Abstract:
Pakistan is a multilingual state where the majority of educated people can speak three languages: English, Urdu (the national language) and a regional vernacular (Pashto in the case of this study). While the state’s official policy supports the regional vernaculars in education at school level, the de facto language policy privileges English and Urdu and neglects the regional languages. English-medium schools, especially those of the elite category, are instrumental in the acquisition and prestige planning of English. This study takes a holistic view of understanding the elite schools’ language-in-education (L-i-E) policy. As such, in addition to investigating how L-i-E is viewed and practised and unravelling the complex interaction between the official policy and its micro-level implementation, the study also explores the students’ perceptions about L-i-E, their attitudes towards the three languages, and their domain-wise language use and shift patterns. Two elite English-medium schools in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, were the cases and context of this investigation. Data were collected over a period of three months, employing ethnographic case study approach. The study adopted a mixed-methods design in which qualitative methods and data outweigh the quantitative data (i.e. QUAL+ quan). The qualitative data tools included observations, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and documents review; the quantitative data were collected through a questionnaire. Findings reveal that the elite English-medium schools enjoy significant power in their L-i-E planning. At the same time, the tacit approval of the official language policy—a product of political, ideological and global forces—is also evident in the language practices and beliefs of the actors at a grassroots level. Owing to their unchallenged authority, the schools strictly adhere to an English-only assimilationist L-i-E policy. The students were found to have positive attitudes towards the status, prestige and instrumental significance of English. Whilst they viewed Urdu as a symbol of national identity and Pashto as a symbol of ethnic pride and identity, they disregarded the role of these languages in educational and professional spheres. The students also reported significant domain shrinkage vis-à-vis their mother tongue. The findings of this study confirm that the schools’ L-i-E policies contribute significantly to the process of subtractive bilingualism.