Singapore's Literacy Policy and its Conflicting Ideologies

Abstract

Singapore's leading literacy policy is affected by a tension between the ideologies associated with English and those attached to Singapore's mother tongues. Singaporeans must safeguard their heritages, keeping themselves open to the places where their ancestors came from by learning their designated mother tongues. At the same time, Singaporeans are to master the English language for political and economic reasons, but ideologically, they must remain Asian by rejecting the cultural components of English, replacing them with Asian values. This East-West dichotomisation of Singaporean citizens envisages them as bilingual and bi-literate in English and their mother tongues (Mandarin, Malay or Tamil), but mono-cultural. The concept of functional literacy underlies this dichotomisation and serves as a framework for understanding language policies in Singapore. These function-focused policies, when viewed through idealistic and ideological lenses, provide a site for developing conflicting tensions among Singaporeans.