sum singapore english content length 4261 couple weeks ago asked following question many people would regard pore english native english however many speakers grew speaking english ie acquiring english first language though certainly may somewhat different variety english spoken britain america respect currently accepted way classifying singapore english particular possible say native language given people first language three respondants believed singapore english regarded native first language learned three others suggested native connotations suggested terms english singapore thus anthea fraser gupta said strongly feel term native language used refer language individual first learns definition based race ancestral language use geographical origin untenable debbie ziegeler agreed view people believe would classify first language native language mother tongue think anthea gupta mind said english singapore native speakers approximately 20 singapore incoming schoolchildren english native language ms faridah hudson said believe language learned child first language considered native language granted singapore english well studied british american english still form english hand wen chao li claims suggests native refer linguistic experience individual think word native refers whether people speak variety native language convenient label used distinguish english britain us language originated native sense english places like singapore india many countries africa although english widely spoken native language language transplanted another last 200 years language introduced rather one culturally historically native mario cal varela suggested use term localized forms english new varieties singapore expression localized forms english often used refer varieties english developed peculiar characteristics nativized features used cultural settings different socalled native englishes rodrik wade prefers new englishes term popularised introduced platt weber ho 1984 se similar varieties english new englishes used term writing south african black english although yet variety l1 speakers would like thank respondants well alan firth benny lee useful references umberto questions pronunciation involved special thanks mentor david deterding introducing list helping summary kia sheng chew national technological university singapore 91a26936217f nievax nie ac sg