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Having one’s speech corrected in their early years is one of the most typical experiences many Singaporeans have had at least once in their life. As the standard being formal English rather than Singlish – which is seen as impeding formal English education – it comes as no surprise that children are often rebuked when speaking Singlish. Of course, no one can deny that mastering proper English is undeniably essential today, but is using Singlish compromising your child’s learning of proper English in the long run? In order to fully explore this issue, we need to first understand what Singlish or Singapore Colloquial English (SCE) is. SCE is a variation of English typically distinguished by its pragmatic particles (like “lor” and “lah”) and grammar. This contrasts the more generally accepted Standard Singapore English (SSE) with its close alignment to conventional British English. William Alexander Stewart, a renowned linguist specialising in creoles, proposed back in 1965 what he called the “creole continuum”, a way to better classify these specific varieties. The continuum had two ends featuring the basilect on one end and the acrolect on the other, or in simpler terms the least and most prestigious variety, respectively. In Singapore’s case, SCE would be the basilect while SSE the acrolect. This classification matters, as SCE far from being “broken” English is in fact a unique variation of English possessing distinct linguistic features and grammar rules. For instance, the phrase “You coming tomorrow, is it?” would be familiar to those who speak Singlish. While some may argue it is a “broken” offshoot of the standard version: Are you coming tomorrow?” This, however, is not the case, as it features SCE’s two recognisable grammatical features: the generalised question “is it?” and using zero copula. To explain, zero copula (or null copula) is omitting a form of the verb be, which is usually known as a copula. Examples of zero copula include: 1) Some of them __ tall 2) Some of them __ short. In this case, the underscored represents the missing word, are, which is a form of the word “be”. One noteworthy thing is that multiple variations of English, be it standard or non-standard, can omit the copula under specific contexts. Here is one example, where the first element is erased: 3) __ You coming to Amy’s house? In other words, there is a method to this madness. Because SCE is unconventional in specific ways, it is considered a variety of English rather than being unintelligible and “broken”. After establishing the two as related yet individual varieties, let us turn our attention to the research exploring language acquisition and whether learning multiple languages or their types simultaneously compromises either one. Does speaking Singlish interfere with children’s learning of English? One of the worries among parents of children picking up Singlish is that they may not be able to excel in their oral exam, because Singlish is different from standard English. Most of the time, the accuracy is focused on written English, thus many Singaporean students tend to have strong accents or frequently mispronounce words. While oral carry only 15% weightage in PSLE, it could be the decisive factor in the new AL grading system, where 1 mark can cause a student to have a different AL grade. For English O-levels, oral can carry 20% of the overall grade. One thing about oral exams is, they observe how the students speak, such as the pronunciation and articulation. The main concern about Singlish is that, it does not differentiate between voiced and voiceless fricatives. This may affect sounds, such as the “th” and “dh” and “f” and “v”. Because in informal speech, people may not distinguish the phonics, they may say, “bit” as “bid”, “back” as “bag”, etc. That may explain the parents’ worry of how Singlish can affect their child’s “learning” of what they perceive as “proper” English. To delve further into this matter, Jürgen M. Meisel’s “Early differentiation of languages in bilingual children”, talks about the process of language acquisition in bilingual children, the code-switching that takes place, and reports on whether his subjects (two German-French bilingual children observed and studied for two years) could differentiate between and utilise the two languages properly when needed. Meisel adopted Volterra and Taeschner’s (1978) proposed three-stage model but focused on the second stage in this paper, which states that despite developing two unique vocabularies, the child still employs the same rules for constructing sentences for the two languages. He studied whether language mixing results in proper usage and if differentiation of both languages would become more complex and verified if confusion occurred. Upon comparing the occurrence of linguistic features (suffixes, verbs and verb inflexion) in the children’s speech, Meisel discovered that bilingual children learn both languages just like monolingual children, with virtually zero mistakes and all of which may be ascribed to omissions or performance errors common in adult and casual speech. Furthermore, he makes a vital distinction between code-switching and language mixing, with the former relating to a child’s capability in choosing the language based on factors such as situational context, interlocutor, etc., while the latter results from failing to differentiate between two languages. In essence, language mixing occurs when two unlike grammar systems fuse and code-switching is interchangeably using two disparate vocabularies to convey expressions or words not readily accessible in the other language. Therefore, language differentiation is present in those capable of code-switching. This demonstrates that occasionally using SCE words in otherwise SSE sentences speaks positively rather than negatively about a child’s bilingual linguistic competence. There is irrefutable proof that these observations are mirrored in Singaporeans. For instance, if provided with clear instructions, children can chat with their friends and peers in Singlish while still performing well in listening comprehension, written, and oral examinations in standard English. Many Singaporeans today can navigate professional and educational settings using SSE with ease and then order food at a hawker centre using SCE later on.

Conclusion

Children using Singlish should not have a problem with their education. The next time you hear them speaking in this unique language, perhaps congratulating rather than admonishing them would be the more appropriate response. After all, they have demonstrated contextual understanding and mastery of where and when to use two different varieties of English. To ensure your child aces their standard English class, get them to attend primary school English tuition in Singapore today at Mavis Tutorial Centre. Our commitment to top-quality education ensures your child sees learning as something enjoyable, rather than a chore. Moreover, our dedicated tutors can help your child succeed academically with their inspiring and engaging lessons. If you need English tuition in Singapore from Primary 1 to JC 2, look no further than Mavis Tutorial Centre. Contact us today for more details.