Better,Worse or Different? A Critique of ‘Using Language Policies to Highlight and Contrast the Values that Shape Multicultural Societies: Examples from Singapore and Australia’ by Beatrice Boufoy-Bastick (1997)

Abstract

This paper examines the argument of a previous article published in this journal by Boufoy-Bastick (1997). In that article, Boufoy-Bastick made some comparisons between the language policies of Australia's and Singapore's education systems. The author claimed that Australia's language policies are more egalitarian and promote multiculturalism, whereas Singapore's policies produce only superficial harmony and are, in fact, discriminatory. The present article questions these claims on the grounds that they are either untrue, contradictory or lacking in evidence to substantiate such serious allegations about the educational and social policies of one of Australia's closest neighbours in Asia.