Language Angst and Multilingualism in the Chinese Community of Singapore
Singapore is a multiethnic and multilingual city state.Since independence from Britain in 1965,the government recognizes the three main heritage languages,Chinese(Mandarin),Malay and Tamil,as mother tongues,Malay as the national language,and English as the working language.The government's language policy created English-centric multicultural and bilingual communities.Two language policies are especially important.First,English quickly became the medium of instruction in all schools,converting all Chinese schools to English ones.Second,in the Chinese community,the government promoted Mandarin,marginal-izing the traditional heritage dialects of Southern Min(Hokkien,Teochew),Cantonese and Hakka.In a short span of 60 years,Singaporean Chinese gradually abandoned the dialects and shifted to English and Man-darin.In this paper,we sketch the historical development of this double shift,and examine linguistic angst in language choice,language identity and language self-confidence.Linguistic angst is a natural outcome of a multicultural and multilingual society.
万方数据
维普
