ABSTRACT
Drawing upon perspectives on agency in language planning (Bouchard & Glasgow, Chapter 1, this volume; Ricento, 2000; Zhao, 2011) as well as micro language planning (Chua & Baldauf, 2011; Liddicoat & Baldauf, 2008), this exploratory study reports on agentive responses and views of different individuals from the three main ethnic communities in Singapore—Chinese, Malay and Indian—to elicit their opinions about Singapore’s early language planning policies. Data collection was based on a semi-structured interview with seven informants who experienced the language planning policy implemented in the early 1960s. The results of the study show that individual agency related to the current language policy focuses on the need to maintain the use of the mother tongue in the ethnic local community and the home environment. Informants also highlighted the need to address pedagogical issues related to the teaching of the mother tongue subject in schools. The study also shows that individual agency in language choice has been constrained, in particular, in the use of Chinese dialects in Singapore. In addition, agentive response was found to be a process where individuals have to resist ideological assumptions of official language planners to optimize their linguistic consumption rather than blindly accepting national language policy.
