Linguistic Diversity: Language Policies of Higher Education Institutions of Punjab, Pakistan

Authors

  • Aneeqa Zafar University of Education, Lahore

Keywords:

Language Planning, Language Policy, Contribution, Challenges, Linguistic Diversity, Local Languages, Foreign Languages, Multilingualism, Higher Education

Abstract

ABSTRACT

This study sheds light on contributions and challenges faced in the implementation of language policies to promote linguistic diversity at tertiary level education in Punjab, Pakistan. For this purpose, data have been collected from the handbooks of five public and private universities of Punjab, Pakistan, and from semi-structured interviews of pertinent administrative bodies and foreign and indigenous language teaching faculty from five acclaimed universities of Punjab, Pakistan. In order to analyze the collected data, document analysis has been used. The findings of this research comprise contributions including institutional support, meetings of concerned bodies involved in language policy making, advancements in the corpus of languages, pieces of training of languages, foreign and local languages as minor courses and student exchange programs and, challenges, consisting of inadequate institutional support, fewer advancements in the corpus of foreign and local languages, non-transparent recruitment of language teachers, lack of accountability, extraneous training for language teachers, obsolescent curricula of language programs and the dichotomy between local and foreign language. It is hoped that this study would make significant contribution in the existing scholarship in the field of language planning and policy in the universities of Pakistan.

KEYWORDS: Language policy and planning, contributions, challenges, linguistic diversity, higher education

Author Biography

Aneeqa Zafar, University of Education, Lahore

Ms Aneeqa Zafar is serving as a lecturer in the Department of English, University of Education, Lahore, Pakistan. Her academic background is rooted in English Literature as well as in Applied Linguistics. In teaching and research, her areas of interest are Sociolinguistics, Language Planning and Policy, Language and Gender, Language and Media, and Critical Discourse Analysis.

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Published

2021-09-11