Abstract:
Pakistan as a multilingual country faces numerous problems in
language planning in higher education. As educational standards in higher
education decline, there are concerns about student difficulties in English
and lack of required materials in Urdu, The research reported here is a
nation wide survey of 2136 students, 121 Subject and English teachers of
public and private sector colleges and universities from all the capital cities
of Pakistan, as well as 63 parents who responded to the questionnaire. The
survey examines the learner's background, attitudes to languages and
motivational orientation, availability and quality of materials in different
mediums, learner difficulties in English, provision of English support
programmes, and language outcomes. Results point to the significant
differences between private sector and public sector students in terms of
socio-economic status, and other variables. The study recommends that
public sector students be provided more state support by adopting an
'English for all policy', and strengthening the English programmes through
a revision of courses, development of materials, and training of teachers so
as to meet the students' learning and target needs.
