In Response to Gee & Gutierrez et al's Concepts

How & how well do you think these concepts apply within Singaporean educational contexts?

How might these help us to think differently about language/literacy education as you understand it? What might some of the practical classroom implications be?

When we talk about the concepts Dominant Discourse and Primary & Secondary Discourse, we have to look at not only from our own point of view, but also that of the people around us. What I mean by that is that from our point of view – supposedly educated people who are currently undergraduates – we tend to think that the dominant discourse in our society is generally Standard English, Mandarin, Malay & Tamil. By thinking so, we have actually chosen to ignore what may be going on within the actual society itself. By this, I mean to say whatever is valued by the “society” may not necessarily represent the society’s values, as it may only be the values of a dominant group – which this group subjects the values to the subordinate groups – pretty much the act of hegemony in this case.

Moving the aforesaid into something more specific – let us just say that the people at the “top tier of the social class” sees the dominant discourse as Standard English, Mandarin, Malay & Tamil in Singapore. The people who are not at the “top tier of the social class”, however, might see the colloquial version of the aforesaid four languages as the dominant discourse. There are, in fact, a number of articles on the Straits Times (Singapore Official English Newspapers) which state that Singlish should not be seen as a language that is ungrammatical and be frowned upon. On another occasion, a returning-teacher actually told me how one of her students in her form class naturally speaks Standard English, but was deemed as being pompous & was thus ostracised by the rest of the class. The abovementioned, hence, show us how subjective dominant discourse is, as it might vary on different contexts, occasions & groups of people. Will it be deemed as natural & desirable if one were to speak in Standard English, Mandarin, Malay or Tamil when conversing with stall owners in a wet market, or, hawkers in a hawker food centre? Is that the dominant discourse in those cases?

Bearing what is said above in mind, I think the Singapore educational system is trying to socialise students into what the dominant group deems as dominant discourse in the society, while disregarding whatever is considered as dominant discourse to the students themselves. This, to me, seems to be an undesirable act as the teachers are generally telling the students that what they possess currently is flawed & deemed deficient, which is in line with the language-deficit hypothesis according to Basil Bernstein, & that these students ought to learn what is considered acceptable by the society instead.

In this case, I think teachers should adopt William Labov’s theory of language-difference hypothesis, in which it states that languages are seen as different, & that no language is to be seen as being inferior to another. As such, as teachers, we should inform the students regarding how the different varieties of a language are considered apt to be used in different occasions & contexts. In this way, we are telling students that there are actually more than one dominant discourse; and they vary in different contexts & situations. Thus, students can see that in school, the teachers are only teaching them one of the dominant discourses, the Standard English, so that they can use it whenever the occasion calls for it. With that, students who do not already possess the ability to speak Standard English will not be made to feel that they are suffering from deficiency as compared to others who have been speaking Standard English at home.

Thus, the concept of hybridity is very important. Teachers can incorporate the kinds of language the students already acquired at home to teach them what is needed to be taught – in our case, Standard English language. While doing so, the teachers are also roping in the students’ home cultures & backgrounds. This forms a sense of familiarity to the students while learning Standard English, & they will be able to feel motivated to learn whatever is taught to them without feeling insecure.