English in Singapore


Peter K W Tan
Abstract

This article discusses the various ways in which it is possible to theorise about the varieties of English in the world, in particular Kachru’s (1982) concentric circle model and Schneider’s (2007) phases of development in post-colonial varieties of English and I try to fi t Singapore English into these models, although in both cases there are some difficulties. I then provide the historical background to how English was spread to South-East Asia and note that English is moving towards first-language status. The key phonological, grammatical, lexical and discourse are outlined. I end by discussing some of the key elements to remember when considering non-Anglo Englishes like Singapore English.

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Author Biography
Peter K W Tan, National University of Singapore

Peter K W Tan is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature at the National University of Singapore. His research interests include the development of Non-Anglo Englishes in South-east Asia, including their literary and computer-mediated forms and how they have infl uenced naming conventions and is currently involved in the setting up of a corpus of historical Singapore English.He is author of A Stylistics of Drama; co-editor of Language As Commodity and was published in the journals Connotations, English Language Teaching Journal, English Today, Language Problems and Language Planning, Names: A Journal of Onomastics and World Englishes; and in books Advances in Corpus Linguistics (eds Aijmer and Altenberg), Complicities: Connections and Divisions (eds Sankaran et al.) Exploring the Language of Drama (eds Culpeper at al.), Engineering Earth:the Impacts of Megaengineering Projects (ed. Brunn), Evolving Identities (ed.Ooi), Language As Commodity (eds Tan and Rubdy), The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis (eds Gee and Handford) and Singapore: The Encyclopedia.