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Access to English in Pakistan: a source of prestige or a hindrance to success

2019; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 39; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/02188791.2019.1671805

0218-8791

Sham Haidar, Fan Fang,

EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning

Previous studies focusing on the role of English in developing countries have reached different conclusions. Some studies consider the English language to be beneficial for students' academic and professional development, while others claim that it affects students' progress and conceptual clarity and thus acts as a source of students' failure. While reaching to such conclusions, usually such studies involve students with either low or high socioeconomic status (SES). Drawing from the symbolic power of language and the sociolinguistics of globalization as a theoretical lens, this study involves participants from four types of schools in Pakistan: elite private, elite public, general private, and general public to have participants from different social classes. The study adopts a phenomenological case study design and constructivist grounded theory for data analysis, and finds that English is proving linguistic capital for elite school students. However, lack of opportunities to learn the English language in general schools may lead to failure of the students for not knowing English in education and professional life. Considering the dividing role of English in education, this paper concludes the need for empowering Urdu and other local languages, and reducing differences in English instruction to provide equal access to the English language for students in different schools.