Cover not available
Article published In:
Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 13:2 (1990) ► pp.97–113

Gender differences in a bilingual Tamil-English community

| National Institute of Education, Singapore

In this paper the relationship between socio-cultural, socio-economic factors and linguistic variables in a bilingual community in Singapore is examined. The results show that education and socio-economic status correlate significantly with linguistic variables. Socio-economic status and socio-psychological factors best help to explain gender differences in linguistic variation.

Published online: 1 January 1990
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.13.2.05sar
References
Cheshire, J.
(1982) Variation in an English dialect: A sociolinguistic study. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Coates, J.
(1986) Women, men and language. London, Longman.Google Scholar
Escure, G.
(1991) Gender roles and linguistic variation in the Belizean Creole community. In J. Cheshire (ed.) English around the world: Sociolinguistic perspectives on world Englishes. New York, Cambridge University Press: 595–608 DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Labov, W.
(1972) Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania University Press.Google Scholar
Milroy, L.
(1980) Language and social networks. Oxford, Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
(1987) Observing and analysing natural language. Oxford, Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Newbrook, M.
(1987) Aspects of the syntax of educated Singaporean English: Attitudes, beliefs, usage. Frankfurt, Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Platt, J.T.
(1977) English past tense acquisition by Singaporeans – implicational scaling versus group averages of marked forms. ITL 381:68–83Google Scholar
Platt, J.T. & H. Weber
(1980) English in Singapore and Malaysia. Status, features, functions. Kuala Lumpur, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Richards, J.C. & M.W.J. Tay
(1977) The La particle in Singapore English. In W. Crewe (ed.) The English language in Singapore. Singapore: Eastern Universities Press: 40–56.Google Scholar
Romaine, S.
(1984) Language of children and adolescents: the acquisition of communicative competence. Oxford, Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Schumann, J.H.
(1978) The acculturation model for second language acquisition. In C. Rosario & Gingrass (eds) Second-language acquisition and foreign language teaching. Arlington, Centre for Applied Linguistics: 25–50.Google Scholar
Saravanan, V.
(1989) Variation in Singapore Tamil-English. Ph.D Thesis (unpublished) Department of Linguistics, Monash University.Google Scholar
Tongue, R.K.
1979 (second edition). The English of Singapore and Malaysia. Singapore, Eastern Universities Press.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P.
(1974) The social differentiation of English in Norwich. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wolfram, W.A.
(1969) A sociolinguistic description of Detroit Negro speech. Washington, D.C., Centre for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar