Language Culture Confusion in Schools
by Rizwana Khan
In Pakistan’s school two different languages are practiced Urdu and English i.e. heritage and academic. But another language Arabic is, also, being implemented that has added more to the workload rather than advance the education. It’s this mix of languages that is creating confusion in the educational institutions and therefore increasing the school drop out rate and decreasing the quality of education.
In the school curriculum that develops innovation, critical thinking and a successful career, language plays an important role. As Urdu is the heritage language used by majority of population is used in the school but not given as much importance as English. But now Arabic is being introduced in the schools, although it is not even heritage or an academic language. It isn’t even spoken in any province.
Over the ages, the Indo Pakistan subcontinent different cultures ruled. Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, English, Hindi and Urdu were some of the major languages spoken during those times. Urdu has evolved into presently the mixture of all these languages.
Heritage language is the language spoken in a student’s home or by older relatives.
While in the schools emphasize is on the language that is perceived to bring them jobs after graduation. In Pakistan, learning Urdu is important because the masses communicate in their heritage language. the construction, the labor, everyday life, and other sectors of life requires speaking in Urdu. Even though English is the language of the privileged but Urdu is the language of the masses. Everyone realizes it but the end of the year; the parents discover that their children failing in Urdu are losing their heritage language or mother tongue. Blaming the school they forget that at home, with their friends and in school their children speak in English, only. Their children’s maids are also encouraged to speak in broken English with their children.
Acquiring bilingualism is beneficial. But if the family members and the community don’t value Urdu then Urdu will be dropped when English is learned.
If they don’t speak in English they will be labeled as lower socio-economic status. Due to the British legacy and globalization English has become the most valued language for the privileged socio-economic classes. Though the advantages of bilingualism seem clear, but still English language is considered important for upward mobility. The English medium used to teach in schools. In the elite private schools students are punished if they don’t speak in English in classrooms and outside in recess.
Children in school face discrimination if they are lacking English skills. Further, they stop interacting in the class and become isolated. In a school, where I taught second grade, I noticed Erum (a fictitious name) whose parents weren’t college educated didn’t speak English was being ostracized by other girls. So Erum gravitated towards the hearing impaired girl who didn’t speak. They started speaking to each other in sign language. While other children who gained proficiency in the new language stopped speaking in Urdu, their heritage language. When the Urdu language is neglected then so is the culture. Learning different languages mean learning different cultures.
Being multilingual is a normal phenomenon. Our brains form neural pathways that result from being multilingual. According to the research the languages can be acquired before age of five years easily. In Pakistan, in all the province different heritage languages are spoken i.e. Urdu, Sindhi, Seraiki, Pashto, and Baluchi.
The parents do not understand why their children are not appreciative of their culture of storytelling, poetry and so on. Thus the loss of their heritage language reflects in the celebration of the foreign holidays, and food. The import of special holidays like Valentines, Halloween and Thanksgiving Day are introduced and consequently clash with the local values. While gaining proficiency in English culture the extremism increases.
This is highlighted by the Mullahs wanting to an Arab culture as practiced in madrassas. The most important vocational training they have learned in madrasahs is to teach religious studies, how to run the mosque and raise funds for it.
The vocational training taught in school are based on American and UK curriculum. The worksheets are plagiarized in elementary school while, later on, expensive programs charge for the O levels, IB and American High School syllabus in secondary schools. The copy and paste worksheets are enough for grammar and spelling. But their excellence stops there. The way the text is organized in English is considerably different from Urdu. Therefore, a cultural clash rises.
Heritage languages embedded in local cultural rules differ from English. Urdu language is derived mostly from Eastern languages rooted in romance. Therefore schools in Pakistan can’t figure out the process involved in a different set of rhetorical rules which are grounded in cultural ways of being.
In the Western culture Plato was an important influence. His discourse was based on logic. In Eastern literature, the emphasize was on elegies, poetries and figurative speech. It was the land of Mughals, and Rajas. While British rule brought in English, it made a privileged class of the bureaucrats.
In around 2000, when I arrived from USA after completing my studies and earning a credential from CSUN, I started training teachers. Then, the teacher students seldom had heard of the thesis statement, organizational rules, cohesion, coherence, or other features of discourse, were the beginning of a new trend. ELT, TOEFL and other exams gained popularity while local provincial languages were ignored.
As Urdu was assigned the heritage language, English became the academic language. Academic language is used in elementary and secondary schools and universities. In fact, academic language must learn in order to succeed in school. So all students, but especially those who may not speak formal English at home, must become bilingual and bicultural; they must learn the new ways of speaking and cultural rules required for school. Academic language includes the general words and concepts used in many subjects such as analyze, evaluate, or summarize, as well as words and strategies specific to disciplines such as factor the equation or derivative in math, a factor in statistics, or a derivative in finance (you see how complicated this gets when the same word has two very different meanings in different fields).
Nowadays the challenge is whether Urdu can become academic language and be associated with abstract, higher-order, complex concepts. When the students graduate from schools and still not able to use basic or contextualized language face-to-face in conversations It takes about 2 to 3 years in a good-quality program for children who are learning a new language.
It’s difficult to assess English skills of children from rural areas or from backgrounds where Punjabi or other languages are spoken is unreasonable. For these children Urdu is the second language. Now they have to translate English to Urdu and then to Punjabi. Urdu is their second language. Thus to “know” a second language in conversation is possible only available in good quality education program otherwise children may still have great difficulty with complex schoolwork in that language.
It was only in late 2000s, the need for logical grouping and bubble maps of thought was introduced like the 6 step process writing, organizing ideas into paragraphs and organizing charts. The organization of thoughts into essays, thesis statements and conclusions were important. Then afterwards the landscape of teacher training changed. Beacon House Schools created their own teacher training workshops. English as a Second Language techniques that guided the students how to organize our thoughts and how to write in school ways. In an elite school that I taught the principal refused to acknowledge the students as ESL and therefore needing extra guidance in the language. Later the student tried to master the academic language by brainstorming in English. Urdu was still left behind because the worldwide innovations were happening in English and not in Urdu or Arabic.
The Arab syllabus basically forced the classroom is not culturally compatible nor engaging. When teaching a seventh grade text, for example, the lengthy last sermon of prophet was written in a vocabulary beyond that grade level. Further, the sensitive nature of belief doesn’t allow the religious essays to be critically analyzed and criticized. Why not? Because it’ll be sacrilegious and therefore punishable by the state. Also, the importance of Arabic language defines the Saudi culture or riyasat of Prophet. Arabic language was never spoken before, also. while Urdu that is spoken is being lost because of the emphasize on English that guarantees economic opportunities.
Rather than losing one language to gain another, the goal should be balanced bilingualism— being equally fluent in both languages. Students’ home language connects them to extended family and important cultural traditions, but outside their homes, while English connects them to academic, social, and economic opportunities. Arabic language should be the prerogative of the people to learn or not.
The Arab language supposedly binds the local religion together, but it clashes with the English language that represents with the Western culture. The imported textbooks have stories with about things that are culturally thought to be unclean like pigs and bacon and also, with unfamiliar things.
The three languages Urdu, English and Arabic represent the three different cultures but neglect the local provincial cultures like Punjabi, Swati, Sairaki, Pushto etcetras. The languages spoken at home should be given importance. If teachers are not knowledgeable and respected, they will not engage with the students. And that will instill respect in the people.
Having more knowledge about the student and his or her circumstances outside of school should help teachers make better decisions about what programs are appropriate. For example, in universities in Punjab, students arrive from Baluchistan and KPK based on minority allotted seats. The teachers’ lack of preparation for working effectively with ethnic minority students creates a cultural chasm between the minority students. Bullying, fighting and harassment become a regular issue in the campuses thus creating an insecure environment insecure. Higher Education Commission of Pakistan started twenty years ago to resolve higher education issues hasn’t been able to target the sectarian violence in the universities.
Further, Higher Education Commission of Pakistan should be actively involved in training teachers and adapting curriculum to the changing environment. The languages taught in the school should be the ones that reflect student’s success in the future and not just Hereafter. Every student deserves respect for their culture and acknowledgment for their identity. Appropriate awareness for social and ethnic class will help unite the country in harmony.
