Top-Down English Policy and Bottom-Up Teacher Take: An Interview-Based Insight from the Balochistan Province of Pakistan

Authors

Liaquat A. Channa, Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS), QuettaFollow
Sania G. Panezai, National University of Modern Languages (NUML), QuettaFollow

Abstract

Provinces in Pakistan have initiated teaching English as a compulsory subject in Grade 1 onwards in their government schools by following the latest National Education Policy (NEP) of 2009. The policy states that the measure shall develop the students’ English proficiency that would later help them compete. In this study we intended to understand whether the policy was implemented successfully in the province of Balochistan. By drawing upon the language planning framework proposed by Kaplan, Baldauf, and Kamwangamalu (2011) and applying convenient sampling technique, the researchers conducted thirty-one semi-structured interviews with urban and rural male and female teachers who teach in Grades 1 to 5. We found that issues such as limited teaching time for the English subject, lack of qualified teachers, inappropriate English textbooks, teachers’ customary teaching methodology, paucity of resources, and gap between policymakers and practitioners impacted the policy. The study offers recommendations that could help the Pakistani policymakers to align the policy with practice, research, and the teachers’ voices in order to achieve the desired outcomes.

Keywords

English in Pakistan; Language Planning, Government Primary School Teachers, National Education Policy 2009 of Pakistan, Qualitative Research, Semi-Structured Interviews

Author Bio(s)

Liaquat Ali Channa currently serves BUITEMS, Quetta as an Associate Professor in the Department of English. He received his PhD in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and World Language Education at the University of Georgia, USA. He is a Fulbright alumnus. He teaches courses related to research and practice in applied linguistics. His research areas of interest are Educational Linguistics, Language Policy and Planning, Second/Foreign Language Learning and Teaching, Bilingual Education, and English as a/the Medium of Instruction. His research papers are published on these areas in various journals. He can be reached at: channaliaquat@yahoo.com, liaquat@buitms.edu.pk.

Sania Gul Panezai is a Lecturer at the Department of English at the National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Quetta. Her research interests include English language policy and planning, mixed methods research, applied linguistics, and curriculum and instruction. Correspondence regarding this article can be addressed directly to: saniapanezai@gmail.com.

Publication Date

9-23-2019

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2019.3841

Recommended APA Citation

Channa, L. A., & Panezai, S. G. (2019). Top-Down English Policy and Bottom-Up Teacher Take: An Interview-Based Insight from the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. The Qualitative Report, 24(9), 2281-2296. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2019.3841