English in Singapore: Modernity and Management

Series editor’s preface

Of all Asian societies, the role of English in Singapore — at least from an outsider’s perspective — has typically been regarded as most successful and least contentious, compared to other English-using societies in the region. In contrast to Hong Kong, for example, the societal space for English as an interethnic lingua franca has meant that the rationale for English has often foregrounded its utility as a ‘neutral’ language of education and social administration. Singapore has also gained a strong reputation regionally for the relatively high proficiency of its English users, a reputation that has risen in pace with the city-state’s recent branding of itself as a knowledgebased community and arts and education hub. Ironically, however, at the same time that Singapore has worked hard to such ends, its domestic linguistic complaint tradition has striven less to emphasize its strengths, and somewhat more to bemoan the community’s collective mastery of English. While linguists have been fascinated by the emergence of local varieties of English, both educated and informal, the government has expressed much concern about the existence of ‘bad English’, which has often been equated with ‘Singlish’, however vaguely defined and described. Meanwhile, English continues to spread as a language of the home in a society where ‘mother tongue’ — for a number of official purposes — may only refer to such heritage languages as Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil. This present volume, edited by Lisa Lim, Anne Pakir, and Lionel Wee, is ground-breaking in the way in which it is able to account for and explain at least some of these contradictions and tensions. By engaging an ensemble of truly expert commentators on English in Singapore, this book succeeds in providing an insightful account of the interplay of linguistic ecology, language policies, and sociolinguistic realities of the Singapore community, which cumulatively offers a rich and fine-grained account of the sociolinguistics of English in this context. Part I (with a chapter from Lim, Pakir and Wee, and another from Lim) deals with the ecology of English in Singapore, where an integrated ‘ecological model’ requires an Series editor’s preface viii Series editor’s preface understanding of the dynamics of both migration and official language policies. Part II, with contributions from Gupta, Bruthiaux, and Alsagoff, then highlights the need to (re)conceptualize ‘English’ in the Singapore context, with particular reference to both the Speak Good English Movement, and the thorny issue of Singlish. Part III — with three chapters by Bokhorst-Heng, Rubdy, McKay and Alsagoff; Vaish, Tan, Bokhorst-Heng, Hogan and Kang; and Stroud and Wee — tackle the issue of ‘ethnicity and ownership’ focusing on such topics as language debates, language and social capital, and the shifting ground for traditional language policies, and the theorization of language planning, in a late-modern consumer society such as Singapore. Part IV then deals with the issue of English language education, with chapters from Rubdy on the history of syllabuses, Low on pronunciation, and Pakir on the implications of the world Englishes (WE) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) approaches for English language education. Finally, Part V provides an immensely useful guide to published books and articles in this field. The level of discussion throughout is impressive, and the layering of linguistic description and sociolinguistic commentary that is at the heart of this volume not only serves to illuminate the Singapore situation, but will also impact the conceptualization and discussion of the sociolinguistics of English in Asia in the international frontline of research. This work provides a major contribution to the Asian Englishes Today series and to the description and analysis of English in Singapore, and, as such, it is likely to serve a standard reference work (for both students and researchers) for many years to come. Kingsley Bolton April 2010 ...