The Politics of Language in Higher Education: Linguistic Hierarchies and Student Experiences in Pakistan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55737/trt/v-iv.250Keywords:
Linguistic Hierarchies, Linguistic Capital, Multilingualism, Medium of Instruction, Identity Construction, Postcolonial SociolinguisticsAbstract
This research investigates how higher education in Pakistan shapes identity construction, academic confidence, and educational inequality through linguistic hierarchies. The study is a postcolonial sociolinguistics analysis based on the notion of linguistic capital of Bourdieu, and examines the role of English, Urdu, and other regional languages as unequal symbolic resources in university classrooms. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 university students who are multilingual using an interpretivist phenomenological design to explore their experiences. Results indicated that English is a marker of intelligence, prestige, and upward mobility, and that fluent speakers are visible and are given institutional legitimacy. Urdu served as a kind of lingua franca for peer communication and at the same time marginalizes non-Urdu speakers in some situations. Regional languages and students' cultural identity are not well represented in formal academic practices. Students of Urdu medium background face problems of language anxiety, self-doubt, and perceived lack of success in school, whereas English medium students are more confident in language and more engaged in school activities. Participants exercised agency through translanguaging, peer collaboration, and digital tools to navigate structural inequities. The study highlights students' voices to reveal the colonial nature of linguistic practices and institutional norms, and invites pedagogies that are linguistically inclusive and that view multilingual repertoires as intellectual resources. The results further inform the current debates on medium of instruction, identity, and equity issues in postcolonial multilingual settings.
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