Family language plans in multilingual Singapore: SHELLS Language Planning

• In Event: Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Topic - Language, Communication

Abstract

Background: Singapore has widespread, intergenerational multilingualism. English is the dominant language of instruction, education, and business. According to Singapore’s bilingual education policy, students also take classes in their ‘Mother Tongue’, which typically aligns with one of the three dominant ethnic groups (Chinese 74.1%, Malay 13.4%, and Tamil 9.2%), although many other regional varieties are also spoken in homes. Little is known about how parents in Singapore think about and plan for their child’s home language exposure in the early preschool years.

Methods: The Supportive Home Environments for Language Learning Survey (SHELLS) is a series of questionnaires covering many aspects of parental language beliefs, and family language behaviours. The Language Planning sub-scale includes 23 questions designed to investigate language-related thinking, information seeking and planning in multilingual environments (DOI: TBC_after _review). As part of the Talk Together Study, to date, 156 parents of 8- to 36-month-olds have completed the Language Planning Subscale of the SHELLS.

Interim Results: The majority of parents reported pre-natal language-related thinking, by considering which languages their child should hear at home (58%) and/or who should speak particular languages to their child (44%). Postnatal language-related thinking was more common (which languages: 69%; which speakers: 53%). Figure 1 shows the number of parents who consulted different written information sources (40%) or people (32%) when thinking about language use with their child.
Some families (40%) reported having a clear ‘language plan’ for their child. In general, the majority planned early (prenatal plan: 44%; plan before child started speaking: 39%); Most initial plans were “not too strict” (60%); Most plans were followed “most of the time” (55%); Some plans changed over time (37%). Figure 2 shows the relative importance of different features in families’ language plans, where it is clear that English (the main language of education, governance and commerce) and the ‘Mother tongue used in school’ rank higher than other languages. This finding indicates that home language plans tend to align with Singapore’s bilingual education policy, and increasing rates of English use at home (LoBianco, 2007; Zhao & Liu, 2010).

Discussion: The majority of parents in our sample engage in language-related thinking from early in their child’s development. Some families adopt clear language plans. Following a preregistered stop-rule, data collection will conclude by February 2021. When the full sample is collected, responses will be linked with demographic information about the families, including languages profiles. This will allow detailed evaluation of whether language planning differs for parents with different combinations of language skills. Furthermore, a quarter of parents gave additional feedback or asked specific questions about language development. Future analyses will include a qualitative analysis of key themes and concerns. Insights gained from the SHELLS Language Planning Subscale will allow us to create materials addressing parents’ specific concerns, and to disseminate information through the channels that are most meaningful to them.

Authors

• Eshwaaree C Yogarrajah, Nanyang Technological University
  Presenting Author

• Fei Ting Woon, Nanyang Technological University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nur Sakinah Mohd Salleh, Nanyang Technological University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Shamala Sundaray, Nanyang Technological University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Suzy J Styles, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  Non-Presenting Author