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Title: Language, Society and Education in Singapore: Issues and Trends by S. Gopinathan, Ho Wah Kam, Anne Pakir, Vanithamani Saravanan ISBN: 9-8121026-1-2 Publisher: Intl Specialized Book Service Inc Pub. Date: March, 2004 Format: Paperback List Price(USD): $26.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)

Rating: 4
Summary: Comprehensive review
Comment: This book gives an overview of language policies and education in Singapore. Many of the papers have been updated since the 1994 edition, and others have been added. The book is divided into 3 parts: Language in Singapore, Language in Society, and Language in Education. The language experiences and status of the three major ethnic groups of Singapore, Chinese, Malay and Indians, are each described in separate chapters. Singapore English is also considered extensively.

One striking fact about Singaporean language policy that comes out repeatedly in the papers of this volume is how the government gives preferential treatment towards Mandarin Chinese, and dismisses other dialects of Chinese as merely "dialects". It would have been nice if the book had included a paper on the motivations behind this policy and how non-Mandarin speakers feel about the policy. However, such questions may not be political acceptable to the government so the omission is understandable.

On the whole, the papers in the volume are very well written, with few exceptions. Many of the papers in the first 2 parts of the book might appeal to anyone interested in sociolinguistic and language planning issues. The third part of the book may only interest Singapore specialists, however.