This paper addresses the ecology of communicative language teaching (CLT) by reflecting on the Singapore experience. It reviews how CLT was conceptualized, advocated and implemented in stages/phases as reflected in the different syllabuses by the Ministry of Education, Singapore. In anchoring the discussion against a historical backdrop and…

Are young children able to become competent in two languages simultaneously? In an attempt to answer this question, Singaporean Chinese, Malay, and Indian children of 3.5 through 6 years of age who attended six different types of preschool centers were grouped into age bands separated by an interval of 6 months and were given four English tests…

A study investigated parents' perceptions of the quality of kindergarten education in Singapore. Subjects (437 parents from 10 kindergartens) responded to a survey on reasons for wanting their children to attend kindergarten and their choice of kindergarten. Responses were categorized according to: (1) socioeconomic characteristics of the parents;…

This paper examines assumptions about second language acquisition, bilingualism, and language planning that underlie Singapore's bilingual education policy, noting how the experience in Singapore illuminates current theories in second language acquisition and language planning. In Singapore, English is promoted as the "working language,"…