Reading Attitudes v. Reading Habits in a Postcolonial Private School in Pakistan: A Case Study

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Education Policy and Practice in South Asia

Proposal

Due to demographic changes, Pakistan has recently seen the rise of a new middle class (Maqsood, 2017) which sends its children to middle-tier English-medium private schools to acquire quality English education as a steppingstone for better higher education and employment opportunities (Author, forthcoming). In the context of Karachi, these students predominantly speak Urdu at home but English at school.

Kachru (1985; 1992) describes the usage of English worldwide in terms of concentric circles: inner, outer, and expanding circles. Inner circle refers to states whose native language is English. Outer circle indicates countries with a colonial past who have institutionalized English. The expanding circle denotes nations where English serves a functional purpose. Pakistan falls in the outer circle of Kachru’s definition. As a result, English is taught from an early age in the middle-tier private school setting, and sometimes even before Urdu script is formally introduced. All subjects are taught in English, except for Urdu. While increasingly bilingual and translanguaging studies are emphasizing the need to center the student’s first language in order for him/her to thrive both academically and socially (Helman, 2016; Pacheco & Miller, 2015; Garcia-Mateus & Palmer, 2017; Norton, 2010), the Pakistani middle-tier private school context complicates this by centering English in an environment where the majority language is Urdu. This immersion in English from an early age, with Urdu taught only as a subject throughout the grades, leads to heritage loss of students’ home language so much so that students prefer to do their pleasure reading in English (Author, forthcoming-a).

This paper utilizes both quantitative and qualitative data to comprehensively illustrate the complexities schools encounter in the formation of student reading habits when they foreground a colonial language over and above the home language in postcolonial contexts through a case study of Karachi Private Academy (KPA), a middle-tier private school. While students’ self-reported reading attitudes were mostly positive using the ERAS scale (McKenna and Kear, 1990), the article triangulates these findings with qualitative data (observations, interviews, and focus groups) that highlight the struggle school administrators and teachers experience in their effort to establish reading habits in students despite their resource-rich and literacy-rich setting. For instance, in addition to formal instruction in English, KPA has multiple section-specific libraries; students have a weekly library block where they not only issue books but also report back what they are reading through random book reviews; the school has a robust literacy program, including an annual Reading Week, and the school offers various intra-school and interschool bilingual literary competitions such as elocutions, debates, as well as writing galas, etc. Nonetheless, during semi-structured interviews, school administrators and teachers shared their concerns about students’ lack of proficiency and reading habits in the English and Urdu languages. Interestingly, rather than reflecting on the disconnect between medium of instruction and home language, teachers identified home language practices as the biggest obstacle in students’ weak language skills. This was true for both English and Urdu teachers; the former found fault in the predominant Urdu language home environment of students whereas the latter highlighted the increasing encroachment of the English language among family language practices.

The paper utilizes Cummins’ threshold hypothesis and the Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) theories to underscore the significance of primary language maintenance in a school setting in order to also attain L2 proficiency (Cummins, 2000). Although Cummins’ framework mainly addresses the educational experiences of minoritized students in contexts such as the United States, I adapt it for a postcolonial school setting. For example, Cummins’ assertion that students are able to reach conversational fluency much earlier than attaining academic proficiency is quite relevant to my research setting. Teachers grapple with this at KPA because while students actively participate in classroom discussions, they are not able to translate that into a cohesive written composition even in later grades. Teachers further shared that a minority of students who have developed avid reading habits are able to attain both spoken and written language proficiency. This supports Cummins’ threshold hypothesis: while most students only reach the first threshold, some are able to reach the second threshold, with reading engagement being a key factor (Cummins, 2021). However, a crucial question remains: when students in postcolonial schools are mainly encouraged to become proficient in the (colonial) school language through developing reading habits, what deficits would they have in their home language? Here, Cummins’ recommendation to mindfully teach language is useful along with his emphasis on sustained opportunities to develop literacy skills in both L1 and L2.

The study employs data collected at KPA in pre-primary grades (Pre-Nursery, Nursery, Kindergarten) as well as Grades 1, 3, 6, and 9. The research instruments consisted of a demographic questionnaire, reading attitudes surveys for students, non-participant classroom observations of pre-primary and higher grades, semi-structured interviews with students, teachers, librarians, and administrators, along with focus groups with parents.

Author

• Saulat Pervez, International Institute of Islamic Thought IIIT