Child Language Development in Singapore and Malaysia

Book excerpt: In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the English used in Singapore and Malaysia, including how children in these two countries acquire the languages used around them, particularly on their acquisition of English. This book is the first attempt to bring together studies on various aspects of this subject done by academics from the two countries. It begins with two background papers on the linguistic situation in Singapore and Malaysia, followed by studies of the cognitive development of children as it relates to language development. The third and fourth sections of the book contain papers dealing variously with the sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic aspects of language use with important implications on language learning and teaching in a multilingual context.