How multilingual are Singaporeans really? A study of linguistic repertoires in Singapore's Institute of Technical Education.

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Jakob Leimgruber; Professor Dr. Peter Siemund
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: from 2014 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 264695797

This project is a follow-up study of a previous project carried out by Siemund et al (submitted), which gathered linguistic and sociological information from 300 Singaporean university and polytechnic students. The study was the first larger-scale survey to take a sociolinguistic approach: most descriptions of Singapore in the linguistics literature are concerned with structural features, whereas comparatively few seek to shed light on the interaction between the many languages in the city-state. In addition, the study included an examination of speaker attitudes towards the varieties spoken in Singapore, as well as towards the various government language policies in place.The present project seeks to enhance the validity of this study by extending the informant base beyond university and polytechnic students, to include students of the Institute of Technical Education (ITE). By doing so, it is argued that a more representative cross-section of the population would be mobilized to further inform our understanding of the language dynamics in the city-state. Most (84%) Singaporean secondary school students carry on with some sort of post-secondary education: Leimgruber (2013: 21-22) reports that 26% choose a junior college (pre-university), 35% go to a polytechnic, and 23% opt for vocational training at the Institute of Technical Education. This choice is, of course, subject to performance in the secondary school leaving examinations, the O Level examination. Taking the rather established methodological route of equating educational attainment with socioeconomic status (see e.g. Pakir 1991; Chew 1995), complementing the binary (university-polytechnic) setup of Siemund et al's study with a third (vocational training) component will produce a more comprehensive picture of the sociolinguistic landscape of Singapore.Specific differences expected among ITE students include a larger array of language profiles, with a more multilingual repertoire, as well as a more balanced ethnic sample, resulting in turn in more Malay and Indian languages. While general attitudes towards languages and policies are not expected to differ greatly from those gathered among university and polytechnic students, it is expected that non-official languages enjoy greater vitality in the ITE sample.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants