Mohd Mukhlis Bin Abu Bakar

This report examines the home and school literacy practices of Malay and Chinese children of different socio-economic background and how these impact on their academic performance upon entering school. It is based on a longitudinal study of the home and school literacy experiences of seven Malay children and seven Chinese children from the time they attended kindergarten until they completed Primary 1 (roughly from 4 to 7 years old). The impetus for the study was in part due to the continuing unequal literacy outcomes between Malay and Chinese students on the one hand, and between students of different socio-economic classes regardless of ethnic groups, on the other. Data analysis show that participant parents, regardless of their socio-economic background, value their children's educational success, want their children to do well in school, and correspondingly see themselves as supporting their children in one way or another. The evidence, however, demonstrates a variation in familial perspectives and needs and a considerable distinction in how families of different background define literacy and which literacy they consider worth transmitting to the children. These in turn affect the way they foster their children's acquisition of literacy.

Siblings play an important and reciprocal role in each other’s literacy development. The younger sibling’s exposure to the older sibling’s literacy activities creates the opportunity for many shared literacy experiences. Gregory (2001) calls this bidirectional and reciprocal learning relationship a “synergy” where siblings act as adjuvants in each other’s learning, i.e., older children ‘teach’ younger siblings at the same time develop their own learning. This paper presents data from two contrasting pairs of siblings who display a very close relationship through shared activities as playmates. Close in age (one in Primary 2, the other in K2), the younger sibling is exposed to the academic and literacy activities of the older sibling, spurring his/her interest to participate in the same activities. Differences in the dynamics of the pairs’ reciprocal relationship seem to be shaped by three factors: the parent’s expectation of the level of involvement the older child plays in his/her younger sibling’s literacy learning, the literacy competence of the older sibling, and the gender make-up of the sibling pair. Differences such as these in the home literacy experience with siblings, it is argued, may impact differently on reading activities with peers in the classroom unless teachers embrace the different cultural resources that children take with them to school.

Buku yang diedit oleh tiga orang editor ini meneliti tulisan dan sumbangan Masuri S N, seorang penyair dan penulis Singapura.

This report presents an early description of Malay families and their literacy beliefs and practices. It is based on the pilot phase of an ongoing study that examines the complex literacy lives of 5-year old kindergarten children within the milieu of their home environment. Grounded on sociocultural theory, the study brings into focus the literacies co-constructed by Malay adults and their children. In the pilot phase, three target children from different socio-economic background were selected. Several visits were made to their homes each lasting between 2 to 5 hours over an 8-month period. Interviews with adult members of the families and observations of the children interacting with their siblings and adults in literacy-related events suggest that these children have access to different opportunities for literacy learning as well as contrasting cultural resources and repertoires of literacy practice. These differences will position them differently with respect to the curriculum to which they have to adapt once they start formal schooling. Against the backdrop of Malay educational underachievement vis-à-vis the other ethnic groups, the findings present a case for schools to learn more about the out-of-school literacy practices of Malay children and to see them and their families in a way that can have a positive impact on their educational attainment.

Sebutan Baku (Standard Pronunciation) was officially introduced and promoted as the standard pronunciation for use with spoken standard Malay in Singapore in 1993 replacing the previous standard that developed from the Johor-Riau dialect (henceforth referred to as Johor-Riau Standard). Since then, Sebutan Baku has been taught in schools, adopted by the media, and prescribed to be used in formal occasions where Standard Malay is expected. In 2012, almost two decades after Sebutan Baku was introduced, Mr Masagos Zulkifli Masagos Mohamed, the then Chairman of the Malay Language Council of Singapore and Minister of Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs, has asked whether this standard pronunciation has been fully acquired by the Malay community in Singapore, and if not, how it can be perfected. The proposed project aims to provide part of the answer to the first of the questions. This project is a two-year exploratory, mixed-method study that aims to obtain an understanding of the place of Sebutan Baku in Malay students' spoken language in schools in Singapore. Using a questionnaire survey, we plan to elicit information from Secondary 3 students from four schools in all the streams Express, Normal (Academic), Normal (Technical) about their spoken language practices and their views on, and identification with, Sebutan Baku. Using a case-based approach, we plan to enroll 24 of these students as focal participants spread across the four schools to observe and record their actual use of Malay within the classroom setting as they interact with their teachers and peers during Malay Language lessons. Separate interviews will be held with these case studies students and their teachers to gain a better insight into the students' attitude towards, and identification with, Sebutan Baku. Finally, a phonetic analysis of the focal students' utterances in Malay will be carried out to find out the accuracy of their Sebutan Baku pronunciation. The aim is to understand, the place of Sebutan Baku in the learning and teaching of the Malay language in the classroom, the students' attitude towards, and identification with, Sebutan Baku, and the accuracy of students' Sebutan Baku and that of those they directly interact with in class. Findings from the study will help the Ministry of Education to gauge the extent to which students have embraced and accurately acquired Sebutan Baku, and to take appropriate measures if necessary. The second of the Minister's questions is reserved for a possible follow-up study, focusing on students in primary schools where the teaching and learning of Sebutan Baku are actively enacted.

"This study aims to contribute to our understanding of multilingual development by: (a) identifying the strategies used by children who are learning to read using dual language text; (b) identifying the strategies used by parents and guardians in working with children who are learning to read using dual language text; (c) exploring the nature of the transfer of strategies, concepts and skills between languages; (d) exploring the impact on metalinguistic understanding and comprehension of reading a story simultaneously in two languages; and (e) studying the effect of the reading activities on children's evolving personal and learner identities." -- p. 2.

Penubuhan Radio Malaya pada tahun 1946 di Singapura merupakan titik penting dalam perkembangan Sebutan Johor-Riau (SJR) sebagai sebutan standard bahasa Melayu di Malaysia dan Singapura. Bagaimanapun, pada tahun 1993, selaras dengan usaha pembakuan sebutan bahasa Melayu di Nusantara, pemerintah Singapura mengisytiharkan Sebutan Baku (SB) sebagai sebutan standard, menggantikan SJR, untuk digunakan di sekolah-sekolah, stesen-stesen penyiaran dan di upacara rasmi. Tidak seperti Malaysia yang kembali kepada SJR pada tahun 2000, Singapura mengekalkan SB. Makalah ini menyorot evolusi sebutan standard bahasa Melayu dalam konteks sosio-sejarah orang Melayu Singapura dan Malaysia dan turut menilai semula kebakuan SB. Lima gagasan penting telah dikenal pasti: 1) SJR (atau kelainan /ə/) dan kelainan /a/ merupakan dua model sebutan standard bahasa Melayu yang tumbuh secara tabii (SJR di selatan Semenanjung dan kelainan /a/ di utara); 2) Peristiwa-peristiwa penting yang berlaku secara kebetulan dalam jaringan ketersebaran SJR menjadikannya sebutan standard yang lebih berpengaruh daripada kelainan /a/; 3) Identiti bahasa orang Melayu Singapura terkait rapat dengan SJR; 4) SB pula adalah model sebutan yang dibuat-buat berpandukan prinsip ‘sebut sebagaimana dieja’ dan tidak dapat dipakai untuk bahasa Melayu selagi ejaan tidak menepati sebutan; 5) SB yang dituturkan di Singapura muncul sebagai sebutan hibrid – campuran SB dan SJR. Makalah ini turut membincangkan implikasi daripada penerusan dasar SB di Singapura.

The establishment of Radio Malaya in 1946 in Singapore was an important milestone in the development of Sebutan Johor-Riau (SJR) as the standard pronunciation in Malay in Malaysia and Singapore. However, in 1993, in line with efforts to standardise Malay pronunciation in the archipelago, the Singapore government introduced Sebutan Baku (SB) as the standard pronunciation, replacing SJR, for use in schools, broadcasting stations and during official ceremonies. Unlike Malaysia, which returned to SJR in 2000, Singapore retained SB. This paper reviews the literature on standard pronunciation in Malay in the context of the socio-history of the Malays in Singapore and Malaysia and re-evaluates SB as a standard pronunciation. The following points emerged: 1) SJR (or /ə/ variety) and /a/ variety are two models of standard pronunciation in Malay that evolved naturally (SJR in the south, and the /a/ variety in the north, of the Malay Peninsula); 2) significant events that occurred within SJR’s distributed network made it a standard pronunciation that is more influential than the /a/ variety; 3) the Singapore Malay language identity is closely related to SJR; 4) SB is a created model of pronunciation based on the principle 'words are pronounced as they are spelled' and cannot be applied to Malay for as long as words are not spelled as they are pronunced; 5) SB as spoken in Singapore emerges as a hybrid – a mix of SB and SJR. This paper also discusses the implications from the continuation of the SB policy in Singapore.

Dalam sistem pendidikan Singapura, dua bahasa wujud secara berasingan: bahasa Inggeris bahasa pengantar bagi semua mata pelajaran isi seperti Matematik dan Sains manakala bahasa ibunda dipelajari sebagai satu mata pelajaran. Kajian antarabangsa menunjukkan bahawa sistem seperti ini dalam suasana kehidupan masyarakat yang mengutamakan bahasa Inggeris bukanlah sistem yang terbaik untuk menghasilkan pelajar yang selesa dan cekap berdwibahasa. Kadar kanak-kanak Singapura yang lebih kerap menggunakan bahasa Inggeris di rumah daripada bahasa ibunda telah meningkat tahun demi tahun, menjejaskan pelestarian bahasa ibunda sebagai bahasa seharian. Kajian yang dilaporkan dalam kertas kerja ini menyelidiki cara buku dwibahasa digunakan dalam usaha mengembalikan minat dan keupayaan membaca dalam bahasa Melayu di kalangan kanak-kanak Melayu. Ia meneroka nilai strategi yang melibatkan kanak-kanak prasekolah dan keluarga mereka membaca bersama dalam bahasa Melayu dan Inggeris menggunakan buku dwibahasa. Sepuluh kanak-kanak tadika menyertai sesi membaca dengan ibu bapa mereka di rumah dan dengan rakan-rakan di sekolah selama enam bulan. Analisis nota lapangan dan data temu bual menunjukkan bahawa kanak-kanak sedar akan perbezaan morfologi, fonologi dan ejaan antara bahasa. Penggunaan strategi merentas bahasa termasuk amalan dwibahasa yang meliputi alih kod, terjemahan, dan pembinaan kosa kata dwibahasa. Satu kekuatan khusus buku dwibahasa ialah cara ia membantu kanak-kanak membaca dalam bahasa yang lemah. Walau bagaimanapun, peranan ibu bapa penting dalammemberi sokongan beterusan agar anak-anak berminat terhadap bahasa warisan mereka dalam suasana yang mana kanak-kanak ini sudah mula tidak menggunakan bahasa tersebut secara aktif.