[lg policy] Pakistan: When will we learn?

[Harold Schiffman]

When will we learn? <https://www.dawn.com/news/1344306/when-will-we-learn>
Anjum Altaf <https://www.dawn.com/authors/1213/anjum-altaf>July 10, 2017
198
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18 <https://www.dawn.com/news/1344306/when-will-we-learn#comments>
The writer was Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Lums.

THE other day I read an article on indigenous languages. I admired its
spirit but was dismayed by its logic relating to language and learning. The
article mentioned there are 17 languages spoken in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of
which only two, Pashto and Hindko, will be explicitly recorded in the
forthcoming census. The rest will be categorised as ‘other.’ The author
feared these languages would decay and urged the government to preserve
them for posterity.

So far, so good, as the fate of minor languages is a global concern. But
one paragraph needs to be quoted in full: “There are some experts who argue
that a child should be taught in the mother tongue till a certain grade
before opting for any other language at an advanced stage. The argument
seems to be flawed since languages become harder to learn with age. So one
has to choose from an early age which language one’s children should excel
in — in a local language which does not have any worth in the job market or
the one that can serve as a vehicle for the development of their careers.”

This belief effectively represents Pakistan’s language policy and the
understanding of parents making it necessary to show why it is misleading.
A minor problem is that it undermines the author’s objective. Only living
languages are sustained — attempts to preserve languages as museum pieces
inevitably fail. Languages shunned as worthless for employment are doomed
to slow death.

Dr Salam and Iqbal did not know their future careers at the start of their
education, nor did they start it in English.

The major problem is that the argument negates evidence on linguistics and
learning. First, the critical early-age decision is not choosing the
language a child should excel in with a career in mind. It is choosing the
language of instruction that maximises the child’s ability to learn
effectively. There is ample evidence to suggest that children learn best in
their first language — they pick up subjects like arithmetic better if
taught in a familiar language.

Second, it is incorrect that children can only learn one language well
because it becomes harder to learn a language with age. In fact, evidence
suggests that children who begin learning in a familiar language are better
at acquiring a second unfamiliar language later compared to those who start
directly with the unfamiliar language. After much research the EU has
adopted the ‘mother-tongue plus two’ formula whereby children begin school
in their mother-tongue and acquire two more languages before completing
high school.

Third, the belief that excelling in a language requires learning it from
day one is incorrect and results from misunderstanding the learning
process. Children acquire their first language effortlessly because they
are immersed in it and have to survive by communicating their needs in it.
This need-driven acquisition is not transferrable to alien languages. For
example, in a Seraiki neighbourhood if Chinese is made the medium of
instruction children will not acquire it as fluently as Seraiki. Rather,
they will retard their cognitive abilities struggling with an unfamiliar
learning vehicle.

Fourth, adults learn foreign languages quite easily. They may lack the
accents of native speakers
<https://www.dawn.com/news/1344306/when-will-we-learn#> but can be highly
proficient otherwise. Observe the number of non-native scholars of Urdu in
Western universities doing world-class work — Annemarie Schimmel did not
learn four oriental languages as a child. Adult Pakistani students in
France and Germany do so likewise.

Fifth, career decisions
<https://www.dawn.com/news/1344306/when-will-we-learn#> are not made in
kindergarten. They are based on aptitude which matures later and is itself
an outcome of a good education
<https://www.dawn.com/news/1344306/when-will-we-learn#>. Dr Salam and Iqbal
did not know their future careers at the start of their education, nor did
they start it in English. Had they done so they might have ended as babus
in a British office.

The importance of language in early education has long been recognised.
Macaulay introduced English as the medium of instruction for the Indian
elite in 1835, triggering a wider demand because of its association with
employment. However, a review of the policy in 1904 by the British
themselves came to the following conclusion: “It is true that the
commercial value which a knowledge of English commands, and the fact that
the final examinations of the high schools are conducted in English, cause
the secondary schools
<https://www.dawn.com/news/1344306/when-will-we-learn#> to be subjected to
a certain pressure to introduce prematurely both the teaching of English
and its use as a medium of instruction… This tendency however should be
corrected in the interest of sound education. As a general rule, a child
should not be allowed to learn English
<https://www.dawn.com/news/1344306/when-will-we-learn#> as a language until
he has made some progress in the primary stages of instruction and has
received a thorough grounding in his mother-tongue.”

Over 100 years later, a British Council study in Pakistan noted “various
adverse outcomes arising from negative attitudes towards indigenous
languages and for using Urdu and English as languages of instruction. These
included high dropout rates, poor educational achievements, ethnic
marginalisation and, longer term, a risk of language death”. The study
concluded that “there was an urgent need for awareness-raising about the
importance of the mother tongue in the early years of education”.

Parents most in need of this message, with children short-changed by early
education in poor English, do not read such studies. It is for
educationists to both raise awareness and convince the authorities to
res­pect available evidence. Note that the Chinese have made remarkable
progress without using English as the medium for early education while we
who have done so are left far behind. All Chinese who need to learn English
to advance their careers manage to do so.

The simple message to convey is that to acquire English it is not necessary
to have it as the language of instruction in early education and doing so
is bad for learning. It is understandable if parents confuse the issue; for
decision-makers to do so just proves that knowing English does not
necessarily correlate with intelligence.

*The writer was Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at
Lums.*

*Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2017*

https://www.dawn.com/news/1344306/when-will-we-learn

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