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Singapore, grammar, and the teaching of ‘internationally acceptable English’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2004

Tom McArthur
Tom McArthur
Affiliation:
He has been an education officer in the British Army, Head of English at Cathedral School in Bombay, an organizer and teacher of EFL at Edinburgh University, and an Associate Professor of English as a Second Language at the Université du Québec. He has broadcast regularly for BBC English (World Service) and, as an Honorary Fellow of the University of Exeter, was Deputy Director of its Dictionary Research Centre (1990–2001).
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Abstract

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A consideration of the place of, and options for, explicitly teaching grammar to learners of English as an international language. A development of the opening address given at a conference on the teaching of grammar at the Regional Language Centre (RELC) in Singapore in November 2003. The key issue of the conference was whether the English-language skills of Singaporean school leavers would be improved through a revival of explicit and formal grammar teaching in the Lion City's 21st-century classrooms. The paper addresses this issue in both current and historical terms, going back indeed, at the end, to the beginnings of Western-style grammar teaching among the Greeks. While doing this, however, it also considers the nature and role of what the Singaporean government takes to be the proper target for its future citizens: speaking and writing an internationally acceptable English.

Type
Original Article
Information
English Today , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , October 2004 , pp. 13 - 19
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press