Syed ABDUL Manan

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• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Nazarbayev University

Sociolinguistics as an interdisciplinary science joins language and society to provide knowledge on their relationship and interaction. Language planners and policy makers can use this science to make accurate decisions. This study examined language policy and the strategies used by the public to shape the linguistic landscape of Petaling Jaya, in...

English is perceived as a passport to better employment and upward social mobility in Pakistan. In a society characterized by acute class division and intense class consciousness, parents from the lower, lower middle or working strata of society aspire to enroll their children in the English-medium schools. Public demand for English medium schoolin...

This study analyses the crisis of English teaching in Pakistan. The study examines stakeholders’ perceptions and classroom practices to identify theoretical fault lines and institutional/pedagogical challenges in the low-fee schools. We deem such research critical in the backdrop of public’s heavy reliance and feverish pursuit of low-fee English-me...

Sociocultural theory and constructionists propose that language learning is a socially and culturally mediated process, and they emphasize on social interaction. This study examines the amount of students’ exposure to the school language to account for the link between English-medium policies in low-fee English-medium schools and children's sociocu...

Pakistan is a multilingual and multiethnic country; however, this diversity stands unrecognized in the formal language-in-education policies. Estimates suggest that about 90 % of children who speak over 60 indigenous languages do not have access to education in their mother tongues. Linguists estimate that exclusive teaching of Urdu and English sub...

4 ‘Making up’ for the trilingual policy tensions: A snapshot of the ‘ground-up’ appropriation and coping strategies Syed Abdul Manan, Anas Hajar Abstract This chapter critically examines Kazakhstan’s Trilingual Policy, focusing on the use of English as a medium of instruction in mainstream schools, as perceived by local actors, including school...

(BOOK LINK https://www.routledge.com/Agency-in-Multilingual-Education-Policy-and-Planning-in-Asia/Manan-Hajar/p/book/9781032845166 ) Manan and Hajar invite experts and seasoned researchers from Asian contexts to explore the nuanced dynamics of language policy and educational practices in Asia, underscoring the importance of understanding local agen...

Introduction Situated within the relatively under-researched and underrepresented contexts of highly multilingual Asian countries, the volume Agency in Multilingual Education Policy and Planning in Asia seeks to deepen the understanding of agency within multilingual education policy and planning by engaging prominent scholars to critically examine...

This study, based on a photographic survey of Quetta, the capital city of the province of Balochistan, Pakistan demonstrates and discusses how, and why elite bilingualism as a de facto language policy renders the local indigenous languages invisible from the linguistic landscape of a highly diverse multilingual city. Elite bilingualism in the conte...

English Medium Instruction (EMI) is a burgeoning field of interest for researchers and practitioners; however, to date its sociocultural and political implications have not been widely considered. This book addresses that concern by situating EMI within wider sociopolitical contexts of knowledge and language. It foregrounds the notion of 'Critical...

Research on English private tutoring (EPT) is still in its infancy despite its global impact on education systems and society. Informed by the poststructuralist view of identity, this qualitative study investigates the relatively underexplored area of the complex identities of English language teacher-supplied EPT in Central Asia. The data were col...

Situating the challenges of English-disadvantaged students in the EMI context in one public/government sector university in Pakistan, this study uses semi-structured interviews conducted with teachers to show how teachers understand equity in the EMI context, what challenges they encounter in accounting for an equitable and socially just EMI policy...

This study investigates the connection between access to English during early schooling (Urdu-medium public schools and English-medium private schools), the impetus of investing in a graduate classroom, and their role in shaping learners' habitus, and identities. Using cultural capital and investment as the conceptual lens and students' interviews...

In this study, the authors address the case of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) content teachers in an English medium instruction (EMI) environment in Kazakhstan to argue that the professional needs and identities of these teachers are considerably different than the specialist English teachers who teach English language skills...

By representing a multilingual and multicultural world, this edited volume is one of the first to examine the motivational trajectories and multilingual identities of learners of LOTEs (e.g. Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Turkish) across eight Asian contexts (China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan...

This research study focuses on exploring the experiences of a group of multilingual Kazakhstani students learning Korean as L4 or L5, with a specific focus on their language learning strategy (LLS) use and their ideal multilingual selves across different settings in post-soviet Kazakhstan, the largest Central Asian country. In Kazakhstan, the Kazak...

This edited volume focuses on the experiences of individuals learning languages other than English (LOTEs) in a range of Asian contexts that have traditionally been under-represented in the literature. Aligning with the 'multilingual turn' in SLA, it views learners as individuals of a multilingual society with unique, complex, heterogenous and dyna...

Situating EMI policy and planning within the mainstream school in Kazakhstan, this study probes how STEM (sciences, technology, engineering, mathematics) teachers manage the policy, what challenges they confront, and how they respond to the challenges. Employing ‘agency’ as a conceptual frame, the study analyzed 58 teachers’ interviews representing...

English has, for historical reasons, risen to global prominence as the unchallenged lingua franca internationally. World Englishes (WE) has, as a result, established itself as a visible line of research, exploring localised/indigenised varieties of English from around the world (e.g. India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Nigeria). Howev...

This chapter presents an overview of EMI in some countries of South Asia, namely, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka (Padwad et al., 2023). While sharing cultural, social and historical commonalities, these countries also exhibit unique characteristics of the socio-cultural make-up. Both the commonalities and uniq...

This chapter presents an overview of EMI in some countries of South Asia, namely, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka (Padwad et al., 2023). While sharing cultural, social and historical commonalities, these countries also exhibit unique characteristics of the socio-cultural make-up. Both the commonalities and uniq...

Following the government’s trilingual education reforms in Kazakhstan, STEM subjects such as sciences, mathematics, and computer science were to be taught through English Medium Instruction (EMI) in mainstream schools. Policy observers thought that it was bound to challenge concerned teachers because they were not yet sufficiently prepared to teach...

This article reports data from a qualitative study conducted within the elitist English-medium schools in three cities of Pakistan to claim that theory building, and English teaching practices are still modeled on monolingual biases inherent in the orthodox notions of linguistic purism and Anglo-normative traditions of the 1990s. Orthodoxy is manif...

This qualitative study documents six postgraduate Kazakh students' challenges, language learning strategies (LLSs), and future vision while studying at a highly selective English medium instruction (EMI) university in Kazakhstan. It also aims to capture the influence of the participants' past English learning experiences and contex-tual factors on...

This study investigates graduate students’ experiences with English medium instruction (EMI) in Kazakhstan. The data reported here were collected through an online survey conducted in 10 public and private universities in Kazakhstan in March–July 2021. This survey received a total of 320 responses from graduate students with diverse age, gender, di...

Most recent research on language learning and identity emphasizes on investing learners’ capital as affordance to affirm their identities (Darvin & Norton, 2015; Norton, 2013). Learners’ capital refers to prior knowledge, home literacies/native languages. Drawing on data from English language academies from Pakistan, this study finds a conflicting...

Examining the linguistic landscape of the new capital city of Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana), this article demonstrates the sociolinguistic transformations following adoption of neoliberal economic policies during the post-Soviet period. The study uses ‘neoliberal governmentality’ as a conceptual lens to examine how neoliberalism as an ec...

This qualitative study documents the experiences of 38 Grade 5 students and their six female teachers from four state‐maintained schools in Kazakhstan teaching/learning English during emergency remote teaching and learning (ERT&L). It was guided by Kearney et al.’s (2012) framework that provides three dimensions that influence individuals’ teaching...

The teaching of native languages is seen as being key to the development of cognitive skills, better academic performance in early grades and a resource for linguistic (re)vitalization and cultural revival. This study examines the institutional challenges in teaching and learning native languages in Pakistan. The study uses teachers’ agency through...

This study examines teachers' language appropriation strategies in the multilingual setting of Pakistani universities to show how they negotiate the official/institutional constraints imposed in the implementation of English

This qualitative study explores the English learning experiences of 30 Grade 5 students from three mainstream schools in Kazakhstan during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was informed by Benson et al.'s (2011) four-dimensional model of language learning beyond the classroom: (a) location (physical vs. virtual), (b) formality (formal vs. informal agents),...

This study examines teachers’ language appropriation strategies in the multilingual setting of Pakistani universities to show how they negotiate the official/institutional constraints imposed in the implementation of English Medium Instruction (EMI). Working in a monoglossic environment gripped by ‘guilty multilingualism’, these teachers assert the...

When government announced removal of the Goodbye Mr. Chips from intermediate-level English textbooks in one of the provinces of Pakistan, the public and media response was overwhelming. Students in particular took a sigh of relief because many believed it was a boring story by a foreign author, depicting a foreign setting. Drawing on this developme...

This study demonstrates how stakeholders’ treatment of English language as the sole marketable/saleable commodity in educational setting can have implications for multilingualism and existing linguistic diversity in Pakistan. Language commodification refers to the valuation of languages as marketable/saleable commodities and their relative exchange...

This study demonstrates how stakeholders’ treatment of English language as the sole marketable/saleable commodity in educational setting can have implications for multilingualism and existing linguistic diversity in Pakistan. Language commodification refers to the valuation of languages as marketable/saleable commodities and their relative exchange...

This study examines translanguaging as a political tool in Pakistan used to exploit ethnic sensitivities of speech communities. Building upon the grounded theory, concept of translanguaging was reconsidered to examine the politicized use of codes. The modified concept has been used to analyse the discourse of politicians and to demonstrate that suc...

In a fast changing landscape of a globalized world and knowledge-driven economies, producing graduates with multiple competencies is critical as well as challenging for the universities. Given the growing importance of soft skills and their employability prospects, the present study draws on quantitative and qualitative data and examine soft skills...

ABSTRACT Employing neoliberal governmentality as a conceptual frame, this paper presents evidence from the mushrooming English language academies from Pakistan to demonstrate that how neoliberal rationality as a normative order of reason governs the minds of learners and teachers without governing. Drawing on the analysis of an open-ended intervie...

The study demonstrates how various stakeholders’ orientations about language-in-education policy and linguistic/cultural diversity are shaped by a monolingual habitus in Pakistan. The notion of habitus originates from Bourdieu’s (1991) social theories which refers to “a set of dispositions which incline agents to act and react in certain ways. The...

This article examines the steady revitalization of an endangered minority community in northern Pakistan to show that how the Torwali community strategically mobilizes limited resources to achieve a sustainable revival of its language and culture. The uniqueness of the planning rests in its holistic, identity-based integrated approach that seeks to...

This article examines the steady revitalization of an endangered minority community in northern Pakistan to show that how the Torwali community strategically mobilizes limited resources to achieve a sustainable revival of its language and culture. The uniqueness of the planning rests in its holistic, identity-based integrated approach that seeks to...

Many countries in Asia, especially SEA, have as a result of independence, been insistent on having a national language policy for their respective countries. They have rationalised that a national language will bring the multiethnic groups of people in these countries together and create a united country. This paper traces choice and developments o...

The study proposes that Critical Multilingual Language Awareness (CMLA) can be deployed as a productive theoretical construct for scholarly activism in a country such as Pakistan where multilingualism and linguistic diversity have historically been seen as problems than assets in education. We illustrate that such activism can transform orientation...

Sociolinguistics as an interdisciplinary science joins language and society to provide knowledge on their relationship and interaction. Language planners and policy makers can use this science to make accurate decisions. This study examined language policy and the strategies used by the public to shape the linguistic landscape of Petaling Jaya, in...

The study is underpinned by the public sphere paradigm, which emphasizes that language policy and planning (LPP) should be studied from the actual practices of local stakeholders/agents and communities within the local sites. This approach allows researchers to understand the complex, multilayered, and dynamic process of policy interpretation, appr...

Globalisation has resulted in people from different parts of the world migrating from one country to another in search of better job opportunities. Countries that provide attractive job opportunities are most likely to become the major destinations of migrant workers. In Southeast Asia, Malaysia is one of the preferred destinations of economic migr...

ABSTRACT The study is underpinned by the public sphere paradigm, which emphasizes that language policy and planning (LPP) should be studied from the actual practices of local stakeholders/agents and communities within the local sites. This approach allows researchers to understand the complex, multilayered, and dynamic process of policy interpretat...

The 1Malaysia concept was developed as a means to unite all the various ethnic groups of the country but it would seem that after 54 years of Independence, Malaysia may still be experiencing subtle nuances of stereotyping among the ethnic communities. This study was developed in order to gauge how the Malaysian Chinese are perceived by Malaysian Ma...

The National Education Policy 2009 of Pakistan designated English for two important roles in the government schools of Pakistan: English be taught as a compulsory subject from Grade 1; and also English be used as the medium of instruction for science and mathematics from Grade 4. This article analyzes the effect of embracing the English-medium mand...

The National Education Policy 2009 of Pakistan designated English for two important roles in the government schools of Pakistan: English be taught as a compulsory subject from Grade 1; and also English be used as the medium of instruction for science and mathematics from Grade 4. This article analyzes the effect of embracing the English-medium mand...

This paper focusses on the minority community of the Malaysian Sindhis to show that ethnic and cultural identities can be constructed through means other practices than solely by the heritage languages. The study draws on an open-ended question directed to 79 lady members of the Sindhi community in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The respondents were women...

This study problematises the folk theories of ELT practitioners, and critically views the limits of their monolingual idealism and guilty multilingualism in the context of Pakistan. Drawing on interviews of 18 English teachers and classroom observations in a provincial capital of Pakistan, the study analyses their ‘two solitudes’ assumptions, in wh...

Language policies and school practices in Pakistan continually perpetuate gaps between the traditionally less versus the traditionally more privileged languages. About 95% of students receive their primary and post-primary education in languages other than their L1. Drawing on the continua of biliteracy framework (Hornberger. 2003. Continua of bili...

17.1 Introduction English has undoubtedly become the dominant language in the world and, unsurprisingly too, in Pakistan (Haidar & Fang, 2019a) where English is the official language, the language of education, and is associated with helping one attain social mobility. However, it is also a divisive source in society as English tends to be within g...

Is Linguistic Diversity a resource or a problem? Focus on language policies in Pakistan

This study examines the discourses of educators in Pakistan through the lens of Critical Multilingual Language Awareness (CMLA) to demonstrate how their lack of critical awareness reinforces and reproduces subtractive language policies and practices in a diverse multilingual setting. CMLA stands for the understanding of the social, political and ec...

Cross-disciplinary research, involving scholars of multiple disciplines, has attracted much attention from universities recently. This type of study extends beyond simple collaboration in integrating data, methodologies, perspectives and concepts and engages with real world problems, especially as global complexities have undermined the�underlying...

The study proposes that Critical Multilingual Language Awareness (CMLA) can be deployed as a productive theoretical construct for scholarly activism in a country such as Pakistan where multilingualism and linguistic diversity have historically been seen as problems than assets in education. We illustrate that such activism can transform orientation...

The study proposes that Critical Multilingual Language Awareness (CMLA) can be deployed as a productive theoretical model for scholarly activism in a country such as Pakistan where multilingualism and linguistic diversity have historically been seen as problems than assets in education. We illustrate that such activism can transform orientations an...

This paper analyses how English-medium policy in schools silences children's power of self-expression in Pakistan, and how linguistic deficiencies and disadvantages in school language minimize their potential for meaningful cognitive/academic engagement. The study focuses on the degree of inclusion children enjoy linguistically, culturally, emotion...

ABSTRACT This study aims to shed fresh insight into the problems of English-for academic-purposes at schools in Pakistan. This is critical because which language to teach, when, how, and where, has been an ongoing challenge for policy-makers as well as immediate end-users. Drawing on data from the low-fee English-medium schools in part of Pakistan...

Mixing Language

Most stakeholders including educators in Pakistan commonly theorize that English should be taught from day one in schools because the younger children are, the greater the possibility for mastery of the language. In the backdrop of prevailing beliefs and the resultant phenomenal proliferation of English-medium schools, this paper surveys educators'...

This study surveys the linguistic landscape in a particular area of Pakistan, and explores the use of languages, and the pervasiveness of English in the localized non-Roman script. Although English functions as a foreign language for most Pakistanis, it occurs extensively in signage in public places. Following the analysis of multiple data sources...

Many countries in Asia, especially SEA, have as a result of independence, been insistent on having a national language policy for their respective countries. They have rationalised that a national language will bring the multiethnic groups of people in these countries together and create a united country. This paper traces choice and developments o...

Contextualizing critical applied linguistics within the diverse multilingual and multiethnic setting of Pakistan, this paper seeks to underline how important it could be for applied linguists and English teaching professionals to underpin their research on the rich insights this relatively new field of academic inquiry affords. Underlining this can...

English occupies a topmost position in the linguistics hierarchy of Pakistan. Due to its highest position, it is initiated as a subject in Grade 1 onward in Pakistani public education in addition to using it as the medium of instruction in Grade 11 onward. Despite this, Pakistani public students are found weak in their English proficiency. They fac...

This theoretical review paper investigates the role of first language (L1) in the mainstream scholarship of second/foreign (L2/FL) language education in the context of language learning, teaching, and bilingual education. The term ‘mainstream’ refers here to the scholarship that is not informed by sociocultural theory in general and Vygotskian soci...

The scholarship of language education, particularly with reference to learning and use of English, is marked by varieties of English. One may note two broad models: (1) ENL, ESL, and EFL; (2) EIL, ELF, and WEs. Although the scholarship is replete with debates, the debates seem to only construct and maintain that learning English and its use are neu...

Contextualizing critical applied linguistics within the diverse multilingual and multiethnic setting of Pakistan, this paper seeks to underline how important it could be for applied linguists and English teaching professionals to underpin their research on the rich insights this relatively new field of academic inquiry affords. Underlining this can...

Only two out of over 70 indigenous mother tongues are recognized in schools in Pakistan. This study examines orientations of the governments' language-in-education policies, and scrutinizes the influence the policies exert on vitality of indigenous mother tongues, and the perceptions of their speakers. Using undergraduate students as samples, the s...

The number of private English-medium schools has expanded nearly ten-fold in Pakistan over the last couple of decades. Since public understands the power and value of English language within Pakistan and globally; therefore, such schools are widely spread across the country. This paper focuses on the low-fee private schools, a category of schools w...

Sociolinguistics as an interdisciplinary science joins language and society to provide knowledge on their relationship and interaction. Language planners and policy makers can use this science to make accurate decisions. This study examined language policy and the strategies used by the public to shape the linguistic landscape of Petaling Jaya, in...

The 1Malaysia concept was developed as a means to unite all the various ethnic groups of the country but it would seem that after 54 years of Independence, Malaysia may still be experiencing subtle nuances of stereotyping among the ethnic communities. This study was developed in order to gauge how the Malaysian Chinese are perceived by Malaysian Ma...

ABSTRACT Pakistan is a multilingual and multi-ethnic country whereby English is the official language and Urdu is the national language. It has five different school systems, which operate in parallel and practice different media of instruction. Such different school systems reflect the various socio economic status of the students. Consequently, t...

This paper aims to underline the importance of teaching autobiographies as a pedagogical resource to achieve content comprehension by making learners connect their prior knowledge to the experiences of the autobiographer. The study is underpinned by the schema theory, which signifies that, “every act of comprehension involves one’s knowledge of the...

This study explores the linguistic landscape of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Using photographs as a source of data, the study collects samples from both government and private signage from five selected neighbourhoods of the city. In addition to photographs, interviews with business owners have been conducted and used for triangulation purposes. The dat...

Pakistan is a multilingual and multiethnic country; however, this diversity stands unrecognized in the formal language-in-education policies. Estimates suggest that about 90 % of children who speak over 60 indigenous languages do not have access to education in their mother tongues. Linguists estimate that exclusive teaching of Urdu and English sub...

This study explores the linguistic landscape of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Using photographs as a source of data, the study collects samples from both government and private signage from five selected neighbourhoods of the city. In addition to photographs, interviews with business owners have been conducted and used for triangulation purposes. The dat...

Only two out of over 70 indigenous mother tongues are recognized in schools in Pakistan. This study examines orientations of the governments' language-in-education policies, and scrutinizes the influence the policies exert on vitality of indigenous mother tongues, and the perceptions of their speakers. Using undergraduate students as samples, the s...

This study critically examines the literacy levels of undergraduate students in Pakistan to compare and contrast the proficiency levels, particularly reading and writing of their mother tongues versus Urdu and English, and to study real and perceived vitality of local/regional mother tongues vis-à-vis Urdu and English. The research investigated 162...