DOI: 10.25340/r4/mgh9mu
title: Related Data for Thesis/Dissertation: Durable and changing views of English : A diachronic study of National Day Rally speeches in Singapore

description: Scholars who researched on language policies or language ideologies ventured into diachronic analysis due to its comparative value. They have drawn on a variety of sources to provide a diachronic perspective of language ideologies or policies over time. Diachronic studies which rely chiefly on official pronouncements on languages or language policies are rare. Focusing on Singapore, a close review of the scholarly discussion on language ideologies in Singapore and scholarly work which examines National Day Rally (NDR) speeches delivered by Singaporean politicians reveal that researchers in these domains have yet to conduct a diachronic analysis of the NDR speeches delivered from 1966 to 2017. Additionally, despite the abundance of work done on the concept of `othering’ in the field of Language Policy and Planning (LPP), there’s a paucity on scholarly work which examined the concept of positive representations of the othered. Furthermore, this study too strives to address Wee’s (2018) call for studies to examine the concept of ‘ideology pooling’. This study therefore aims to find out whether Singaporean politicians’ views of English (with embedded language ideologies) have changed over time by conducting a diachronic analysis of National Day Rally (NDR) speeches delivered since independence. Specifically, this analysis composes two levels, namely a diachronic thematic analysis of views of English in Singapore (level 1) and a nuanced discourse analysis on practices of ‘othering’ (level 2). To explicate, level 1 of the analysis entails conducting a diachronic thematic analysis of views of English in Singapore (level 1) with an additional focus on the concept of ’ideology pooling’. Instances of conflicting as well as shared ideologies (via diachronic thematic analysis) are systematically identified and analysed. The concept of ‘othering’ gets examined after executing level 1. This second level of analysis looks at ways of ‘othering’ (e.g. how speakers/writers of Singlish/Standard English are othered) and whether ideologies are conveyed over time by positive or negative ‘othering’ (or a mixture of both). Particularly, it executes a 3-step nuanced, qualitative analysis that adopts Petersoo (2007)’s typology on the different types of others. Attempts have also been made to include the notion of ‘self-deprecation’ in the analysis of the NDR speeches by adapting Petersoo’s (2007) study such that it reflects the mentioned concept as a subset of positive ‘othering’. This study has traced views of English (and their embedded ideologies) over time. Notably, views in this study refer to both implicit as well as explicit beliefs about English. Specifically, 3 dominant ideologies have been identified, namely, English as a lingua franca (unifying language), pragmatism and English /Singlish as a carrier of values/culture. I conclude that the Singaporean state and her citizenry are very much entrenched in the ideology of pragmatism. It is unlikely for the state to retract or alter its view of linguistic pragmatism in the near future since the state is very much embroiled with pragmatism. Some key findings include a discovery that proponents of Singlish too adopt a binary view of understanding English(es) in Singapore. Thus, a dynamic approach was proposed. Additionally, it was discovered that the state has a strong preference to use the discursive ‘othering’ practice of ‘internal negative ’othering’’ to convey Singlish’s undesirability for various state agendas. This preference would facilitate the perpetuation of the belief that standard English is the preferred variety.