Attitudes towards non‐standard English in Singapore¹

This paper examines the problem of a curriculum which promotes a standard linguistic variety in a context where non‐standardisms are common in the learners' milieu. There have been curricula which try to incorporate the non‐standard and have its function discussed; some have considered the non‐standard a stepping‐stone towards the standard; and yet others have tried to keep the non‐standard out of the school context. We examine the Singaporean context with reference to English in the classroom, where the last option seems to be the implicit one. We focus in particular on the views of 260 upper secondary pupils in five non‐elite schools, elicited through survey questionnaires. The results show that there is clear appreciation of the value of Standard English; it is, however, also clear that that the non‐standard, Singlish, plays an important social role in the community; and we suggest that it might be possible to harness the non‐standard in a curriculum that promotes the standard.