Singapore has a policy of bilingualism, where students learn in English but are taught the language of their ethnicity, referred to as their "mother tongue". The mother tongue is seen as a way to preserve unique cultural values in the multicultural society, although their usage is decreasing in the home as English becomes more predominant (see Language attrition). The loss of the dialects has been even more prominent, as many are now banned from usage on mass media and may only be spoken by the elderly.