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Table 1 - Language survey amongst Tamil-English bilinguals

Language	1970	1980	1990
Tamil	27.1%	17.8%	18.3%
Tamil and English	19.1%	29.5%	45.1%
English	28.6%	21%	33%
Malay	2.6%	1.8%	3.8%
English and Malay	9.4%	16%	27%

From the above table, we see that English has assumed an increasing role as a medium of communication. The figures show show that literacy in English and Tamil-English has increased over the period 1970-1990. On the contrary, literacy in Tamil has reduced over the years.

Table 2 - Age-specific literacy in Tamil or Tamil and English among literate Tamil Indian Singaporeans in 1970 and 1980.

Age	1970 N=42, 876	1980 N=36, 041
10-19	21.5%	26.3%
20-29	18.0%	23.4%
30-39	20.0%	15.3%
40-49	23.5%	14.2%
50-59	12.6%	13.8%
60 and above	4.4%	7.0%
Total	100%	100%

From the above figures, we can see that literacy in Tamil/ Tamil and English has increased by 49.7% in the group below age 30. This could be a result of the education system, where learning a second language has been made compulsory.

Table 3 - Predominant household language (percentage)

Language	1980	1990
English	24.3%	34.8%
Malay	8.6%	13.5%
Tamil	52.6%	43.7%

From table 3, we see that there has been an increase in the use of the English language within the family, and a decrease in the use of Tamil language in the family. This could be attributed to a loss of prestige of the Tamil language. This is a worrying trend in the Tamil community as there would be fears of the loss of the Tamil culture.