Asia Pacific Journal of Education

ISSN: 0218-8791 (Print) 1742-6855 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cape20

Quadrilingual education in Singapore: pedagogical

innovation in language education

Darío Luis Banegas

To cite this article: Darío Luis Banegas (2017): Quadrilingual education in Singapore: pedagogical
innovation in language education, Asia Pacific Journal of Education

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2017.1332537

Published online: 31 May 2017.

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Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 2017
https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2017.1332537

BOOK REVIEW

Quadrilingual education in Singapore: pedagogical innovation in language

education, edited by Rita Elaine Silver and Wendy D. Bokhorst-Heng, Education Innovation
10, Dordrecht, Heidelberg, Springer Science + Business Media, 2016, xii + 325 pp., €85.42
(hardcover), ISBN 978-981-287-965-3

Singapore’s education usually attracts international attention and interest given its diverse ethnolin-
guistic landscape. In times of interculturality, context-responsive pedagogies, translanguaging, and
plurilingualism, a close examination of a country’s language policies in formal education is vital due
to the resonances language education may have in the shaping of a nation and its peoples at large.
Quadrilingual education in Singapore refers to the use of English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil as instruc-
tional languages.
This large volume comprises 19 chapters which are grouped into six parts. To help readers understand
the research context, Part 1 introduces the following structuring themes: (1) continuous improvement,
(2) practicality/instrumentality, (3) heritage/community, and (4) competency/proficiency. In turn, Parts
2–5 develop the four main topics which become the spinal cord in the volume: transitions, competen-
cies, practices, and reforms. It is worth highlighting that the editors have wisely included a commentary
chapter at the end of these sections with the aim of providing readers with a helpful summary and
commonalities across the chapters and how these inform the overall spirit carved in the book. Last, the
editors offer a reflective synthesis in Part 6. Not only does this last chapter act as a conceptual prism,
but it projects careful implications and roads for further research and implementation which are key
to sustain Singapore’s drives for societal multilingualism through education.
Part 2 focuses on the transitions young learners undergo in kindergarten and primary education.
The authors included in this part problematize the inherent tensions between learners’ trajectories
and biographies, their parents, and teachers’ practices and beliefs. Literacy and multilingual practices
enter a dynamic system through which learners’ development at school and family life are affected.
In this part of the volume, readers are reminded that school life cannot be isolated from family life as
both operate within the complexity of social and cultural spheres which shape the lives of individuals
who, in turn, are part of larger communities of practice. At a research level, the authors in part illustrate
careful employment of data collection instruments and analysis. Surveys, classroom observations, and
classroom artefacts are examined through mixed methods research.
Part 3 explores competencies through close examination of reading and writing and their interplay
in biliteracy development within the quadrilingual situation at schools. This part contains two chapters
which illustrate quantitative research supported by sophisticated instruments, analysis, and frameworks
which include control groups, didactic interventions, and pre- and post-tests. In the first chapter, readers
will find a persuasive case for the relationship between morphological awareness, vocabulary knowl-
edge, and reading comprehension development in English and Chinese. On the other hand, the second
chapter condenses research carried out to measure the extent to which strategy-based instruction in
two languages can help young learners understand writing processes and improve their writing skills.
Both chapters feature didactic intervention during short periods of time. While this may be assessed as
a limitation, results are indicative of trends and what may happen should these pedagogical reconfig-
urations be systematized over time. What is worth signalling is that whatever the strategies employed
to enhance learners’ written practices, teacher development is critical. The authors in both chapters
2   BOOK REVIEW

are right in underlining that teachers need to update their classroom practices informed by research
and development in literacies.
Part 4 looks into the practices afforded by Singapore’s quadrilingual landscape. A highlight of this
part in the volume is that clarity with which complex aspects of reading engagement, systemic func-
tional linguistics, and English derivational morphology are summarized and illustrated to readers who
may not be versed in them. In the first chapter, the relationship between reading engagement and
interactional patterns and activities is investigated. It was found that similar strategies and activities cut
across English, Malay, Chinese, and Tamil. In general, while the curriculum advocates variety in terms
of interaction, whole-class activities and teacher-fronted lessons seem to be the norm. In the second
chapter, it is concluded that Chinese culture has a low presence in Chinese language lessons in the
hands of Singaporean teachers. Through conversational analysis and systemic functional linguistics, the
teachers observed were found to introduce little Chinese cultural content in their lessons, and when
they did, it referred to traditional views held in China rather than Chinese culture enacted in Singapore.
In the last chapter, readers find a study which correlates teaching English derivational morphology
with children’s language awareness development and increasing world learning ability. In sum, Part 4
shows that research in teaching practices should include a focus on linguistic development together
with broader aspects such as culture, engagement, teacher beliefs, and strategies for learning as they
all shape the ways in which language learning is promoted and enacted in Singapore.
Part 5 addresses what the editors have called “reforms” in the approaches to the teaching of lan-
guages other than English. Given the state of diglossia in Tamil, it was found that Tamil lessons do not
offer enough support in Standard Spoken Tamil to young learners. In this respect, teachers are encour-
aged to provide learners with systematic exposure without linking it to written Tamil. In relation to
the presence of Malay in education, this part offers a study which examines the extent to which Malay
culture is present in Malay language teaching course materials and practices. Even though there seems
to be a rather monolithic vision of culture, it is concluded that while textbooks do feature extensive use
of Malay cultural practices together with moral values, less attention is given by teachers, who, in some
cases, reduce cultural content to vocabulary teaching. Last, Part 5 includes two chapters on Chinese
language teaching. Both stress the increase in Chinese learning through a Chinese modular curriculum
from a socio-constructivist perspective and the learning of Chinese by English-speaking bilinguals in
a context where China is strengthening its presence in the global market.
Last, Part 6 is the concluding chapter of the volume. The editors pose what they call “core questions
and themes” which summarize Singapore’s research agenda carefully illustrated in Parts 2–5 and prob-
lematizes the future. The question and answer organization of the chapter helps readers take stock of
what is taking place in classrooms and wider social fabric and reflect on the implications and affordances
which underpin quadrilingual education. While the editors rightly favour a discussion of language
pedagogies and policies, they put forward compelling ideas around the impact of such educational
decisions on the socio-political scene in Singapore. The editors seem to suggest that education is a
political act as it helps shape a cohesive society with common interests and aims which go beyond
the classrooms walls.
In conclusion, the volume edited by Silver and Bokhorst-Heng is a commendable effort to reflect
the complex and fascinating dynamics in Singapore’s society from the point of view of education
through quality research, mostly based in classroom observation. It is also a powerful example of the
concerted effort carried out by key actors in Singapore to achieve and sustain innovation in education
by taking the Singaporean complex, rich, and dynamic landscape under scrutiny. In that spirit, Goh
and Lim observe in Chapter 17 of the volume that “[d]­espite the rise of English, Singapore still has a
vibrant and diverse language ecosystem” (p. 302). This book is a clear representation of this landscape,
and therefore it is helpful reading for policy makers, educational researchers, and teacher educators
 ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF EDUCATION   3

who have the task of training Singapore’s future teachers for a system which believes in a plurilingual
society and intercultural communication for the common good of a country.

Darío Luis Banegas

Centre for Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick, UK
D.Banegas@warwick.ac.uk   http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0225-0866
© 2017 Darío Luis Banegas
https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2017.1332537