Mohd Aidil Subhan Mohamed Sulor

Singapore’s bilingual policy has been dubbed an English-knowing bilingual system, in which English is the main language followed by a choice of any one of the three mother tongue languages: Mandarin, Malay, or Tamil. Among the three mother tongue languages, there is a perception that the language policy is Mandarin-inspired, especially given the opening up of China and the growing economic importance of learning Mandarin.

There is also a worry among Malay speakers that in spite of its status as the national language and one of the four official languages, Malay has seen its role within Singapore diminish from that of a language of unity and wider communication to a language of cultural repository, which is largely symbolic in nature. This will in turn affect its stated role as a “cultural ballast” in Singapore’s bilingual framework.

Thus, there is a need for academic research that would detail these concerns, both perceived and real, among the Malay language community against a background of language shift and changing attitudes toward the language as a result of the bilingual policy and to analyze the impact of the English-knowing and Mandarin-led bilingual system. This research will list selected educational review reports and relate it to its impact on Malay language planning and offer a response in terms of pedagogical approaches required to address the changing demographics and language shift among Malay learners.

"The aim of this research is to understand how children in English-knowing Malay families learn literacy within the context of their homes, how the families organise themselves around literacy, their beliefs and practices, the ways in which they support their children's literacy, and the ways children position themselves as learners."-- [p. 1] of executive summary.

Diverse Languages, One Identity is a joint initiative between the National Institute of Education and National Library Board to help foster cohesiveness in Singapore’s multiracial community. This booklet aims to create an awareness of the spoken mother tongue among students and teachers and serves as a good platform to build understanding and respect among the various races in Singapore. This joint project based booklet has a collection of eight scenarios of a university student’s life at university (for eg. ordering food at the canteen, going to the library, meeting the lecturer, etc.). All scenarios have been translated, transliterated in four languages in print and recorded in voice form. A team of advisors and editors worked together with the NIE Trainee teachers and technological officers.

The standardization of spoken Malay has been mentioned in the corpus planning of Malay Language since 1956. The main issue surrounding the spoken form has always been the determining of the standard spoken form or sebutan baku. Before 1956, the Johor-Riau spoken variation was regarded as the standard based on the fact that the Johor-Riau area was the centre of Malay language and development then. In 1956, the 3rd Malay Language & Literary Congress passed a resolution determining that the Johor-Riau spoken variation should cease to be regarded as the standard. More than 30 years passed before the Malaysian government formally announced their shift from regarding the Johor-Riau spoken variation as a standard replacing it with sebutan baku, and to be used by educators and the mass media. In 1993, Singapore’s Ministry of Education launched its standard spoken Malay Language program of Program Sebutan Baku Bahasa Melayu which is based on the Malaysian model. In the year 2000, the Malaysian government retracted its support for sebutan baku and returned to using the Johor-Riau spoken variation. In spite of this development, Singapore still maintains its support for sebutan baku till today. This paper will track the historical development of Malay Language corpus planning with emphasis on the spoken variation in Malaysia and impacting on Singapore. This paper will also suggest some steps that can be considered by the Singapore authorities in this respect taking into account 21st century skills in the ever changing educational landscape.

Dalam konteks Singapura, penstandardan bahasa Melayu telah bermula sejak tahun 1979 lagi dengan penstandardan ejaan sehinggalah tahun 1993 apabila sebutan standard atau sebutan baku diimplementasikan di sekolah-sekolah. Kertas ini akan meninjau proses penstandardan sebutan ini, rasionalnya serta penerimaan oleh masyarakat pengguna.

Malay Language has played an integral part not only in the lives of the Malay community in Singapore but also that of the larger Singaporean community. Among the roles played since Singapore’s independence in 1965 was as language of unity among the various races during the early years, as a national language and one of the four official languages as indicated in the Singapore Constitution, and now more as a cultural repository in an English-knowing bilingual landscape. This paper is based on the writer’s PhD thesis that audited Malay Language planning in Singapore’s bilingual system since 1965. Using Cooper’s Framework of language status planning, language corpus planning, and language acquisition planning, the thesis set out to analyze the language’s development through 50 years of independence. This paper will not only emphasize the successes of Malay language in education planning (SG50), but also to review the present success and preview the challenges that will be faced leading up to 2065 (SG100).