My Global Cultures MA dissertation: measuring attitudes towards Singapore English

To me, this first owed a great deal to the design of the Global Cultures module components and course structure, which helped us gradually build up the essential blocks of knowledge in this field. Then the themes of interdisciplinary nature we were guided to delve into, such as language and globalization, diversity and inclusion, race and ethnicity, and creating connections, had all to various degrees sparked ideas and thoughts in me when finally conceptualizing the research project. I would not have been able to approach the study at the level of depth or breadth without having these modules being laid down prior as a solid foundation for this intellectual exercise and exploration.

Equally important, the various ways we were encouraged to explore and present our thoughts and findings through different modules, such as essay writing, video presentation, blog posting (on Mahara), etc. had also been helpful in accommodating our varied learning needs and styles. Lastly, the final module Research Project Design facilitated by Dr. Jean Smith leading to the dissertation was instrumental in preparing me for undertaking the sizable final project, especially when I came into the programme after nearly twenty years away from formal academic study.

Meanwhile, I could not neglect to mention the fact that the Global Cultures programme’s truly global and diverse student body in my cohort had been a vital and invaluable community to exchange ideas and perspectives, providing emotional and resource support for one another. The space we were given to constantly be in touch with one another, be it the forums on King's learning platform or our self-administered online study groups has been indispensable and enjoyable. Most crucially, every programme tutor was a great source of inspiration and guidance throughout my entire course of study. This intellectual journey had been so rewarding that it propelled me to continue to pursue a doctoral degree at King's, in which I hope to be able to further explore international social issues in the field of higher education to be able to make as much impact as I can on the world I’m living in.

Background and motivation for the research project

While touching on several themes from the MA programme, my research topic focused primarily on language. My dissertation was about how international students perceive the English language used by local academic staff in Singapore’s private higher education institutions. This had been a question I had in mind since at least ten years ago, after I started working in one such institution. As to why this was a question for me, it was because I had observed a rather frequent misperception in the international students’ community. The misperception was that ‘Singapore English’ was inferior to the American and British varieties, not ‘as standard’, or even not ‘native’. This was despite the following facts:

• Due to Singapore’s colonial history, the English language had been long established in Singapore as the main administrative language in public domains, be it government, education or business.
• English has also long been serving as the primary language among the various ethnic and linguistic groups within Singapore’s diverse society. And,
• For the two youngest generations, English has been the first and/or dominant language in every aspect of their lives and is used by them as native language, albeit with some regional nuances in terms of pronunciation and choices of words. 

I had been of the opinion that such misperception (example), if indeed prevalent, could have great impact on the students’ learning and on the academic staff. For example, as we can see from the two social media posts screenshots, some education institutions may be responding to such phenomenon, i.e., feeling that there is a need to invite academics from the Global North to represent knowledge authorities.

I thought this could undermine or devalue local academics as knowledge authorities in their fields. Thus, to some extent it might even impact Singapore’s position on the global stage in the education context. Therefore, I felt that the dissertation would be the perfect space for me to explore just how predominant the perception really was. My hypothesis, or hope, was that it was just a small handful of loud voices I heard and saw in social media posts.

Research objectives and questions

With this intent, I made the objective of the research to be an investigation into how international students currently studying in Singapore’s private higher education institutions perceived the standardness of Singapore English from linguistic and sociopolitical aspects. Searching, gathering, selecting, categorizing, drawing connections, and critically reviewing relevant literature followed. Since the focal theme was Singapore English, l reviewed literature on the topic by linguists, historians, and other voices of authority in social sciences and humanity to set the parameters for the discussion. In view of the size of the dissertation, literature from linguistic aspects was then further narrowed down to intelligibility and accents. Also, space was only given to discuss the ‘Singapore English’ used in formal educational setting as opposed to the colloquial variety called ‘Singlish’ used in informal settings. For the sociopolitical aspects of the cultural phenomenon, I decided that coloniality and knowledge center-periphery were the most pertinent notions to discuss for this research topic.

Having synthesized the literature and identified one of the critical gaps relating to the topic of my interest, I was able to conceptualize the following research questions:

• How intelligible do international students perceive Singapore English to be?
• How standard do international students consider Singapore English to be compared to general British and American English?
• Is there any significant difference between responses to the above questions from respondents of different demographics?

This process of conceptualizing the research questions could not have been done in depth without the rich materials made available to us on King's online library resource. In this digital age where infinite amount of information appearing to be freely available on the Internet, careful curation of established knowledge and credible literature by the university is particularly crucial for us learners when searching for articles, books, or databases alike. Equally important, I would not have been able to effectively engage with the literature and critically review it had it not been the ongoing opportunity to develop this essential research skill from the very beginning of the programme.

Methodology

To address these research questions, I employed a quantitative survey to collect data for analysis. Considerations for employing this approach were based on insightful theories on research methodologies, e.g., Tolmie et al.’s (2011) argument of ‘describing reality through numbers.’ Another example would be Krosnick and Presser’s (2010) suggestion of using a quantitative method to avoid any possible effect of ‘social desirability’ from some respondents who might know the researcher. I found such literature indispensable in providing a theoretical underpinning for the overall research approach - from designing the questionnaire to carrying out the survey, and all the way to analyzing and concluding the research findings.

To encourage participation, the survey comprised of only ten questions with three sections, which corresponded to the three research question breakdowns. The figure below shows the first section of the questionnaire as an example.

After obtaining proper ethical clearance by King's, I sought help from my colleagues at work who directly dealt with international students’ affairs and could distribute the questionnaire (in Microsoft Forms) for me. This approach was also cleared by my institution’s Human Resource department to protect all stakeholders’ interests and privacy.

As advised by the MA in Global Cultures course, a preliminary schedule for completing each step in conducting the actual research was reverse engineered based on the submission deadline and an estimation of how long each step was likely to take. Largely owing to this planning, I was able to collect a statistically significant number of responses - a total of 87 international students from 9 countries of origin who were studying for their undergraduate or master’s degrees. Since a quantitative approach was employed, data was then analyzed using statistical software (SPSS and Microsoft Excel). Analysis included descriptive statistics of individual variables and correlational analysis of each individual variables in the survey questions to help address the research questions.

Key findings

I was glad to see that the results were able to confirm my hypothesis: from either a linguistic or sociopolitical aspect there was no evidence of any prevalent bias against Singapore English. The figure below is an example of the survey results.

I was able to reasonably deduce that what I had personally observed and what was on social media posts were just a small minority’s view, and thus not representative of the greater demographic’s opinion. Similar views were given to Singapore as a destination country for their study. The results were also able to provide insights in several specific findings of the cultural phenomenon. For instance, from linguistic aspects, contrasting to some students’ misperception of its pronunciation and/or grammar being ‘poor’ or ‘wrong’, for those who reported to have asked their Singapore lecturers to repeat themselves, they thought rhythm of speech was the main cause of this intelligibility issue. This issue could be due to what Deterding (2007, p. 31) touched on: Singapore English’s rhythm was ‘more syllable-based’, while most international students were probably more familiar with the general American or British English rhythms that were ‘stress-based’.

After summarizing these findings, I analyzed them against the critical points in the literature review section. These included notion of standardness from linguistic aspect and linguistic features of Singapore English, notion of standardness from sociopolitical aspects and the impact that coloniality had on the ex-colony’s linguistic landscape. Another reason for a deep analysis of coloniality in my research was the potential significance for higher education in Singapore where English was used as the official language, and thus any notion of inferiority of Singapore English could have significant implications for various stakeholders. Owing to my dissertation supervisor, Dr. Daniel Thomaz, I was able to incorporate this important theoretical concept into my study and glad for the opportunity to delve into linguistic decolonization in Southeast Asia. The literature on issues with the listener in terms of potential bias against an English speaker and thus possible perception of the intelligibility of the speech they heard were also brought into the analysis against the respondents’ demographic data.

Implications, conclusions, and recommendations

As to how the research project benefited me personally, it was not only able to answer the question that I had in mind for many years, but also allowed me to reach a well-grounded conclusion for my previously conceived hypothesis. My arguments on this topic now can contain much more intellectual and factual weight, be it in personal, professional, or academic spaces. For a greater audience, I hope to be able shed some light to various stakeholders involved in this issue. Again, this could include international students themselves who should be cautious when seeing or hearing negative views on Singapore English by a small handful of their peers, Singaporean lecturers themselves who should not need to change their way of speaking to appease the misperception, and/or higher education institutions who should not feel the need to pander to the minority and biased view towards Singapore English in their academic and/or HR processes. Perhaps more broadly and more importantly, Singapore, as a young nation shadowed by its British colonial legacy, could also take this into consideration in debates about its language policies and cultural identities alike.

Conclusion

Reflecting on this extremely valuable journey now, for someone who has been working in education for over a decade and a half, I am grateful for the growth and knowledge gained beyond my expectation at this point in my life. The capaciousness and richness of course content, flexibility in intellectual exploration and study time, and modes of course delivery and student participation, should work for many other prospective students as well.

I therefore wholeheartedly invite you to join our Global Cultures MA community from anywhere in the world and grow together with this highly active and caring community at one of the most prestigious universities in the UK.

About Ming Sun

Ming Sun is a graduate of the King's MA in Global Culture programme with a keen interest in culture and communication related topics and issues, particularly in the field of international higher education. Connect with me via email victoria-msun@outlook.com or on LinkedIn.