BILINGUALISM AND THE MAINTENANCE OF THE MOTHER TONGUE IN MULTILINGUAL SINGAPORE

Abstract

Two issues have been identified that act against the development of a strong bilingual and biliteracy proficiency among pupils in Singapore schools: 1. English is perceived as having a much higher status than the Mother Tongue (MT) and the language in which success is primarily measured given its primacy as the language of instruction in all subjects except the MT. Consequently, children’s use of their MT has been observed to decline in favour of English; 2. English and the MT are taught in effect as a form of double monolingualism, in watertight compartments, with no opportunity for bilingual learning or reflection in class on the relationship between the two languages. This artificially blocks pupils’ access to the other language and prevents the development of a more robust bilingual. In this presentation, I will describe the ways in which the MT is maintained in Singapore, and in particular focus on the research that has recently been completed on the use of dual language books to rejuvenate the interest and ability to read in Malay in bilingual Malay children.