[lg policy] What about my mother tongue?

Sat Mar 2 16:23:36 UTC 2019

What about my mother tongue?

* The entire education system in Pakistan in both govt and private sectors
is in English language — the language of the colonial power except for in
rural areas

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Syed Waqar Ali Shah <https://dailytimes.com.pk/writer/syed-waqar-ali-shah/>

MARCH 1, 2019

[image: images]Not to speak of an elite class in Pakistan, just take an
example of a situation where a child is born into a lower and lower-middle
class family where not everyone speak good English except for two or three
members. Despite being aware of their jerkiness, the people in this family
still prefer being called Daddy, Mom, Sis, Bro, Uncle, Aunty and alike.
They feel more civilised and powerful with these English titles. They take
it as an honour and privilege! As time goes by, the child start going to
school and the first lesson taught to him is in English. Teachers begin
with English alphabets “A for Apple” and “B for ball”. With the time,
various subjects are taught to him/her in English. Science, Mathematics,
Social Studies, Pakistan Studies, Computer and Natural Sciences – all are
taught in English due to the status of this language as a medium of
instruction in schools, colleges and universities. We think that our
children are acquiring education, attaining knowledge of the social and
natural world and accumulating linguistic capital – which is English for
its economic benefits in this world. On the contrary, nothing of the sort
is actually happening. There is hardly a handful of people who might have
thought whether their children can really afford to have the burden of a
foreign tongue.

They seem to be ignoring the fact that their children are wrestling with
the load of an alien tongue and the thoughts simultaneously!

The fact that the entire cognitive structures of children get hampered is
hardly taken into consideration. It is evident that our children are less
creative today. They are less expressive in their ideas. Indeed, they lack
ideas. They lack the very faculty of thinking. Is it not a serious thing to
think over? Why are our students not thinking and are uncritical even
though they’re graduates, postgraduates and even in many cases, doctorates?

We hardly find people with content of thoughts and ideas worth noting.
There are various factors accountable for this outcome of education system
prevailing in Pakistan. One of the major factors is language. Yes. It’s
language that hampers our cognitive growth and acts as a great barrier in
gaining knowledge.

The entire education system in Pakistan in both government and private
sectors is in English language – the language of the colonial power except
for the rural areas where local languages are still essentially
considerable as a medium of instruction. English is still a symbol of power
and prestige in the country. Schools, colleges, academies and universities
still regard people having proficiency in English as intelligent humans.
Yet with refined English is another remarkable feature appreciated by
people. They take the non-native speakers with a native like accent as role
models in English language teaching practice in Pakistan thus resulting in
a native speaker fallacy. To them, good English is the one spoken like
either Americans or British. The public at length seems quite ignorant of
various perspectives in research on English language. The notion of World
English is yet to be made familiar to the people who speak English around
the world. A fact that there are multiple varieties of English language
circling around the globe including both native and non-native is still
known to a little specific audience. Due to these factors, several
linguists around the world have called English as an “oppressive tongue”.
It’s becoming oppressive for some reasons: one for the lack of tangible
language policies in multilingual contexts and the other being the
ignorance of local varieties of English and hegemonic role of English
promoted through standardisation process via high-stake examinations like
the International English Language Testing System, TOEFL, Graduate Record
Examinations, SAT and Graduate Management Admission Test.

As a result of lack of a sensible policy, schools penalise students for
speaking their mother tongue. The languages of power dominate all
curricular and extra-curricular activities. Students are forced to speak
English – the language of the white. This is why, the white skin is also a
preference. White English. White skin. The masters are yet to be
challenged. Liberating the masses from linguistic imperialism is yet to be
realised.

Evidently enough, a great majority of people in Pakistan and especially in
Sindh is less proficient in English. Even professionals and academics have
a poor proficiency in English, yet they try to speak it. They speak it so
as to be accepted as being educated. One has to speak in English in order
to prove one’s education, intellectuality and status. As a result, a great
part of communication goes wasted without being understood and developing a
sense of understanding others.

As a result of lack of a sensible policy, schools penalise students for
speaking their mother tongue. The languages of power dominate all
curricular and extra-curricular activities. Students are forced to speak
English — the language of the white

What is the use of speaking English when people hardly understand you? I’ve
attended several workshops at local level where people hardly understand
their messages in English, yet the speakers prefer to speak it. It is
thought to be less privileged if somebody participates in any academic or
professional workshop or a seminar and speaks in his/her mother tongue.
Understanding the message is of little concern these days in intellectual
and academic gatherings.

When a language becomes a barrier to knowledge, very sensibly one should
stop using it. If policies are formulated with the intent on fulfilling
political motives, the steps need to be taken at individual levels to use
the language of expression, identity and creativity. An ample amount of
research shows that the children’s cognitive growth is fully dependent upon
the mother tongue. When a child acquires his or her mother tongue, the
creative faculty of child begins to grow. The child is more expressive in
mother tongue. When a load of a foreign language is put on his or her
shoulders, knowledge is obstructed as noted in several reports by the
United Nations Educations Scientific & Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and
Save Children.

UNESCO celebrates 2019 as the year of indigenous languages. In article 2 of
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it’s clearly stated that,
“Everyone’s entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this
declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex,
language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin,
property, birth or other status.”

Language is the basic right of human beings which has been violated in the
world due to hegemonic status of a few languages of power. The reports
mention that out of 7,000 languages in the world today, half of it will die
or be extinct by the end of this century. And every two weeks, one language
is dying. Language death is a rapid phenomenon in the world today. What
causes language extinction? Of course, policies. Policies devised at
national level are not in favour of mother tongue. In Pakistan, for
example, English and Urdu enjoy a dominant position. Consequently, the
local languages are being marginalised. Journalist and writer Zubeida
Mustafa notes that one’s language is the sensitive issue for each
ethno-linguistic group as it is a marker of identity.

Linguist Ahmer Mahboob’s efforts to preserve local languages are admirable.
Subaltern linguistics – a term in fashion now often used by him is worth
noting. Subaltern linguistics, according to Ahmer Mahboob, is linguistics
carried out by and for a community’s self-empowerment, well-being and
prosperity. It does not need English as a basis. Subaltern linguistics
requires any language to create knowledge, economies, experiences,
socio-semiotic systems for the benefit of communities. This is the point
where one’s mother tongue is voiced. Preserving mother tongue is actually
preserving one’s history, knowledge, culture, civilization and above all
identity. People think that language is a mere means of communication,
where as it is more than that. It accumulates the vast knowledge about
past, present and the future related to a particular community.

Skuttnab Kangas has highlighted how preserving one’s language is helpful in
preserving ecological knowledge of any community. Linguistic diversity is
linked to biodiversity and cultural diversity. When we lose a language, we
lose knowledge of the ecosystems. We lose the local wisdom related to
particular geographical regions. English or any other dominant language may
not suffice to name the local plants, insects, animals or any other species
existing in a particular region. The indigenous languages contain the load
of local wisdom and treasure of knowledge.

Philosophically speaking, one’s language is a medium to see the world and
develop understanding about it. One language means one perspective. One’s
own language means one’s own perspective. Foreign language means a foreign
perspective. Seeing through a foreign perspective never helps in
understanding the world properly. Our own language contains true taste of
life. It contains a perspective which is very close to us. It is the
perspective that speaks of us more than of the other. Our language speaks
of our people and land that we are familiar with. Foreign language speaks
of foreign land and the people. We need to understand the world through our
lens, our languages, and our perspectives.

And to do so, we need to appreciate our languages and take measures to
preserve them. We need to speak our languages everywhere be it education,
media or political domains. We need not to feel embarrassed using our
tongues. We need to encourage our children to call us Baba and Amma which
is the beginning of preservation of languages. Lastly, we need to devise
policies which are less oppressive to local languages. We need to question
any policies which favour one or two languages and marginalise others. This
way, we can do our best for our languages, cultures, civilisations and our
history.

*The writer is a teacher at Mehran University of Engineering & Technology
and can be reached at waqar.shah at faculty.muet.edu.pk
<waqar.shah at faculty.muet.edu.pk>*

*Published in Daily Times,* *March* *1st 2019.*

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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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