Emerging trends in Singapore English research: A commentary

Abstract

ABSTRACT This commentary serves to situate the papers published in this special issue by both established and emerging scholars, entitled “Singapore English: Negotiating its place, use and development”, against the larger backdrop of research on and the development of English in Singapore from the 1970s to the present, that is, the post-independent era. The paper builds on an earlier paper (Low, 2014), which reviewed the main focal areas of research on Singapore English from the late 1970s to 2010. This paper updates the meta-synthesis of research done to include publications from 2015 to the present. Following on from the trending of the research publications to date, the articles in this special issue add to the research literature on Singapore English in the broad areas of Language Education and Acquisition, Language Planning and Policy and Language in Use. The paper ends with an articulation of possible future lines of inquiry that should be of focal importance on the future development of not just English in Singapore, but with topics that concern any society and country such as the advent of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) and its impact on education and the need for education that advocates for diversity, equity and inclusion for a sustainable future.