Article published In:
Australian Review of Applied LinguisticsVol. 13:2 (1990) ► pp.97–113
Gender differences in a bilingual Tamil-English community
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.
References (16)
Cheshire, J. (1982) Variation in an English dialect: A sociolinguistic study. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Coates, J. (1986) Women, men and language. London, Longman.
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 
Labov, W. (1972) Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania University Press.
Milroy, L. (1980) Language and social networks. Oxford, Basil Blackwell.
(1987) Observing and analysing natural language. Oxford, Basil Blackwell.
Newbrook, M. (1987) Aspects of the syntax of educated Singaporean English: Attitudes, beliefs, usage. Frankfurt, Peter Lang.
Platt, J.T. (1977) English past tense acquisition by Singaporeans – implicational scaling versus group averages of marked forms. ITL 381:68–83
Platt, J.T. & H. Weber (1980) English in Singapore and Malaysia. Status, features, functions. Kuala Lumpur, Oxford University Press.
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.
Romaine, S. (1984) Language of children and adolescents: the acquisition of communicative competence. Oxford, Basil Blackwell.
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.
Saravanan, V. (1989) Variation in Singapore Tamil-English. Ph.D Thesis (unpublished) Department of Linguistics, Monash University.
Tongue, R.K. 1979 (second edition). The English of Singapore and Malaysia. Singapore, Eastern Universities Press.
Trudgill, P. (1974) The social differentiation of English in Norwich. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Wolfram, W.A. (1969) A sociolinguistic description of Detroit Negro speech. Washington, D.C., Centre for Applied Linguistics.