Low, Ee Ling

English in Singapore has always presented a balancing act for its founders. The colonial era saw a distinct role for English i.e. to produce English-speaking officers for the British administration while modern Singapore sees English being used as both a national and international lingua franca (Pakir, 2010) and as a major language which connects the island city-state to the world. “English-knowing bilingualism” (Pakir, 1991) has gained ascendancy in Singapore and may become a core competency for the 21st century world with the rise in status of English as a global language. However, the path to English-knowing bilingualism in the pluri-lingual and heterogeneous country was often marked by paradoxical debates surrounding the issues of language maintenance and shift, identity and the transmission of values, equity and meritocracy, as well as balancing between local versus global linguistic norms and standards. This paper focuses on the continuing debates, from the past to the present, as new challenges arise and how a new balance has to be struck in the language strategy, policy and management in a future-ready Singapore.

Amongst the variety of /r/ allophones is a labialised variant commonly described as the labiodental approximant [ʋ]. This seems, in recent times, to have become quite a common variant for young British English speech and is ‘established as an acceptable feature of mature speech in non-standard accents in the south-east of England’. Deterding and Kwek have also reported the existence of the labiodental approximant [ʋ] in the speech of some young speakers of Singapore English, presenting preliminary impressionistic findings of its existence and attitudes of Singaporeans towards its use. This article further substantiates these previous claims by providing acoustic evidence that the labiodental approximant [ʋ] is indeed present in Singapore English and that it can be differentiated from the more common post-alveolar approximant [ɹ] by comparing the nadir values of their third formants as well as the calculations of third formant rises towards the onset of following vowels. The article also provides further empirical evidence of the phonological environments that condition the realisation of this variant and also of its users. At its core, this article sets the foundations for further phonetic and phonological studies of /r/ variants in Singapore English.

Singapore’s meteoric rise as a nation since its 1965 independence has been internationally lauded. This is largely due to the stalwart determination of its leaders and citizens and their desire to move beyond the need for survival to a state of continued and sustainable progress. Ranked highly in international education benchmarking exercises, the education system has garnered accolades from global education policymakers, researchers, and educators. This chapter lists key enabling factors that have allowed Singapore to both attain and sustain the status of a high-performing education system. They include placing great value and a heavy investment in education; recruiting and developing a high-quality fraternity of professional educators through a lifelong career continuum that spans from rigorous initial teacher preparation to continuing teacher professional development; ensuring a tight tripartite partnership between policymakers, teacher educators, and teachers; judicious policymaking that is evidenced-informed and that has high fidelity in the implementation of these policies through extreme systemic coherence; comprehensive national frameworks that guide policymakers, teacher educators, teachers, and students; a continuous reviewing and renewing of its curriculum and education initiatives; and, finally, recognizing the need to learn from the best practices of other education systems while contextualizing international lessons learned to Singapore’s needs. These factors not only have ensured Singapore’s success but also are the pillars that can help sustain its success in the uncertain and complex future where crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic or where disruptions such as the Fourth Industrial Revolution pervade.

Building on and extending earlier research on student self-concepts and studies investigating teachers working with students with social, emotional, or behavioural difficulties, disorders, or disturbance, this longitudinal study examined teacher self-concepts in relation to their willingness to teach challenging students in mainstream classrooms. In the current study, “challenging students” refer to those who may pose a challenge to the teacher, either behaviourally or academically. Statistical measures included analysis of variance, correlation analysis, path analysis, and commonality analysis. Survey data collected from 108 participants at three different time points consistently showed that affective self-concept was a stronger predictor than cognitive self-concept of teachers’ willingness to teach challenging students. This study affirms and extends self-concept research by showing that the affective dimension of teacher self-concept is a better predictor of choice indicators than the cognitive dimension. The study also highlights the importance of developing and sustaining a strong sense of professional enjoyment for teachers in facing challenging teaching environments.

This paper explores how thinking and values in student teachers are cultivated in the Singapore context, via a case study of a teacher educator selected based on having won excellence in teaching commendation awards. The study adopts a qualitative case study methodology (i.e. interviews with the teacher educator and her student teachers) and uses the theoretical lens of modelling to argue for values pedagogy in teacher education. The findings of this research shed light on the importance of teacher educators modelling the pedagogical practices that they endeavour to impart in their pre-service classrooms. Additionally, this study emphasises the importance of teacher educators as role models who truly embody the values that they would like to cultivate in student teachers in the 21st century education landscape.

Education in Singapore is set against a background that is ethnically, linguistically and culturally diverse. Singapore’s deliberate language policy and planning saw the birth of English-knowing bilinguals who are proficient in both English and their ethnically ascribed mother tongues. This has given rise to Singaporeans whose English proficiency level allows them to be globally competent and whose use of English in the local context has also led to the development of Singapore Englishes (i.e. Standard Singapore English and Colloquial Singapore English or Singlish) operating together in what Low and Pakir describe as the Cline of Glocality. Adopting the Global Englishes paradim, this article discusses how language teacher education needs to be rethought in order to capture the nuancing in the uses of Singapore Englishes in order to achieve the delicate balance between global competence of its users and the local realities surrounding its use.

In line with the Ministry of Education’s vision of the delivery of 21st century competencies amongst all students in Singapore, the National Institute of Education in Singapore employs service learning as a pedagogical tool to develop community outreach and engagement. This paper begins with a review of related literature on service learning as a means of enhancing the quality of pre-service teacher education programmes internationally. It then looks at how the teaching of the English language may be used as a principal means by which students can make an impact on a local community of their choice in the Singaporean context. It draws attention to the nexus of theory and practice via highlighting three service learning projects where the vital relationship between the pedagogical methods area of study known as Curriculum Studies on English language teaching and the opportunity to practice English language teaching outside the traditional clinic field experience offered through practicum posting are presented. The paper concludes with the proposition that service learning promotes active citizenry and moral education of youth and allows student teachers an opportunity to build deep partnerships with the community even before they step into the teaching profession as full-fledged teachers.