Prof. Alejandro S. Bernardo, PhD of the Department of English was named the recipient of the 2025 Br. Andrew Gonzalez, FSC Distinguished Professorial Chair in Linguistics and Language Education, which is conferred by the De La Salle University’s Department of English and Applied Linguistics and the Linguistic Society of the Philippines, the country’s premier and longest-running linguistics professional organization.
With the award, Bernardo is slated to deliver a research-based lecture in February 2025. A scholar on World Englishes, particularly Philippine English and its pedagogy, Bernardo will discourse about: “Teaching, Teaching about, and Teaching in World Englishes: Twenty-First Century Perspectives for Diversity, Inclusivity, and Sustainability.”
Among Bernardo’s recent works are entitled “Teaching Philippine English through schoolscapes” (2024), “Philippine English and Global Englishes-inspired grammar teaching” (2024), and “Knowledge construction in World Englishes” (2021, with Ruanni Tupas).
Bernardo earned his doctoral degree in English Language Studies from the UST Graduate School, where he later served as Faculty Secretary. He is an academic researcher of the Research Center for Social Sciences and Education. Bernardo also served as Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Letters.
Established in 1996, the Distinguished Professorial Chair honors former Department of Education, Culture, and Sports (now the Department of Education) Secretary and former De La Salle University President Br. Andrew Gonzalez, FSC. According to the Linguistic Society of the Philippines, the honor is meant to remember Br. Gonzalez as “an intellectual giant, a distinguished linguist, teacher, scholar, humanist, writer, administrator, a builder of persons and institutions, a man of vision and mission, a doer, a Christian brother, and a Filipino patriot.”
