Language Problems and Language Planning - Volume 41, Issue 1, 2017

The article reviews the past, present, and future position of English in the Pakistani language-in-education policy for the Pakistani government schools. The article first traces how the English language came to Pakistan, and underlines the social domains in which English is commonly used at the present time. The article highlights the fact that English has enjoyed the highest social position in Pakistan since the country’s establishment in 1947. Taking this fact into account, the article traces historically the status of the English language in the language-in-education policy for the government schools since 1947 to the present time. I argue that students from the elite and non-elite English medium schools end up being more literate in English and having better access to social mobility than the students from the Pakistani government schools because of the low quality education and the poor instruction of English as a subject taught through traditional teaching methods of imitation and memorization. In order to reduce the gap, although the recent National Education Policy (NEP 2009) of Pakistan has recommended not only teaching English as a compulsory subject in grade one onward but also using it as a medium of instruction in grade four onward for the content subjects such as science and mathematics in the Pakistani government schools, the current predicament of Pakistani public education raises questions and controversies about the successful implementation of the policy. The main suggestion of the paper is the fact that since teachers are the major agents of change in realizing such curriculum reforms at their classroom level ( Fullan & Stiegelbauer, 1991 ), their perspectives, perceptions and attitudes must be sought as well as included in such policy making processes. Because the voices of Pakistani government teachers are overlooked in such top-down language policies, this paper implies that the their experiences, attitudes, and perspectives about the present and future role of English in public language-in-education policies need to be explored to better understand the potential future implications for Pakistani teachers and their education. Such steps not only make policies inclusive but also gauge how far such English initiatives are facilitative in raising the quality of education and developing English language literacy in Pakistan.

Pakistan is a multilingual country with six major and over 59 minor languages. However, the languages used by the domains of power, (government, corporate sector, media and education), are English and Urdu. Compared to the other regional languages in Pakistan, the Sindhi language has a more emancipated position in the state-run schools and some other domains. The present study seeks to explore the extent to which the use of Sindhi language has been shifted or maintained, and to survey the patterns of language use in certain domains through Fishman’s domain concept for the determination of language shift within the community concerned. A mixed method data collection including questionnaires and in-depth interviews was conducted to find out whether Sindhis in the Sind province of Pakistan maintain their heritage language in specific domains and to ascertain the impact of Pakistan’s language policy on Sindhi language. The results show that Sindhis in Sindh province fully maintain their language and behold sentimental affiliation with it as part of their cultural identity. The Sindhis have successfully uplifted and maintained their language in education and other vital domains. The Sindhi community enjoys a higher ethno-linguistic vitality than the other ethnic groups in Pakistan.

This article seeks to contribute to the existing body of knowledge about the relationship between political discourse and national identity. 1Malaysia, introduced in 2009 by Malaysia’s then newly appointed 6th Prime Minister Najib Razak, was greeted with expectation and concern by various segments of the Malaysian population. For some, it signalled a new inclusiveness that was to change the discourse on belonging. For others, it raised concerns about changes to the status quo of ethnic issues. Given the varying responses of society to the concept of 1Malaysia, an examination of different texts through the critical paradigm of CDA provide useful insights into how the public sphere has attempted to construct this notion. Therefore, this paper critically examines the Prime Minister’s early speeches as well as relevant chapters of the socioeconomic agenda, the 10th Malaysia Plan, to identify the referential and predicational strategies employed in characterising 1Malaysia. The findings suggest a notion of unity that appears to address varying issues.

Only two out of over 70 indigenous mother tongues are recognized in schools in Pakistan. This study examines orientations of the governments’ language-in-education policies, and scrutinizes the influence the policies exert on vitality of indigenous mother tongues, and the perceptions of their speakers. Using undergraduate students as samples, the study employed mixed-method for data collection. Linguistic diversity and multilingualism have been looked upon as problem than asset in successive government policies. We find that although indigenous mother tongues enjoy strong roots and oral presence in informal private domains; however, they suffer from acute shrinkage in more literate domains such as schools and different media as majority of respondents passively assimilate towards Urdu and English languages. Language policies and current linguistic hierarchy appear to have exerted appreciable effect on respondents’ attitudinal and cultural orientations. Although, respondents demonstrate sentimental attachment towards their languages as cultural and identity signifiers; however, they overwhelmingly support English and Urdu as their desired languages-in-education leaving their own mother-tongues marginalized. Respondents’ approach is marked by ‘static maintenance syndrome, an attitudinal conundrum, in which they rationalize the ‘supposed inferiority of their languages’ vis-à-vis English (the official) and Urdu (the national) languages. Top-down and bottom-up orientations are characterized by neglect towards linguistic diversity.

The roles of language policy and language practice and use in education have been regarded to influence the efficacy of teaching and learning in the school setting. With the rise of globalisation and internationalisation of services in education, the objective of producing manpower that is equipped to the demands of the knowledge-based economy has realigned government policies worldwide to put education at the forefront of its development plans. From the rise of English language as ‘the’ language for globalisation calls for a more inclusive and locally- oriented mother-tongue based multilingual education (MTB-MLE), this article will discuss broadly the dynamics of language, access and influence, and will look at the Philippines as a country case study of explicit and implicit declarations in language policy and use, as affecting the education sector, and access to the labour market.