Translingual practices and monoglot policy aspirations: a case study of Pakistan’s plurilingual classrooms

Abstract

Current research in multilingual countries supports local languages and recognizes plurilingual practices as a proficiency (e.g. Luxembourg and Nordic countries in Europe, Bolivia, Argentina, and Columbia in South America). Yet linguistically diverse and multilingual regions, such as Pakistan, continue to be challenged by monoglot language policies dominated by English. Replacing Urdu and the regional languages in education, Pakistan’s latest national education policy mandates professional and higher education in English. This paper using a multilingual theoretical framework that studies empirical data from the linguistic landscape and local classrooms illuminates unique language contact zones and plurilingualism as a competence. It also exhibits inconsistencies between the policy aspirations and people’s dispositions towards linguistic (im)purity and hybridity. The findings from the paper indicate the need of orientations to a language-in-education policy that does not isolate languages, but which accommodates plurilingual repertoires and a metalinguistic awareness.

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