A STUDY OF THE LANGUAGE ATTITUDES OF YOUNG UPWARDLY MOBILE SINGAPOREANS (YUPPIES) TOWARDS SINGLISH

Abstract

Amidst strong government remonstration of the use of Singlish on the grounds that the non-standard variety will hamper the Singaporeans' ability to use standard English which is vital to the continued economic progress of Singapore, this study focused on the language attitudes of the young upwardly mobile Singaporeans or yuppies towards Singlish with the objective of finding out if these educated middle class professionals share a similar sentiment regarding the colloquial variety. By virtue of their important contribution to the economy and potential influence in the community as future leaders in the society, the study also aimed to establish the yuppies' level of tolerance of the colloquial variety, which could impact on the future prospects of Singlish.

Chapter One introduced the background to the study by discussing the Singapore government's concern over the influence of Singlish and the rationale for the study. Chapter Two provided the findings of related studies on language attitudes carried out in the past whilst highlighting the significance of the current study. The research design and methodology used in the study was covered in Chapter Three while an analysis and discussion of the results of the findings were presented in Chapter Four.

The study concluded in Chapter Five with a summary of the findings of the study. The study showed that the yuppies acknowledged the prevalent use of a colloquial variety across a wide spectrum of the society and were not biased against speakers of the colloquial variety in terms of their educational and social economic status. Nevertheless, it also found that the yuppies were more receptive to the use of the colloquial variety in informal speech situations as opposed to its use in formal domains. While the young educated middle class professionals were not prejudiced against the non-standard variety, the study found that they did not identify very much with the colloquial variety. The indifference towards the indigenised variety also lends support to the finding that the yuppies were generally not opposed to the government's efforts to discourage the use of Singlish. The government's argument that Singlish will undermine Singapore's economic competitiveness also saw support from the yuppies.

In the face of the government's campaign against Singlish, the continued prevalence of the colloquial variety is doubtful in the light of low resistance from an important social and economic group in the country such as the yuppies.