Singaporean Malay Mothers' Family Language Policy on Mandarin and Additive Multilingualism for Their Preschool Children

新加坡馬來母親對其學前幼兒學習華語的看法及做法：從家庭語言政策視角出發

10.29748/TJCSL.201912_(19).0004

鄭臻貞(Chen-Chen Cheng)

Mandarin teaching and learning ； additive multilingualism ； Singapore ； Singaporean Malay children ； preschool Mandarin language teaching ； family language policy ； 華語教學 ； 華語為三語的教學 ； 新加坡 ； 新加坡馬來裔兒童 ； 學前華語教學 ； 家庭語言政策

臺灣華語教學研究

19期（2019 / 12 / 01）

61 - 87

英文

Singapore's long standing bilingual education policy produced competent bilingual Singaporeans. However, not all Singaporeans share the same language learning options in school as students' mother tongue is tied to their ethnicity. Mandarin is the designated mother tongue for Singaporean Chinese students, Malay is for Malay students, and Tamil is for Indian students. Interestingly, in preschool settings, Malay and Indian children often joined their Chinese peers in Mandarin classes. Using family language policy as the conceptual framework, this qualitative interview study aimed at understanding the Malay children's learning Mandarin in preschools from the mothers' perspectives. The researcher interviewed eight Malay mothers for their experiences of enrolling children in Mandarin classes in preschools in Singapore. The in-depth semi-structured interviews were 1-3 hour long and conducted at times and places of participants' choice. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed by a professional Singaporean Malay transcriptionist who was proficient in English and Malay. The transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis. The mothers expressed that Mandarin is good to have, but is difficult to learn; that they wanted their children to learn Mandarin in preschool because it helped them make language decision for primary school, and because the majority of preschools only offered Mandarin. The researcher discussed the findings from the aspects of unequal bilingualism and middle-class parenting.

新加坡長期以來實施雙語教育政策培養出能夠適當使用雙語的新加坡人民。不過新加坡政府規定在中小學階段，華裔學習華語，馬來裔學習馬來語，印度裔學習泰米爾語，因此新加坡人民的雙語語言並不相同。在政府並未規定雙語教學的幼兒園階段，卻常看到馬來和印度裔的幼童和華人同儕一起學習華語。研究者以家庭語言政策為理論基礎，進行質性研究來了解新加坡馬來家長對其子女在幼兒園學習華語的想法。研究者以英文深度訪談八位新加坡馬來母親，每位訪談時間為1至3小時不等，訪談時間及地點由受訪者決定。訪談錄音檔由新加坡英語／馬來語雙語專業人員繕打成逐字稿，研究者以主題分析方式分析研究資料。研究結果包括華語是值得孩子學的益品，華語很難學，讓孩子在幼兒園階段試學再決定以後是否繼續學華語，大部分幼兒園只提供華語語言課程。最後，研究者從雙語不同的排列組合蘊含不同價值，以及中產階級親職培養孩子多語能力來提升孩子國際競爭能力兩個面向對研究結果進行討論。

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