KARACHI: Language acquisition and the role of the state to facilitate it were among some of the topics discussed by renowned linguist Dr Tariq Rahman at the opening of a four-day short course titled ‘Importance of language in education’ on Monday.
Organised by the Irtiqa Institute of Social Sciences and held at the Gulshan Public School, the keynote speech titled ‘The implications of language in education’ was part of a course targeting educationists in an attempt to create awareness and knowledge of the importance of language in the existing educational framework in Pakistan.
Delving into the various types of language planning, Dr Rahman spoke about how language acquisition mostly occurs in schools, after which television, radio, songs and films can be given credit. “However, as most of this acquisition occurs within the school so whichever language is spoken within that set-up is most likely to spread.”
Dr Rahman spoke about how education of language is usually managed and planned by a nation state. However, in Pakistan, the nation is joined by madressahs, as well as by the private sector. Dr Rahman’s lecture also roped in another group that has a considerable impact on one language dominating all others — the ruling elite.
Tariq Rahman says varsity education should be in English
“One of the aims of language-in-education policy is to allow elitist group to acquire, consolidate and preserve their power,” said Dr Rahman. This is an attempt to “ration out the power of language which eventually becomes a social class marker.”
With a foreign language — English — introduced and then elevated to “formal domains of power” at the time of the British, a similar practice is apparent in Pakistan also.
English is being strengthened and regional languages consequently weakened. “English has become a marker of elite status, and it obstructs non-elite students from gaining easy access to elite jobs and informal circles of influence; in a way it is ghettoisation,” said Dr Rahman.
With a large number of research papers to his credit that explore language and politics, specifically in relation to Pakistan, Dr Rahman is most certainly in a position to suggest policy changes to make a more inclusive education system.
One of the policies that he recommended was that the medium of instruction for young children should be in local languages, but it should be implemented across the board for all, without any exceptions. Elite children, if exempted from this policy, will take further advantage and there will be a sense of marginalisation prevalent within society.
“However, I firmly believe that university education at the highest level should be in English,” he said.
“There is a phenomenon prevalent that English consumes other languages, and by adopting this policy, we can minimise this to a certain extent. This is because when you use local languages as the medium of instruction in the first few years of schooling, you are encouraging the economic status of the language, especially with regards to literature being written and printed. Thus local languages will be strengthened.”
For this to be a success, he stressed again, it must not be implemented only in government schools but in all other schools too.
Dr Rahman gave a thorough historical narration of how education, and especially the language of instruction, have been politicised. His fluency in the subject was befitting at the talk; however, the discussion became more animated in the question-answer session.
Responding to a question about whether the creativity of a child was affected if he was taught in his local language, Dr Rahman said that in extensive research it had been proven that children understand better when taught in their own language.
“Other than that, they also do not view their family and surroundings as inferior. If you tell a child that a certain language is his own, as it belonged to his forefathers, and then expose him to literature and poetry written in it, he will hold the language and all those associated with it in high esteem.”
When asked if he agreed that journalism in English had more progressive values than Urdu journalism, Dr Rahman responded with a resounding yes.
The problem is not that Urdu and other regional or local languages don’t contain progressive ideas and values, he argued. It is only that they do not see the light of day, especially in textbooks.
“We have progressive poetry, socialist and Marxist movements within the country that propagated human rights, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Premchand, many progressive writers, Punjabi and Sindhi Sufi poets. However, all this is missing from our textbooks. However, we have a lot written about nationalism and war. This is why Urdu journalism lags behind with regards to progressive ideals that are much more prevalent in English journalism.”
http://www.dawn.com/news/1313201/the-ghettoisation-of-language