The Ambivalent Role of Urdu and English in Multilingual Pakistan: A Bourdieusian Study

Autor/in	Ashraf, Hina
Titel	The Ambivalent Role of Urdu and English in Multilingual Pakistan: A Bourdieusian Study
Quelle	In: Language Policy, 22 (2023) 1, S.25-48 (24 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Ashraf, Hina)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1568-4555
DOI	10.1007/s10993-022-09623-6
Schlagwörter	Language Role; Urdu; Muslims; English (Second Language); Second Language Learning; Second Language Instruction; Foreign Countries; Multilingualism; Language Planning; Public Policy; Official Languages; Language of Instruction; Language Minorities; Language Attitudes; Nationalism; Self Concept; Pakistan + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Muslim; Muslimin; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Zweitsprachenerwerb; Fremdsprachenunterricht; Ausland; Mehrsprachigkeit; Multilingualismus; Sprachwechsel; Öffentliche Ordnung; Office language; Amtssprache; Teaching language; Unterrichtssprache; Sprachminderheit; Sprachverhalten; Nationalismus; Selbstkonzept
Abstract	Pakistan, one of the eight countries comprising South Asia, has more than 212.2 million people, making it the world's fifth most populous country after China, India, USA, and Indonesia. It has also the world's second-largest Muslim population. Eberhard et al. (Ethnologue: languages of the world, SIL International, 2020) report 77 languages used by people in Pakistan, although the only two official languages are Urdu and English. After its Independence from the British colonial rule in 1947, it took much deliberation for the country to make a shift from its monolingual Urdu orientation to a multilingual language policy in education in 2009. This entailed a shift from the dominant Urdu language policy for the masses (and English exclusively reserved for elite institutions), to a gradual and promising change that responded to the increasing social demand for English and for including regional languages in the curriculum. Yet English and Urdu dominate the present policy and exclude regional non-dominant languages in education that themselves are dynamic and unstable, and restructured continually due to the de facto multilingual and plurilingual repertoire of the country. Using Bourdieu's (Outline of a theory of practice Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1977a, The economics of linguistic exchanges. Soc Sci Inform 16:645-668, 1977b, The genesis of the concepts of habitus and field. Sociocriticism 2:11-24 1985, Language and symbolic power Polity Press, Cambridge, 1991) conceptualization of habitus, this study analyzes letters to the editor published between 2002-2009 and 2018-2020 in a leading English daily of Pakistan. The analysis unveils the linguistic dispositions that are discussed in the letters and their restructuring through market forces, demonstrating a continuity between the language policy discourse and public aspirations. The findings also indicate the ambivalences towards Urdu and English in relation to nationalistic ideologies, modernity and identity. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01