Exploring Bilingualism Among Pakistani Teenagers: Assessing the Pros and Cons
Keywords:
Bilingualism, Challenges, Code-switching, Pakistan, TeenagersAbstract
Bilingualism is increasingly prevalent in the contemporary world, particularly in ethnically diverse countries such as Pakistan, where multilingual social environments result in a high proportion of bilingual individuals. Bilingualism reflects multiple ethnic identities and carries both positive and negative implications. Although previous studies have addressed bilingualism, many have not clearly distinguished between its benefits and drawbacks. This study critically analyzes the potential advantages and challenges of bilingualism among Pakistani teenagers. Drawing upon William Labov’s sociolinguistic theory, it employs a qualitative approach and conducts thematic analysis of interview data collected from ten teenage participants across Pakistan. Findings indicate that bilingualism enhances communication abilities, intercultural understanding, cognitive performance, and academic as well as professional prospects. However, challenges such as code-switching difficulties, linguistic confusion, and societal biases privileging certain languages also emerged.
Downloads
References
Adesope, O. O., Lavin, T., Thompson, T., & Ungerleider, C. (2010). A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Cognitive Correlates of Bilingualism. Review of Educational Research, 80(2), 207–245
Alejandra Andrade.(2018).Bilingualism in the education of adolescents. B.A. Candidate, Department of Spanish, California State University Stanislaus, 1 University Circle, Turlock, CA 95382
Al-Amri, M.N. (2013). Effects of Bilingualism on Personality, Cognitive and Educational Developments: A Historical Perspective. American academic & scholarly research journal, 5.
Ashraf, M. A. (2018b). Islamized ideologies in the Pakistani education system: The need for religious literacy. Religious Education, 113(1), 3–13
Appel, R. & Muysken, P. (1987). Language contact and bilingualism. London:Edward Arnold.
Channa, L. A. (2017). English in Pakistani public education: Past, present, and future. Language Problems and Language Planning, 41(1), 1–25
Diaz, R. M. (1983). Chapter 2: Thought and Two Languages: The Impact of Bilingualism on Cognitive Development. Review of Research in Education, 10(1), 23-54.
Dijkstra, T., Grainger, J. & van Heuven, W. J. B. (1999). Recognition of cognates and interlingual homographs: The neglected role of phonology. Journal of Memory and Language, 41, 496–518.
De Bruin, A., Dick, A. S., & M. Carreiras. (2021). Clear theories are needed to interpret differences: Perspectives on the bilingual advantage debate. Neurobiology of Language, 2(4), 433–451
Eberhard, D. M., Simons, G. F., Fennig, C. D. (Eds.). (2020). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (23rd edn.). SIL International.
Fricke, M., Zirnstein, M., Navarro-Torres, C., & Kroll, J. F. (2019). Bilingualism reveals fundamental variation in language processing. Bilingualism (Cambridge, England), 22(1), 200–207.
García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Journal of Bilingual Education Research & Instruction, 11(2, 35-50. Retrieved from Bilingualism.
Gellner, E. (1983). Nations and nationalism. Blackwell
Grosjean, F. (1982). Life with two languages: An introduction to bilingualism. London: Harvard University Press.
Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with words: Language, life, and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge University Press.
Hernandez, A. E., Bates, E. & Avila, L. X. (1996). Processing across the language boundary: A cross-modal priming study of Spanish–English bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 22, 846–864.
Labov, W. (1966). The social stratification of English in New York City. The social stratification of English in New York City.
Labov. (1972). Sociolinguistic patterns.
Marian, V., Spivey, M. & Hirsch, J. (2003). Shared and separate systems in bilingual language processing: Converging evidence from eye-tracking and brain imaging. Brain and Language, 86, 70–82.
Marian V, Shook A. The cognitive benefits of being bilingual. Cerebrum. 2012 Sep;2012:13. Epub 2012 Oct 31. PMID: 23447799; PMCID: PMC3583091.
McLaughlin, B. (1978). Second-language acquisition in childhood. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.
Ochs, E., & Schieffelin, B. (2008). Language socialization: An historical overview. In N. H. Mueller Gathercole, V. C., Thomas, E. M., Jones, L., Viñas Guasch, N., Young, M., & Hughes,
E. K. (2010). Cognitive effects of bilingualism: digging deeper for the contributions of language dominance, linguistic knowledge, socio-economic status and cognitive abilities. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 13(5), 617–664. Hornberger (Ed.), Encyclopedia of language and education (pp. 3–15). Springer
Peirce, B. N. (1995). Social identity, investment, and language learning. TESOL Quarterly, 29(1), 9–31
Romaine, S. (1989). Bilingualism. Oxford: Blackwell
Shamim, F. (2008). Trends, issues, and challenges in English language education in Pakistan. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 28(3), 235–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188790802267324
Sumiya, H. & Healy, A. F. (2004). Phonology in the bilingual Stroop effect. Memory & Cognition, 32, 752–758.
Saunders, G. (1988). Bilingualism children: From birth to teens. Clevedon: Multilingual LLL Matters LTD.
Downloads
Published
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Subaina Malik (gold medalist), Mah Noor, Sania Sadiq, Hijab Imtiaz (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
