The Deaf World in Singapore | Languages of Singapore

In this segment, we hope to take you on a short tour of the deaf world in Singapore. You will see this silent but vibrant world through the eyes of our deaf and hearing speakers who all work with the deaf community.

These are the topics that we will be covering. (There will be interpreters for both deaf and hearing panelists.)

• Singapore’s Deaf community and Singapore Sign Language (Alvan Yap)

• Deaf education in Singapore (Barbara D’Cotta)

• Deaf identity (Phoebe Tay)

• Technology and the question of deafness (Timothy Y. Loh)

The Moderator

Ng Bee Chin | Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies, Nanyang Technological University

Ng Bee Chin works in the area of bilingualism and multilingualism with a focus on the impact of language contact on individuals and the community they live in. Her research approach is to explore both cognitive and social aspects of language use. Currently, she is working on language and emotion in multilinguals, social categorisation and communicative aspects of aging. A common thread running through her research is the connection between the self and the social. She firmly believes that our social interactions will have an impact on our minds and her research aims to explore how our cognition and our worldview is shaped by society and culture. https://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/mbcng/

The Panelists

Alvan Yap | Deputy Director, Singapore Association for the Deaf (SADeaf)

Alvan Yap is Deputy Director of the Singapore Association for the Deaf (SADeaf). Over the past 20 years, Alvan has worked in a diverse range of fields. He was a teacher of the deaf in the special education line; had undertaken writing, editing and research work in the publishing industry; took on visual and playwriting projects in the arts/theatre sphere; and has experience in the social services sector in disability advocacy, corporate communications and policy formulation.

Mrs Barbara D’ Cotta | Training Manager, Singapore Association for the Deaf (SADeaf)

Barbara D’ Cotta is a training manager at the Singapore Association for the Deaf. Besides conducting training, she mentors teachers of the Deaf, is a trained sign language interpreter and coordinates the Little Hands Bilingual Bicultural Programme. Barbara was a specialised teacher for deaf students mainstreamed in Mayflower Primary School from 2018 – 2020, where she supported the mainstream teacher in the co-teaching model. Her forty years of teaching has seen her work with students from pre-school to secondary levels, in both special and mainstream schools. She has served as a Head of the Pre-School Unit and Vice Principal in the Singapore School for the Deaf.

Ms Phoebe Tay | PhD student, Nanyang Technological University

Phoebe Tay is deaf and currently a PhD Candidate at NTU. Her research interests are deaf identity, language ideologies, multilingualism and language contact. Phoebe was born and raised in Singapore and has studied and worked in two other countries – Australia and the USA. She previously worked as a Linguistic Research Specialist for Deaf Bible Society in Texas. Phoebe knows Singapore Sign Language (SgSL), American Sign Language (ASL) and Australian Sign Language (Auslan).

Mr Timothy Y. Loh | PhD Student, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Timothy Y. Loh is a PhD candidate in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is also a Graduate Fellow in the Language and Technology Lab. His ethnographic research investigates sociality, language, and religion in deaf and signing worlds spanning Singapore, Jordan, and the United States. Timothy is also a 2022-24 Social Science Research Council (Singapore) Graduate Research Fellow at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service and a Master of Arts in Arab Studies, both from Georgetown University. https://www.timothyyloh.com/.