(ITA - 2001 - 1a Fase)SINGAPOREIn the 1950s a bili

(ITA - 2001 - 1a Fase)

SINGAPORE

In the 1950s a bilingual educational system was introduced in Singapore, with English used as a unifying and utilitarian medium alongside Chinese, Malay, or Tamil. However, English remained the language of government and the legal system, and retained its importance in education and the media. Its use has also been steadily increasing among the general population. In a 1975 survey, only 27 per cent of people over age 40 claimed to understand English, whereas among 15 - 20-year-olds, the proportion was over 87 per cent. There is also evidence of quite widespread use in family settings. In such an environment, therefore, it is not surprising that a local variety ('Singaporean English') should have begun to emerge.

MALAYSIA

The situation is very different in Malaysia where, following independence (1957), Bahasa Malaysia was adopted as the national language, and the role of English accordingly became more restricted. Malay-medium education was introduced, with English as an obligatory subject but increasingly being seen as a value for international rather than intranational purposes - more a foreign language than a second language. The traditional prestige attached to English still exists, for many speakers, but the general sociolinguistic situation is not one which motivates the continuing emergence of a permanent variety of 'Malaysian English'.

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language David Crystal - CUP, 1995

 

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