Resisting Language Shift: A Study on Parental Language Ideologies in Singaporean Chinese Families

Abstract

Evidence from census data (Singapore Department of Statistics, Census Key Findings, 2011) has pointed to a societal language shift towards English as the predominant home language across all three major ethnic groups in Singapore. This dissertation investigates the parental language ideologies in families which are maintaining Mandarin at home. It focuses on the Chinese community which forms the majority of the population in the country. I have conducted a pilot study on a young Singaporean Chinese family (Lea, 2011). Building on this case study, I draw the hypothesis that families who are maintaining Mandarin at home are trying to achieve dynamic bilingualism as their child-rearing goal and seek to investigate why. In the research project reported in this dissertation, the case study was replicated in four other families. Using interview as the main method of data collection, it was found that the underlying parental language ideology motivating these parents to achieve “dynamic bilingualism” as their child-rearing goal is the desire to maintain Mandarin as an identity marker while being proficient in English.