I am a senior lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature, National University of Singapore. I obtained my BAHons (Class 1) in English from the University of Malaya in 1985, and my PhD from the Department of Applied Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh in 1989. I am officially in the English Language section of the Department which offers three subjects (English Literature, English Language and Theatre Studies). My main research areas are names (onomastics), the New Englishes including Singapore English and stylistics. I offer a module within Theatre Studies and often make use of literary texts in my English Language modules: this stems from my belief that there should be more cross-fertilisation between the subjects.
My teaching in the Department has been in these modules:
I am happy to supervise students working on topics on discourse, stylistics and names. Two students whom I supervised graduated in July 2015:
My current interest is on onomastic styling and its significance from a sociolinguistic perspective. I continue to be interested in Singapore English, discourse studies and stylistics.
My research, in broad terms, has focussed on the notion of linguistic hybridity in relation to language use in
Singaporean and Malaysian English as various norms have acted upon them;
Singaporean and Malaysian prose writing in English where the tensions are exacerbated by having to contend with the local as well as the international readership
Computer-mediated communication (Netspeak, E-language) as a relatively new medium, needing to decide if it is more like spoken language or written language
I have also begun to become more interested in language planning issues and the issue of personal names (onomastics) in this part of the world because these too exemplify the kinds of tensions that I have been looking at.
CHAPTERS IN BOOKS
Tan, Peter K W (2001), ‘Melaka or Malacca; Kallang or Care-lang: Lexical innovation and nativisation in Malaysian and Singaporean English’, in Vincent B Y Ooi (ed.), Evolving Identities: The English Language in Singapore and Malaysia (
Tan, Peter K W (2003), ‘Is that how we really talk? Speech reporting in Singaporean English writing’, in Chitra Sankaran et al. (eds), Complicities: Connections and Divisions – Perspectives on Literatures and Cultures of the Asia-Pacific Region (
Tan, Peter K W; Vincent B Y Ooi; and Andy K L Chiang (2004), ‘Signalling spokenness in personal advertisements on the Web: The case of ESL countries in
Tan, Peter K W; Vincent B Y Ooi; and Andy K L Chiang (2006), ‘World Englishes or English as a Lingua Franca? A view from the perspective of non-Anglo Englishes’, in
Tan, Peter K W (2006), ‘English’, in Tommy Koh, et al. (eds), Singapore: The Encyclopedia (Singapore: Editions Didier Millet; National Heritage Board), p. 178.
Tan, Peter K W (2006), ‘Singlish’, in Tommy Koh, et al. (eds), Singapore: The Encyclopedia (Singapore: Editions Didier Millet; National Heritage Board), p. 504.
Tan, Peter K W (2008), ‘The English language as commodity in Malaysia: the view through the medium of instruction debate’, in Peter K W Tan and Rani Rubdy (eds), Language as commodity: global structures, local marketplaces (London: Continuum), pp. 106–121.
Tan, Peter K W and Rani Rubdy (2008), ‘Introduction’, in Peter K W Tan and Rani Rubdy (eds), Language as commodity: global structures, local marketplaces (London: Continuum), pp. 1–15.
Tan, Peter K W (2009), ‘Not quite first language, not quite second language either: dictionary entries for leaners caught in between’. In Vincent B Y Ooi et al. (eds), Perspectives in lexicography: Asia and beyond (Tel Aviv: K Dictionaries Ltd), pp. 193–201.
Tan, Peter K W (2009), 'Building names in Singapore: multilingualism of a different kind', in Wolfgang Ahrens, Sheila Embleton and André Lapierre (eds), Names in Multi-Lingual, Multi-Cultural and Multi-Ethnic Contact (Toronto: York University), pp 929-942.
Tan, Peter K W (2011), 'Literary discourse', in James P Gee and Michael Handford (eds), Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis (London: Routledge), pp 628-641
Vincent B Y Ooi and Peter K W Tan (2014), 'Facebook, linguistic identity and hybridity in Singapore', in Rani Rubdy and Lubna Alsagoff (eds), The Global-Local Interface and Hybridity: Exploring Language and Identity (Bristol: Multilingual Matters), pp 225-244
EDITORIAL WORK ON BOOKS
Vincent B Y Ooi, Anne Pakir, Ismail Talib and Peter K W Tan (eds) (2009), Perspectives in lexicography: Asia and beyond (Tel Aviv: K Dictionaries Ltd).
ARTICLES IN JOURNALS
Tan, Peter K W (2011), 'English in Singapore, International Journal of Language, Translation and Intercultural Communication 1(2): 123-138
Tan, Peter K W (2013), 'Mixed Signals: Names in the Linguistic Landscape Provided by Different Agencies in Singapore', Onoma: Journal of the International Council of Onomastic Sciences 46(1)
Tan, Peter K W (2014), 'Singapore's Balancing Act, from the Perspective of the Linguistic Landscape', Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in South-east Asia 29(2): 438-466