Singapore Tamil Youth Conference 2018 Toolkit Toolkit 2018 Final | Page 12

Recent shifts in policy and language approach - Minister Ong Ye Kung at
the 9th Global Educational Leadership Conference 2018:
Celebrating our
multilingual
environment
Although the dominant language used by most families is not
their mother tongue but English, the number of people who
are bilingual or even trilingual has risen significantly from 56%
percent in 2000 to 70.5% in 2016 (Lee, 2016).
Therefore, while we have seen increased usage of the English
language in households, there is also a marked increase in the
number of people who are literate in at least 2 languages,
including one’s mother tongue which then creates avenues to
encourage communication in the latter.
However, research shows that even in families where two or
more languages are spoken, the propensity to gravitate
towards the dominant language is nevertheless present,
although the reasons are not clear (Kadakara, 2011).
Banking on the
unique experiences
of the teenage
generation
To the extent that young Singaporeans are awed by their
mother tongue cultures, they do not have the same emotional
attachment as their parents or their grandparents.
While youth desire to be able to relate to not just their own
cultures but also other global cultures, that should not
translate into a compromising of their own learning of mother
tongue language.
We should not direct our efforts at upholding high Mother
Tongue standards for most of the population. Learning one’s
Mother Tongue is something very personal.
This could be done by catering to their aptitude and interests
in the ways they would like to continue engaging with the
language. When we personalize the learning of the language,
we are adding depth and breadth to their learning which will
allow them to identify with the language better. For that, we
need to ensure that the avenues for personalized learning are
more readily available.
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