TL;DR: These are two separate CHED-prescribed degrees. AB Literature / AB Literary and Cultural Studies runs under CMO No. 21, s. 2017 at a minimum of 117 units excluding PE and NSTP, with two tracks, nine units of thesis and six units of practicum. AB English Language / AB English Language Studies runs under CMO No. 24, s. 2017 at a minimum of 134 units, with 14 core linguistics-oriented courses and two tracks. Neither has a PRC board exam. If you want to teach in basic education, the teacher education degree is the direct route.
Ask ten senior high students what "AB English" involves and most will describe a literature course. They are describing a different degree. CHED issued separate memorandum orders for the two in 2017, with different unit counts, different core courses and different career framing. Choosing the wrong one is a four-year mistake, so this guide sets them side by side.
Two Degrees, Two CHED Orders
| AB Literature / Literary and Cultural Studies | AB English Language / English Language Studies | |
|---|---|---|
| CHED order | CMO No. 21, s. 2017 | CMO No. 24, s. 2017 |
| Minimum units | 117 excluding PE and NSTP (131 with them) | 134 |
| Core courses | 8 courses, 24 units | 14 courses, 42 units |
| Tracks | Literature and Cultural Studies; Literature Across the Professions | English Language Studies as Discipline; English across the Professions |
| Foreign language | 2 courses, 6 units | 4 courses, 12 units |
| Thesis | 9 units | Language Research I and II, within the core |
| Practicum | 6 units | Not prescribed in the CMO |
| PRC board exam | None | None |
Both orders were adopted under Republic Act No. 7722 and by virtue of Commission en banc Resolution No. 231-2017 dated 28 March 2017, part of the same 2017 batch that reset the arts and social science programmes.
AB Literature: What CMO No. 21 Requires
The degree name CHED prescribes is Bachelor of Arts in Literature or Bachelor of Arts in Literary and Cultural Studies. The order states plainly that the programme "shall have a minimum of 117 units excluding P.E. and NSTP."
The sample components table breaks down as follows:
| Component | Courses | Units |
|---|---|---|
| General Education | 12 | 36 |
| Core courses | 8 | 24 |
| Track / areas of concentration | 8 | 24 |
| Electives | 4 | 12 |
| Foreign language | 2 | 6 |
| Thesis | 3 | 9 |
| Practicum | 6 | |
| Physical Education | 4 | 8 |
| NSTP | 2 | 6 |
| Total | 131 |
The eight core courses
CHED names them, and they are more theoretical than the course title suggests: Introduction to Literature and Literary Studies, Introduction to Literary Theory, Introduction to Cultural Theory, Introduction to the Postcolonial Tradition, Introduction to Creative Writing (or Advanced Rhetoric), Introduction to Literature and the Professions, Literary Research, and Introduction to Translation.
Each is offered with a Filipino-language title alongside the English one in the CMO, which reflects a genuine feature of these programmes: the medium of instruction varies, and some departments teach a substantial part of the curriculum in Filipino.
The two tracks
Track A, Literature and Cultural Studies, is the scholarly route. Its concentration courses run through Philippine literature by region and nation, Philippine literary theory and criticism, and the literatures of Africa and the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the Americas, plus literary translation and creative writing.
Track B, Literature Across the Professions, is the workplace route. Its concentration courses pair literature with the sciences, the social sciences, cultural studies and creative writing, and reach into subjects like figures of speech in science and technology and narrative tools and techniques in the disciplines.
CHED describes the split directly: the thrust of Track A is "research, scholarship and creative writing," while the focus of Track B is "the professional and workplace setting."
The rule most students miss
CMO No. 21 says the electives, the nine units of thesis and the six units of practicum "have to cohere around a major or an area of concentration." CHED even gives a worked example: a student aiming at creative writing takes creative writing and advanced rhetoric electives, writes a creative writing thesis, and does the practicum at a national magazine.
That is a design instruction to students, not just to schools. Choosing your electives at random is the single most common way to arrive in fourth year with a thesis topic nothing in your transcript supports. Our guide to reviewing related literature covers the writing side once you get there.
CHED also lists the fields it considers allied to literature, which is where cognates and electives can be drawn from: BSE Literature, AB Creative Writing, AB English, BSE English, AB Philippine Literature, AB Comparative Literature, AB Filipino, AB Philippine Studies and AB Asian Literature.
AB English Language: What CMO No. 24 Requires
The prescribed names are Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Bachelor of Arts in English Language Studies. CMO No. 24 goes further than most orders and instructs schools with differently named programmes - it gives "BA/AB English Studies major in Language" as the example - to adopt those names. If your target school still advertises an older label, that is worth a question.
The programme is a minimum of 134 units built from General Education courses, core courses, major courses, cognates and a foreign language elective.
| Component | Courses | Units |
|---|---|---|
| General Education and mandated courses | 12 | 36 |
| Core courses | 14 | 42 |
| Major courses (one track) | 5 | 15 |
| Cognates | 5 | 15 |
| Foreign language elective | 4 | 12 |
| Physical Education | 4 | 8 |
| NSTP | 2 | 6 |
| Total | 134 |
The core is linguistics, not literature
The 14 core courses are coded ELS in the CMO and include Introduction to the English Language System, Theories of Language and Language Acquisition, History of the English Language, English Phonology and Morphology, English Syntax, Semantics of English, English Discourse, Stylistics, Introduction to Language, Society and Culture, Language of Literary Texts, Language of Non-Literary Texts, Computer-mediated Communication, and a two-part research sequence, Language Research I: Methodology and Language Research II: Thesis.
That is a linguistics degree with applied extensions. Students expecting a reading list of novels are in the wrong programme. The CMO also flags a prerequisite rule: Introduction to the English Language System, History of the English Language, and Theories of Language and Language Acquisition are prerequisites to all the other courses, so failing any of the three stalls everything downstream.
The two tracks
Track 1, English Language Studies as Discipline, includes Introduction to Pragmatics, Psychology of Language, Multimodal Communication, Language and Gender, Language and Power, Translation Studies, Introduction to Anthropological Linguistics, Philippine English, and special topics.
Track 2, English across the Professions, includes language policies and programmes, multilingualism and multiculturalism, ELT approaches and methods, instructional materials development, language testing and assessment, curriculum development, technical writing, business communication, and language paired with journalism, advertising, media, politics and law.
Track 2 is where students planning to teach English abroad or work in language assessment usually land. CHED lists BSE English, AB Linguistics, AB Literature, BSE Literature, AB Communication, AB Speech Communication and AB Mass Communication as allied fields.
Both sets of figures above are CHED's samples and minimums. Schools may design their own curricula toward the same outcomes, so confirm the current programme of study with the department.
Does Either Degree Have a Board Exam?
Neither does. The Professional Regulation Commission operates forty-six Professional Regulatory Boards. Literature is not one. English is not one. There is no licence required to work as a writer, editor, translator, copywriter or content specialist in the Philippines.
The licence that matters in this space is for teaching. Professional Teachers is one of the forty-six boards, and teaching in Philippine basic education requires passing the Licensure Examination for Teachers. An AB Literature or AB English Language graduate who wants to teach in a DepEd school generally has to satisfy education-unit requirements set by the Board for Professional Teachers before sitting the LET - confirm the current rule with PRC, because it is set by the board and not by your English department.
If teaching is the plan from the start, the direct route is a teacher education degree. See our BSEd guide and LET guide. If licensure generally is what is steering your course choice, courses with board exams lists which degrees lead where.
Careers
CHED's own career statement for AB English Language is specific: graduates are "in demand in fields that require effective use of the English language," including academic and scholarly work such as teaching and research, business and industry jobs such as public relations, advertising and documentation, media and publishing such as writing, translating and editing, and government and diplomatic service.
For AB Literature, CHED expects graduates to "lead critical and creative innovations" in academe, government, publishing, mass and social media, entertainment, the creative industry, diplomacy, marketing communication, the service industry and the cultural industry.
Practically, the two degrees overlap heavily in the job market and diverge at the edges:
- Both feed publishing, editorial, content, communications and teaching.
- Literature leans toward creative writing, cultural work, arts administration and criticism.
- English Language leans toward language teaching and teacher training, testing and assessment, technical and business writing, translation, and localisation.
We are not printing salary figures for these roles. Writing and editorial pay in the Philippines swings enormously between local publishing, agency work and offshore or freelance clients, and a single average would mislead more than it informs.
If you are weighing these against the media degrees, our AB Communication guide covers the neighbouring programme.
How to Choose Between Them
Ask yourself which sentence you would rather spend four years on:
- "What does this text mean, and what does it do?" → AB Literature.
- "How does this language work, and how do people use it?" → AB English Language.
Then ask the department three things:
- Which track do you actually run? Both CMOs describe two tracks. Small departments frequently offer one.
- Which language of instruction? For literature programmes especially, ask how much is taught in Filipino.
- Where do practicum students go? For AB Literature this is a six-unit requirement with real placements attached - publishing houses, magazines, cultural agencies - and the quality varies a lot.
For the general question of whether a school is authorised to run the programme, see CHED-accredited schools and how to verify school legitimacy.
Comparing schools? Browse schools on SchoolFinderPH to see programmes and locations side by side.
Sources
- CHED Memorandum Order No. 21, s. 2017 - PSGs for the Bachelor of Arts in Literature / Bachelor of Arts in Literary and Cultural Studies (official PDF)
- CHED Memorandum Order No. 24, s. 2017 - PSGs for the Bachelor of Arts in English Language / Bachelor of Arts in English Language Studies (official PDF)
- Commission on Higher Education - 2017 CHED Memorandum Orders index
- Professional Regulation Commission - Professional Regulatory Boards
