Speak Good English Movement
Known colloquially as Singlish, the vernacular dialect is characterised by the mixture of local expressions with Standard English (e.g. the use of discourse particles such as lah).
The campaign aims to discourage the use of Singlish and encourage the use of a more standardised form of English, (i.e. generally modelled on the British standard).
The themes that were used in the campaign up until 2015 are: In 1999, then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong highlighted the problem of speaking Singlish in his National Day Rally.
He stressed the importance of speaking standard English and reducing the use of Singlish, as Singapore is a hub city and an open economy with a need to interact with English-speaking foreigners.
In his rally, the prime minister stressed that "if we speak a corrupted form of English that is not understood by others, we will lose a key competitive advantage.
"[9] The movement was spearheaded by a committee of people in the private sector led by then Colonel (NS) David Wong, a senior adviser with the consulting company Ernst and Young.
In its fifth year, acting Manpower Minister Ng Eng Hen launched the campaign at The Arts House at Old Parliament in April 2004.
[15] Its target audience was working adults in the service industry, including cabbies, shop assistants, waiters and others, which made up 70 per cent of all workers in Singapore.
The movement also partnered organisations and key agencies in training workshop initiatives to improve the English language proficiency of all their teachers.
[17] Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong launched that year's Speak Good English Movement on 13 May at the HDB Hub Auditorium at Toa Payoh.
Professor Koh highlighted that speaking good English did not necessarily mean that one should seek to eradicate or diminish the usage of Singlish or mother tongue.
[20] Partner programmes in 2005–06 The 2006 movement was launched by Radm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Minister of State For Education on 25 July 2006 at The Plaza, National Library Building.
[21] The highlights of the 2006 movement include starting of the 'English as it is Broken' column in the Generation Y page of The Sunday Times which addressed questions relating to English sent in by its readers.
[22] Its popularity led to the publication of two best-selling volumes of books of the same title- 'English As It is Broken', based on issues brought up from the site.
[23] Partner programmes in 2006–07 Launched by Radm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Minister of State For Education on 31 July 2007 at Timbre Music Bistro, the 2007/08 Movement targeted four broad groups – youth, parents, teachers and frontline staff.
The key focus was on the youth, while parents, teachers, and frontline staff were seen as the main people to have interactions with them, thus having a vital role in the language input that they receive.
This year also saw the appointment for the new chairman – Mr Goh Eck Kheng, publisher of Landmark Books for a two-year term from 1 March 2008 to 30 April 2010.
[27] From August 2007 to June 2008, the movement held weekly programmes and performances which aimed to allow youths to grow their confidence and fluency with the code.
It also used social media platforms such as MySpace,[29] YouTube,[30] Facebook, STOMP, Youth.Sg, The Speak Good English Movement website and blogs by band members.
'[32] In order to encourage willingness to speak and improve their proficiency of Standard English, the movement of this year initiated the classification of Singaporeans into three categories:[32] 1.
Partner programmes in 2008–09 The Speak Good English Movement 2009 was officially launched by Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean on 28 August with the tagline "Impress.
Over a span of 12 episodes, Six Lives aimed to show the importance of communicating well and how 'Impress, Inspire and Intoxicate' can be incorporated into daily situations that friends get into,[33] through the demonstration by the six characters who interacted through blog entries and comments at the Sixlives webpage.
Fluent speakers of Standard English are encouraged to use it more frequently in all conversation, regardless if it is with family members, colleagues, hawkers, or taxi drivers.
[41] The current Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan kicked off this year's campaign by being the first to correct a sign at the Xin Food Court at the HarbourFront Centre.
In response, Liew Choon Boon, Director of the Arts & Heritage Development Division from the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts and Ho Peng, Director of Curriculum Planning and Development from the Ministry of Education, wrote in a letter published in The Straits Times on 12 December 2008: While Singlish may be a fascinating academic topic for linguists to write papers about, Singapore has no interest in becoming a curious zoo specimen to be dissected and described by scholars.
"[46] Likewise, celebrity STOMP blogger Leow Ju Len says in this blog post:[47] "I mean, our tourism slogan is 'Uniquely Singapore', and what could be more uniquely Singaporean than Singlish?".
Rather, they "completely support the writing and speaking of good English" and hoped that SGEM would see the Save Our Singlish Campaign "as complementary, not adversarial".
[51] It began as a response to the launch of SGEM 2010, in particular, its notion of using post-its to correct public signs written in poor English.
[51]In an exclusive interview with The Online Citizen, one of Singapore's key social commentary websites, its unnamed founder directly called into question Dr Balakrishnan's appeal about the SGEM.
[57] In response, Jennifer Chan, Press Secretary to Minister for Education, wrote in a forum letter reply dated 22 June 2006 that: The criteria for the selection of foreign teachers will remain stringent.
