LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:2 February 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Challenges and Possibilities of Implementing English as an International Language (EIL) Curriculum in Pakistan

Zahra Ali, M.A. (Master of Applied Linguistics)

Sociolinguistic Complexity of English

The sociolinguistic complexity of English today is an undeniable reality, because it is an- and arguably- the international language. This status ascribed to English is a result of the growing number of countries granting a special role to English, either by making it an official language of the country or by fostering its growth as an additional language. Graddol (2006) estimated that “nearly 80% of today’s communication in English takes place between bi-/ multilingual speakers of English”, meaning that the so-called ‘inner circle native speakers’ of English have more than likely become ‘the minority’ (Bloch & Starks, 1999; Graddol, 1999; Jenkins, 2009; McKay, 2003). This complexity is further enhanced by the characterization of today’s communicative exchanges by “variation in linguistic and cultural behaviour” (Xu, 2002) as this language is being used as a “vehicle for users of English to project their cultural identities and to express their cultural conceptualisations” (Sharifian, 2011) to those outside their local environment.

It Is Now Ours

“The English language is now ours. We have colonized it too”: this statement by the Filipino poet Gemino Abad (1997) clearly remarks on the current position of English language in this part of the world. What is this world? Samuel Daniel, in his ‘Musophilus’ (1599) refers to it as the “strange shores” in which English enters and “these strange shores are not language less” (Marlina, forthcoming). English in this world is thence “appropriated” (Canagarajah, 1999) and “renationalized” (McKay, 2002) to “suit the local taste bud” (Marlina, 2010).

English in Pakistan

One of the “un-language less” strange shores in which English entered and became an additional language to its linguistic repertoire is Pakistan. However the issue in Pakistan dwells within the study of English language as a separate identity from the world in which they live: victims of linguistic colonization as this language does not belong to them. What is required is an understanding that, “the English language is nobody’s special property. It is the property of the imagination; it is the property of the language itself” (Walcott, 1986). Hence, this article moulds the coalescing of challenges in developing as well as implementing English as an international language (EIL) framework in curriculum design and ponders upon the possibilities for this achievement in the context of Pakistan. It is celebratory in the sense that it inculcates the understanding of EIL; what it means to teach English as a language that bridges nations and cultures and also fosters respect for the diversity of speakers who call English their tongue.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Zahra Ali, Master of Applied Linguistics
School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics
Monash University
Building 11, Melbourne
Victoria 3800
Australia
zali18@student.monash.edu
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