and “opo” also emphasized

the politeness on the utterances. This will imply that aside from the most common and used

words of politeness such as “please” and “can” because of the differences of language there

are different ways on how one person will show politeness. There are also times that the

sender will address the its receiver to avoid the possible offence on the side of the receiver.

The most dominant politeness strategies that is being used is the positive politeness,

because politeness in one conversation will be emphasize if both will use some markers such

as please, can and may. Since, there are specific words that will show politeness receiver and

sender can easily use it to avoid being impolite. The table with the use of framework also

showed that sometimes it does not mean that one marker is not present politeness is being

neglected there are strategies that will show that to avoid negative outcome of conversation

the way of how the person will still show politeness is often implicitly stated, such as the

example given on the strategy of bald on record, off record and negative politeness. Those

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“Total development of a God-loving, well disciplined, skillful, morally upright and globally competitive
individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
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Classroom”
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strategies showed that sender will not explicitly say what it wanted to convey and whom it is

pertaining to show politeness.

The strategies and the table showed that politeness can be present in different form

depending on how one person will deliver it. There are words that may be present to show

politeness but also there are markers that may not be present but do not necessarily means

that there is no politeness present in the conversation

II. Statement of the Problem

This study was conducted to assess the different politeness strategies used by students and

teachers of Trece Martires City College.

1. What are the different politeness strategies used in terms of:

1.1 Asking

1.2 Interacting

1.3 Reciting

2. What is the most Politeness Strategies used by the student and

teacher?

3. What are the functions of using politeness in daily communication

inside the classroom?

CHAPTER II

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“Total development of a God-loving, well disciplined, skillful, morally upright and globally competitive
individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
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Classroom”
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LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter will show the related literature and studies that has been gathered by the

researchers that will help to thoroughly understand the concepts, ideas, and definitions that

lies within the said topic.

1. Politeness

There are ways of maintaining good relationship with one another and one way of

keeping the positive feeling towards one another is by means of showing or using politeness.

Leech 1983 believes that the role of politeness is “avoiding disruption and maintaining the

social equilibrium and friendly relations”. Showing politeness when having conversation can be

shown in different ways, even a person is uses words or by showing it through gestures.

For Brown and Levinson 1987 someone can show politeness by being aware of the

face that the hearer and speaker is showing for it may be a way on reflecting how one another

interact with each other. It is said that politeness is a fixed concept that is used by almost

everyone most especially when different ways of showing politeness are present within a

certain place or culture (Yule 1996)

There are various ways on defining what politeness is, but the closest definition of

Politeness according to the use of communication is it allows people to perform many inter-

personally sensitive actions in a nonthreatening or less threatening manner. According to Mills

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“Total development of a God-loving, well disciplined, skillful, morally upright and globally competitive
individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
 “Politeness Strategies used in Everyday Communication inside the
Classroom”
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(2003) “Politeness is the expression of the speaker’s intention to mitigate face threats carried

by certain face threatening acts towards another. It is inevitable for people to use politeness

when interacting or communicating. Lastly politeness is a way of avoiding negative

consequences when someone is having a communication with other people, politeness can be

considered as a sign of respect and making other people feel comfortable and not be offended

during an interaction (E. Indriani, 2014).

2. Politeness Strategies

In the definition of Brown and Levinson, (1987) they state that Politeness Strategies are used

to save and lighten the reaction of the receiver. The study of Brown and Levinson includes the

Face Threatening Act (FTA) wherein the face reaction can convey the certain emotion of both

parties. There are two types of FTA, the positive and negative face. The positive face will

directly show the negative emotions of a person, while the negative face does not show the

negative emotions but expresses it verbally. Aside from the FTA they also categorized the

politeness strategies into four, they are the:

Bald-on Record- The aim of bald on-record it will directly address the other

person to express his/her needs.

Example:

“Give me the phone”

“Do not touch the bottle”

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“Total development of a God-loving, well disciplined, skillful, morally upright and globally competitive
individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
 “Politeness Strategies used in Everyday Communication inside the
Classroom”
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Positive Politeness- is used to reduce the threat to the hearer’s positive face, this

means that the person needs to be appreciated, accepted, liked and treated as one of the

member of the group.

Example:

“Can we please have dinner together?”

“Do you mind if I’ll join your group?”

Negative Politeness- is used to avoid imposing. Koike (1992) states that negative

politeness is consideration of listener to speaker’s wish to take his action and his attention.

There Ten strategies can be used to show negative politeness (Brown and Levinson, 1987)

including:

1. Being indirect,

2. Using questions and hedges,

3. Being pessimistic,

4. Minimizing the imposition

5. Giving deference and being deferent to the hearer,

6. Apologizing

7. Impersonalizing speaker and hearer by making your addressee unmentioned,

8. Generalizing expression rather than mentioning addressee directly,

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individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
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9. Nominalizing

10. Going on record as incoming a debt, or as not indebting the hearer,

Off-record- same as negative politeness these are the indirect language to avoid

the speaker to impose authority but having no direct listener. (Brown and levinson,1897).

There 15 strategies indicating off-record politeness:

1. Giving hints,

2. Giving association clues,

3. Presupposing,

4. Understating or saying less than is required,

5. Overstating or giving information more than what is needed,

6. Using tautologies,

7. Using contradictions,

8. Being ironic,

9. Using metaphor,

10. Using rhetorical questions that do not require any answer,

11. Being ambiguous,

12. Being vague,

13. Overgeneralizing and not naming the hearer or addressing him directly,

14. Displacing,

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individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
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15. Being incomplete by using ellipsis,

There are different studies that used and followed the framework of Brown and Levinson

about Politeness Strategies in different topics. Every study has different problems that are

addressed using the same theory. The following studies are just few examples of the studies

that used the said theory and strategies.

One example of which is the study of Noriko Kitamura 2000 where in he used the

politeness theory in analyzing the Politeness Strategies used in casual conversation.

Another study that is focusing on the politeness theory and its strategies is the study of

Svarova 2008, in that study it is cited there the Different Politeness Markers in Spoken

Language. The study cited different markers that can be use in showing politeness. Studies

about politeness strategies do not solely focused on how it can be seen in a normal

conversation or communication. There are also studies that used these strategies in analyzing

the movies and the politeness strategies used by the characters. Positive Politeness Strategies

used by Grace and Meg in Monte Carlo movie of Eva Indriani 2014 is an example how the

strategies are used in a certain movie. Politeness Strategies are used in different studies

differently, and every study has its own way of approaching and showing how politeness may

be present weather in an oral communication, written literature or non-oral communication.

Differences may occur if a certain study has different gap that it wanted to fill in and what the

author’s main purpose in doing the study.

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individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
 “Politeness Strategies used in Everyday Communication inside the
Classroom”
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Politeness Strategies is used and defined by different researchers but in the case of

Nordquist (2017) define that, Politeness principle is used in order to fit into different situation.

He also said that Politeness Strategies is used in a communication to avoid giving offense as

well as to encourage a friendly conversation. It can also be defined as a strategy that would

show the hearer has the desire to be respected. It also confirms that the relationship is friendly

and expresses group reciprocity.

3. Language

Language is one of the means of communication, it will help the hearer and the

speaker to clearly understand each other. Language means “as a system of sign and

symbols and rules for using them that is used to carry information” (Merriam

Webster,2005). Language is the arbitrary of a certain people in a common community,

it’s their own means of communicating to one another.

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

Research Design

This qualitative research aims to list down the common politeness strategies

used in an interaction between teachers and students inside the classroom. A qualitative

research is emphasis on the qualities of entities and on processes and meanings that are not

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individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
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Classroom”
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experimentally examined or measured in terms of quantity, amount, intensity, or frequency. It

seeks answers questions that are stressed in the study. (Norman and Lincoln 2005). It is a

qualitative approach for the purpose of the study is to define and describe different politeness

strategies used in daily classroom interaction.

Participants of the study

The participants of the study are the Third Year Education students of Trece

Martires City College the class has a total of 60 students which has 48 girls and 12 boys, and

one class professor. The participants of the research are the chosen for the setting of the

research should be in a classroom and there should be an interaction between the students

and the teacher.

Data Gathering Procedure

The recording and observation is conducted when the class has started to

interact with the teacher. We used two cellphones, one in front and one at the back of the

classroom. During the observation, the observers are jotting down those words that convey

politeness.

Before conducting the observation, researchers prepared a letter that asking

permission to observe and record the class conversation. The materials used during the

observation are cellphones for recording, paper and pen for jotting down.

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“Total development of a God-loving, well disciplined, skillful, morally upright and globally competitive
individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
 “Politeness Strategies used in Everyday Communication inside the
Classroom”
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References

Awin Language, (2013). Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Strategies

http://awinlanguage.blogspot.com/2013/05/brown-and-levinsons-politeness.html?=1

Bacabuku, (2016). The use of Politeness Strategies in Daily Communication between crews in

DinamikaIainsu.Mionaga.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-use-of-politeness-strategies-in-

daily-communication-between-crews-in-dinamika-iainsu

Barnes, J. (2001). The use of politeness markers in the requests of some Basque children.

Christiani, M. (n.d). The use of Politeness Strategies when implicating a Third person:

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individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”
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Classroom”
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A case study of Indonesian Au Pairs in the Netherlands.

Indriani, E. (2014).Positive Politeness Strategies used by Grace and Meg in Monte Carlo

Movie.

http://mahasiswa.dinus.ac.id/docs/skripsi/lengkap/13374.pdf

Kitamura, N. (2000). Analysis of Casual Conversation

http://www.msu.ac.zw/elearning/material/temp/1372170685kitamura%20-%20adapting%

20brown%20and%20levinsons%20politeness%20theory.pdf

Mohammad, S. et. al. (2015). Politeness Strategies used by Iranian EFL in a class blog.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1127416.pdf

Nordquist, R. (2017). Politeness Strategies in English Grammar.

www.thoughtco.com/politeness-strategies-conversation-1691516.

Svarova, J. (2008). Politeness Markers in Spoken Language.

https://is.muni.cz/th/106163/pedf_b/text_prace.pdf

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“Total development of a God-loving, well disciplined, skillful, morally upright and globally competitive
individuals who are proud of their Filipino identity and cultural heritage and a productive member of
the community and the society.”