WHY ARE LANGUAGES IMPORTANT?

• Countries which are trying to reconcile public administration and education .

• The need to access advanced technical skills.

• The need to communicate with a wider world.

• Language planning is centered around economic goals. 

WHY ENGLISH?Cantonese

Thai

Punjabi

Dutch Pers

ian

Major reasons

David Crystal cites two reasons for English Language spreading:

Geographical-Historical Socio-cultural

Geo-historical

At its height the British empire (see above) covering a quarter of the Earth’s land area, with a population of over

450 million people.

Geo-historical

Movement of English around the world

Adopted as official or semi official language by many new independent states in different continents

A world view

Braj Kachru

Socio-cultural

Political life, business, safety, communication, entertainment, the media and education

Depending on English for economic and social well-being

AUSTRALIA

English in AUSTRALIA

History:o James Cook arrived in Sydney in 1770.o In 1788 the British sent 1000 people to settle in

Australia, mostly prisoners. The reason behind this was agricultural revolution and American revolution.

o By 1850 around 187000 free settlers had migrated to Australia.

o Soon, Australian aborigines were outnumbered by Europeans.

The discovery of gold in Australia in 1851 sparked a gold rush prompting thousands of miners to flock to Australia from countries including China, France, Germany and America.

Aboriginal languages

Statistics: Number of Aboriginal languages spoken in Australia before

invasion(arrival of Europeans) = 250 Number of Aboriginal languages spoken in Australia today. 110

of them are "critically endangered" = 145 Percentage of Aboriginal people mainly speaking in Aboriginal

language at home is 11%. 75% of these can also speak English. Number of Aboriginal people whose mother tongue is an

Aboriginal language is 50,000. People who speak Yolngu: 6,000, Arrernte: 3,000, Warlpiri: 3,000 .

Total number of Noongar people: 40,000 Number of Noongar people who speak Noongar. = 250 Japanese linguist Professor Tasaku Tsunoda is the last

living speaker of the Warrongo language.

Reasons for death of Aboriginal languages

Active repression of Aboriginal languages resulted in their extinction.

Immigration let to English becoming widespread.

Diseases resulted in the deaths of many people especially children.

Rate of Aboriginal languages shift away from their use and the degree of failure to acquire proficiency in their use among youth is high.

 

“When the British first arrived in Australia it iscalculated that there were approximately 260

languages being spoken. Estimates put dialectalvariation at between 500 and 600. The results of asurvey by Black in 1979 found that only 115 of

these languages then remained. The majority had lessthan 500 speakers, and many languages stood on the

verge of extinction” (Fesl, 1987: 13)

ENGLISH SPREAD IN AUSTRALIA• Australian English initially produced a continuum of opinions.

• Language planning was undertaken to facilitate social, political or economic objectives of given societies.

•Australia's geographical proximity to a large number of culturally very different non-English speaking countries.

•Advanced technologies increased demand for English courses.

• Australian English was recognized as national, convenient and shared language of Australia and its major official institutions.

•Economic Planning Advisory Committee (1986) argued that Australia must move away from dependence on extractable goods and agriculture products in its exports, and greatly improve its export of manufactured goods. 

It is around such issues, perceived and felt by particular communities that the advocacy for language policy commenced.

PAKISTAN

Before 1947

Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India (1898-1905), believed the young chiefs if they learned the English language, becoming sufficiently familiar with English customs, and mode of thought, would be allies of the British (Raleigh 1906: 245).

English values and norms were considered intrinsically superior.

Brief Background of English and the Power

Play after 1947

When Pakistan was established, the elitist Mohajir children coming from English-medium schools in India were enrolled in similar institutions and from such institutions were admitted in the European Schools in Karachi‘ (Zaidi 1999: 56).

These schools multiplied in Pakistan as the professional middle-class started expanding in the sixties.

Two Commissions Promoting English

The Sharif Commission Hamoodur Rahman Commission

The Sharif Commission

The Sharif Commission, declared that both Urdu and Bengali would be the

medium of instruction from class 6 onwards in the non-elitist schools. While

this adversely affected the position of Sindhi, which was the medium of

instruction in Sindhi non-elitist schools, as we have seen already, it had no

effect on English schools were defended as follows:

While we feel that English must yield to the national languages the

Paramount position that it has occupied in our educational system so far, we

are at the same time convinced that English should have a permanent place in

the system (GOP, 1959: 288).

Hamoodur Rahman Commission

Hamoodur Rahman Commission, was even more defensive of English than the Sharif Commission it went out of its way to criticize the universities which had adopted Urdu as the medium of examination for the BA degree, a step which was popular with the large majority of students who came from the Urdu medium schools and had average ability.

The Report said:

We cannot help regretting that some of our universities should have preferred tobe swayed more by sentiment than by a dispassionate judgment in accelerating thepace of changeover [to Urdu] beyond all reasonable proportion (GOP, 1966: 114).The universities which were singled out were the Karachi University (which had Allowed Urdu in 1963), Punjab University (in 1966), and the Sindh University (whichhad allowed Sindhi, GOP 1966: 114)

In 1965, the government reported that it gave grant-in-aid, directly or through local bodies, to a number of such schools. The Commission stated eventually reasoned,

‘Such establishments are intended to produce some better type of

students who would be more suitably disciplined and equipped for eventually entering the defense service of the country or filling higher administrative posts and other responsible executive positions in the government and semi-government bodies and private firms and corporations (GOP 1966: 18).

The Commission did, however, agree that the existence of such schools violated the constitutional assurance that all citizens are equal before law‘ (Paragraph 15 under Right No. VI) and even recommended that the government should not build such schools anymore‘

This kind of strategy is observable in all situations where a more empowering

language is in clash with a less empowering one.

The less empowering one is generally allowed to

becomethe language of the masses while the

more empowering one is the preserve of the

elite.

Fast forward to present, one can see scores of ‘English-Medium Schools’ concentrated in the cities though they are fast appearing even in small towns now all over the country. In these schools a pretence is made of teaching most subjects in English.

Zubeida Mustafa regards the statement, ‘country’s education system can be fixed by hiring competent teachers in English’ as a language myth since English-speaking teachers are hired exclusively by private schools thus, only increasing the gap between middle and affluent class.

She further states that, ‘cognitive development and

critical thinking is enhanced’ while studying your own language. In her opinion, forcing children to think and speak in a foreign language, not only crushes their confidence, but also encourages the “rote-learning culture”. 

Expecting children to start their schooling in English — that too poor English — amounts to insulting their intelligence.

Regardless of that, huge majority of children who are not familiar with English, a foreign language for them, are required to learn it which places them at a severe disadvantage. In the absence of teachers with proficiency in English, students cannot really learn the language, let alone understand other subjects taught in a language in which they have no proficiency. This lowers the standard of education further.

The Punjab government’s strategy of teaching mathematics and science in English from the earliest stages of learning has been reported as unsuccessful on many counts, and there have been calls to review this policy.

Report after report prepared by local and international organizations indicates that it would be more beneficial, practical and practicable in the long term for public schools to use students’ mother language or a proximate language like Urdu as the medium of instruction for all subjects, with conceptual subjects like mathematics and science being no exception. 

Zubeida Mustafa points out the unsound and unjust language education policies and practices in Pakistan, which she argues have been developed and are being sustained by a small elite class:

‘Polices should be made for the greatest good of the greatest number and not for a small elite class which formulates state policies and thus ensures that its privileged position is not undermined.’

As a result, we get telling statements such as these from ASER in their report card of education for 2014:

“Student competencies in learning English, arithmetic and language are deplorable. Half of the children from Class V cannot read Class II level text in Urdu/Sindhi/Pashto. In English, only 43pc of the surveyed Class V students could read sentences which should ideally be read by students of the second grade. Compared to the last year, the learning levels in English have deteriorated by 5pc. A similar trend has been observed in the arithmetic capabilities of children where only 43pc of Class V children were able to do a two-digit division, something that is expected in the second grade curriculum.”

Hence, according to her, by ‘no well-defined language as a medium of instruction policy, we have fractured the system that divided the society,’ and that the ‘country is in a state of linguistic confusion.

As the ‘language of power’ — to use Pakistan’s leading linguist Dr Tariq Rahman’s words — English serves to exclude the underprivileged from the circle of privilege.

ConclusionTariq Rahman in his book, ‘A Study of Education, Inequality and

Polarization in Pakistan’ writes,

‘It seems to me that the idea behind the non-elitist English schools is good but, nevertheless, deceptive and illusory. People want their children to learn English because it is the language of power and prestige. But calling a school English-medium does not make it cross the class boundaries which go by the name of English. One learns to operate in a certain manner and speak English spontaneously through interaction with the peer group and family rather than teachers who themselves cannot operate in English naturally. This is where the illusion comes in. The parents spend so much money, money which they can ill afford, chasing the elusive chimera of English. These are dreams and these schools sell dreams. This by itself would be wrong but what makes it worse is that people, deluded by the seemingly easy availability of English, make no effort to change this system of educational apartheid.’