Very little research has been done on first or second language acquisition in the Philippines. Most second language learning studies cited in the literature concern acquisition of English in English-speaking communities, and most American studies of Filipino language acquisition are superficial, consisting primarily of morpheme analysis. The Philippines are an excellent laboratory for language acquisition studies because of the multilingual context. Within the country, research on the nature of Filipino language acquisition is a top priority, because 60 to 70 percent of Filipinos are non-Tagalog speakers. Also, most non-Tagalogs learn two languages simultaneously: one at home and the other (Pilipino) taught in school and used in the community. Research in early childhood bilingualism in this situation would be revealing. Philippine data could also be used to study universals in second language acquisition for development of a general theory. (MSE)