Introduction

The education system in Singapore has changed from one in which there were four more or less independent school systems, each with a different language as the main medium of instruction, to one in which these different language streams were consolidated into a national system following standard curricula. More recently, a unified national system was implemented using English as the medium of instruction in all schools (Kuo & Jernudd, 1994; Soon, 1988).

The main purpose of this chapter is to describe the effects of this policy on teaching and learning in preschool classrooms, where, increasingly, teachers use only English in the belief that mixing languages is counterproductive for language learning and may cause confusion. However, some students fail to achieve the high levels of proficiency in English demanded by the community and assumed to be possible with total immersion and early exposure to the language.

Background

Singapore is typically regarded as a stable, cosmopolitan, multicultural society with a rich linguistic tradition. According to the last census conducted in 1990, its total population of three million comprises a majority of ethnic Chinese (76.3%) and minority groups of Malays (15%), Indians (6.4%) and others (2.3%). Malay is the national language, and Malay, English, Mandarin Chinese and Tamil are designated as the four official languages.

Education in Singapore is not compulsory; nor is it free. Yet it is almost universal. According to the Ministry of Education (1990 figures), 96.5% of schoolchildren attend schools that are directly under its control.