ABSTRACT
The mother tongues and English are designated different functions: English, the ethnically neutral language, serves as the inter-ethnic lingua franca as well as the language of socio-economic mobility and global advancement. Malay has also been elevated as the national language in a nod to its current as well as historical position in the region before Singapore’s independence from the Federation of Malaysia. The government underscored its commitment for equal treatment to all languages via the policy of multilingualism rooted in the recommendations of the report by the All party committee on Chinese education, 1956. Despite the focus on dual language education, a gradual shift from the vernacular to English as medium of instruction continued. The large-scale movement to education in English evoked other concerns that were possible to address through the language policy. An evaluation of the historic and current trends of the various languages suggests a continuation of the diverse trajectories.
