SINGLISH AND BEYOND THE ROLE OF SINGLISH AND SINGAPORE STANDARD ENGLISH IN SINGAPOREAN ACADEMIC LIFE Diplomarbeit zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades einer Magistra der Philosophie an der Geisteswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz vorgelegt von Gerda WEINZERL am Institut für Anglistik Begutachter: em. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Alwin Fill Graz, 2011 1 FOR MY DAD, my first hero, who left me far too early and FOR MY BROTHERS 2 All photos taken by Gerda Weinzerl Acknowledgements With particular thanks to Professor Alwin Fill, Karl-Franzens-University Graz and Professor Francesco Cavallaro, Nanyang Technological University Singapore, for their kind support, advice and encouragement. Thanks too to Marliana Binte Mohamed Aron, Lilly aka Maria Pauline, Peischi, Petz & Wolfi, Franz Krenn and the Weinzerl family for invaluable comments, inspiration and support, and especially, as ever, to my Mum. 4 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 8 1.1. General introduction ................................................................................................... 8 1.2. Personal relevance ...................................................................................................... 8 1.3. Objective ..................................................................................................................... 9 1.4. Research method and structure of the thesis .............................................................. 9 1.5. Hypotheses ............................................................................................................... 10 2. The linguistic situation of Singapore ................................................................................ 11 2.1. (Language) History of Singapore ............................................................................. 11 2.2. Singapore´s linguistic ecology ................................................................................. 12 2.2.1. English: Important for Singapore ..................................................................... 14 2.2.2. Education and meritocracy ............................................................................... 15 2.3. World Englishes ........................................................................................................ 16 2.3.1. Singapore in the Outer Circle ........................................................................... 16 2.4. Singapore English ..................................................................................................... 18 2.4.1. Linguistic continuum ........................................................................................ 18 2.4.2. Diglossia: Singapore Standard English and Singapore Colloquial English .... 20 2.4.3. Pakir´s model of ‘expanding triangles’ ............................................................ 21 2.4.4. Schneider´s ‘dynamic model’ ........................................................................... 25 2.4.5. Singapore English at a glance ........................................................................... 27 2.4.5.1. Features ..................................................................................................... 27 2.4.5.2. Singapore English lexicon ........................................................................ 30 2.4.5.3. Pronunciation ............................................................................................ 33 2.4.5.4. Syntax ....................................................................................................... 34 2.5. Singapore, languages and identity ............................................................................ 35 2.5.1. Management of English .................................................................................... 38 2.5.1.1. Speak Good English Movement ............................................................... 38 2.5.1.2. The emergence of the Singlish debate ...................................................... 40 2.5.1.3. Exploring the Singlish debate ................................................................... 41 3. Language attitudes ............................................................................................................ 47 3.1. Indirect method ......................................................................................................... 47 3.2. Direct method ........................................................................................................... 49 4. Singapore and the Internet ................................................................................................ 52 4.1. The rise of the Internet.............................................................................................. 52 4.2. Social Media ............................................................................................................. 54 4.2.1. Blogging ........................................................................................................... 54 4.2.2. Micro-blogging ................................................................................................. 55 4.2.3. Social networking websites .............................................................................. 56 5 5. Empirical part: The Study ................................................................................................. 60 5.1. Methodology ............................................................................................................. 60 5.1.1. Participants ....................................................................................................... 60 5.1.2. The Questionnaire............................................................................................. 63 5.2. Analysis and Results Section A ................................................................................ 66 5.2.1. Social networking ............................................................................................. 66 5.2.2. Blogs ................................................................................................................. 70 5.2.3. Micro-blogging ................................................................................................. 72 5.2.4. Texting or writing short messages (SMS) ........................................................ 74 5.3. Analysis and Results Section B ................................................................................ 74 5.4. Analysis and Results Section C ................................................................................ 75 5.5. Analysis and Results Section D ................................................................................ 77 5.6. Analysis and Results Section E ................................................................................ 83 6. Discussion ......................................................................................................................... 85 7. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 93 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 97 Appendix: Questionnaire used................................................................................................ 103 List of Figures: Fig. 1: The Three Circles of English ........................................................................................ 17 Fig. 2: Expanding triangles of English expression ................................................................... 22 Fig. 3: Banner promoting GOOD ENGLISH for personal interactions ................................... 39 Fig. 4: Banner promoting GOOD ENGLISH for customer service interactions ..................... 39 Fig. 5: Banner promoting GOOD ENGLISH for business relations ........................................ 40 Fig. 6: LTA ad in a local MRT station ...................................................................................... 45 Fig. 7: Distribution of students in tertiary and higher education .............................................. 60 Fig. 8: Age pyramid according to gender ................................................................................. 61 Fig. 9: School languages chosen by students ........................................................................... 62 Fig. 10: Languages commonly spoken at home by students .................................................... 63 Fig. 11: Percentage of students using social networking websites ........................................... 66 Fig. 12: Percentage of students reading or writing blogs ......................................................... 70 Fig. 13: Percentage of students using micro-blogging services ............................................... 72 Fig. 14: Correlation between attitudes towards English and Singlish ...................................... 82 6 List of Tables: Table 1: The vowel system of Singapore English .................................................................... 33 Table 2: The vowels of Singapore English ............................................................................... 34 Table 3: Ethnic make-up of the participants ............................................................................. 61 Table 4: Means (M) of scores on items