A New Model of Bilingualism for Singapore: Multilingualism in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

Singapore’s present bilingual policy requires Singaporeans to be proficient in English and in one of the three officially assigned Mother Tongue Languages (MTLs) – Mandarin (Chinese), Malay (Malay) and Tamil (Indian). However, the twenty-first century Singapore will need more complex language policy and planning; instead of producing a bilingual population, Singaporeans will need to be multilingual in order to prosper in an increasingly multilingual environment. This chapter discusses Singapore’s present bilingual policy, i.e., ‘English + 1’ language policy and argues that a new model of multilingualism is necessary in order for Singapore to continue to achieve global and educational success in the twenty-first century. It discusses the possible challenges and side effects inherent in carrying out this new model of multilingualism.