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  • Essay / Foreign Language vs. Mother Tongue in Pakistan

    Despite the fact that Urdu is the national dialect of Pakistan, English is the dialect that is formally used by all private and government authorities. In Pakistan, English language skills are considered to enable students to find high-level work. In professional life, the basic language is clearly English. This research is conducted to explain that a child should be introduced to the second language which is English in a critical period or not? And what types of schools are suitable for a child's language skills. In addition, we also tried to determine which language should be the language of instruction regionally. In light of confirmations collected through a questionnaire and meetings with instructors, the review reveals that an early approach to English seems counterproductive, as most students exhibit weak English abilities. In countries like Pakistan, where English is not the primary language, many tutors and groups are confident that their children will get a head start in education by going "straight to English" and bypassing the mother tongue. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The inspiration behind this is to focus on their financial prudence and improve career prospects from their younger ages. For young students, the use of the primary language in early education promotes a better understanding of the content of the educational module and a more inspiring mindset towards school. Using students' native language in school also reduces instructor workload, especially when the educator speaks the neighboring language well, which is the case in most country schools in multilingual settings . Research has demonstrated that in learning circumstances where the educator and student are nonlocal clients of the language of instruction, the instructor struggles as much as the students, especially early in schooling. But when teaching begins in the native language of educators and students, the experience is more natural and friendly for everyone. Therefore, the educator can be more inventive and creative in planning materials and methodologies, thereby promoting better learning outcomes. There is a famous saying by Jack Edwards that “What is a nation without a mother tongue?” The mother tongue is the identity of the nation. Only those nations emerge as a prosperous nation in history who preferred their own language over any other language of the world. It is important for the individual to master the mother tongue before learning another language because an individual thinks in his mother tongue and then translates his thoughts into any other language. Many theorists are of the opinion that the native language is the best way to express one's thoughts. instructions rather than in English or any other language. Max von Sydow said about the importance of mother tongue: "I think English is a fantastic, rich and musical language, but of course your mother tongue is the most important for an actor." Maintaining the importance of mother tongue for an individual as well as building a nation, the best medium of teaching for an individual's early schooling is the child's mother tongue. The stronger the children's native language, the easier it is for them to learn new languages. Children who have a strong foundation in their native language develop better reading and speaking skills.also writing in the other languages ​​they learn. When parents and other significant adults have time to discuss and read in the child's native language and thus help build vocabulary, the child will be better prepared for the start of kindergarten or school and will be able to easily learn new languages. Transfer of knowledge and skills of children across languages. Skills acquired in the mother tongue will transfer to other languages ​​learned at school, over time provided that all languages ​​are supported. Despite the many advantages of mother tongue as a medium of instruction, the government of Pakistan has failed to implement a mother tongue based education policy in the country. Due to too many professional benefits of English language, parents prefer English medium schools over Urdu medium schools because English is used more in the professional life of an individual and this is the main reason why the English is considered the key to prosperity and intelligence. of an individual is also judged on the scale of their English skills. A person who speaks English better but has poor technical skills is considered smarter than someone who is not very proficient in English but has good technical skills. Due to the following reasons, parents are more interested in teaching their child English rather than Urdu or the mother tongue. In our research we will highlight the medium of education in Pakistan. But our main concern is what students think about Pakistan's language policy and what should be the language of instruction in Pakistan, be it English, Urdu or any other regional language. For the construction of the future language in politics, we followed the valuable advice of teachers from various colleges. Considering the students and teachers of various colleges, we will conclude what should be the medium of education in Pakistan so that we can prosper in the field of education. Here are our main research questions that we asked students on a social media platform. Which language do you consider the most important in an individual's professional life? Is it better to teach English in primary school? Study reveals that early teaching in English seems counterproductive as most students are not as proficient in English as Urdu. Do you support this argument? A language expert supports the idea that the best medium for a child's early schooling is the child's native language. Do you agree with this argument? According to you, should Punjabi be the medium of instruction in primary schools in Punjab like Sindhi and Pashto are the medium of instruction in primary schools in the respective provinces? ​​What is the most suitable age for teaching a foreign language to students? Are you satisfied with the performance of so-called low-tuition English-speaking schools? What type of schools are best suited for students' language proficiency ?What should be the language of instruction regionally?How many languages ​​should students be taught? students?Language Policy of PakistanPakistan is a multilingual country with six major languages ​​and over fifty-nine minor languages. Urdu is the national language of Pakistan, the mother tongue of 7.57 percent of the entire population and the official language of Pakistan is English. Many people in rural areas are not even able to understand English, but the most common languageused in Pakistan offices is English. The most widely spoken language is Punjabi, with 44.15 speakers. However, the importance of regional languages ​​is still compromised as the languages ​​of the domains of power (government, corporate sector, media, education, etc.) are English and Urdu. Pakistan's policies have favored these two languages ​​over others. It also made English a symbol of higher class, sophistication and power. People who speak their regional language, let's say a person who speaks Punjabi is considered illiterate. This is one of the reasons why parents prefer to teach English to their children because English is considered the key to prosperity, power and success. The context and methodology The main objective of our research is to find the answer to our question: whether a child should first learn his mother tongue and then be exposed to another language or whether he should learn his mother tongue and all other foreign language simultaneously. To this end, we conducted our research in 7 low-cost schools in Karachi (Haq Foundation School, CSS Grammar School, Aligarh Schooling System, Usman Public School, City Grammar School, AIMS School, IMAM Montessori School) and a government of Bahawalpur (Govt.Islamia Girls School). We created the Google form consisting of few questions regarding the research and asked the students of NUST and other universities including NED-UET Karachi, IST, COMSATS and some other renowned universities of Pakistan to fill the form. We also asked the students' parents what type of school they preferred. Our school system is divided into four categories: private elite English secondary schools, non-elite private English secondary schools, low-paying English secondary schools and government Urdu secondary schools. According to the survey, most students currently study in low-tuition private schools due to their economical fee structure. This is why we conducted our research in low-cost schools and interviewed the teachers of these schools. In total, 4 school principals participated in the interview and nearly 150 students gave their opinion on the teaching method via the Google form. Students are the pioneers of the future and the pillars of the nation. You can never hope for a prosperous country if there are no educated people and policy for better education. This is why it is very important to know in which environment they wish to study. For this purpose, we asked students from different universities to fill out the Google form which contains some questions regarding our research and this form is filled by students from many universities including NUST and NED. When students were asked to give their opinion on the most important language in an individual's professional life, a large majority of students chose English because English is the official language of Pakistan and the English is used in the business and government sectors more than any other language. However, some students from Sindh also responded that Sindhi is used more than Urdu and even more than English in government offices. This is why the Sindhi language also plays a vital role in the professional life of an individual, especially when he or she belongs to a country. Sindh. The following graph illustrates the students' responses. When we asked students what was the optimal age at which a child should be exposed to English. Most of the students responded that at the kindergarten level, students should learn Urdu only, then atprimary level, students should be exposed to English and learn English and Urdu simultaneously. According to language experts, teaching in English appears to be counterproductive as most students are not as proficient in English in their native language when we asked students as if they were from agreeing with this argument, we received mixed responses. Some students said that it is up to the student's intelligence whether or not they can master both languages ​​at the same time, but most students support this argument. According to research, most students in Pakistan are enrolled in a low-fee English medium school. When we asked students if they were satisfied with the performance of these type schools. The students responded that it is a so-called English language school where the teachers do not even know English and the method of teaching languages ​​by the English teachers is not up to standard. . They asked students to memorize the question rather than speaking English. When we ask students what type of school is best for their language skills. Students from different universities are of the opinion that although elite private English medium schools are expensive, the teaching methodology of this type of schools is better than that of all other schools in Pakistan. The most important question of our research is what should be the language of education for the early schooling of a child. When we surveyed the students, most of them responded in favor of English and almost the same number of students responded in favor of Urdu and a relatively small number of students responded in favor of the regional language of that language. This is also an important point. the question of how many languages ​​should be taught to a child during their early schooling. The following graph illustrates the students' responses. When we asked the students what strategy should be adopted for students' language proficiency. Most students responded that the best strategy to improve an individual's language proficiency is for the student to first master their native language (L1) and then be exposed to other languages ​​(L2), also known as additive bilingualism. of the teacher represents a fundamental difference in the Language Futures approach. Although the teacher may be an expert linguist with a thorough understanding of how languages ​​are learned, and therefore the strategies to use to achieve this, in the Language Futures classroom he or she will not be the expert on all languages, or even any of them. chosen by the students. When we asked school principals why they did not teach regional language to students (like Sindhi in Sindh), most school principals responded that there were no competent teachers available to us who are capable of teaching the regional language to students and this It is extremely difficult for schools to find such teachers. When we asked the principals of a non-elite English-medium private school about the performance of their school, one of the principals of the school (IMAM Montessori School) replied: But the reality is completely opposite to this argument. The study reveals that students from non-elite private English schools and low-paying English language schools are not good at English or their native language because they never learn to speak English or express themselves in English . The answers he writes in English are copied or memorized from the.