Challenges and Future Directions in Cultivating Bilingualism and Biliteracy: The Case of English-Chinese Bilinguals in Singapore

Singapore’s education policy is undergirded by an English-knowing bilingualism approach, in which English is the main medium of instruction, whereas a designated Mother Tongue Language (MTL) is a mandatory school subject since the first year in primary school through the higher secondary years. Mastering both languages, however, presents significant challenges for many early learners in Singapore. Experiencing a change in the linguistic landscape, the country has an ongoing phenomenon of diminishing MTL use in its home environment. As a result, many early learners tend to have little exposure to and lower oral language proficiency in their MTL. This trend of language shift has also impacted their biliteracy development. The difficulty of maintaining both languages is further compounded by the typological differences between languages, particularly between alphabetic English and morphosyllabic Chinese scripts, where there are many contrastive features in their writing systems. This chapter will elaborate on the issues faced by this group of biliterate bilingual English-Chinese children with an increasingly English-dominant background and discuss possible pedagogies that can enhance their language and literacy outcomes.