Is Singapore Becoming Monolingual? The Impact of English Dominance on Multilingualism

On #TalkBack, Singapore Today's Lance Alexander and Daniel Martin engaged in a discussion with Assoc Prof Tan Ying Ying of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies at NTU’s School of Humanities, about the growing trend of young parents speaking English at home with their children. Prof Tan expresses concern that this shift could steer Singapore toward becoming a monolingual nation, as English is often seen as a prestigious language with career benefits. She suggests that for multilingualism to thrive, there must be greater flexibility in the choice of languages people learn.