With a population of over 5.08 million comprised of three major ethnic groups - Chinese (76%), Malays (13%) and Indians (8%) together with a small minority of others (3%), Singapore is considered to be the most globalized nation in the world (Curdt-Christiansen, 2016). It is noted that this state of globalized nation has been brought about through the active role of the multilingual educational policies in producing “English-knowing bilingual” labour force, i.e. English plus one’s Mother Tongue (Bokhorst-Heng & Caleon, 2009). What has ensued as the consequence of such language policies, however, has been the spread of English as a home language, and de facto ‘mother tongue’ for increasing numbers of Singaporeans across ethnic groups. According to the Census of Singapore (2010), 32.3 per cent of the population claimed English as their dominant home language, an increase from 23 per cent in 2000, 18.8 per cent in 1990 and 11.6 per cent in 1980 (Tan, 2014).
Against this background, this paper, as part of a larger postdoctoral project on family language policy across communities in Singapore, reports on an ethnographic study of three Malay families from upper, middle, and lower socioeconomic statuses. Drawing upon findings from video and audio recordings and face-to-face interviews with the parents and their children, the research sheds light on similarities and differences between the parents' and their children's language behavior and attitudes with respect to their ethnic language as well as English in and outside the home. Arguing for including children in FLP research, the study suggests how findings from young children in language contact situations can provide us with insightful evidence to discuss the future trajectory of languages.
References
Bokhorst-Heng, W. D., & Caleon, I. S. (2009). The language attitudes of bilingual youth in multilingual Singapore. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 30(3), 235-251. doi: 10.1080/01434630802510121
Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2016). Conflicting language ideologies and contradictory language practices in Singaporean multilingual families. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. doi: 10.1080/01434632.2015.1127926
Tan, Y.-Y. (2014). English as a ‘mother tongue’ in Singapore World Englishes, 33(3), 319-339.
