English emphasis, mother tongue maintanance and foreign language education: Learning from Singapore

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K03012
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: GUO Junhai 九州大学, 留学生センター, 教授 (20377203)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 多言語教育 / 母語維持 / 外国語教育 / 英語教育 / 日本人大学生

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Singapore has made bilingual education a cornerstone of its national development and achieved national integration through various language policies. Meanwhile, while adhering to the policy of bilingual education and making English the working language, it has strengthened education in the mother tongues of each ethnic group, developed diverse foreign language education at the secondary and higher education levels, and positioned the multilingual repertoire of its citizens as an indispensable resource for sustainable development of the country.Singapore's recent language policy has been reoriented toward contributing to the creation of a multicultural society through multilingualism and multiculturalism.The need to promote multilingual education for cross-cultural understanding and multicultural conviviality can serve as a point of reference for foreign language education in Japan.

Free Research Field

言語教育学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の学術的意義は、歴史的な視点からシンガポールの言語政策の変遷を考察し、英語、母語、そして外国語の教育・学習の全体像を政策面、学習者の意識面及び学習者を取り巻く社会文化的側面から立体的にとらえたという視点にある。英語を公式な場で使用される主要言語とし、各民族の母語教育を強化しつつ、中等・高等教育段階における様々な外国語の教育を展開しているという多言語教育に向けたシンガポールの取り組みが、日本のみならず他のアジア諸国にとっても、母語、英語と英語以外の外国語教育のバランスがいかに保たれるべきかという課題への対応において、大いに参考になると思われる。