Volume 18, No. 6, 2021
Language Shift At Intermediate Level And Its Impact On Students’ Interest For Learning: A Case Study Of Karachi
Dr. Muhammad Abdullah , Dr. Ayyaz Mahmood , Dr. Atia Anwar Zoon
Abstract
Mother tongue is deemed the most appropriate as Language of Instruction (LOI) by researchers in the domain of applied linguistic and psycholinguistics. In most of the postcolonial countries, it could not be made possible due to multiple reasons. The most significant may be the hegemonic status of English as compared to indigenous languages because of colonizers’ supremacy. The situation of Pakistan is no more different. The dominance of English is easily noticeable and prevalently realized in educational institutes of Pakistan. In one particular situation, LOI is changed from Urdu to English at intermediate level in public sector colleges of Pakistan. Present study has explored this case in Karachi the biggest and thickly populated city to highlight the effect of this particular language shift on the interest of the student for education. In this regard a questionnaire was developed and data was collected from 264 students through random sampling and subsequently analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The study finally reached to the decision that language shift at intermediate level has significant negative effect on the interest of the students for learning which entails serious concern for educationists and policy makers.
Pages: 6299-6308
Keywords: language, shift, intermediate, level, case, study.