Abstract
Since the 1980s, the Singapore government has relentlessly, and with some level of success, promoted the use of English among Singaporeans. Many younger people now use English at home and as their dominant language and have no problem pursuing a basic university degree, locally or overseas, using English. However, while there is evidence to suggest that the ‘well-educated’ variety of Singapore English is mutually intelligible with other varieties of Standard English, numerous studies have shown that many Singaporeans speak a variety of English that is distinct from Standard English. Singapore English (or ‘Singlish’) is shaped by Singapore culture and exhibits linguistic elements of that culture. Given that many Singaporeans speak Singapore English on an everyday basis, one wonders how proficient they truly are in Standard English. Indeed, some ‘educated’ Singaporeans, including university students, understand words often used in the academic context (like hypothesis, theory, and proof) differently from native Standard (Anglo) English users. This raises two questions. Are Singapore university students semantically challenged in Standard English? If so, what can be done to address this problem? One objective of this study is to examine Singapore university students’ understanding of several words that are important in Standard English. A further objective is to use Minimal English (ME) to explain the meaning of four Standard English words used in academic writing, hypothesis, theory, prove, and proof, and to show that ME can be used as a language pedagogic tool.
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Notes
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As it is referred to for instance in documents released by the English Unit of the Curriculum Planning and Development Division of Singapore’s Ministry of Education (cf. Ministry of Education 2010: 7).
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The entire speech is at http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/speeches/2010/04/19/speech-by-mr-s-iswaran-at-the-apec-relc-int-seminar-opening-ceremony.php. Accessed 3 June 2015.
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At the time of going to press (June 2019), the latest available syllabus (2020) for ‘General Paper’ was available from the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board website at https://www.seab.gov.sg/docs/default-source/national-examinations/syllabus/alevel/2020syllabus/8807_y20_sy.pdf.
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Acknowledgements
Initial research for this chapter was conducted at the Australian National University’s Humanities Research Centre in June 2015, with financial support from ANU HRC and the Centre for English Language Communication, National University of Singapore. I would like to thank Anna Wierzbicka, Cliff Goddard, Zhengdao Ye, Bert Peeters, Carsten Levisen, Lauren Sadow, and other participants of the Minimal English workshop held at the Australian National University (ANU) in June 2015, for giving me suggestions regarding the Minimal English explications. I am grateful to Brian Poole and two anonymous reviewers for commenting on earlier versions of this paper. I am indebted to Kevin Liu (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) for helping me collect data from his Chinese students.
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Wong, J. (2020). Semantic Challenges in Understanding Global English: Hypothesis, Theory, and Proof in Singapore English. In: Sadow, L., Peeters, B., Mullan, K. (eds) Studies in Ethnopragmatics, Cultural Semantics, and Intercultural Communication. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9979-5_7
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