Language shift, mother tongue, and identity in Singapore

Language shift, mother tongue, and identity in Singapore ANNA KWAN-TERRY Abstract A review ofthe development of Singapore reveals that äs a result ofa host ofinteractingfactors, there has appeared an intricate pattern of Islands of people within the island-state, which are constantly realigning themselves. At a basic level, three major Islands, the Chinese, the Malays, and the Indians, wereformed based on ethnicity withfurther Islands formed within each based on the regional language spoken. Education further made the pattern of Islands even more intricate. In the early days of Singapore, education was offered in the regional languages, which reinforced the ethnolinguistic Islands. In addition to the regional language, the British colonial government introduced English-medium education, which resulted in the creation of a new, socially powerful island comprising those who had had English-medium education. With time, two major Islands stood out in clear Opposition, the English-educated forming the privileged group, and the Chinese-educated forming the disadvantaged group, resulting in political unrest. The Singapore government adopted the policy of unitary language-medium of education (English) to resolve Ms. However, with English becoming more popularly used, rather than being restricted to the privileged few, the language äs used by the mass took on a localflavoring, leading interestingly to yet further Islands in Singapore today. Those who can code-switch between the "uneducated" variety of English in Singapore (Singlish) and the educated or internationally accepted variety inhabit one island, while those whose repertoire is limited to only the uneducated variety inhabit yet another island. 1. Introduction To understand the language Situation in Singapore and how the island is composed of island speech communities interacting with each other, it 0165-2516/00/0143-0085 © Walter de Gruyter Int'l. J. Soc. Lang. 143 (2000), pp. 85-106 Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM 86 A. Kwan-Terry is necessary to look at the island-state from both a diachronic and a synchronic perspective. Sir Stamford Raffles founded Singapore in 1819 when it was no more than a small fishing village with under two hundred Malay and Chinese inhabitants, but today it has become one of the four tiger economies of Southeast Asia with a population of about three and a half million. On this small island we find a host of factors, historical, political, cultural, educational, and socioeconomic, interacting with one another to cause its people to simultaneously identify themselves with different "islands" set up on different levels. These form an intricate pattern of loyalties and affinities, yet sharing a common Singapore identity. A review of Singapore during the colonial period should shed light on the beginnings of the formation of these islands within the island of Singapore. 2. The colonial period When Sir Stamford Raffles first landed in Singapore in 1819, he found the island inhabited by only 120 Malays and 30 Chinese. The population increased rapidly and by 1836, the number of Chinese inhabitants, totaling 13,749, had outnumbered that of Malays, totaling 12,497. In addition, there were 3,300 Indians, 150 Europeans, and 120 Eurasians (Platt and Weber, 3). The sharp increases in Chinese inhabitants continued, and by 1849, more than half of the population were Chinese (Saw 1980). The first immigrants were mostly Chinese or Malays from Malacca in the Malayan Peninsula attracted to the island by its trade opportunities and higher wages. In later years, from the Malayan Archipelago came the Malay immigrants, from southern China came the Chinese immigrants, and from the subcontinent of India came the Indian immigrants. The Malays, Chinese, and Indians each brought with them their own languages and cultures from their motherland. 2.1. Ethnicity The people of Singapore, äs a result of Immigration, formed islands based on ethnicity. The Chinese, Malays, and Indians formed three major islands within the island. The British made no attempt to integrate the people of different ethnic origins and in actual fact chose to keep them apart. Thus there were the Malays living in the Malay kampongs, the Chinese in Chinatown, and the Indians in the Serangoon Road area. Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM Shift, mother tongue, and identity 87 Table 1. Population growth and racial distribution in Singapore, 1824-1957 Year Total Chinese Malay Indian Others 1824 1871 1911 1947 1957 10,683 94,817 303,321 938,144 1,445,929 3,317 54,572 219,577 729,473 1,090,595 6,431 26,141 41,806 113,803 197,060 756 10,313 27,755 68,976 124,084 179 3,790 14,183 25,901 34,190 Source: Saw (1980: 17, 1982: 16), Lau (1993: 36). The growth in population and the racial distribution during the colonial period are given in Table 1. 2.2. Regional languages and mother tongues To see Singapore äs simply composed of three islands based on ethnicity would be simplistic. While it was no doubt true that members of each ethnic group identified themselves with their own race, within each group they further identified themselves äs Speakers of different languages depending on the region they came from. The Chinese among them came mainly from southern China, speaking a variety of southern Chinese regional languages or dialects. These Chinese regional languages or dialects share a common written language, classical Chinese in olden times and modern Standard Chinese in modern days, but are themselves very different from one another. They share many similarities structurally and grammatically but are phonologically widely divergent, so much so that they are mutually unintelligible. Among the Malays, although the majority spoke the Malay language, there were some who spoke Javanese or Boyanese. The Indians were even more clearly distinguished in that the languages they spoke belong to two completely different families, the Dravidian and the Indo-Aryan. Table 2 lists the different languages used based on the Census of Population of 1957 (only languages with more than 1,000 Speakers are given). It can be said that the Chinese in Singapore had at least two levels of identity based on place of origin. They identified themselves first and foremost äs Chinese, sharing with other members of the Chinese Community from different regions in China similar cultural traits and ethnic sense. The regional identity, based on the regional language they spoke, was only secondary, while undeniably there. Thus the Hokkien Speakers feit a sense of kinship with fellow Hokkien Speakers vis-ä-vis the non-Hokkien-speaking Chinese, and Speakers of each of the other Chinese regional languages would similarly feel a sense of affinity with their Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM 88 A. Kwan-Terry Table 2. Language groups in Singapore, 1957 Languages No. of Speakers % of total population (1,445,929) Sinitic (Chinese) Hokkien Teochew Cantonese Hainanese Hakka Foochow Henghua Shanghainese Hokchia Mandarin 433,718 246,478 217,640 74,498 66,597 14,232 7,866 7,273 6,443 1,275 30.0 17.0 15.1 Malayo-Polynesian Malay Javanese Boyanese 166,931 14,517 14,344 11.5 Dravidian Tamil Malayalam 75,617 20,063 5.2 1.4 Indo-European (Indo-Aryan) Punjabi Hindustani Bengali Gujerati 10,089 5,394 1,210 1,022 0.7 0.4 0.1 0.1 Indo-European English 26,599 1.8 5.2 4.6 1.0 0.5 0.5 0.4 0.1 1.0 1.0 Source: Kuo (1980: 41), Chua (1964: 155-161). own fellow Speakers. This regional affinity among the Chinese was best reflected in the education available during the early colonial days. Because the colonial government did not support education in Chinese, education in Chinese in the early days was mainly sponsored by wealthy individual Chinese or Chinese communities, and while the same written Chinese was taught in all Chinese schools, the spoken language used varied among schools, depending on the individual or Community that sponsored the school, that is, the regional group the individual or Community belonged to. Thus there were Hokkien schools where Hokkien was used äs the medium of teaching; there were also Teochew schools, Cantonese schools, etc. Hokkien-speaking parents would send their children to Hokkien-speaking schools, Teochew-speaking parents would send their children to Teochew-speaking schools, Cantonese-speaking parents would send their children to Cantonese-speaking schools, and so on. Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM Shift, mother tongue, and identity 89 This remained the case until the 1920s when, äs a result of the May Fourth Movement in China advocating the use of Standard Modern Chinese äs the written norm and guo-yu äs the spoken norm, all Chinese-medium schools in Singapore started using guo-yu or Mandarin Chinese äs the spoken medium for teaching. The replacement of the regional languages with a common spoken language at school served to bring to the fore the common Chineseness among the ethnic Chinese studying in Chinese schools, reducing the separateness arising from different regional origins. Similarly the Indians in Singapore saw themselves first äs ethnic Indians sharing fairly similar cultural traits, although they too were subdivided into language communities according to the region in India they came from. Like the Chinese, the Indians had schools using different regional languages äs the medium of teaching: there were Tamil schools, Telegu schools, Punjabi schools, and so on. Above such regional groupings, the Indians in Singapore, like those in India itself, also saw themselves äs northerners speaking the Indo-Aryan languages or southerners speaking the Dravidian languages. Besides a distinction in terms of language family, northerners were the economically more successful compared to the southerners and thus there was also a socioeconomic factor behind the north-south distinction. The Malays in Singapore were a more tightly knit group in that they were bonded by their common religion, Islam, although not all of them spoke Malay. In addition to the three major ethnic groups mentioned, the colonial government also brought with it the British administrators and western businessmen who formed a privileged Community of their own, living in their own enclave with their own western culture and speaking a western language, English. 2.3. Language in education Apart from affiliations arising from ethnicity and regional origin, education also played a significant role in determining a person's sense of identity. During the early colonial days, the British administration supported education in English and Malay. It supported education in English in order to train people to serve in the local administration and in the British enterprises, and it sponsored education in Malay because the British considered the Malays äs the indigenous people of the land. Education in the Chinese and Indian languages was very much left to communal or religious organizations or to wealthy individuals. On the whole, there was a clear correlation between the ethnic background of the schoolchildren and the language medium of the schools they Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM 90 A. Kwan-Terry went to. Chinese children would attend schools where a Chinese language was used, Malay children would attend Malay schools, and Indian children would attend schools where an Indian language was used. Ethnic identity was thus clearly manifested in education. The English-medium schools cut across racial boundaries and were attended by children from both the Chinese and the Indian communities, with an over-representation of Indian children from among the latter Community (Doraisamy 1969: 13-14; Gopinathan 1974: 2-3; Soon 1988: 3-4). Children from these schools formed a highly select group, äs only those from privileged backgrounds were accepted into these schools, Members of this group were thus the privileged group, distinguished from the rest by their command of the prestige language, English. The Community of the English-speaking formed among the locals began expanding after the Second World War äs a result of the introduction of the Ten-Year Programme, by which primary education was made available in English, Malay, Chinese, and Tamil. However, at the secondary school level, the government only supported education in English, due partly to its desire to instill loyalty toward the British, since there was much discontent among students in the Chinese schools. At this time, there was substantial expansion of Chinese education at the secondary level too, but the credit could hardly be claimed by the British administration because the Chinese Community itself sponsored it. There was at that time great disparity in governmental distribution of financial resources for schools belonging to different language streams. This was reflected in the figures for 1957, when 64.0 percent of the total expenditure was used on English schools, 24.1 percent on Chinese schools, 4.2 percent on Malay schools, and 0.3 percent on Tamil schools (Gopinathan 1974: 30). The existence of English-medium education created the island of the English-educated, with members from both the Chinese and the Indian Community. Because education in English provided the best Job opportunities, it was most sought after, and those belonging to this group on the whole held much of the economic power and social prestige. Over time, on account of the greater economic value of English, the prestige of the language, and the fact that Chinese was not emphasized in Englishmedium schools, many of those who had had their education in Englishmedium schools lost their ability to use their ethnic or regional languages and used English in the home, with their children learning English äs their mother tongue. While they were ethnically Chinese or Indian and retained much of their cultural traits and customs and identified themselves äs belonging to the Chinese or Indian race, they had assimilated much of western culture into their life. In this sense, they were Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM Shift, mother tongue, and identity 91 culturally distinguished from those who had had their education in Chinese or Tamil. Members of this group identified themselves äs the "English-educated": they spoke English äs their mother tongue, and some even took pride in their inability to speak any Chinese language (which to them was a reflection of their privileged background and their western orientation). Those among the Chinese who had had their education in Chinese, on the other band, identified themselves äs "the Chinese-educated," distinguished from those among the Chinese who had had English-medium education. Members of this group closely identified themselves with China and were very interested in the political and other developments in China. Thus when Dr. Sun Yat Sen and bis fellow revolutionists visited Singapore, many showed up to show their support and donated generously to support the Chinese cause. This group was further bonded by their common economic woe. In comparison with those who had had English-medium education, members of this group were very much disadvantaged economically: their career prospects were limited and their income was substantially lower than those who had had their education in the English medium. This difference in income eventually erupted into the Chinese Student unrest of 1955. Thus education was a major factor behind the formation of islands, dividing the Chinese into the camp of the "English-educated" and the "Chinese-educated." What about people from the two other racial groups? The colonial government offered education in Malay but only up to the primary school level, äs the government was of the view that most Malays would eventually go back to work in the plantations or do other menial Jobs. Indeed, even though six years of primary education in the mother tongue were available to Malays, few Malay children in fact completed primary education. Tamil-medium education too was generally in a poor state and was available only at the primary level. Absenteeism was high, and so was the dropout rate (Omar 1979: 17-18). Because Tamil was associated with laborers working in the plantations, it was generally regarded äs the language of the lower class. Many Tamil Speakers who could speak English preferred to use English because of its prestige value (Gaudart 1985: 123). It can be seen from the above that both the medium of education received and the level of education reached played a significant role in social stratification, resulting in the creation of socioeconomic islands. The gulf separating the island of the English-educated and the Chinese-educated had important political implications, äs will be seen later. Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM 92 A. Kwan-Terry 2.4. Cultural Integration When cultures meet, people from different cultures separate themselves into different islands, but from the meeting and mixing of cultures, new islands are also formed. What kind of picture emerged from the interactions of cultures found in Singapore? An interesting phenomenon arising from cultural Integration was the birth of the Peranakans. The Peranakans are the result of the Integration of Chinese and Malay cultures. Among the early Chinese immigrants, some were very much influenced by the Malay way of life. They picked up a low variety of Malay, bazaar Malay, in their interactions with the Malays around them and in time used it äs their home language. In their way of life, the Peranakans retained part of the Chinese way of life, but they had also absorbed many Malay customs into their everyday life. A good example is Peranakan food, which is a mixture of Chinese and Malay cooking and which survives to this day. The Peranakans formed a distinct cultural group, clearly separated from the Malays or the Chinese; the men were called Babas and the women Nonyas. In 1957, they made up about l percent of the Chinese in Singapore, (Chua 1964: 155-56). 3. Toward independence 3.1. Equal treatment ofraces, languages, and cultures The unequal treatment of the different languages in education during the colonial days, and especially the marked difference in income between the Chinese-educated and the English-educated, erupted into the Chinese Student unrest of 1955, äs Singapore and Malaysia were preparing for Independence. The All-Party Committee that was set up äs a consequence to look into the matter was keenly aware of inequality among the different groups of people in Singapore äs a potential source of conflict working against nation building and national identity. Thus the Party, of which Lee Kuan Yew was a member, stressed the principle of equal treatment for all the major races, languages, and cultures, and this became a cornerstone in the building of Singapore äs a nation. The Party affirmed that all the local, ethnic languages and cultures had an important role to play in developing a Singaporean national culture and ideology. With reference to Chinese language and culture and by implication other local, ethnic languages and cultures, the report put out by the Party declared, Chinese education will have to play its part, äs also Chinese culture, with which it is inextricably mixed in the formation of a nation marching rapidly towards Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM Shift, mother tongue, and identity 93 self-government and independence not by jettisoning its cultural Ideals and values, but by tolerance and ready acceptance of the contributions of the other races and by sinking communal differences and jealousies ... (Government of Singapore 1956: 4). One direct result of this principle of equal treatment to all races, languages, and cultures was the introduction of bilingual education in the primary school and trilingual education in the secondary school. This meant that in the primary school, English would be taught äs a second language in all Chinese-medium, Malay-medium, or Tamil-medium schools, and at the secondary level, Malay would be made available for at least two years. In other words, English was given priority over the other languages, no doubt because of its Status äs the language of science, technology, and international commerce. At the time Singapore separated from Malaysia to become a fully independent country, Lee Kuan Yew had this to say in support of multiculturalism and multilingualism: I would like to believe that the two years we spent in Malaysia are years which will not be easily forgotten, years in which the people of migrant stock here — who are a majority — learned of the terrors and the follies and the bitterness which is generated when one group tries to assert its dominance over the other on the basis of one race, one language, one religion. It is because I am fortified by this that my colleagues and I were determined, äs from the moment of Separation, that this lesson will never be forgotten. So it is that into the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore will be built-in safeguards, in so far äs the human mind can devise, means whereby the conglomeration of numbers, of likeness — äs a result of affinities of race or language or culture — shall never work to the detriment of those who, by the accident of history, find themselves in minority groups in Singapore ... We have a vested interest in multiracialism (Josey 1968: 435-436). What was the consequence of this bilingual education policy and the priority given to English? The efFect can be seen clearly in the postIndependence period which I discuss next. 4. After Independence After Independence, the population continued to grow. The Chinese continued to be the majority racial group, constituting more than 75 percent of the total population, followed by the Malays and then the Indians. With independence, Malay was proclaimed the national language; however, its function was mainly ceremonial. In effect, English continued to Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM 94 A. Kwan-Terry be the most important language in working life, being the language of government administration, the language of science and technology, and the language of international commerce, äs well äs the language of prestige and upward social mobility. The newly independent nation kept to its principle of equal treatment for all races and cultures to ensure racial harmony. It went beyond that by trying to put the different racial groups together to allow greater Integration, communication, and understanding. One way the new government sought to achieve this was through its housing program. To solve the housing shortage, it embarked on building low-cost, subsidized housing for the populace and, unlike the British, which kept the races apart by locating them in different parts of the island, the government put the different races in the same housing estates and the same blocks of flats. How did the introduction of new policies arising from independence affect Singapore in terms of the affinities of its people? What new islands were formed or removed? There were several currents at work resulting in a realignment of islands. 4.1. Realignment of islands: the English-educated and the Chinese-educated One major problem facing the new government was the chasm between the English-educated versus the Chinese-educated, äs there was a marked difference in income between the two groups. This is illustrated in Table 3. As Table 3 shows, in 1966, the English-educated commanded a much higher income than the Chinese-educated, and this was true of all age groups and both sexes. This was the source of much frustration and malcontent. In a way, the problem solved itself eventually in that an increased number of parents started enrolling their children in Englishmedium schools, with corresponding declines in enrollment in schools in Table 3. Average monthly income offull-time employees withoutjob training who completed secondary school (1966) Age 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 Education Chinese-medium (males) English-medium (males) Chinese-medium (females) English-medium (females) 141.67 177.28 153.65 184.84 200.31 352.00 178.73 251.67 347.35 631.61 263.41 404.30 438.81 774.78 357.42 486.92 403.52 674.90 - Source: Gopinathan (1974: 60). Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM Shift, mother tongue, and identity 95 Table 4. Percentage of Primary One registration by language stream (1960-1975) Registration year 1960 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 Language stream English Chinese Malay Tamil 51.81 62.28 60.24 61.28 63.09 66.42 69.30 71.42 74.89 77.88 78.51 82.52 86.06 39.32 28.59 32.80 33.19 33.06 30.92 28.98 27.44 24.26 21.46 21.03 17.16 13.75 8.64 8.94 6.76 5.36 3.66 2.51 1.60 1.06 0.79 0.61 0.43 0.32 0.19 0.23 0.19 0.20 0.17 0.19 0.15 0.12 0.08 0.06 0.05 0.03 - Totais % no. 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 52,560 61,931 59,128 56,736 55,526 56,152 54,730 52,284 51,747 47,599 44,918 42,409 43,730 Source: adapted from Prime Ministers Speech to Parliament, Feb. 23, 1977 (reported in the Straits Times, February 26, 1977); also Kuo (1985: 346). the other language mediums in the 1960s; this accelerated in 1970s, äs shown in Table 4. It can be said that the people of Singapore themselves took the initiative in bringing about the realignment of islands, propelled by socioeconomic factors. The island comprising the English-educated expanded in size, while the island of the Chinese-educated shrank accordingly. The government, seeing the trend, did its part in expediting the process of change: it decided to convert by stages all schools in Singapore to Englishmedium schools, and the conversion took place between 1970 and 1980. By 1980, all the schools in Singapore were English-medium schools. Following the completion of the conversion of all schools to Englishmedium schools, the government went a step further and merged the Chinese-medium Nanyang University with the English-medium Singapore University. Nanyang University was established by various Chinese organizations and a host of Chinese businessmen who were keen to develop education in Chinese. On the other band, Singapore University was supported by the government. The merging of the two universities into one to form the National University of Singapore, with English äs the medium of instruction and the subsequent sharp increases in Student intake at the combined university, together with the expansion of the polytechnics in Singapore (where the medium of instruction is again English), have created a new generation of young people who are well educated and who are reasonably at ease with the use of English. These changes in education, which took place in 1980s, no doubt partly Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM 96 A. Kwan-Terry explained the increased use of English in the home in Singapore äs reflected through the 1990 Census of Population. These changes in educational policy will eventually result in removing the gap separating the English-educated from the Chinese-educated, a gap that still exists today among the older generation. 4.2. The dying out of the Peranakans Another effect of the changes in education policy was the gradual disappearance of the Peranakans. With the introduction of and later increased emphasis on bilingual education, which requires all Singaporeans of Chinese origin to learn English and Chinese at school, the younger generation among the Peranakans have tended to lose their Malay and rejoin the Chinese cultural group. This will eventually result in the dying out of the island of the Peranakans. 4.3. Language shift Another notable phenomenon that marked the newly independent islandstate of Singapore was the language shift that started in the 1960s but accelerated particularly in the 1980s. It was pointed out that during the colonial era, the people of Singapore spoke different languages at home depending on ethnicity and their regional origin. There were relatively few exceptions: the only exceptions were the selected (mainly Chinese and Indian) few who were given the chance to study in English-medium schools. This group consequently switched to speaking English in the home, and among the Chinese some were assimilated into the Malay culture and spoke Malay äs their mother tongue. In the 1960s and 1970s, partly äs a result of the increasing popularity of education in the English medium and the prestige and economic value of English, and perhaps also partly äs a result of marriages between people speaking different home languages, a portion of those who had had English-medium education gradually adopted the use of English in the home. The Census of Population 1980 showed that of the total population that year, 11.6 percent used English äs their home language. On the whole, up to the early 1980s, the southern Chinese regional languages, generally referred to äs Chinese dialects, were still the mother tongue or the home language of a large proportion (76.2% in 1980) of the ethnic Chinese in Singapore. What was the picture in Indian households? There is no detailed Information on the degree of use of the Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM Shift, mother tongue, and identity 97 Table 5. Predominant household language spoken in 1980 and 1990 by ethnic group Language/ethnicity of household English Mandarin Chinese dialect Malay Tamil Others 1980 (100%) 1990 (100%) 11.6 10.2 59.5 13.9 20.8 23.7 38.2 13.6 3.1 1.7 3.0 0.7 Chinese households English Mandarin Chinese Dialects Others 100.0 10.2 13.1 76.2 100.0 21.4 30.0 48.2 0.5 0.4 Malay households English Malay Others 100.0 100.0 Indian households English Malay Tamil Others 2.3 5.7 96.7 94.1 1.0 0.2 100.0 24.3 100.0 34.3 14.1 43.5 8.6 52.2 14.9 8.1 Source: Lau (1993: 6). various Indian languages in Singapore homes, but Table 5 shows that the percentage of use of Tamil, the official Indian language for the ethnic Indian in Singapore, was relatively low, äs only 52.2 percent of Indian households claimed to use it in 1980. The use of the other Indian languages, included under "others," was even lower, recorded äs 14.9 percent in 1980. As for the ethnic Malay, the picture was very different, and 96.7 percent of the Malays claimed to use their ethnic language in the home. In other words, in 1980, about three-quarters of the Chinese children in Singapore were likely to use a Chinese dialect in the home. Among Indian children, about half would use Tamil, a quarter would use English, and a much smaller proportion one of the other Indian languages. A very high proportion of Malay children, on the other band, would keep to their ethnic language, Malay. The detailed figures are given in Table 5. In the table, the term "predominant household language" refers to "the language or dialect that (was) used most frequently among family members" (Lau 1993: 5). This predominant household language was therefore likely to be the mother tongue of the children in the homes referred to, although, äs will be shown, this need not always Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM 98 A. Kwan-Terry be the case. The complications that have to be taken into account in determining a child's mother tongue in the case of Singapore will be discussed at a later point. There is little doubt that the language spoken at home, that is, the mother tongue a person has, is the basis for the formation of islands: those who speak the same home language, like those who belong to the same racial group or the same region of origin, feel that they have something significant in common and thus share a sense of affinity. Therefore it is safe to assume that the changes in the mother-tongue configurations that took place gradually during the 1960s and 1970s subtly changed the configuration of islands within the island-state. The language shift that started in the 1960s gathered force especially in the ten years between 1980 and 1990, and it was particularly notable among the Chinese. A comparison of the census of population data of 1980 and 1990 given in Table 5 shows that, taking all racial groups together, there was a significant increase in the use of English in the home, from 11.6 percent to 20.3 percent. Among the Chinese, there was a sharp increase in the use of Mandarin, äs well äs a clear increase in the use of English, while the use of the Chinese dialects feil sharply. In Malay households, the use of Malay lost a small percentage of its Speakers to English. In the case of Indian households, English and Malay gained at the expense of Tamil and other Indian languages, indicating a significant decline. The language shift äs reflected in the census figures was paralleled and confirmed by a similar shift that took place between 1980 and 1989 in "the language most frequently spoken at home for Primary One Chinese pupils"; this is shown in Table 6. The percentage of Chinese pupils in Primary One who claimed to speak a Chinese regional language at home shrank drastically from 64.4 percent in 1980 to only 7.2 percent in 1989, whereas the percentage who claimed to use Mandarin increased from 25.9 percent in 1980 to 69.1 percent in 1989, and for English the increase was from 9.3 percent to 23.3 percent. In other words, there was a sharp increase in the use of Table 6. Language most frequently spoken at home for Primary One Chinese pupils (%) Year Dialect Mandarin English Others 1980 1984 1989 64.4 26.9 7.2 25.9 58.7 69.1 9.3 13.9 23.3 0.3 0.4 0.4 Source: abstracted from Business Times (Oct. 4, 1989). Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM Shift, mother tongue, and identity 99 Mandarin in the home and a moderate increase in the use of English, both at the expense of the Chinese regional languages. With the ethnic Indian, the general consensus is that the Indian languages other than Tamil are gradually dying out in Singapore, replaced in the home by either English or Malay. The position of Tamil is more stable. A recent study among Tamil primary school children in Singapore shows that Tamils are able to maintain their language in the domains of family, prayers, entertainment, neighbors, and kin. On the other band, the shift toward the use of English is alarming in the domains of friends, reading, and school. With the first category of domains, the use of Tamil among the primary school children surveyed ränge from 65 percent to 72 percent, but in the second category, the use is only between 27 percent and 40 percent. These figures suggest that while oracy in Tamil is not threatened, maintained äs it is through interaction among family, kin, and neighbors äs well äs in religion, literacy in the language is, because reading in Tamil is conducted only in 33 percent of the cases studied (Ramiah 1991: 51-52). The Malays stand out in that they remain very faithful to their language: it is a marker of their ethnic affiliation äs well äs religion. 4.3. l. The shift to English in the home. Among the Chinese, the shift in the predominant language in the home has been from the Chinese regional languages or dialects to either English or Mandarin Chinese. The shift to English started äs early äs the colonial days, rendered possible by the opportunity, available only to a select few, to learn and use English in English-medium schools. With the setting up of more and more Englishmedium schools after the Second World War, and especially with the gradual conversion of all Chinese-medium schools to English-medium schools since the early 1970s, a process that was completed by 1980, the shift gathered momentum with the passage of time. The economic value of English was no doubt the main reason behind this shift. Lee Kuan Yew commented on the economic value of English thus: The way our economy has developed has made it necessary for those who want to reach executive or Professional grades to master English, spoken and written. The earlier in life this is done the easier and the better the mastery (Lee 1978). This economic value was clearly manifested in the 1980 Census of Population, which showed that the highest income group — comprising those earning $3,000 and more a month — was dominated by people with an English-medium education, most of whom were literate in only Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM 100 A. Kwan-Terry Table 7. Composition of Singaporeans in the highest income group (1980) Literacy % Literate in English only Literate in both English and Chinese Literate in Chinese only Literate in Malay only Literate in Tamil only 66.1 20.5 2.0 0.0 0.0 Source: Khoo (1981: 42-43). one language, English. These formed 66.1 percent of the highest income group, with those literate in both English and Chinese — these would in many cases be people with a Chinese-medium education who had taken English äs a second language in their education — forming another 20.5 percent (see Table 7). How did this shift come about? A study conducted by Kwan-Terry (1989) should shed some light on this. From the sample used in the study, the ethnic Chinese homes could be divided into three groups or islands in terms of the language spoken in the home. The largest group or island (forming about 80% of the sample studied) comprised households where the parents spoke a Chinese language with each other and with their children. The parents either were Chinese-educated or had had an Englishmedium education no higher than the primary level. Most of the parents in this group reported that they had either no or very little ability in English. Apart from belonging together because they spoke a regional Chinese language, members of this group also belonged together äs members of the lower income group, with about three-quarters of them receiving a monthly income of no more than $1,000. What was of note is that although the parents from such households did not speak much English, they were very concerned about their children's command of the language, a concern that was manifested in their employing a private tutor to help their children with English (Kwan-Terry 1989, 1991). In other words, even though the parents themselves did not speak much English, they were anxious that their children should have a better command of English and would go a long way to help their children to develop this command. What was even more significant was that in more than a quarter of these homes, the children claimed to use English, or a mixture of English and Chinese, with their siblings. No doubt it was through learning English at school that they developed the ability to use the language and introduced it into the home to use with their siblings. In the school playground, the use of code-switching between English and Chinese predominated, with more than half of the children from Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM Shift, mother tongue, and identity 101 this group claiming code-switching äs their norm at school. These were clear signs that in 1980s, children were growing up with increasing opportunities to use English in one way or another. Kwan-Terry (1989) also showed that besides the homes referred to above, in which the parents spoke a Chinese regional language with each other and with their children, there were other ethnic Chinese homes in which the parents spoke a Chinese regional language with each other but switched to a mixture of Chinese and English or predominantly English when speaking with their children. It would seem that this switch to the use of some English with their children was done with a purpose: to help the latter with the language they would need for their education, namely, English. Compared with parents from the first group, who predominantly spoke a Chinese language in the home with their spouse and children, parents in this second group had achieved, on the whole, a higher level of education, with 40 percent of the fathers having had English-medium education at least up to secondary level. It would seem that in most cases it was through their education that parents in this group developed the ability to speak English and they were keen to apply it to their children, to give their children an early Start in the language they would need for their education. The parents in the first group, on the other band, not being able to speak English themselves, were not able to help their children in this way, although they devised another way of helping. In the ten years between 1980 and 1990, the number of ethnic Chinese homes reporting the use of English äs the predominant language increased from 10.2 percent to 21.4 percent, paralleled by a sharp drop in homes reporting the use of the Chinese regional dialects, from 76.2 percent in 1980 to 48.2 percent in 1990. In Indian households, the increase in the use of English äs the principal household language was just äs sharp, from 24.3 percent to 34.3 percent, and this was at the expense of Tamil, which dropped from 52.2 percent to 43.5 percent. In Malay households, the use of English only increased marginally, and Malay remained the home language in the vast majority of cases. Ironically, while the Chinese-educated parents, of their own accord and for obvious pragmatic reasons of socioeconomic gains and advancement, put their children in English-medium schools, they retained in their hearts a strong sense of affinity with their Chinese cultural heritage and lamented the erosion of the Chinese language and culture in Singapore. They blamed the government, and this resentment translated into votes against the ruling party in the general election of 1991. Thus there was a tug-of-war between English and the ethnic languages and culture. The government's solution to this was the introduction of elite schools Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM 102 A. Kwan-Terry for high-calibre children so that they could study both English and Chinese at advanced levels and become truly bilingual. As expected, parents fought hard to put their children in these schools. It is too early äs yet to teil whether products from such schools will form a new island of the privileged, wielding stronger economic and political power than those not thus endowed. 4.3.2. The shift to Mandarin in the home. In 1980, the regional Chinese languages or dialects were the principal household language in about three-quarters of the ethnic Chinese homes, but in 1990 less than half of the homes reported using these languages. The gain was made by English on the one band, but even greater gain was made by Mandarin Chinese (13.1% reported using it in 1980, äs against 30.0% in 1990). What accounted for the dramatic increase in the use of Mandarin at the expense of the regional dialects? A major reason was the "Speak Mandarin" campaign launched in 1979 by the government. The campaign advocated the use of Mandarin Chinese in the home in place of the regional dialects, and, äs part of the campaign, the government banned the use of these dialects on radio and television. The rationale for this move was that such a move would make it easier for schoolchildren to develop command of the school languages, namely, English and Chinese, since they would have one fewer language to handle. Instead of speaking a Chinese regional dialect from babyhood and then learning both Mandarin Chinese and English at school, children could begin with a school language, in most cases Mandarin Chinese from babyhood, and learn only one new language, English, at school. It was argued that, speaking Mandarin Chinese äs a home language, children would need less effort to learn written Chinese, which is based on Mandarin. Schoolchildren would also have more time to focus on achieving a better command of English. The government took great pains to persuade parents to switch to Mandarin Chinese äs the principal language at home and to assist with their children's education. As the government had great credibility and popularity among the people, and since success in education was high on the list of priorities with Singapore parents, the campaign was highly successful, äs evidenced in the census of population data. From the early 1980s, many parents who could not speak English but had a reasonable command of Mandarin Chinese heeded the government and switched to using Mandarin Chinese with their children at home. The low Status of the Chinese regional dialects also contributed to the shift away from them. Since education in the Chinese-medium schools had been for some time based on Mandarin, the use of the dialects was viewed äs a sign of lack of education and refinement. Moreover, since Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM Shift, mother tongue, and identity 103 1985, the role of the Chinese dialects äs markers of Chinese identity has been seriously undermined by a government-sponsored slogan, "Mandarin is Chinese." The slogan implied that it was the ability to speak Mandarin, and not the dialects, which helped to define one's ethnic affiliation. This is confirmed in a study looking into language and identity among first-year Chinese undergraduates in Singapore (Wee Hock Ann 1990: 62). The "Speak Mandarin" campaign has been kept up since its inception, but in recent years, it has taken on a second mission. Speaking Mandarin and developing literacy in modern Standard Chinese were increasingly seen by the government äs important ways to maintain Chinese cultural values, which were important for both effective government and economic development. Indeed, Singapore's political leaders were fully aware of the importance of English in the island-state, but they were also aware of the dangers of increasing Westernization. Brigadier General Lee Hsiang Loong, for example, pointed out that ... in the short term, Westernization has helped our economic growth. It has made us more cosmopolitan, less inscrutable. It has helped us to ran a more rationalistic government, and build a more efficient economy .... But further Westernization holds many dangers. Singapore has succeeded because we have been different. Although we are in close contact with the Western world, our values and expectations, and our responses to challenges äs a people, have so far been different from Westerners (Straits Times, Jan. 12, 1989). Thus in order to ensure the retention of Asian cultural values to support its economic growth and government, the Singapore leaders made every effort to encourage the preservation of the ethnic languages and cultures. Thus the Singapore government introduced schools where top students take both English and Chinese äs a first language, that is, at a level higher than that expected for a second language. It was hope that, by this move, the brightest among Singapore students would develop a strong command of both the languages, and that through them, Chinese culture could be passed on. Whether the introduction of such schools will one day create a new bilingual elite is yet to be seen. Apart from government promotion of Mandarin in the home, liberalization in China and consequent increased business with the outside world have also helped to raise the Status of Mandarin. The language is now regarded äs possessing economic power. The result is that Mandarin Chinese is now widely used among the younger generation across different educational levels, from schools to polytechnics and universities, even though the medium of instruction is English. Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM 104 A. Kwan-Terry 4.4. The mother-tongue Situation today The description given above of principal household languages and the shifts in language use provides some indications of the mother tongues of the children in Singapore, but what has been said is only part of the picture. The mother-tongue Situation in Singapore is complicated by a host of factors. First, a young Singapore child may have more than one "mother tongue." In Singapore, because a substantial number of women take up Jobs outside the home, it is very common for babies to be taken care of either by their grandparents or by a caregiver of some kind during the day when the parents are away at work. When a young child is taken care of by grandparents who are ethnic Chinese, they are likely to speak to the child in a Chinese regional language, the language they are most at ease with. In a small number of cases, they may also speak Mandarin to their grandchildren to help them to gain control of one of the school languages. If a child is cared for by a caregiver, then the caregiver may speak one of several languages, Mandarin Chinese, a Chinese regional language, or English if she is a local. The caregiver may speak a regional variety of English if she is from a surrounding country (the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, or Thailand in many cases). The parents, on the other band, may communicate with the child in English, Mandarin, or a Chinese dialect, depending on what languages they are able to speak themselves. As explained earlier, many parents use one of the school languages with their children to give them a head Start in learning a language that they will later need in school. Moreover, children often bring home with them the language they use at school and use it with their siblings. This explains why most Singapore children are able to speak two or more languages by the time they Start school. Gupta conducted a study of children's use of language in an education center in a typical government housing estate. The children who came to this center were on the whole representative of Singapore children. Of the 280 parents of these children, only four parents claimed to use only one language at home, ten claimed to use three languages or more, and the rest claimed two languages. The majority of parents indicated that both school languages were used — for some parents this would be English and Mandarin, and for others English and Malay (Gupta 1994: 161). The teachers themselves estimated that at the Start of nursery school about half of the children knew English and over three-quarters knew Mandarin, and only a handful knew neither English nor Mandarin. But by terms 2 and 3, the majority of the children could communicate in English, and most of the Chinese children could also communicate in Mandarin even when they could not speak it on entry (Gupta 1994: 160, 167). Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM Shift, mother tongue, and identity 105 5. Conclusion Thus we can see that the language Situation in Singapore has been changing fast and there has been a gradual realignment of islands within the island-state. The three major ethnic groups will remain major islands, but the regional barrier based on regional languages or dialects, while still present, has been very much weakened, äs has been the barrier separating the English-educated and the Chinese-educated: while still a reality among the older generation, it is fast disappearing among the younger generation. English, instead of being a mark of the highly privileged group, is increasingly widely spoken, and the local variety of English, Singapore English, is viewed by the young with pride, äs a mark of national identity. Mandarin, instead of being viewed with Stigma, is gradually gaining respectability and is widely spoken both in the home and in society at large. With more and more Singaporeans speaking English and Mandarin, language may no longer be a main reason behind the formation of social and political islands. But islands there always will be, äs long äs social stratification remains a reality in the island-state. Nanyang Technological University References Chua, S.C. (1964). Report on the Census of Population 1957. Singapore: Department of Statistics. Doraisamy, T.R. (ed.) (1969). 150 Years of Education in Singapore. Singapore: Teachers' Training College Board. Gaudart, Hyacinth Marie (1985). A descriptive study of bilingual education in Malaysia. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hawaii. Gopinathan, S. (1974). Towards a National System of Education in Singapore, 1945-1973. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Government of Singapore (1956). Report of the All-Party Committee of the Singapore Legislative Assembly on Chinese Education. Singapore: Singapore Government Printing House. Gupta, Anthea Fräser (1994). The Step-Tongue: Children's English in Singapore. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Josey, A. (1968). Lee Kuan Yew. Singapore: Donald Moore Khoo Chian Kim (1981). Census of Population 1980, Singapore, Release No. 7: Income and Transport. Singapore: Department of Statistics. Kuo, Eddie C.Y. (1980). The sociolinguistic Situation in Singapore. In Language and Society in Singapore, Evangelos A. Afendras and Eddie C.Y. Kuo (eds.), 39-62. Singapore: Singapore University Press. —(1985). Language and social mobility in Singapore. In Language of Inequality, N. Wolfson and J. Manes (eds.), 337-354. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM 106 A. Kwan-Terry Kwan-Terry, Anna (1989). Education and the pattern of language use among ethnic Chinese school children in Singapore. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 8Q, 5-31. —(1993). Cross currents in the use of English in Singapore. World Englishes 12(i), 75-84. —; and Kwan-Terry, John (1993). Literacy and the dynamics of language planning: the case of Singapore. In Knowledge, Culture and Power, Peter Freebody and Anthony R. Welch (eds.), 142-161. London: Falmer. Lau Kak Eng (1993). Singapore Census of Population 1990. Singapore: Department of Statistics. Lee Kuan Yew (1978). Text of a discussion on TV with Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore, 6 April. Singapore: Ministry of Culture. Omar, Asmah Haji (1976). The Teaching of Bahasa Malaysia in the Context of National Language Planning. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka, Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia. Platt, John T.; and Weber, Heidi (1980). English in Singapore and Malaysia. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ramiah, K. (1991). The pattern of Tamil language use among primary school Tamil pupils in Singapore. Singapore Journal of Education 11(2), 45-53. Saw, Swee Hock (1980). Population Controlfor Zero Growth in Singapore. Oxford: Oxford University Press. —(1982). Demographic Trends in Singapore, Census Monograph No 1. Singapore: Department of Statistics. Soon Teck Wong (1988). Singapore's New Education System: Education Reform for National Development. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Wee Hock Ann (1990). Language and identity among first year Chinese undergraduates in Singapore. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Department of English Language and Literature, National University of Singapore. Wee, W.L. (1996). Singapore: Society and Language. Nanyang: Centre of Chinese Language and Culture, Nanyang Technological University. Brought to you by | University of St Andrews Scotland Authenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 2:16 AM