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Title Language Planning in Education in Singapore: History, Transitions, Futures Author(S) S

Title Language Planning in Education in Singapore: History, Transitions, Futures Author(S) S

Title planning in in : History, transitions, futures Author(s) S. Gopinathan Source ASCD (Singapore) Review, 12(2), 14-23 Published by Singapore ASCD

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language Planning in Education in . Singapore: History, Transitions, Futures

S. Gopinathan

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Context language, to address two issues, first, of transforming the economy, from entrepot to Any accounting of language planning in industrial and now, a knowledge-based education - and any assessment of how economy, and second, to build unity and successful it has been - must be judged by the cohesion in a fragile, divided society. The great challenges such an enterprise faqed, the quality triumph of language planning in Singapore is of the policy responses / . quality of that it · was successful in building a strong implementation, and how school leavers use · economy and society via its deft handling of language and what they believe about the language issues. But the terms of survival have language skills they were taught, possess and changed and globalization processes are can use. Thus, Singapore's unique historical, posing new challenges. How well Singapore social, political and linguistic ecology must be meets them will be crucial to how well it

:: the starting point. Language Planning masters the challenges of the next four to five according to Paulston "is a deliberative attempt, decades. at social change in language behaviour by a decision-making administrative structure" Medium of instruction issues had been a (1973). Perspectives used to study LP range problem for the colonial state since the 1920s. from technico-rational models to critical ones An of benign neglect had that analyse language relationship issues in spawned a four-medium of instruction school terms of contestation over power and privilege. system. English medium education was largely church and state- supported but Chinese The best way to understand the role of medium schools were supported by either clan in Singapore society is to recognize or individual philanthropists. Chinese school that the state in Singapore used language to students, teachers and the community felt build human and social capital - and one might discriminated and became receptive to anti­ argue continues to do so. It sought, through colonial, republican and later, communist

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I: influences. Tbe colonial state's response was English and the economic dynamism of to promise more aid if these schools came which is making Mandarin an increasingly under supervision and taught more English important language. The principle of equality of (Gopinathan, 1974). By the end of World War II treatment underpins language planning for the Chinese majority felt that colonial education education to this day. and language policies were discriminatory, and that English was a colonial language which The Report on the Ministry of Education privileged a small number of collaborators. ( 1978), by contrast, is an educational Thus what the post-colonial state inherited in document and can be seen as the first major the mid fifties was a school system segmented evaluation of the consequences of the bilingual along medium of instruction lines and divisions education policy implemented in schools since within ethnic groups, especially the Chinese, the 1960s. It signaled the acceptance that and between groups. Policies related to policy and practice had produced "an language in education were contest~d. unworkable bilingualism" that was having Coupled with post war economic hardships lhe disastrous consequences for student potential for inter-ethnic conflict was large and achievement and for the language and real. It has taken the state almost five decades cognitive skills needed for Singapore's to defuse this threat. economic modernisation. The policy had assumed a capacity amongst a majority of There are 2 major reports of the post-war students to master both languages equally period to keep in mind. The 1956 All Party well, what Macnamara (1966) termed Report on Chinese Education is a political "balanced bilingualism". I think it fair to say that document as the committee was inter-party what troubled Dr Goh and his review team was and the report was presented to the Legislative faltering mastery oJ English, and the Assembly. It addressed the political problem of consequences of that for economic growth. It is mobilizing large numbers of the non-English a view echoed by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan educated to support the emergent post-colonial Yew a quarter century later when he state. The Report enshrined the principle of acknowledged that the policy had been 'equality of treatment' for all official languages articulated in the belief that 'nearly everyone and committed the post-colonial state to could be effectively bilingual'. It is important to removing discrimination and taking steps like remember that the type of economic building schools, developing and modernization Singapore optec:i for, export-led training teachers so that this principle could be industrialization, relied on a mastery of English realised in substance as well as in form. In language skills. In retrospect, it is clear that the 1960 the learning of the authors did not examine assumptions about became compulsory at the primary level, and in capacity for bilingualism or the standards 1966 at the secondary level. Continual expected but chose a curriculum device, refinements to curriculum time led, in 1987, to streaming as the solution. The problem was English becoming the dominant medium of seen to lie with students, not the system. Policy instruction. Through this report the state sought changed after the Report and language-based to enhance -the economic. and symbolic power streaming was introduced to ensure functional of language, to see them as assets not mastery in English by all students. This was liabilities, and to use language for economic accompanied in 1979 with the launch of the and social cohesion purposes. Language Speak Mandarin campaign which sought to planning in education was intended to grow decrease the use of dialects and to · enhance both human and social capital. English was communication in Mandarin among the assigned a modernization role, to assist in Chinese. Singapore's industrialization strategy, and the mother tongue were to serve as links to culture An understanding of this context is vital to and tradition and to strengthen ethnic identity. recognizing what has been achieved, and This view of language as asset is vindicated by what remains as challenges. The major globalization which has given a boost to achievement has been linguistic peace,

15 achieved not just by sensible polices but also anecdotal evidence suggests that the mother because economic growth provided tongue has been less successful as a carrier of opportunities for use of language skills learnt in heritage and values primarily because mother school. The utilitarian value of English and the tongue examinations were high stakes state's commitment to providing the widest examinations and teachers chose to spend a possible access to English has led to what lot of time on examination preparation. Pakir (1992) has termed 'English-knowing' bilingualism, and possibly the highest levels of Language Shifts among competence in Asia, at least

' for a broad swathe of the population. The state has also remained faithful to its commitment to There has been, in line with the broad policy I :1..1.· .. ,. provide to mother tongue education; the objective, "massive language shifts and ~ r! paradox is that many Singaporeans wish the phenomenal sociolinguistic realignments" state was not so insistent on the .p;1astery of the (T'sou, 2002). Literacy rates have arisen mother tongue! •'' overall as have biliteracy rates. The proportion for those 15 years and over who were literate The other goal of education policy since the in two or more languages has increased from '50s, that of strengthening social cohesion has 45' percent in 1990 to 56 percent in 2000. The also been facilitated by widespread access to Chinese ethnic group saw an increase in the English and the broadening acceptance and its use of both English and Mandarin at home, increased use as a . Indeed, while English from 19.6 per cent in 1990 to 23.9 per the state continues to link identity formation cent in 2000 and Mandarin from 30 per cent to with mother tongue learning and use, the ever 45.1 per cent in 2000. The use of dialects increasing use of English, and its dropped from 50.1 per cent in 1990 to 30.7 per indigenization as in Standard Singapore cent in 2000. However, when age groups are English points to it becoming a strong marker taken into consideration, it is interesting to note of a Singaporean identity. It cannot be the case that for the five to fourteen years category, the that a language that is supposed to help use of English increased by 9 per cent between Singaporeans breach ethnic and linguistic 1990-2000, while for Mandarin it appears to divisions can do so without it also being, if not have plateaued with a minimal increase of 0.6 a carrier of, common culture, at least an per cent over the decade. When level of instrument in forging one. This is educational qualifications is taken into especially the case with consideration, 47.3 per cent of English with its vast graduates spoke English at home while 29.5 cultural per cent spoke Mandarin. For diploma holders, resources. 43.3 per cent spoke English while 30.4 per Indeed, cent spoke Mandarin, while for polytechnic graduates 28.6 per cent spoke English and 41.4 per cent spoke Mandarin. Given the increased opportunities for training available in English and the further internationalisation of Singapore's economy, the dominance of English as the economic language of choice is likely to be further strengthened. While it is probable that the use of Mandarin in a number of domains, including the home, will decline, the shift to the greater use of English and Mandarin is clear. We must however note that the use of English among the different ethnic groups varies, with the Indians using it most. In terms of school success in English, in 2001 at the '0' levels 87 per cent of

16 Indian students passed, 80 per cent of Chinese tool for occupational success. In these and 70 per cent of Malays. changing contexts, international and national, we need to ask what it means to be literate. What of language diversity? While it must be noted that promoting Mandarin as the As the Government is persistently reminding dominant dialect has led to reduction in dialect us, we live in new times and must prepare for use, and an elimination of some dialects, it a turbulent, uncertain future. Globalisation's must also be noted that Singapore's success in economic and cultural imperatives, the plugging into the global economic grid, emergence of new economic centres such as principally via English, has meant we now hear China and , the telecommunication and more Thai, Bengali, Tagalog, Bahasa life sciences revolutions, among others, call for , Japanese, etc. new economic, socio-cultural and educational strategies. G/obalisation and Its Challenges to Education and Language Policies The combined effects of globalisation, the technological and life sciences revolution, the The pace and intensity of change under large displacements caused by migration, globalisation are such that societal level strains student flows, travel, etc. have created a major have emerged in many countries. Lo Bianco upheaval in the social sciences, which is our (2001) points to a general destabilisation way of understanding social relations. affecting all advanced societies, a moment of Globalisation is both a phenomenon to be new kinds of hybridity of language and culture, studied and as a discourse; there is quite the emergence of multicultural societies clearly a post-modern turn in the social everywhere, vast population mobility, ever sciences and how we view language, language more diversifying codes of communication and relationships, what learning a language now "micro-cultures" of "Internet mediated identity". must mean, have all to be freshly considered. These global trends are inevitably changing old The way the early Singaporean state boxed up relationships between language, knowledge, language into discrete domains - English for and identity. The huge amounts of information utilitarian purposes, mother tongues for cultural available in English on the Internet and the identity, the aggressive elimination of dialects, changing economic landscape in countries like periodic campaigns against , the China ~ave given a boost to both English and state's allocation of mother tongues, will all Chinese as languages of economic have to be revisited. We have to pay more opportunity; it is estimated that some 200 attention to diversity, to see culture as much million Chinese are learning English. Thus, more diasporic and deterritorialised, and while Chinese on the mainland are learning therefore the process of identify formation as English to participate in the global economy, much less linear, and inevitably, more Singaporean Chinese are urged to master contested. This has obvious implications for Mandarin to avail themselves of economic language learning in our classrooms .. opportunities in China. Heller (2002), reviewing the progress of the debate and evidence on How has educational policy responded to bilingualism in Canada, notes that globalisation these trends and pressures? There is clear has weakened the power of the nation state to evid.~nce of a paradigm shift. Though we tend prescribe, prohibit and privilege access to and to mark 'big bang' reform in education in use of languages among its citizens. The new Singapore from 1997, it can be located further . economy, she asserts, has created new back, to the Towards Excellence in Schools markets for language and in Canada today (1987) report which provided a rationale for there is a greater willingness to learn French decentralisation in governance of education amongst the dominant English-speaking and which led to the introduction of population. Younger Canadians, she reports, independent and, later, autonomous schools. are more prone to seeing language less as a The view gains support if we look at the nature marker of identity and more as a much needed of the 1991 and 2001 syllabus for English

17 L~nguage. Cheah (2002) traces the evolution argued that the mother I J~ of the syllabus, describing the syllabus in the tongue policy is a failure, ~ 80s as being more prescriptive and grammar­ serious problems remain, / " based, focused on knowing the language but and in response to this, in describing the 1991 and 2001 syllabus as typical Singapore style ~ emphasising thinking skills, learning how to there has been a frank vf learn, being able to use the language flexibly admission of the need to ' II and appropriately in a variety of contexts. The change. Lee Kuan Yew 2001 syllabus has literacy development at the has said "we have turned heart of the English language instructional off one generation, which is a great programme with the emphasis on language pity for us - they are forced QY ~ ~ ·_:'_·•>. I ; learning, literacy skills and communication parents and schools (to learn 1 9 skills. Students were to be taught to be aware Chinese) - they hate it, they ~; of different presentation modes, the varieties of want nothing more to do with it" ~ discourse, context and purpose~; It is certainly a (, 12/1 0/04). view of language, and of language learning . Asserting that Singapore's language ~ .J. much more in keeping with the 'new times'. I I policies are not cast in stone he stated ~*~ I that the bilingual policy is a 'moving V: It can therefore be argued that the 1991 target' that has to be reviewed from ' English Language ·syllabus anticipated the time to time as the language climate thrust of the 1997 Thinking Schools Learning changes. Nation (TSLN) initiative but the latter, as a broad based and system-wide reform initiative, As presently articulated the goals of the lends crucial support to the goals of the bilingual policy with regard to Chinese are syllabus. The TSLN initiative coupled with the launch of the IT Master Plan indicated a bold a) for the majority: to listen, speak, read reforming vision for Singapore education, to Chinese. Make learning fun and give them produce school leavers better able to cope with a foundation they can build on new economic formations, to use technology b) for those interested in Chinese: encourage confidently and to better navigate cultural more to study it at a higher level, and help diversity. The emphasis was to be placed more keep and culture alive (in on learner initiative and autonomy, to Singapore). encourage innovation, and critical c) for top students keen on Chinese: make thinking skills, . to cut back on the traditional them effectively bicultural via the Bicultural emphasis on content mastery, on searching for Studies programme the one right answer, a greater emphasis on d) to do business in China: need to speak, problem solving and being able to critique, understand what is spoken and read. Know synthesize and use knowledge. Though some how to use dictionaries, computers and progress has been made si.nce 1997 PM Lee's software. call at the National Day Rally in August 2004 to 'teach less, learn more' shows that the reform The Ministry would be satisfied for the majority ! . I process is far from complete. to attain an 80 per cent mastery of English and a 60-70 per cent for Chinese. The aim is to I T!. 1 Changes to Chinese make·learning Chinese fun and to give parents I 1 more options to decide what kind of bilingual I I' In tandem with changes to the English education they want for their children. This language syllabus there have also been flexibility is intended to enable parents and changes to the Mother Tongue syllabus and schools to take into account students home extensive curriculum and syllabus review language backgrounds and aptitude. efforts over the past two decades have sought to meet the challenge posed by the increasing The new syllabus will be modular in nature to use and utility of English. While it cannot be allow schools room for customization. A core

18 module taking up 70 - 80 per cent of troubling questions about the purposes of curriculum time, with an emphasis on oral language in our society and teaching in our communication, will be taught to all. Those classrooms. They explore the language from non-Chinese speaking homes can opt for learning context in new ways; they explore the special modules to strengthen their command implications of policy from the site of of the language while others can take instruction, the classroom and they ask if additional modules for extension and another in-service course on method or a enrichment. Another major change will be a syllabus revision will 'solve' the problem. It focus on reading, speaking and listening provides a useful corrective to the largely instead of the current emphasis on writing and functionalist and assessment-driven views that memorizing of characters. At the other end of dominate language in education discussions. the continuum, in pursuit of the goal of creating a Chinese cultural elite, competent students What are we to make of these critiques? A fair will be given the opportunity to study Chinese verdict would be: 'valuable in parts'. They are at university level, to go on attachments )to beneficial in so far as they force us to consider educational institutions in China so that they issues in language teaching, especially English can become 'bicultural' Singaporeans who will Language teaching, from a variety of have "an intuitive understanding of China". perspectives . .We need to acknowledge that given the importance of English in social and These changes to the syllabus will be followed occupational communication, and the fact that up with changes to assessment. A newly a large number of students do not master designed Leaving Examination English to acceptable levels, we must be more for Chinese will require less mastery of large critically aware of our pedagogic strategies and numbers of ; the current list what might work better for these students. But is 2,500 characters. Criteria for the choice of the more ideologically · motivated critique of characters will be words that are relevant and Philippson (1998) and Pennycook (1992, 1994) those they can relate to in everyday settings. has less relevance to the Singapore situation. English in Singapore is not a minority language We can best evaluate these changes with spoken by an elite as in , Indonesia or reference to locally produced research. There . We need to acknowledge that the is an interesting body of work on the l3:nguage planning and teaching situation, especially for English from a broad range of perspectives, Tan Su Hwi on language planning (1998), Cheah Yin Mee (2002, 1996, 1997), Maha Sripathy (1998) and Parveen Sandhu (2000) on language teaching from a classroom teacher perspective, Glenn Toh on textbooks (2003), Benedict Lin on syllabus construction (2003) and Kramer Dahl on teacher training (1997); additionally, there has also been collections of research papers on language, education and society (Gopinathan et al, 1998). It is a literature that all language teachers can benefit from. These works raise serious and

19 It will no doubt be the case that the changes proposed for Chinese will be followed up with changes in Malay and Tamil. The even-handed treatment this represents is to be welcomed but here again there is need to avoid knee jerk reactions. The problems faced by pupils learning Tamil and those learning Malay (where the English alphabet is used) are different. This could also mean that while all would need to sit for an examination, examination formats need not be all alike. Ability driven education must mean due regard to difference.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the changes is the offer by the government to state has invested enormous resources to . establish, if parents wish it, schools where widening access to English since the mid-50s Chinese would be the main medium of and given Singapore's need to be economically instruction. The rationale offered is that while competitive and the need to have a language English would remain the dominant language, to f~cilitate inter-ethnic communication, the Chinese would grow in importance and parents i choice of English was inevitable. English is not may wish to ensure that their children reach i.' ., : seen as a privileged language in Singapore, high levels of competence. Lee was aware ~ : even as we acknowledge that social class, that this could cause concerns in other economic opportunity and competence in language groups and has said that the option English are obviously related and that this has would be ·available as well to the other implications for both policy and practice. And language groups. Though at this point, a even though one may have reservations about promise it could be argued that if it comes to the policy on dialects, the government cannot pass this will be a further extension of the be faulted on its commitment to preserve and concept and a encourage use of the indigenous languages. backward step from the ideal of a unified school system with English as the main The most recent changes to Chinese raise medium of instruction. some interesting issues, at one level about curriculum, syllabus, and The Challenge for Pedagogy assessment in Chinese and at another level about how changes in a major mother tongue What is happening at the level of classroom may impact on language ecology. Lee's frank practice? And though the studies mentioned admission of wrong assumptions about earlier are to be welcomed, there is need for bilingual capacity show a readiness now to much more data on what is actually going on confront linguistic realities and to make in our language classrooms. At the Centre for : l1, changes. A pity though that it too so long. The Research in Pedagogy and Practice at the assumption that increased use of English National Institute of Education an effort at causes 'problems' for mother ton~ue observing, audio and video taping, and li acquisition and use, while true in a broad analysis of pedagogy across all curricular ii sense, masks considerable differences in the domains, including English and the mother extent and nature of use of English at home tongues has begun. It will, when completed between different ethnic groups and within offer a detailed picture of Singapore pedagogy. ethnic groups. In an environment where Ingrained practice is hard to change and there English will become even more dominant, the are reasons why some practices are hard to government will need to ensure that change - the influence of assessments, for appropriate levels of competence are achieved instance. So, while some innovation is by all. happening it is clear to me that we are far from

20 achieving in practice the ideals espoused in contrast to English language classrooms, the syllabus. Cheah (2002) reported with which are supposed to be sites for· learning reference to the 1991 syllabus that teachers and using English for knowledge acquisition were upset at the lack of authoritative and to facilitate inter-ethnic communication, direction, and anxious about the flexibility they mother tongue classrooms, besides being were given. Foley (1998) noted that while the ethnically segregated classrooms are sites for syllabus promoted flexibility and the creative strong ethnic identity formation via language use of language, what he observed was the and emphasis on values. and moral dominance of textbooks, a lack of genre education are expected to be delivered via the awareness and the persistence of a narrow mother tongue at the primary level. The earlier range of discourse patterns, both in oral judgment of Lee Kuan Yew of a failure to teach classroom talk as well as in reading and mother tongue effectively raises serious writing. The Minister for Education, Mr. questions about how well the goal of identity Tharman Shanmugaratnam has echoed the formation has been -met. For a majority of views of many others that Singaporl~n students in Chinese, a misguided pedagogy students need to be much better at whose . limitations have now been communication and persuasion. Anecdotal acknowledged, has been in use. Preparing evidence also suggests that insufficient children to .pass the all important PSLE attention is paid to sustained reading and examinations has meant that less attention writing in our language classrooms. Poor has been paid to familiarizing children with implementation then can undermine the good their ethnic cultures. intentions of a progressive syllabus. The fundamental premise of the 2001 English As noted earlier there is far less research on language syllabus is that Singapore's school pedagogy in mother tongue classrooms. If we leavers must become better learners, creators follow the logic of domain separation then, in and communicators. While these attributes must be built upon a fundamental mastery of the English language equally important will be their capacity to use English flexibly, creatively as a tool, and as a means to communicate effectively. To do that pupils must see English as invested with power to alter their lives, to extend and shape their dreams, to think with the language. Though accuracy in the use of language is important, it cannot be allowed to dominate our pedagogy. To do this in a situation where English · is not the dominant language of students requires teachers to model appropriate language use and learning behaviours themselves, and to create open and interactive language classrooms. Singapore has introduced streaming to acGpmmodate differences in ability and aptitude but we cannot yet be sure that EM3 and Normal (Technical) students are learning English that is both appropriate and adequate to their needs outside the classroom.

A second major issue is 'cultural literacy'. It is somewhat paradoxical that we need to stress this in multi-ethnic Singapore, where multiculturalism is proclaimed a pillar of the

21 classes. We do not yet have a sufficient supply of qualified English graduates coming into . Many of these limitations will not change ': in the near future, though the promise of more manpower for schools should allow for more flexible use of curriculum time.

It is too early to say how the proposed changes to the teaching of Chinese, and presumably other mother tongues, will facilitat~ the state, where the very rationale for bilingual emergence of a more flexible and appropriate education is stated to be, through the mother pedagogy. The positioning of the mother tongue, to strengthen and enrich cultural roots. tongues as carriers of traditional culture and We cannot even be sure, though this is the values may in part · have contributed to a rationale, that this is being done effectively in pedagogy that is formal and pedantic. A mother tongue classrooms. Also, in the balance will have to be struck between implementation of this policy we have providing able students with the linguistic wandered into the dead-end, culturally resources to access the riches of ethnic speaking, of ethnically segregated classrooms cultures while at the same time rooting and schools; even our teachers unions are language learning in the context of lan~uage based. How are we to square the contemporary language use in Singapore circle when, with English as the main medium Language learning in mother tongue of instruction, we ignore the rich possibilities for classrooms must also acknowledge the cultural learning by insisting that it be learnt as changes occurring in language ecology in a linguistic tool, for accessing economic not Singapore and the new demands being made. cultural resources? The reality is that English cannot be, and is not being so contained. What So, our pedagogic practices can and must we have to do is explicitly acknowledge that in change. Some teachers have responded to the Cheah's (1997) words classrooms are sites for pressures of language teaching and high "cultural border crossings", sites for the stakes language examinations by opting for creating and sharing of culture. A view of reductive and disempowering practices; many curriculum as content has meant that even in others have taken on much more seriously history, geography, social studies we have notions of learner centredness, integration, taught cultural information factually and exposing students to a variety of texts; more neutrally. The English language teacher ·r:nust attention is being paid to the processes of use his/her unique position to access these reading and writing. resources for culturally meaningful language learning. Looking ahead we need to address We have not done as much as we can to use more urgently the knowledge and skills the language classroom to foster intercultural demands of the new syllabus. We have in awareness. We in Singapore have a unique place the policy rationales via TSLN and a language learning and use environment. The progressive syllabus. We are all too aware of global requires us as teachers to equip our the limitations of large classes, and the range students with the English language skills to of linguistic abilities students bring to our manage exciting if uncertain futures. But the

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