[lg policy] Re: lgpolicy-list Digest, Vol 77, Issue 9

[Abdul Manan .]

The English-medium fever in Pakistan: analyzing policy, perceptions and practices through additive bi/multilingual education lens
   
   - DOI:
      - 10.1080/13670050.2015.1080659
Syed Abdul Manan*, Francisco Perlas Dumanig & Maya Khemlani David   
   - Received: 20 Apr 2015
   - Accepted: 1 Aug 2015
   - Published online: 01 Sep 2015



   
   -    

The English-medium fever in Pakistan: analyzing policy, perceptions and practices through additive bi/multilingual education lens

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ABSTRACT
This study analyses the crisis of English teaching in Pakistan. The study examines stakeholders’ perceptions and classroom practices to identify theoretical fault lines and institutional/pedagogical challenges in the low-fee schools. We deem such research critical in the backdrop of public's heavy reliance and feverish pursuit of low-fee English-medium schools which have expanded exponentially off late. Deploying mixed methodology that utilized a questionnaire, interviews and observation, the research draws information from students, teachers and school principals. Results suggest that most respondents perceive early-English policy inevitable, and believe that the earlier the English-medium policy, the better. Respondents’ majority also views additive multilingual policy unfavorably presuming that more languages will amount to learners’ confusion. Teaching mother tongues is being perceived as waste of time. Actual English teaching practices appear illusory, as direct and contextualized use of English is a rare feature while Urdu stands as the de facto medium of classroom transactions. Grammar-translation methodologies and classrooms activities leave little potential for communicative competence, concept formulation and linguistic internalization. We conclude that although respondents’ support for English-medium policy is rational; however, it is fraught with illusions as neither teaching/learning practices replicate English-medium policy nor bi/multilingual education research supports foreign language as medium for early schooling.   
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KEYWORDS
   
   - English-medium fever, 
   - low-fee private schools, 
   - age and language learning, 
   - additive bi/multilingual education, 
   - Pakistan
      From: "lgpolicy-list-request at groups.sas.upenn.edu" <lgpolicy-list-request at groups.sas.upenn.edu>
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 Sent: Sunday, September 6, 2015 12:02 AM
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Today's Topics:

  1. What's your pronoun? Now on the Web of Language (Baron, Dennis E)
  2. US Dept. of Defense Sets New Policies on Language,    Culture
      Knowledge (Harold Schiffman)
  3. South Africa: New Language Policy Planned for Elsenburg After
      Protests Tagged: Education South Africa Southern Africa tweet
      share Google+ comment email more Related Topics Education Sudan:
      Eight Students Shot in Omdurman Ghana: SHS Students High On Drugs
      - Says GES Director Kenya: Strike Won't Affect National Exams,
      Kaimenyi Assures Liberia: LTTP Distributing One Million Textbooks
      in Nimba South Africa Africa: The Politics of Circumcision in
      South Africa South Africa: World Humanitarian Day - South
      Sudanese Make a Difference in Their Communities South Africa:
      Uncertain Business Climate South Africa: Ministers Angie
      Motshekga and Jeff Radebe Launch 2015 Leg of Operation Phakisa, 6
      Sept Southern Africa Mozambique: Former President Urges Dialogue
      with Opposition Leader Malawi: Jail Sentence in Malawi's Cashgate
      Scandal Zimbabwe: Behind the Dehumanization of African Asylum
      Seekers Zimbabwe/Guinea: Guinea Arrive for Crunch Tie By Tammy
      Petersen, News24 Ovayo Zilo says the only Afrikaans s
      (Harold Schiffman)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2015 17:51:03 +0000
From: "Baron, Dennis E" <debaron at illinois.edu>
Subject: [lg policy] What's your pronoun? Now on the Web of Language
To: language language policy <lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu>,
    "Baron,    Dennis E" <debaron at illinois.edu>,    Linguist list
    <linguist at linguistlist.org>, wpa <wpa-l at asu.edu>,    ADS ads
    <ads-l at listserv.uga.edu>
Message-ID: <72483967-4DF8-41DC-BD82-320290C8A428 at illinois.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"


There’s a new post on the Web of Language: What’s your pronoun?

For most students, back-to-school means new clothes, a new phone, a new laptop, but this year some colleges are offering students a new pronoun as well. Harvard is suggesting the gender-neutral ze, hir, and hirs, though it will accept traditional he and she if students prefer them, and the University of Tennessee adds xe, xem, and xyr. This Fall, students at American University's orientation are asked to break into small groups and introduce themselves with name, major, and preferred pronoun. This year’s Vanderbilt student handbook adopts singular they as an inclusive and welcoming pronoun. And the University of Vermont has been letting students name their own gender and pick their own pronoun for a few years.

Read the rest of this post on the Web of Language: http://bit.ly/1O2pw19
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Message: 2
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 2015 10:48:23 -0400
From: Harold Schiffman <hfsclpp at gmail.com>
Subject: [lg policy] US Dept. of Defense Sets New Policies on
    Language,    Culture Knowledge
To: lp <lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu>
Message-ID:
    <CAB7VSRCGmUN_vu-_YtGa9c+RkwtXjg4NvJ1qi7vmnubWXbBkOw at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

DoD Sets New Policies on Language, Culture Knowledge
Published: September 4, 2015
<http://www.fedweek.com/federal-managers-daily-report/dod-sets-new-policies-on-language-culture-knowledge/>
More in: Federal Manager's Daily Report
<http://www.fedweek.com/news/federal-managers-daily-report/>

DoD has issued revised policies for a Defense Language, Regional Expertise
and Culture Program, stating that those capabilities “are enduring critical
competencies essential to the DoD mission and must be managed to maximize”
them.

Under the guidance, all personnel are to be screened on entering federal
service and also at times afterward for foreign language proficiency. That
skill is to be encouraged through means such as paying foreign language
proficiency pay and authorizing time for self-managed and classroom
programs to maintain and improve proficiency.

“As mission dictates, the DoD will make full use of available language
proficiency, regional expertise, and cultural capabilities without regard
to Service or DoD agency affiliation, consistent with law and DoD policy,”
it says.

Further, “civilian personnel deploying to foreign territories must possess
or have access to an appropriate capability to communicate in the languages
of the territories of deployment and at least have a rudimentary
understanding of the region and associated culture(s).”

http://www.fedweek.com/federal-managers-daily-report/dod-sets-new-policies-on-language-culture-knowledge/


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Message: 3
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 2015 10:53:54 -0400
From: Harold Schiffman <hfsclpp at gmail.com>
Subject: [lg policy] South Africa: New Language Policy Planned for
    Elsenburg After Protests Tagged: Education South Africa Southern
    Africa tweet share Google+ comment email more Related Topics Education
    Sudan: Eight Students Shot in Omdurman Ghana: SHS Students High On
    Drugs - Says GES Director Kenya: Strike Won't Affect National Exams,
    Kaimenyi Assures Liberia: LTTP Distributing One Million Textbooks in
    Nimba South Africa Africa: The Politics of Circumcision in South
    Africa South Africa: World Humanitarian Day - South Sudanese Make a
    Difference in Their Communities South Africa: Uncertain Business
    Climate South Africa: Ministers Angie Motshekga and Jeff Radebe Launch
    2015 Leg of Operation Phakisa, 6 Sept Southern Africa Mozambique:
    Former President Urges Dialogue with Opposition Leader Malawi: Jail
    Sentence in Malawi's Cashgate Scandal Zimbabwe: Behind the
    Dehumanization of African Asylum Seekers Zimbabwe/Guinea: Guinea
    Arrive for Crunch Tie By Tammy Petersen, News24 Ovayo Zilo says the
    only Afrikaans s
To: lp <lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu>
Message-ID:
    <CAB7VSRAzVhmvi_ys0Gb+0ct+f1HnBD7ZYAiJvF-2TezntbvvLg at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

3 September 2015
News24Wire (Cape Town)
South Africa: New Language Policy Planned for Elsenburg After Protests


By Tammy Petersen, News24

Ovayo Zilo says the only Afrikaans she knows is how to greet.

"I barely understand the language. The only word I know is môre, because
they say that every morning," she said.

She was one of dozens of students who took part in the protests at
Elsenburg Agricultural College in Stellenbosch since Monday against the
college's language policy and alleged rampant racism at the institution.

Deciphering what is being taught during Afrikaans lectures is a mission,
Zilo said.

"I am completely lost - I am unable to engage at all," she said.

"I spend such a lot of time trying to make sense of what was discussed. The
lessons are not translated - part is given in Afrikaans, the other in
English. Combining the two is impossible if you don't understand the half
of it."

Calm was restored at the institution on Thursday after students and
institution management met on Wednesday to reach a compromise.

It was agreed that separate lessons will be conducted in both English and
Afrikaans and students can decide which lesson they choose to attend.

English tutors will be available to assist those who missed out on classes
during the protests, in which some students demanded lessons be given in
English only.

On Wednesday, before the agreement was reached between protesters and the
institution, an upset student told News24 he preferred to "figure things
out" on his own as Afrikaans is foreign to him.

"I am not English. At home, I speak isiXhosa. But what upset me is that
English is a universal language which all of us understand. Why are we
being alienated with Afrikaans?"

The college's 50-50 language policy means that most black students
understand lessons only 50% of the time, student Liphelo Mpumlwana said.

She is part of the leadership of Decolonise EIC, which led the protests.

Language barrier

There are black students who opted to drop out because of the language
barrier, she said.

"Some can't cope with the pressure of being taught in a language they don't
understand."

But Afrikaans students say black students should have considered this
before applying to Elsenburg.

"This school is marketed as an Afrikaans institution," one student said.

"It is in an Afrikaans town. If you are against Afrikaans, why enrol here
in the first place?"

He described the protests as "a dumb way of getting what you want".

"Instead of interrupting everyone else who came here to learn, they should
simply have taken their issues to management. That way our precious class
time wouldn't have been disrupted."

New language policy

But another Afrikaans student said he understood the group's frustration.

"I would probably feel exactly the same if classes were given in isiXhosa,"
he said.

"However, I feel that non-Afrikaans speakers should have known what was
waiting when they applied here. It's not as if Afrikaans classes were
introduced yesterday."

The college falls under the Western Cape Department of Agriculture.

Its spokesperson Petro van Rhyn said a task team, instituted by the College
Council, will engage students and role-players to facilitate the
development of a new language policy.

"Independent mediators, which have been on site for three weeks, will
continue to facilitate the transformation process, diversity management
training and conflict resolution involving students, lecturers and
administrative personnel," she said.

Mpumlwana said while Decolonise EIC has reached a compromise with
management, the language hurdle is one of many which need to be overcome.

Being a black student at Elsenburg is anything but easy, she said, adding
that the group plans to continue engaging on issues surrounding
transformation.

 http://allafrica.com/stories/201509040632.html



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