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Background of Singapore

Bilingual Education Policy Development

Mandarin Education

Standard Singapore English

Harmony & Development

Thank you!

Father of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew

LHRs and Non-Mandarin Chinese Dialects

LHRs and Singlish

Singlish use survey (Rubdy, 2007):

-83% of students use Singlish when speaking to classmates at recess

-65% of students use Standard English when speaking to other Singaporeans outside of school

-Singlish has strong connection to identity

-Singlish use is a feature of a 'real Singaporean,' with those who use a more standardized form of English dismissed as “trying to be British” (MT, personal communication, 5 December, 2013)

-The only language in Singapore “that provides both cosmopolitans and heartlanders with a sense of Singaporean identity and social cohesion is Singlish rather than Standard English” (Rubdy, 2001, p. 352)

And yet...

-Lee Kuan Yew says "Do not speak Singlish! If you do, you are the loser."

-Singlish use is “viewed as an economic threat” by the government and in their opinion “must be jettisoned in favour of the global economic value associated with the standard variety” of English (Wee, 2005, p. 57)

...Singaporean 'shock doctrine?'

-MOE protected LHRs through mother tongue policy

-Non-Tamil Indians can choose from 5 other non-Tamil languages for MTL

" ... Trade and industry was our only hope for economic survival. To attract investors here to set up their manufacturing plants, our people had to speak English.... English was our best choice, the language of international diplomacy, science and technology, and international finance and commerce after World War II.” (Lee, 2011)

LHRs and Non-Mandarin Chinese & Singlish

Trends in Household Language among Ethnic Chinese Primary 1 Students (1980-2009)

- Protection and violation of LHRs

- Marginalization and Social Stratification

Positive Outcomes

Any thoughts?

Positive Outcomes

- The needs to preserve cultural heritage (ethnicity) and boost economic growth - are they incompatible?

- Linguistic human rights - how to define and protect?

The Impact of Modernization and Human Capital Theories

Timeline of Bilingual Education Policy

Rate of Return

- Top 3 in the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA)

- Top 3 in International Math and Science Study (TIMSS) results from 2011 (Grade 4 & 8)

Universal Bilingualism, 1965

English as the Compulsory First Language, 1987

All Party Report on Education, 1956

English Education

- Marked the foundation of a national education system

- Expressed the need to unite different ethnic groups through languages (All Party Report, 1956)

- Expressed the need to develop universal bilingualism with the first language (L1) taught as the main medium of instruction along with the second language (L2)

- English had to be either L1 or L2 (Kam & Gopinathan, 1999)

- Exams on L1 and L2 (both oral and written) were made compulsory at the primary and secondary levels (Kam & Gopinathan, 1999)

- English was designated as the compulsory L1 in local schools while Chinese, Malay and Tamil would be L2 of students' choices (Ministry of Education, 2013)

- No. 1 Worldwide for the ease of doing business by World Bank, consecutively for 7 years

- No.3 the most competitive country in the world

- No.1 the best business environment worldwide

Economic Growth

1959

1979

2000

1987

1965

1956

Speak Good English Movement, 2000

Five-Year Plan, 1959

Speak Mandarin Campaign, 1979

- Promoted the use of Mandarin as opposed to other Chinese dialects among the Chinese Singaporean community (Speak Mandarin Campaign, 2013)

- In response to the negative effect of the habitual use of non-Mandarin Chinese dialects (Bokhorst-Heng, 1998).

- Aims at encouraging Singaporeans to speak grammatically correct English instead of Colloquial Singapore English, also known as Singlish (Speak Good English Movement, 2013)

- Targets at different groups and had different themes each year

- Listed social cohesion and national identity as the primary objectives of education (Kam, 1999)

- Emphasized "equal treatment" to the four streams of education (People's Action Party, 1959)

Survival and Development

Ogawa, Jones, and Williamson (1993, as cited in the World Bank, 2008) - one of the biggest factors in this economic success is the country’s “impressive commitment to human capital formation.”

The World Bank (1995, p.6) - “the substantial investment to achieve universal, high-quality” bilingual education “produced important payoffs for economic efficiency and equity.”

Continue to Open up Market and Remain Competitive

Linguistic Human Rights

Where is Singapore?

Linguistic Human Rights

  • Modern Singapore was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819
  • Became colony of British India in 1824
  • Elected its self government in 1959
  • Gained independence from Britain but merged with Malaysia in 1964
  • Separated from Malaysia in 1965

The Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity:

-Adopted unanimously by UNESCO in 2002

-Article 5: all persons “have the right to express themselves and to create and disseminate their work in the language of their choice, and particularly in their mother tongue; all persons are entitled to quality education and training that fully respect their cultural identity.”

Skutnabb-Kangas, Phillipson, and Rannut (1994):

- Individual: everyone “has the right to learn the mother tongue” as well as “at least one of the official languages” (p.2)

- Collective : “[O]bserving LHRs implies at a collective level the right of minorities to exist.” Linguistic minorities have a right to not only schooling and training in their language, but also a right to the control of the curricula and teaching of their language ( p. 2)

Four Official Languages

A multiracial and multilingual country

Singapore

Bilingual Education in Singapore:

A Unique Case Study

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