A review of tertiary-level writing courses in Singapore: pedagogical approaches and practices

ABSTRACT

While there have been several studies on primary and secondary English education in Singapore, less research has been done on academic writing courses at the tertiary level. This study presents the results of a survey, which aimed to find out the pedagogical approaches and skills prioritized by tertiary-level writing teachers in Singapore. The project was guided by the following questions: (1) What is the dominant approach to teaching writing courses in Singapore? (2) What are the educational backgrounds of writing teachers in Singapore and does this relate to the pedagogical approaches that inform their teaching? (3) What practices do these teachers prioritize in the work they do as teachers and in their learning outcomes? (4) What are the typical assignments, class sizes, and teaching loads for Singaporean writing/communication classes? The results suggest that most teachers of Singaporean writing classes have a background in linguistics and take an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) approach; however, there was also some evidence of a blended approach between EAP and composition studies. The study proposes that, as Singaporean students become more proficient in English, this blended approach may present the best way forward for teaching academic writing in Singapore.

KEYWORDS:

• EAP
• composition studies
• Singapore
• writing studies
• writing programme administration
• tertiary level communication courses

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Singlish is defined as “a creolized form of English resulting from language contact between the British colonizers and the indigenous (or semi-indigenous) Chinese and Malay populations as well as the people of Indian ancestry” (Siemund, Schulz, & Schweinberger, 2014, p. 341).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Nanyang Technological University, [Grant M4082339] IRB-2019-04-029-01.

Notes on contributors

Angela Frattarola

Angela Frattarola is the Director of the Language and Communication Centre at Nanyang Technological University. Her book,Modernist Soundscapes: Auditory Technology and the Novel (UP of Florida, 2018), explores how early auditory technologies such as the phonograph, headphones, talkie, and tape recorder subtly changed the public’s sense of auditory perception, and how those changes are reflected in and shaped the modernist novel. Aside from her publications in modernism and sound studies, which can be found in journals such as Woolf Studies Annual, Mosaic, Modern Drama, Journal of Modern Literature, Studies in the Novel, and Genre, Dr. Frattarola also has extensive experience teaching writing-intensive classes, and studies the pedagogy behind best teaching practices for helping students become more effective readers and writers.