(NOT) LONGING FOR OLD NORMS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TEACHERS AND NON-TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS –T/D DELETION IN SINGAPORE ENGLISH

Abstract

Research has shown that Outer Circle English speakers often view their varieties as less legitimate than Inner Circle Englishes, observed by how some perceive Singapore English (SgE) as a nonnative, “inauthentic” variety. While recent studies have shown that SgE speakers are orienting to local norms, adopting phonological features distinct from those of British English (BrE), few have assessed speakers’ acceptance of them. The acceptance of these norms may also be predicted to differ across social groups, with English teachers being more conservative as BrE is traditionally preferred in classrooms. This study investigates teachers and non-teachers’ attitudes towards -t/d deletion in SgE, complementing prior studies of production patterns among SgE speakers. A total of 91 participants were selected for this study: 75 undergraduates from the National University of Singapore and 21 secondary school English teachers. Two matched guise tests, simulating a GCE English oral examinations, were administered to the participant groups, both of which were tasked to evaluate the speakers’ pronunciation. Results showed that both teachers and non-teachers were not significantly more likely to prefer the 50% rate compared to the 100% rate, indicating that both groups align to SgE’s high deletion rates. Further, teachers were deemed more progressive than non-teachers as they align to local style-based deletion patterns and refrain from heavily penalising the higher deletion rate despite noticing deletion more frequently in this context. However, among the teachers, those who were deletion sensitive were more conservative, tending to prefer the lower deletion rate. The general acceptance of -t/d deletion among both non-teachers and teachers indicate that SgE is undergoing endonormative stabilisation, and has begun adopting an endonormative teaching model. However, since some teachers show less preference for local norms, it was proposed that Singapore is still progressing towards the complete adoption of this model.