1950、1960年代馬來亞與新加坡建國初期，政府與民間便合力推廣國語。然而，由於不同族群之間對於國語的權威地位有不同見解，因此形成了國語運動的多重性。本文探討1950、1960年代在馬來亞與新加坡積極參與國語運動的華裔與馬來裔語言菁英份子，透過分析他們的論述與實踐，本文指出雙方由於不同的歷史文化經驗，而有不同的語言理念。馬來裔語文菁英嘗試提倡至高無上的國語權威，顯示了單一語言制的傾向。相對於此，華裔雙語菁英的語言理念是多語制的，在某個程度上，由於其在國語運動期間雙語文化的實踐，制約了國語的至高權威，儘管他們並不盡然清楚意識這點。

In the early period of Malaya and Singapore in 1950s and 1960s, the government and civil society joined together to promote the learning of national language. However, different perspectives on the national language's supremacy from diverse ethnic groups lead to multiplicity within the movement. This paper focuses on both Chinese and Malay elites who were actively involved in national language movement in 1950s and 1960s in Malaya and Singapore. The comparative analysis on their discourse and practical experience reveals that the disparity stems from the differences lied in the historical and cultural background of both ethnic groups. Malay elites who advocated the supreme authority of national language were inclined to form a monolingual society. On the other hand, the Chinese elites preferred a multilingual nation. Unintentionally, the concept of monolingual nation was deterred to certain extent during the national language movement by the bilingual practice among Chinese community.