When the Local Confronts the Global in Language-in-Education Policies: The Case of Singapore

This contribution examines how language policies have been instrumental in producing Singapore’s postcolonial nation building, as levers of ethnic identity formation in the new state and tools to invent both the global and the local dimensions of the country. While the development of these language policies is presented in detail, the article also focusses on the gradual loosening of the state’s authoritarian approach to language correctness and usage, and analyses the way communities in this globalized economy-driven society try to grasp a sense of the local via their language practices. This contribution focuses on the cases of English, Singlish and Chinese languages and the roles they have played in national and communal identity formation in Singapore.