This study examined the speech accommodation across Standard Singapore EnglishSingapore
Colloquial English dialogues relevant to daily interactions in Singapore. The
results of this research suggest that Singaporeans are generally responsive to role-related
language convergence and divergence exhibited in Standard Singapore English-Singapore
Colloquial English dialogues. The perceptions seem to be affected by the language a
speaker diverges to, instead of the act of language divergence itself. The higher sociocultural
status of Standard Singapore English compared to Singapore Colloquial English
points to a possible explanation for the more positive ratings received when the speakers
diverged to Standard Singapore English as compared to Singapore Colloquial English. In
particular, the salesman was rated more favourably when he diverged from the Singapore
Colloquial English used by the customer as compared to when the customer diverged
to the language of the salesman. This might be due to participants’ interpretation of the
salesman’s language convergence as an act of degrading the customer’s language ability
and as a lack of consistency in service standards.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We wish to acknowledge the funding support for this project from Nanyang Technological