Low Ee Ling

Professor LOW Ee Ling is the President’s Chair Professor in Education (Applied Linguistics & Teacher Education) Dean of Academic and Faculty Affairs and an elected member of the university senate at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. She has recently been appointed as Honorary Professor at University College London (UCL). Professor LOW also holds a concurrent appointment as an adjunct professor at the Department of English, Linguistics and Theatre Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the National University of Singapore where she was most recently awarded with the Distinguished Alumni award in 2025. She has served in senior academic leadership positions shaping Singapore’s teacher education landscape, including as Dean of Teacher Education. Internationally recognized as a thought leader in teacher education and world Englishes. Her work has significantly influenced teacher education policy and practice in Singapore and beyond, including the development of the Teacher Education for the 21st Century (TE21) model. She was the Editor-in-Chief of the AILA Review (2021-2024) and serves on multiple international editorial boards, including World Englishes and the Journal of Educational Change. Elected as a Fellow of the International Academy of Education (IAE) in 2022, she is now the President-elect of the IAE, she has received numerous honors, including the Public Administration Medal (Bronze) from the President of Singapore.

English in Singapore: Where are we now and where will we go from here?

English in Singapore deserves our attention and scrutiny as an area of study because it is struggling to find its place within the traditionally established paradigms describing the spread of English worldwide. Global competence in English has become a necessity in the 21st century global workplace and society. However, the local realities are such that the use of English in a multilingual, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural settings have given rise to the term ‘glocal’ English (Pakir, 1994), which combines the notion of the use of English that is globally appropriate but culturally relevant in terms of enabling its population to remain locally rooted by allowing them to preserve their national identity. This paper discusses the research trends in Singapore English since the late 1970s to the present. Drawing on a survey of 37 expert users of Singapore English across domains such as the home, education, work, religion and social media, the paper presents findings on how contemporary Singaporeans have to balance global competence in English to cater to local realities in usage in purposeful and flexible ways. The findings suggest that Singapore Standard English and Singlish constitute distinct varieties of Singapore English(es) that serve different communicative functions in both global and local contexts. These insights led to the introduction of the Cline of Glocality Model, which builds on Pakir’s original Expanding triangles of English Expression in Singapore (1991). As Singapore continues to navigate between international competitiveness, social cohesion and linguistic diversity, the future of English in an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-mediated world lies in embracing the multiplicity of global and local roles that it plays and the ability to navigate diverse linguistic worlds with confidence, sensitivity and purpose.

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