Classroom Bilingual Discourse (Problems and Prospects) by Dr. Kaleem Raza Khan

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14Classroom Bilingual Discourse:

Problems and ProspectsKaleem Raza Khan

Introduction

Bilingualism is a widespread phenomenon, and wherever it exists people make use of both the languages. Studies on code switching in various communities world-wide have broadened our outlook and perception of the concept. Studies of societal bilingualism are concerned with issues such as institutional status of languages and their roles in the society, attitudes towards languages, determinants of language choice, and symbolic and practical use of these languages. It has often been observed that in most third world countries, where bilingualism or multilingualism is common in the society, teachers and students both usually make the use of the two languages in the classroom. Nevertheless, at tertiary level in these countries, the classroom language is only one (English, French, German, or Spanish, etc.). If students belong to a linguistic minority, they must have or should have acquired that language in order to get admission or succeed in examinations.

A great deal of research on various aspects of bilingualism has been conducted all over the world, and in this brief study it is not possible even to mention all major developments in the field. Nevertheless, a few cases are cited here to show that Pakistan is not unique in the use of more than one language in classrooms.

Lin (1988; 1990) studied bilingual discourse in Anglo-Chinese schools in Hong Kong where English is the official medium of instruction. Lin audio-recorded large classrooms and observed patterns of code switching there. The reason for code switching was lack of students’ linguistic competence in English. Camilleri (1996) reported a similar situation in secondary schools in Malta. Canagarajah (1995) described that in secondary schools in Jaffna (Sri Lanka) students switched to Tamil when the teacher’s attention was diverted. Arthur (1995; 1996) gave an account of primary schools in Botswana where bilingualism was common as a teaching strategy. Martin (1996; 1999a: 1999b) reported that in Brunei, where bilingualism in primary classrooms is official (known as dwibahasa system), students and teachers use two languages, English and Malay, in classroom interaction. De Klerk’s (1996) study revealed the growth of code switching among university students in South Africa after the abolition of apartheid as more and more students with insufficient proficiency in English were given admission. However, this code switching occurred outside the classroom.

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LANGUAGE POLICY, PLANNING, AND PRACTICE

The Present Study

The present study is based on classroom data that was gathered through audio-recording, questionnaires circulated, and interviews at the University of Karachi during 1997-9. The research sites were subject classrooms rather than ESL/EFL classrooms in all the departments at the university. Then ten classrooms were selected for detailed investigation. The data from this survey shows the number of languages that are brought to the classrooms. This background is essential to the understanding of the nature of bilingual discourse in these classrooms. Most of the students in these classes speak English either as their second or third language. Some of them claimed in the questionnaire that they do not or cannot speak English at all.

The total numbers of students in all ten classrooms is 425 and out of these 319 speak Urdu as their mother tongue. The languages that emerge as main mother tongues of the students in these classrooms are the following: Urdu (319), Punjabi (59), Sindhi (11), Hindko (10), Pashto (7), Baluchi (6), Wakhi (2), Shina (2), Kashmiri (2); and Memoni, Kuchchi. Gujarati, Chitrali, Brushaski, Brahui, Bengali, and Balti (one speaker each). There are other languages that have been mentioned by students, such as Arabic, Persian, Japanese, French, Hindi, and German; but they are either second or third languages and, therefore, do not play a majorpart in academic classroom life. English is the most commonly reported second and third language of these students. However, most students claimed that their oral proficiency in the language is poor and that they do not use it anywhere. In seven classrooms, there are students who have mentioned only Urdu as a language that they know. They do not profess any knowledge of English. This does not imply that they do not know it, but rather suggests that they do not use it.

Education is defined by the UNESCO (1953) as an ‘organised and sustained communication designed to bring about learning,* and its goals are to develop and organize knowledge and skills in an individual. These goals are achieved through listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities in a formal setting, in a language that the teachers and students must know. The selection of the medium through which these skills arc achieved is, therefore, an important issue in a multilingual society.

The University of Karachi had announced in the beginning that teaching as well as testing would be in Urdu by the years 1967-8 at the postgraduate level in all subjects including science and technology and an implementation committee was also set up (Abdullah, 1976). In order to execute this plan the bureau of composition, compilation, and translation1 was established in 1957, and under Aftab Hasan, it published a number of handy bilingual dictionaries of scientific and technical terms that are commonly used in chemistry, psychology, physics, mathematics, geology, geography, philosophy, and other subjects.

1 This bureau was turned into Karachi University Press in 2000

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CLASSROOM BILINGUAL DISCOURSE

The result of all the above-mentioned trends of thought is that at University of Karachi, there are three main choices that the teachers make concerning classroom language use:

• Some of them use Urdu for all the communicative needs of the classroom, including teaching and learning

• Some use English as the language of education (Urdu is used for other purposes).• Some use both Urdu and English in their classrooms.

It is the last type that is the focus of this study. Why use two languages when one can be used?

Bilingual Discourse in the ClassroomThis section presents an extract from one of the above-mentioned classrooms (see Appendix A). The passage has been taken from the middle of a classroom lecture. It is seen as a continuous, sequential flow of discourse. ‘In codeswitched discourse,’ as Romaine (1995: 111) puts it, ‘the items in question form part of the same speech act. They are tied together prosodically as well as by semantic and syntactic relations equivalent to those that join passages in a single speech act.’ Code switching is a normal feature in this classroom. The teacher is a fluent speaker of Urdu and English but students have varying degrees of proficiency in English. There are only twelve students in this classroom and their linguistic profiles are given in Table 1. English is used only as a second or third language and all twelve students claimed that their proficiency in it was poor or very poor.

Table 1: Languages That Students Speak in This Classroom

Mother Tongue Second Language Third Language

English − 7 5Hindko 2 − −Pashto 1 − −Punjabi 3 − −Urdu 6 5 1Zero − − 6Total 12 12 12

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Analysis of Code Switching

This text, presented in Appendix A, is predominantly English. The teacher has produced a number of complete English sentences with equal fluency. Although he has used Urdu tags between English utterances, a complete Urdu statement is nonexistent in this extract. Urdu stretches of discourse contain English elements of varying sizes performing various grammatical functions. This phenomenon is known as code switching, which is defined by Auer (1998: I) as (part of a) verbal action, the alternating use of two or more ‘codes’ within one conversational episode. Auer (1984: 12) distinguished between discourse-related and participant-related code switching. The passage in question shows both of them.

An interesting observation is that the teachers using English as the classroom language use Urdu tags and the ones who speak Urdu in their classrooms use English tags (OK? all right?). This teacher has used achchha (well), thiik? (OK?) thiik he? (all right?).

The only utterance by a student in this stretch is in Urdu but most content words in that are English:

1. Ghaaleban ek duusre course me~ aaya tha ke mapping kexe generate karte he~ yaa to traditional way me~ yaa nae research method me~. (Perhaps in another course it came [was taught] that how [we] can generate mapping: either in the traditional way or in the new research method.)

The only difference between this utterance and the utterances made by the teacher is that the teacher has access to a large variety of bilingual expressions. In the following sentence he has incorporated English noun phrases in Urdu. The use of verbs is common: generate karna (to generate) and use hona (to use).

2. Jo conventional methods he~ chromosome mapping ke deletion mapping us me~ bhi use hoti he. (Whatever conventional methods of chromosome mapping exist deletion mapping is used in them as well.)

The utterances present a ‘sequential flow of conversation’ (Auer, 1998). Code switching can occur at any place in the extract.

3. And he has done significant work in the use of allocoids for the gene mapping. To unho~ ne ye kia he ke allocoids stocks le ke aur aar ef el pii aur diigar techniques ke zarye bohot saare use locate kie he~. (And he has done significant work in the use of allocoids for the gene mapping. So [what] he has done is that taking allocoids-stocks and by using RFLP and other techniques [he] has located many uses.)

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Like all the other utterances in the text, Urdu is the host language and different English terms are inserted with considerable ease. One interesting point is the use of the English word use. In English use (singular noun) has a plural form: uses; but in Urdu, certain nouns such as qaaliin (carpet) do not take the plural form in such case. Instead it is the verb that indicates plurality:

4. Ye qaaliin kitne ka he! (How much is this carpet?)5. Ye qaaliin kitne ke he~! (How much are these carpets?)

The teacher has treated the English word use in this utterance as an Urdu word: bohot saare use locate kie he~ ([he] has located many uses). This practice is fairly common throughout the data.

In the passage the code switching occurs very smoothly whether it takes place at the sentence boundaries or at the word boundaries. More or less the same patterns are found throughout this classroom discourse.

Discussion

The most recent studies on bilingualism insist on the conversational aspect of code switching (Auer, 1998) and they also maintain that the analysis of code switching should not be based on external linguistic or sociolinguistic categories. They must reconstruct participants’ categories (Auer, 1998; Li Wei, 1998).

Li Wei (1994), and Sebba (1994) make efforts to apply conversational analysis to data in which more than one language was used alternatively. They showed that code switching created interactional meaning.

The language in this classroom is not a single language. Both English and Urdu are used. There are longer stretches of English without a single Urdu word but it is hard to find an Urdu sentence where English words, phrases, or even whole sentences are not used. Verma (1976: 163) comments on this phenomenon using the example of English/Hindi code switching:

Code-switching is context-governed. If the interlocutors have a degree in English and use English as the medium of lecturing or in their office work, they are likely to use information carrying items of English and linkers of Hindi. If their topic of discourse is technical, their registral items are likely to be from English and the grammatical items from Hindi. Code-switching, one might say, is a marked badge of educated, urban bilinguals.

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Insertion of English items in Urdu syntax is a frequent feature in the speech of educated Pakistani speakers. Even if they do not possess the ability to speak English, they employ English words and phrases to give their discourse 4a touch of English’ that has social meaning. But teaching and learning in the classroom take place through a medium—a language—that is the official or unofficial medium of instruction. The language policy of the University of Karachi is quite clear about it: The medium of instruction and examination shall be English or Urdu. Candidates for B.A./B.Sc. (Pass) Examination may be permitted to write their scripts in Sindhi as well...Candidates for the B.Ed, and M.A. examinations may be permitted to write their scripts in Sindhi as well’ (University of Karachi, 1984: 344).

Nevertheless, most knowledge is available only in the English language. Whatever language is used in the classroom, students and teachers must read textbooks and other reading material in English. And through these and also through classroom input students get familiar with English terms and content words. They have also acquired a large amount of English vocabulary, mostly nouns and noun phrases, through primary and secondary schooling.

The teacher is a fluent speaker of both English and Urdu but he revealed that in his classroom he had developed the habit of using both the languages, as there were students who could not follow the ‘English only’ discourse. Such students are unable to comprehend spoken English but they have mastered the concepts as well as the key English terms that contain these concepts. In order to facilitate learning, the teacher thought it essential to use Urdu and English in the same conversation. Students do not participate if only English is spoken.

Table 2 shows that whatever medium of instruction students may have been taught in at primary or secondary schools, most graduate and postgraduate courses are offered in English and for them this change of medium is sudden because their education from academic years 1 to 12 does not train them to cope with the new medium. Bilingual classroom discourse helps both teachers and learners ‘construct knowledge’ (Mercer, 1995). Students from English medium institutions have relatively fewer difficulties at the tertiary level.

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Table 2: Languages in Education in Pakistan

Age Academic Years Medium of Instruction

English Urdu Urdu/Sindhi (in Sindhi)

Class Class Class6 1 I I I7 2 II II II8 3 III III III9 4 IV IV IV

10 5 V V V

11 6 VI VI VI12 7 VII VII VII13 8 VIII VIII VI14 9 IX IX IX15 10 X X X

16 11 XI XI XI17 12 XII XII XII18 13 B.A / B.Sc. / B.Com. / B.E.etc. I19 14 B.A / B.Sc. / B.Com. / B.E.etc. II

20 15 M.A / M.Sc. / M.Com. etc. I21 16 M.A / M.Sc. / M.Com. etc. II

Conclusion

This study is concluded with a quotation from Gfeller and Robinson (1998: 20) who considering the postcolonial situation in African countries comment:

…It is no exaggeration to claim that the school within a Western tradition has been unable to attain its aims in the case of 80% of the rural population. It has succeeded in creating a civilised elite which is unsuccessful in popularising

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its knowledge and in conveying its importance to the most deprived, to the majority of population. In terms of socio-cultural impact, the present use of the official language has created two social classes, the elite and the masses…

The situation is not different in other third world countries including Pakistan. Nonetheless, code switching in the classroom is used as a compromise strategy to facilitate both teaching and learning and without it a number of students would not be able to follow the classroom proceedings.

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ReferencesAbdullah, S. 1976. Pakistan me~ Urdu ka Masala [The Problem of Urdu in Pakistan].

Lahore: Khayabaan-e-Adab.Arthur, Johan Isabel. 1995- Policy, Practices and Pedagogy: A Case Study of Language

in Botswana Primary Classrooms. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of Lancaster, England.

Arthur, Johan Isabel. 1996. Codeswitchlng and Collusion: Classroom Interaction in Botswana Primary Schools. Linguistics and Education, 8 (l), pp. 17-33.

Auer, Peter, ed. 1998. Code-Switching in Conversation. London: Routledge.Camilleri, Antoinette. 1996. Language Values and Identities: Codeswitching in

Secondary Classrooms in Malta. Linguistics and Education. 8(1), pp. 85-103.Canagarajah, A. Surcsh. 1995. Functions of Codeswitching in ESL Classrooms:

Socialising Bilingualism in Jaffna. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 16 (3), pp. 173-95.

De Klerk, Vivian. 1996. Use of and Attitudes to English in a Multilingual University. English world-Wide 17: l,pp. 111-27.

Gfeller, Elizabeth, and Clinton Robinson. 1998. Which Language for Teaching? The Cultural Messages Transmitted by the Languages Used in Education. Language and Education 12 (1). pp. 18-32.

Li Wei. 1994. Three Generations, Two Languages, One Family. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Li Wei. 1998. The ‘Why’ and ‘How’ Question in the Analysis of Conversational Codeswitching. In Auer, P. (ed.), Code-Switching.

Lin, A. 1988. Pedagogical and Para-pedagogical Levels of Interaction in the Classroom: A Social Interactional Approach to the Analysis of the Codeswitching Behaviour of a Bilingual Teacher in an English Language Lesson. Working Papers in Linguistics and Language Teaching, 1 1 . University of Hong Kong Language Centre.

Lin, A. 1990. Teaching in Two Tongues: Language Alternation in Foreign Language Classroom. Research Report, 3. City Polytechnic of Hong Kong.

Martin, Pete. 1999. b) Close Encounters of a Bilingual Kind: Interactional Practices in the Primary Classrooms in Brunei. International Journal of Educational Development, 19, 127-40.

Martin, Peter. 1996. Codeswitching in Primary Classroom: One Response to the Planned and the Unplanned Language Environment in Brunei. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 17 (2/4), pp. 128-44.

Martin, Peter. 1999. a) Bilingual Unpacking of Monolingual Texts in Two Primary Classrooms in Brunei Darussalam. Language and Education, 13 (1), pp. 38-58.

Mercer, Neil. 1995. The Guided Construction of Know ledge: Talk amongst Teachers and Learners. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Rahman, Tariq. 1997. The Medium of Instruction Controversy in Pakistan. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 18 (2), pp. 145-54.

Romaine, Suzanne. 1995. Bilingualism (2nd edition). London: Basil Blackwell.

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Sebba, Mark. 1994. London Jamaican: Language Systems in Interaction. London: Longman.

UNESCO. 1953. The Use of Vernacular Languages in Education. Paris.University of Karachi. 1984. University of Karachi Code. Karachi.Verma, S.K. 1976. Codeswitching Hindi-English. Lingua 38, pp. 153-65.

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Appendix AT: Achchha. Deletion mapping is applied... not only in molecular genetics but it is also

applied in psychogenetics. Jo conventional methods he~ chromosome mapping ke deletion mapping us me~ bhi use hoti he. Thiik? But when it comes to rapid... that is not applied in deletion mapping as such. Ye ek different technique hai. Aur hoi question?

MS1: Ghaaleban ek duusre course me~ aaya tha ke mapping kese generate karte he~ yaa to traditional way me~ yaa nae research method me~.

T: Dekhe~ ham ek different area me~ boat kar rahe he~. Ek taraf ham baat kar rahe he~ ek technology ki jaha~ ham aar ef el pii marker use kar rahe he-. Thiik he. As such this technology has nothing to do with deletion mapping. Thiik he? It is an independent topic. Duusri taraf savaal ye peda hota he ke jo stock ham use kar rahe he~ mapping ke jo material ham use kar rahe he~ mapping ke lie vo material kia he. Aaya vo ek normal organism he yaa koi esa organism he jis me~ kuchh chromosome mojuud he~ kuchh chromosome missing he~ et cetera… Thiik. Ab agar ham koi esa organism istemaal karte he~ jis me — koi chromosome missing he to yaha~ par application aarahi he aar ef el pii ki organism division stock. Aar ef el pii… has nothing to do with the production of that special type of organism. No. Ye ek alehda technique he. Aap ek organism ke subdivision kese produce kare~ ge. Ye ek alehda technique he. Isko kese identify kare~ ge vo ek alehda technique he. But once you have to go at one hand you have this aar ef el pii technology on the other hand you have other different type of stocks which lend one chromosome or two chromosomes or whatever. Now we can combine these two to locate the things. Thiik he? And... er... we are going to read one paper, in fact,... er... I’ve got this paper here... er... this paper will be available on the photocopy shop. Aap vaha~se iski copies le liijiye ga... [Long pause as T is retrieving the paper from his briefcase! This is the scientist’s name Holland Jcrris. And he has done significant work in the use ofallocoids for the gene mapping. To unho~ ne ye kia he ke allocoids stocks le ke aur aar ef el pii aur diigar techniques ke zarye bohot saare use locate kie he~. This paper was published in the pii en ei css Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. Use of Chromosomic Fragments in Genes. To jo bhi vague sa idea aap ke zehn me~ is vaqt he uski clear picture jo he vo aap ko is paper me~ mil jaae gi. We have started this discussion today and in next class we’ll be discussing... er… some evidences for this discussion. OK. Aur kisi ka koi savaal.

T: Well. Deletion mapping is applied... not only in molecular genetics but it is also applied in psychogenetics. Whatever conventional methods of chromosome mapping exist deletion mapping is used in them as well. OK? But when it comes to rapid... that is not applied in deletion mapping as such. This is a different technique. Any other question?

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MS1: perhaps in another course it came (was taught] that how [we] can generate mapping: either in the traditional way or in the new research method,

T: Look we are talking in a different area. On the one hand we are talking about a technology where we are using [the] RFLP marker. All right As such this technology has nothing to do with deletion mapping. All right? It is an independent topic. On the other hand the question arises as to whatever stock we are using for mapping whatever material we are using for mapping what material is it. [Here] comes a normal organism or any such organism in which some chromosome is present some chromosome is missing et cetera. .. .OK. Now if we use any such organism in which a chromosome is missing then here comes the application of RFLP’s organism division stock. RFLP... has nothing to do with the production of that special type of organism. No This is a different technique. How will you produce an organism’s subdivision. This is a different technique. How [will you] identify this that is a different technique. But once you have to go at one hand you have this RFLP technology on the other hand you have other different type of stocks which lend one chromosome or two chromosomes or whatever. Now we can combine these two to locate things. All right? And... er... we are going to read one paper, in fact,... er... I’ve got this paper here... er... this paper will be available on the photocopy shop. Take copies of it from there... [Long pause as T is retrieving the paper from his briefcase] This is the scientist’s name Holland Jerris. And he has done significant work in the use of allocoids for the gene mapping. So [what] he has done is that taking allocoids stocks and by using RFLP and other techniques [he] has located many uses. This paper was published in the PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, So whatever vague idea is in your mind at this time you will get a clear picture of it in this paper. We have started this discussion today and in the next class we’ll be discussing... er... some evidences for this discussion. OK. Anybody else have any question.

Classroom Bilingual Discourse (Problems and Prospects) by Dr. Kaleem Raza Khan

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