Language Shift and Language Maintenance: A comparative Study

of Students’ Attitudes towards English and Khowar

BY
SUMIRA WALI
ID: 11602

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

CITY UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

PESHAWAR-PAKISTAN

February 2020

1
 Language Shift and Language Maintenance: A comparative Study
of Students’ Attitudes towards English and Khowar

BY

SUMIRA WALI

A proposal submitted to the City University

Of Science & Information Technology, Peshawar,
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MS in ENGLISH

Approved by
Supervisory Committee

1. Dr. Zulfiqar Ali (________________)

Graduate Studies Committee

1. (____________________) 2. (____________________)
Prof. Dr. Muhammad Younes Dr. Zulfiqar Ali
3. (_________________) 4. (__________________)
Dr. Humaira Riaz Ms. Uzma Khalil

5. (______________________________)
External Member

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
CITY UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
PESHAWAR-PAKISTAN

2
 February 2020

List of Abbreviations

KP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

GB Gilgit-Baltistan

L1 First Language

EFL English as a Foreign Language

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 Table of Contents
Chapter 1.....................................................................................................................................................5
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................5
Problem Statement...................................................................................................................................6
Objectives of the Research......................................................................................................................7
Research Questions.................................................................................................................................7
Significance of the Study.........................................................................................................................7
Theoretical Framework............................................................................................................................7
Chapter 2.....................................................................................................................................................8
Literature Review....................................................................................................................................8
Chapter 3...................................................................................................................................................10
Research Methodology..........................................................................................................................10
Research Design....................................................................................................................................10
Respondents...........................................................................................................................................10
Instruments of data collection............................................................................................................10
Data Collection Procedure.....................................................................................................................10
Analysis Technique...............................................................................................................................10
References.................................................................................................................................................11
References.................................................................................................................................................11

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 Chapter 1

Introduction

The term ‘Khowar’ contains two words; Kho and War. Kho refers to the people of Chitral and War

means the language. Thus, Khowar is the language of people living in Chitral (District of Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa). Khowar language belongs to the Indo-Aryan family and is known to have maintainable

group of words, sounds, and forms (Morgenstierne, 1961). Khowar speakers live in Chitral, Swat Valley

and a district of Gilgit-Baltistan called Ghizer. Other names that are used for Khowar Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa are Kashkari, Chitrali, Arniya and Patu. Khowar is considered the second most spoken

language in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and third one in Gilgit (Rahman, 2010).

With the growing developments in educational, social and tourism fields, the interaction between
Khowar speakers (The people of Chitral) and English language is increasing day by day. In the
current scenario the youth of Chitral desire to learn and speak English because they consider this
language a guarantee for earning a good job and future. In Chitral the Khowar language is used
as a local language but people in groups and tribes in neighboring places of Gilgit, and some
parts in Swat also use Khowar language. Moreover, considerable number of recent migrants to
large cities such as Peshawar, Islamabad and Rawalpindi also speak Khowar (Decker 1992: 25–
26).
Furthermore, in the university premises English language is a major foreign language that is used
as a medium of instruction. Both teaching and learning of English in Pakistan is very important
as English is declared as a compulsory subject since primary schools. English is highly accepted
and celebrated due to which students are automatically willing to learn it.

The Khowar speakers in Chitral are aware of the importance of maintaining their identity
through language. Nevertheless, at the same time, they are also inspired by the globally known
language; English and feel the necessity to acquire it as a lingua franca. For this reason, the
Khowar speakers send their children to English medium institutions for education (Liljegren &
Akhunzada, 2017). The trend of giving more importance to English by the natives of Chitral has

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lessened the need and importance of Khowar both with the people living in and outside Chitral.
This change in attitude of natives toward their mother-tongue is raising many questions about the
future of Khowar language. Attitude refers to the set of believes, emotions, ideas and behaviour
towards a specific object, person or situation ( Cherry, 2019). According to the definition of Holmes
(2013) in multilingual settings people are highly inspired to learn and use a second language as
they develop a positive attitude towards its speakers.
Baker (1998) is on the opinion that attitude vary in degree of positive or negative. In accordance
with this statement the current research categorizes students’ attitude as negative or positive
toward any language.
According to David Bradley (2002: 1) attitude of the speech community concerning their
language is the crucial factor in language maintenance. Therefore, it is very important to
investigate and find out the attitudes of Khowar speakers toward their mother tongue and toward
the apparently more celebrated language; English too. If the attitudes are found more favorable
towards English and less towards Khowar than it will be a major point of concern for the
Khowar language in the long run and linguists must work on it to avoid language shift in the
region.

Problem Statement

Tsunoda (2006) is of the opinion that a language when is used by the elders but is no longer
transferred to the young generation; it may result in language shift and gradually language death.
English language due to development in education and invention of technology is known to be
the language of survival in Pakistani context. Khowar speakers especially the student group is
seen to frequently code- mix between English and Khowar. The attitudes of the speakers seem to
be more in the favor of English and less towards L1. In order to confirm this assumption, it is
very important to investigate the case and see if it is actually the real so that necessary steps can
be taken for the maintenance of Khowar language.

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Objectives of the Research

 To find out the attitudes of Undergraduate students towards their Mother-Tongue and
English?

 To find out the reasons of their language attitudes.

Research Questions

 What is the attitude of undergraduate students toward English and Khowar?

 What are the reasons of their attitudes towards the language?

Significance of the Study

Chitral is situated in the northern part of KP. It has a unique culture. Due to the growing
connections with multi cultures and languages, it is seen to be affected in different ways and one
of them is the language. This study is significant for the language safety. As per the
contemporary scenario it is very much obvious that the attitudes of the students are changing
towards their mother-tongue and are seen to give more preference to English. If it continues then
it will be an alarming situation for the language maintenance of the land. Therefore, through the
findings of the research the speakers will be conscious about their language choice.

Theoretical Framework
The most important factor that influences language shift and language maintenance is the
attitudes of its speakers (Gardner, 1985). If the attitude of the speakers is positive, it will lead to
language maintenance but if it is negative than the language will undergo a shift. The research is
bases on the theory given by Gardner which relates language attitude to its maintenance and
shift.
Moreover, attitude is Attitude is used to describe human behaviour towards anything (Baker,

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1992).

Chapter 2
Literature Review

Research on language attitude has Language attitude research has been traced actively since
1960s and today it is undertaken even more with enthusiasm. Attitude and motivation play a vital
role in language learning and retaining. Different researches have been conducted on language
attitude in various parts of the world and in this part of the research; some of them will be
discussed.
Chew (2013), did a research on university EFL learners’ attitudes towards English and their
motivation to learn the language along with awareness of their ethnic identity. After analysis of
the obtained data the findings were positive toward English. The students had a strong desire to
learn English and to use it in daily life. Moreover, they showed a keen interest to speak English
fluently. However, they considered their native tongue to be superior to English language.

Another research was conducted by Alenezi (2010). The research was on the attitudes of students
towards English and Arabic code-switching in science classes and the effects of such attitude on
learning science subject at college level. The findings were in favor of instructions in the class
through code-switching. Students were of the opinion that the usage of one language is not
effective for their academic progress. Therefore, both languages should be equally used for a
better understanding of the topics taught. Their attitude was positive thus; their academic
performance was seen positive too due to their motivation level.

Language is not just a medium of interaction but a showcase of power too. A research was
carried out by Gao (2009), that was to investigate the attitudes of Korean students who are
studying in a bilingual Korean school situated in China. The research findings revealed that the
students were in favor of learning both the language for their self-empowerment. The results also
highlighted the political and economic power of the languages as a source of getting benefit from
the growing economy of China and developing close connection with Korea. In short, the results

8
revealed that more than one language is very much needed to empowering a generation and
spreading roots with other nations.

One more investigation was done on attitude of students. This research was conducted by Ali
et at.(2020), on language attitude of Pashto speakers towards English. The data was collected
from the undergraduate students and the results were in the favor of English. Students were of
the opinion that English can help them to achieve good grades and good job. Moreover, English
will help them to explore the world as most of the materials available are in the English language
and it can be a best tool to express oneself

All the aforementioned researches have been carried out in a different culture and context.
Therefore, it can be conducted in a different culture in order to find out the attitudes of culturally
different people on a language that is globally known and towards a language that is given to
them by their ancestors. The current research will take this idea and implement it on a Chitrali
culture which is now currently becoming the hub of multiple cultures due to social, economic
and educational developments. Therefore, it will be very useful and interesting to know about the
attitudes of Khowar speakers towards their mother-tongue and English language.

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Chapter 3

Research Methodology

Research Design

Respondents
Respondents for this study will be the undergraduate female students with an age limit of 18-22.

The participants will be from three different departments; English, Sociology and Education

Total 48 students will be selected for the research.

Instruments of data collection

Questionnaire on the language attitude will be used for this purpose. The questionnaire will adapted from

Alex et al. (1998) with some changes in it. It will contain both close and open ended questions.

Questionnaire will be an easy toll to collect data. The respondents will feel no pressure and there will be a

choice of not showing their names as well.

Data Collection Procedure

The data will be collected through questionnaire. The questionnaire will be distributed among the wiling

students and before attempting the questions they will be briefed about the purpose of the research. The

ambiguous questions if any will be explained by the researcher and also the questionnaire will be

distributed and collected by the researcher. [ CITATION Ale10 \l 1033 ]

Analysis Technique
The data collected will be analyzed through MS Excel. The answers given by the students will be shown

in the form of percentage and graph with the help of MS Excel. The data will be compared on the basis of

the results obtained on attitude of Khowar speakers towards their mother tongue and English.

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.

References

References
Alenezi, A. A. (20210). STUDENTS'LANGUAGE ATTITUDE TOWARDS USING CODE-
SWITCHING AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION IN THE COLLEGE OF HEALTH
SCIENCES:. Annual Review of Education, Communication & Language Sciences,, 7.

Abdulalh, A. (2010). Student language attitude towards using code switching as a medium of

instruction in the college of health sciences: exploratory study. Article vol 7, 1-22

Baker, C. (1992). Attitude and Language. Bristol: Multilingual Matters

Cherry, K. (2019, April 05). Attitudes and behavior in Psychology. Retrieved from

https://www.verywellmind.com/attitudes-how-they-form-change-shape-behavior-

2795897Retrieved on: 2019, July 16.

Decker,Kendall D. 1992. Languages of Chitral(Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan 5).

Islamabad:National Institute of Pakistan Studies and Summer Institute of Linguistics.

F. Gao, “Language and power: Korean–Chinese students' language attitude and practice”, Journal of

Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Vol. 30, No.6, pp. 525-534, 2009.

11
Fong, Peng, C. (2020) Language attitudes of university students in China. DOI:

10.7763/IPEDR.V68.16

Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social Psychology and Second Language Learning: The role of Attitudes and

Motivation. London: Edward Arnold

Holmes, J. (2013). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (4th Ed.). New York,

United States: Rutledge

Liljegren, H., & Akhunzada, F. (2017). Linguistic diversity, vitality and maintenance: a case

study on the language situation in northern Pakistan. Multiethnica.Meddelandefrån

Centrum förmultietniskforskning, Uppsala universitet, (36- 37): 61-79.

M. Axler, A. Yang, & T. Stevens. Current language attitudes of Hong Kong Chinese adolescents and

young adults, in M. C. Pennington, Ed., Language in Hong Kong at Century’s end, Hong Kong:

Hong Kong University Press, pp. 329-338, 1998.

Morgenstierne, Georg. 1961. Dardic and Kafir languages. Encyclopedia of Islam, vol. 2, Fasc.

25, 138–139.New Edition. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

Rehamn, G & Shahanullah (2013). Language attitude of Pashtu speakers towards English

T. (2010).Language Policy, Identity, and Religion: aspects of the Civilization of the Muslims of Pakistan

and North India. Islamabad: Chair on Quaid-i-Azam& Freedom Movement, National Institute of

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Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University.

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 Questionnaire

1. English language is the widely used language in your university.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3. Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

2. English is the language of qualified people.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3. Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

3. When speaking English, I don’t feel that I am Chitrali anymore.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3. Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

4. I will be appreciated by my friends, relatives and family, if I speak in English, I will be praised and

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3. Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

5. I would like my children to speak English at homes.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3. Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

6. I should not be using English with my family members.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3. Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

7. Parents should speak in English with their children from the very early age.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3.Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

8. I love watching English-speaking movies.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3.Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

9. I love listening to English songs.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3.Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

10. I think English language is superior to Khowar.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3.Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

11. I prefer Khowar over English at home.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3.Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

12. I am more comfortable with my friends while speaking Khowar.

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 1.Agree 2.Disagree 3.Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

13. Khowar is inferior to English in status.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3.Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

14. I feel uncomfortable when hearing one Chitrali speaking to another in English.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3.Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

15. I want my children to speak Khowar in domestic life.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3.Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

16. I feel uneasy and lack confidence when speaking English.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3.Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

17. Khowar language sounds good as compared to English.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3.Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

18. The Khowar language shows my identity.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3.Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

19. Khowar should be included as compulsory subject like English in schools.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3.Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

20. Khowar should be the medium of instruction in colleges and university.

1.Agree 2.Disagree 3.Strongly agree 4.Strongly disagree 5.Neutral

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