What is the Language Policy in Singapore?

Students in Singapore are required to master two official languages, that is, English and one of the ethnic mother tongues. In school, English is learned as a “First Language”, while the ethnic mother tongue is learned as a “Second Language”.

What is the bilingual policy in Singapore?

The bilingual policy in Singapore requires all students in public schools (known as ‘national schools’ in Singapore) to learn English as the first language in schools and a ‘Mother Tongue Language’ (MTL) as a second language.

What is Singapore mother tongue language?

English
MalayTamilMandarin Chinese
Singapore/Official languages

What is mother tongue policy?

Mother Tongue Instruction (MTI) is the first principle of Multilingual Education, that in turn supports the intergenerational language transfer, maintenance and/or revitalization of any language.

What do you mean by language policy?

Language Policy is what a government does either officially through legislation, court decisions or policy to determine how languages are used, cultivate language skills needed to meet national priorities or to establish the rights of individuals or groups to use and maintain languages.

Why was Singapore bilingual policy implemented?

September 7, 2021. Bilingualism has often been touted as the cornerstone of Singapore’s language policy. The original aim of Singapore’s bilingual education was for citizens to gain access to knowledge of the West via English and to understand themselves via their mother tongue.

What is language policy example?

Examples include the introduction of new words (lexical modernization), the development and change of the writing system or orthography of a language (graphization), and the attempted purging of lexical items and grammatical forms deemed inaccurate, inappropriate, or otherwise unwanted (purification).

What are the four types of language policy?

Four major types of language planning are status planning (about the social standing of a language), corpus planning (the structure of a language), language-in-education planning (learning), and prestige planning (image).

Are all Singaporeans bilingual?

The majority of Singaporeans are bilingual in English and one of the other three official languages. For instance, most Chinese Singaporeans can speak English and Mandarin. Some, especially the older generations, can speak Malay and additional Chinese varieties such as Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka, and Hainanese.