To Use or Not to Use Singlish “Aiyah! so Headache!”

Victoria University of Wellington School of Linguistics and utilize Languages Studies WRIT 101 Writing slope Assignment 2 suasion Due Date 20 September 2004 Name of Student Chor Teck Daryl bunco To Use or Not To Use Singlish Aiyah So head ache + In recent years, there has been much concern on how capital of capital of Singaporeans do incline. man about consider Singapore Colloquial face or Singlish as an undeniable part of cosmos a Singaporean, otherwises including the Government, deem it inferior, even chastise it, and support the use of Singapore ensample side of meat almost relentlessly (Tan 2002).I shall attempt to address the foldepressioning question, Should Singlish be accepted and utilize or be aban begettered? I believe we need to use some(prenominal) Singlish and trite side of meat in order to be effective smell-long communicators. We shall present into this argument in the context of education, the sociolinguistic understanding of diglossia and cod e- electrical switching, and the role of teachers in guiding students in the vocabulary acquisition process. Firstly, let us quality at the development of English that eventually led to this actors line arguing in Singapore.English is one of the four official dustups recognised in Singapore. It is the linguistic communication medium used in education, in administration, and in the workforce, and is often used at home nowadays, along with the other mother tongues. Some, curiously the junior families, have adopted English as their first language. Out of this multi-lingual emphasise comes Singlish, which blends English with the other local languages, accents, dialects and slang. Singlish is used in in titular ccasions, especially among children, adolescents, and the less-educated. If we were to spend some time mingling with Singaporeans and listening to the way we intercourse with each other, we may catch colloquial phrases equivalent, Why you so like dat? Eeee You so kia su one Dun play-play with me Do your work atomic number 57 Such familiar terms can also be notice in local television programmes, like Under One detonating device and Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd, and in local films, like Army Daze, Money No tolerable and I Not Stupid.Indeed, Singlish has become an unofficial Singaporean icon, which I think, our friends from other countries can use to identify and differentiate who we are from other Asians time Singlish is widely used in Singapore, it is often treated with disgust, even despite and aversion, especially by the highly-educated and language-purity advocates. Singlish is viewed as an embarrassing reflection of Singaporeans being common and uneducated, as contrast with monetary standard English. As former vertex Minister Goh Chok Tong once commented, Poor English reflects badly on us and get downs us seem less intelligent or competent. (Tan 2002) As Singlish is seen as poor English, attempts, such as the government-supported Speak Good English Movement, are set to propagate the proper use of the language among Singaporeans, mainly by the education system. Despite the various efforts made in condemning and even banning the use of Singlish in Singapore, there is no denying that using this locally-conceived language is very much a part of being a true-blue Singaporean. We use it in our daily lives with our families, friends and even at work in our conversations.Linguists have noted that most children in Singapore would acquire Singlish first from their homes or in kindergartens, rather than Standard English (Gupta 2001, Deterding 1998). In some studies conducted on language acquisition, it is observed that adults used the low descriptor of a language to glide by with their children, who in forge use it to communicate with their peers (Ferguson 1959). In accordance to the language phenomenon of diglossia, it is argued that children would acquire language initially through its non-standard, colloquial, low va riety, before learning its standard high variety through formal education.In line with the view mentioned above, some might musical note that a little dose of Singlish used sometimes in the formal language acquisition process can foster relax the already tense and stressful study atmosphere. Surely it would provide some barge and humorous moments to the classroom. During my training stint in the primary school, I telephone that my students would listen amusingly to my teaching, and appreciate my efforts in explaining complex terms with some occasional lahs and lehs.Students, especially those yet to be competent enough to communicate in English, would find it easier to use a bit of Singlish to speak up in class at the initial stage of their learning. After all, dont most students sometimes find it daunting to use the language they are learning, with an almost gripping fear of being ridiculed for their errors? Surely they would require to approach the language through its low va riety first, before works their way towards the high.Allowing them to use Singlish as a basis might help to create a safe environment for our students to eventually acquire Standard English in their language learning experience. However, as an English language teacher, I do advocate the need to use Standard English as part of our linguistic repertoire, since it is the language of administration, economy, and communication in Singapore, and a channel to communicate with other countries. As teachers, while we teach Standard English with its different genre, conventions, functions and its importance, we should gradually encourage our students to use the language in their lives.Nevertheless, we should bear in mind in our teaching our students linguistic background, which includes Singlish. Therefore, I suggest that we should use the sociolinguistic understanding of diglossia and code-switching in the language teaching and learning process. We, as parents and teachers, want our children and students to learn to communicate effectively as they grow. Therefore, we should teach them to identify and realise for themselves the different domains in which they have to switch between using Singlish and Standard English.We can do so through the means of modelling, conducting observations and discussions, to help them to differentiate the occasions for using Standard English or Singlish, and the various reasons for switching between these two varieties of language. For example, we use Standard English in answering questions, in writing, in presentations, and in seance for examinations or tests, so as to get good grades as the examiners are able to comprehend what we present in our answers, and be convinced of our force in acquiring the standard language. We also use Standard English as an essential tool to learn more about the orbit we live in.However, we use Singlish instead, when conversing with our family members and friends, ordering food from hawkers, and especially when idly chatting among ourselves. We would be seen as being snooty or distant if Standard English is used for these informal occasions. Using Singlish is also a way to make us feel at home with other Singaporeans, both local and overseas. In making such references to their prior knowledge and authentic life experiences, we help our students to realise how to switch between Singlish and Standard English harmonise to the different domains.Thus, students can learn to be effective language-variety-switchers, and in turn feel proud of their Singaporean linguistic repertoire (Deterding 1998). To conclude, while we realize the popular use of Singlish among our students and Singaporeans, the use of Standard English should be strongly advocated as well. Singaporeans must realise the importance of learning Standard English, so as to be able to exercise our language repertoire confidently as effective life-long communicators.Indeed, the mastery of Standard English, together with the use o f Singlish and our mother tongues, should imbue in us a sense of pride for our uncommon Singaporean language heritage. To Use or Not To Use Singlish Aiyah Headache so much for wat? Use BOTH Singlish and Standard English lor treatment Count 1225 words References Deterding, David 1998. Approaches to Diglossia in the Classroom The Middle Way. REACT 2 (November), 18-23. Ferguson, Charles A. 1959. Diglossia. In Dell Hymes (ed. ) 1964. Language in Culture and Society. NY Harcourt. 429 439. Holmes, Janet 2001. (2nd ed. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. capital of the United Kingdom Longman. 27 34. Expat Singapore Pte. Ltd. Language Singlish http//www. expatsingapore. com/general/language. htm (13 March 2001) Gupta, Anthea Fraser 2001. Linguistic ecology of Singapore. Paper given at GNEL/MAVEN Conference The Cultural government activity of English as a World Language Freiburg, 6-9 June. Gupta, Anthea Fraser. Language Varieties Singapore Colloquial English (Singlish) http//www. une. edu. au/langnet/singlish. htm (8 April 2004) Tan, Hwee Hwee 2002. A War of Words oer Singlish, TIME Asia 160 (29 July), 3