ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND The background to current research on English in Singapore summarized here is necessarily brief, but may serve to place this chapter within the context of current sociolinguistic research. Reviews which are fuller (up to the date of publication) can be found in Bloom (1986) and in Foley (1988). Many studies do not separate the English of Singapore from that of Malaysia. At the moment the English of proficient English users in Singapore and profitiant English users in Malaysia is virtually indistinguishable phonologically, lexically and syntactically, although the status of English in Singapore is different from the status of English in Malaysia.