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The present: An overview of teaching Chinese language in Singapore
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Type
Book chapter
Citation
Tan, C. L. (2016). The present: An overview of teaching Chinese language in Singapore. In K. C. Soh (Ed.), Teaching Chinese language in Singapore: Retrospect and challenges (pp. 11-26). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0123-9_2
Abstract
The sociolinguistic landscape of Singapore has in recent years been a prominent and unique case for language and social study that bestows the nation with a new title of ‘language laboratory’, besides acclaims like ‘Asia’s four little dragons’ or ‘Garden City’. Indeed, the swiftness and scale of language change in Singapore in the last 30 years may be unprecedented amongst nation states. In multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilingual Singapore, English has now become not only the most important lingua franca but also the dominant language in daily usage amongst the majority of Singaporeans, especially the young. There are two sets of important statistics reflecting the changing linguistic background of Chinese in Singapore: Firstly, the Census of Population 2010 highlighted that the use of English as the home language has become more prevalent which is in line with the rise of English literacy especially amongst the younger age groups. Secondly, in 2009, 59 % of Primary 1 Chinese students’ parents reported that they spoke mainly English at home. This was a large increase from 28 % in 1991.
新加坡的社会语言形势是语言和社会学中一个重要和独特的个案。除了“亚洲四小龙”和 “花园城市 ”，新加坡也被冠上 “语言实验室 ” 这个新头衔。在过去30年里，新加坡语言发展的速度是前所未有的。在这多元种族，多种文化，语言的国家，英语不但是通用语，也是大多数新加坡人， 尤其是青少年，最普遍使用的语言。这里有两组重要的数据反映新加坡华人语言背景的改变：首先，2010年的新加坡人口调查突出随着英语知识水平的提升，尤其是在更小的年龄层当中，英语已成为家庭语言。第二，教育部的数据显示华族小一学生的家庭用语为英语的比例从1999年的28% 增加到2009年的59%。
Date Issued
2016
ISBN
9789811001239 (ebook)
9789811001215 (print)
Publisher
Springer
DOI
10.1007/978-981-10-0123-9_2