“Enculturalling” Multilingualism: Family language ecology and its impact on multilingualism

ABSTRACT

Though the two languages most frequently used in the homes of Chinese Singaporeans are English and Mandarin Chinese, there is not much information on how the home language can influence language use and attitudes toward these two languages. This study investigates the family language ecology in bilingual homes and aims to compare attitudes toward Mandarin Chinese between Chinese Singaporean young adults from English-speaking homes (ESH) and those from Chinese-speaking homes (CSH). A total of 118 participants took part in a questionnaire designed to elicit language use and attitudes toward Mandarin. Results reveal that participants from Chinese-speaking homes do show greater use and proficiency in Mandarin, as well as possess more positive attitudes and motivation toward Mandarin as compared to participants from English-speaking homes. Both group report using more English with their siblings than their parents. However, the CSH group reports using more Mandarin than English with their siblings and more so with their younger siblings. This study emphasizes the process of “enculturation” to be an essential feature of language maintenance and as the home is the main site for enculturation to take place this study has implications for language maintenance for minority languages.

KEYWORDS:

• Enculturation
• singapore
• mandarin Chinese
• home language
• language attitudes
• language shift

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Cecilia Zhao Lingxin, who assisted in the statistical analysis. We are also indebted to the participants who gave their time and wisdom selflessly to the project.

Notes

¹ English and General Paper are compulsory subjects for local students at national examinations such as the Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary Level and Advanced Level examinations, and also serve as important pre-requisites for admission into pre-tertiary and tertiary institutions. On the other hand, students are only required to score 45% to 49% to attain a grade of D7 for Mother Tongue Languages (MTL), or 40% to 44% to attain E8 for higher MTL in order to achieve a passing grade. In addition, the MTL examination marks are not part of the mandatory component required for admission into universities (Zhao & Liu, 2010).