Expertise in English
One’s «mother tongue» may also be defined by a second condition, namely, language expertise. As can be seen from Figure 18.5, for the participants aged 18–35 across all three ethnic groups, some 80–90% of respondents report the ability to speak English very well.
Functions of English
The third condition for defining «mother tongue» is language function, which refers to a set of pertinent and personal domains of which a language is used most. The domains here refer specifically to the personal domains from which one can choose which language to use.
English featured particularly strongly for the Indian households, with more than 60% of the Indian participants in the older age groups having English as their main language in the home. English also functioned predominantly as the language of the second strand, leisure.
More than half of the young Singaporeans who participated in the study indicated that the main language used in communication with their best friends, partners, and significant others, was English. Finally, and perhaps the most telling, is how English also functions as the language of the self.
English for identity
The fourth and final condition for defining «mother tongue» is language identification. This is the language used by a speaker for community identification, and this community can be ethnic, cultural, or national. One of the key features of the survey conducted by the Institute of Policy Studies in 2013 is that there is a strong emphasis on the way Singaporeans identify themselves using language. However, if one looks at language identification by age, English is clearly slated to overtake the other languages.
Singapore English and varieties in conflict Language attitude studies
Overlaying the various languages, English tells a story of its own. The term «English» is used loosely here as an umbrella term for both Singapore Colloquial English or «Singlish»
and Singapore English . More recent studies by Tan and Tan , Cavallaro and Ng , and Cavallaro et al. compared attitudes toward Singapore Standard English and SCE. These show perceptions of Singapore Standard English and SCE to be not as simple as presumed. It appears that standard varieties are valued as markers of status, with the local variety apparently being preferred over foreign ones. Standard varieties also appear to be valued for certain aspects of solidarity, such as «friendliness,» in Tan and Tan’s study.
Singapore English and language identity
Studies that seek to investigate identity directly are rare. Kamwangamalu investigated how university students in Singapore express their social identity through their languages, how they relate to their language, and how they perceive the various English accents to which they are exposed. In her conclusion, she theorizes that Singlish reflects the rejection of both
Eastern and Western cultures. In their study, they examined the role played by languages in ethnic group identity and observed that while most participants in each of the ethnic groups associated the use of mother tongues with their cultural identity, they did not appear to consider that the use of English threatened this cultural identity.
Future prospects for English and other languages in Singapore: a new language world We have argued that the term «mother tongue» warrants a new configuration, and proposed that «mother tongue» can be defined by the following four conditions: language inheritance, language expertise, language function, and language identification. Figure 18.8 shows the 2015 census data for English spoken at home. The Singapore line presents the data for all Singaporeans, while the other lines present data for each major ethnic group. And to say that English is not a mother tongue for Singaporeans is in essence not recognizing that the language world has changed for many Singaporeans of the current and future generations.
