UNIVERSITI KEBANGSAAN MALAYSIA

FAKULTI PENDIDIKAN

Course: GGGE 6413

LANGUAGE POLICY AND CURRICULUM PLANNING

Assignment I

Reaction Paper

Name: Nurul Akmal Amirah binti Sarudin (GP 06967)

Nurul Hanani binti Shamsudin (GP 06968)
Nurul Syifa binti Abd Rahman (GP 06970)

Program: TESL

Lecturer: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Parilah M. Shah

Session: Sem II 2018/2019

Date: 15th June 2019

Introduction

This paper attempts to react to the article assigned which entitled ‘Reforming the
National Curriculum: Teaching the National and Provincial Languages of Pakistan’ by María
Isabel Maldonado García. This paper is discussed into a few sections; summary, strengths and
shortcomings. This would be discussed in the following paragraphs.
The author of the article, Maria Isabel Maldonado Garcia is an Assistant Professor
majoring in Spanish language and Linguistics. She had 20 years translation, interpretation and
writing experience at international level including 12 years teaching and research experience
at university level in Pakistan as well as 3 years research experience in Spain for PhD studies.
This past experience serves as a prerequisite hence allow the author to make supple comparison
between Spain and Pakistan in the article in the pursuit of proposing the reformation model of
the national curriculum in Pakistan.
Nevertheless, the article can be summarized into a few key points. Firstly, the
background and the linguistics demographic of the country. Pakistan is located in Southern
Asia and bordered by the Arabian Sea to the south, Iran and Afghanistan to the west, India to
the east, and China to the north, therefore, Pakistan is influenced by diverse ethnic group;
Punjabi 44.68%, Pashtun (Pathan) 15.42%, Sindhi 14.1%, Saraiki 8.38%, Muhajirs 7.57%,
Balochi 3.57%, other 6.28% (CIA World Facts, 2013-14). This affects the linguistic
demographic of the nation Punjabi 48%, Sindhi 12%, Saraiki (a Punjabi variant) 10%, Pashto
(alternate name, Pashtu) 8%, Urdu (official) 8%, Balochi 3%, Hindko 2%, Brahui 1%, English
(official; lingua franca of Pakistani elite and most government ministries), Burushaski, and
other 8% (CIA World Facts, 2013-14). The author discussed that the Supreme Court passed a
ruling in late September 2015 by which Urdu also became the official language in Pakistan
besides the English language.
Secondly, the author highlighted the issue of bilingualism in which the goal is not
achieved until now as there is no focus in making children bilingual in at least these two
languages in public school. Besides, the author also highlighted the issue of preserving
language legacy as she explained that an effort should be placed in teaching of provincial
languages (Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Balochi) at primary, and secondary schools of the
country public or private so that the provincial language legacy does not get lost. The study is
a proposal based on a previously empirically tested linguistic model. The main purpose is to
achieve bilingual citizens (if not multilingual) who are able to speak the national languages, as
well as their provincial languages, at a native level and be proficient in speaking, listening,
reading and writing, in order to ensure continuity of the rich linguistic legacy of the most
important languages of Pakistan. To achieve this, the author has proposed various language
models in different countries is compared with Pakistan. Eventually, Spanish language model
is chosen due to larger similarity in terms of language demographic and closer number of ethnic
group as present in Pakistan.
Next, the strengths of the article is discussed in the following paragraphs.
Firstly, the article presented a fair and objective comparison between Spain and Pakistan.
Saratsiotis (2014) suggested that the body of such an essay (compare and contrast) is organized
by discussing one point at a time and how it applies to each subject before moving on to the
next point. The author has implied this in her article when she has clearly presented the
comparison between the two regions, Spain and Pakistan. She compared the similarities
between the two regions in one paragraph. She chose to describe the situation in Spain at the
beginning before comparing it to the situation in Pakistan. It can be seen on page 76 of the
article where she wrote about the large influence of Arab in both regions. She has provided the
percentage of Arabic terms that have been identified in the dictionary in Spain and Pakistan.
By looking at the percentage, readers can directly compare the difference in percentage and
draw a general conclusion on why education system in Pakistan is not at the same level with
Spain.
Next, the author compared the language model used in both regions. She explained on the
national and official language used in the two countries and stated that Spain has only one
official language whereas Pakistan has two and one of them is foreign language that caused
inferiority feelings towards those who are not proficient to which she argued that is the reason
why Pakistan cannot be at the same level as Spain in terms of education. She also provided the
statistics of regional language that both countries have to deal with. From this it can clearly be
seen how the language model works in both Spain and Pakistan and the readers can get the idea
on why Pakistan’s language model did not work much for them.
On the other hand, the author used the same technique when contrasting between the both
regions where the points were well explained in the same paragraph to show the differences.
She elucidated on the influence of Arabic where it has stopped in Spain in the modern days
while in Pakistan they tried to maintain it while getting rid of Sanksrit and Prakrit which
associated with Hinduism to maintain the level of religious. This drives the reader’s attention
that Arabic is not used in Spain since they focused on their own national language and Pakistan
has retained it which shows why their language model did not really work in the country.
 Secondly, the author has stated convincing argument in comparing the HDI (Human
Development Index) between Spain and Pakistan. The United Nations Development
Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Index (HDI) provides a standardised measure of
the social and economic development of an individual country (Roy, et. al., 2014). This
indicates that HDI rate can be used to measure the progress of a country which it is a wise
decision to be made in comparing the countries. In the article, the author has presented the
HDI in Pakistan which shows higher rates in the cities and lower in the rural areas. She also
displayed the HDI rated by United Nations for both regions which implied that Pakistan has
lower rate compared to Spain despite of having the same linguistic history. Not only that, the
author also included the world ranking for both countries in terms of education. This fact
enables to spark curiosity among the readers on why there is a large difference between the
ranking even though both countries shared the same linguistic background and history. From
this, the readers are convinced that it is a right move to reform the national curriculum in
Pakistan.
In addition, the author has displayed a significant reason to urge the need of reforming the
national language policy in Pakistan. This was unveiled in the article on page 79 where the
author showed the statistics of literacy rates in Pakistan. It was proven that the literacy rate in
rural area is lower compared to those who live in the urban area. This might be due to the weak
management from health and economy sectors which has the most contribution to the country
development. Therefore, she has suggested some measures that might need to be taken in both
sectors in order to increase the literacy rates. By looking at the statistics, the author was able
to persuade the readers that it is remarkable to reform the national curriculum so that they
would be able to increase their world ranking in terms of education to be at the same level as
Spain.
Lastly, the author presented a well-developed proposed reformation model. This can be
seen when the author carefully addressed the issue by proposing a larger to smaller scale
changes that should be made in the pursuit of suggesting solutions for the issues identified. For
instance, the author stated the current constitution first, then followed by the constitution
changes as well as curriculum changes. Therefore, the reader can understand better the current
situation in the linguistics panorama in Pakistan. For example, under the current constitution it
is stated that ‘Subject to clause (1), the English language may be used for official purposes
until arrangements are made for its replacement by Urdu’, thus, the author proposed that
“The English language should be taught in all primary and secondary schools for the purpose
of education, technology, trade, and other spheres where it may be needed, so that Pakistani
citizens can compete and excel in international environments as well as for official and
unofficial purposes.” Following the proposed constitution changes, the author suggested in the
curriculum changes, ‘English should be taught with the purpose of achieving a high language
proficiency, so that all citizens can understand it and use it in all public schools.’ Therefore,
the author is evidently presented a coherent flow of proposal subjected to the national’s
language policy continuum.
Next, the shortcomings of the article are discussed in the following paragraphs.
Shortcomings
1. Spain constitution is written in Spanish language without any translation.
2. Weak argument to propose national curriculum amendment.
3. Lack of supportive evidence.
4. Red flag

In conclusion, the author has presented a good flow of content and a well-written article
however, the article can be improved by providing translation for the Spanish constitution, as
well as more pertinent literature and supportive evidence to defend arguments in proposing
national curriculum amendment.

REFERENCES

Saratsiosis, G. (2014). Organizational Patterns for the Comparison/Contrast Essay .

Retrieved from San José State University Writing Center :
http://www.sjsu.edu/writingcenter/

Roy, A. et. al. (2014). Impact of Human Development Index on the profile and outcomes of
patients with acute coronary syndrome. BMJ Open Access, 279 - 286.