Vaish, Viniti

This research project, which takes a sociocultural approach to the investigation of language and literacy, is a baseline study of pedagogy in Singapore's Learning Support Programme (LSP). The LSP is an early intervention programme for children with weak reading skills in English. The main aim of the project was to investigate how Learning Support Co-ordinators (LSCs) teach low-track students. Data includes a survey of LSCs, interviews with teachers and focal students, and video footage of classrooms from five schools. The findings reported here focus on questioning patterns of teachers and students, teachers' beliefs about bilingualism, level of student engagement, allocation of whole language versus code-based skills in the classroom, and interactional patterns in the classroom.

"The study investigated what happens in English language and literature learning (ELLL) when every student in a particular school has a laptop computer for use in school and at home. The key issues at stake concerned the development of teachers' and students' capabilities in the use of digital tools, new media and multimodality in meeting curriculum and assessment requirements." -- p. 1.

This project investigated what happens in English Language and Literature learning when every student has a laptop computer to use in school and at home. The data were collected from teachers, students and school administrators in a series of questionnaires, classroom observations, meetings, focus group discussions, informal conversations, and interviews. Findings revealed a complex web of relationships between the stakeholders that translated into an uneven picture of professional practice in the laptop initiative. Whereas teachers opted for direct and traditional instructional methods, a fine-grained analysis showed that students were able, on occasions, to create meanings using a range of representational modes. Overall, the study highlighted the need to further build teachers’ capabilities in multimodality, knowledge creation, and the design of student-centred learning.

Singapore’s logistic situation has attracted widespread scholarly attention due to the language policies implemented since independence. With English traditionally receiving much of the focus, there appeared to be less interest in language maintenance and shift of other official languages of Singapore. Henceforth, this paper aims to examine language shift among the Chinese community in Singapore and its implications for Singapore which have yet to be further explored in past studies. In this study, three members from a multi-generation Chinese Singaporean family (aged 22 to 84) were interviewed. Participants involved were required to indicate their language preferences across five different domains: family, friends, school/workplace, public space and media. The results indicated a gradual shift in linguistic preferences over generations, especially evident in some domains, but that there is also language maintenance for Chinese dialects in others. Overall, there are clear negative implications for the future of Chinese dialects locally.

This survey of language use and users in Singapore sought to find out who speaks what language, to whom, in what context, with what attitude, with what level of fluency, and to what end. This project surveyed 716 students from the Primary 5 cohort of Singapore schools, randomly selected on the basis of ethnic group (i.e., Chinese, Malay and Indian) and socioeconomic status, using a bilingual survey instrument. In its qualitative phase, follow-up studies were conducted with 12 participants who were randomly selected from the three ethnic groups, across a broad spectrum of social classes.

"This project is a baseline study of Singapore's Learning Program (LSP) which is an intervention program in primary schools with the main objective of helping students who do not have adequate competencies in English language and literacy to cope with the mainstream curriculum. The LSP is comparable to the other compensatory programs in the USA such as Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE), two way bilingual educations (TWBE), pull out ESL programs and the funds of knowledge intervention program in the UK. All these compensatory programs have a leveling up a goal in which they try to bring underachievers to the same level of their mainstream peers. The broad objectives of the project are to document what goes on in the LSP, how the Learning Support Co-ordinator teaches, who is sent in, who is sent out and what Learning Support Co-ordinators believe about bilingualism."--executive summary.

Bilingualism is becoming more common worldwide, and it remains a central educational policy in Singapore. In this document, we review research related to bilingualism and literacy development and achievement. Following an ecological framework, we outline known factors contributing to literacy achievement and discuss findings from bilingual research regarding these factors. We conclude with recommendations for educational practice informed by the research literature.

This essay is about language and unique forms of identity in Singapore resulting from globalization. Specifically it looks at language use amongst the Indians in Singapore in the domains of religion and public space. Identified as one of the most globalized nations in the world, Singapore is concerned about the erosion of mother tongue languages and the consequent demise of Asian Values. Through the preliminary findings of a large scale language survey and smaller scale follow up studies, this essay shows a heteroglossic use of languages and a concomitant hybrid identity which is the mark of being Singaporean. The essay also emphasizes that a unidimensional view of language and globalization, which only looks at globalization as a form of McDonaldization, is not in keeping with actual patterns of language use.