Abstract
Positive cognitive outcomes, enrichment of minority languages, culture and ethnolinguistic
identity are often associated with learning of native languages but, more than 65 to 77 native
languages across the country are suffering in every government department particularly in
education. This study examines the role and importance of native languages from theory to its
practice in education, and to explore the opinions of teachers about getting education in native
languages particularly at early stages, in multilingual Balochistan. The Bottom-up approach will
enable us to investigate the concern and opinions of teachers. Mostly, teachers remain blind
followers of the policies mandated by the language policy planners. Employing mixed methods,
the study investigates the views of teachers in 30 government schools in three districts of
Balochistan. The data (quantitative and qualitative) overwhelmingly endorse the importance of
native languages in education particularly in the development of cognitive skills in students at
early stages of their education. They further argue that teaching of native languages in
government schools will only be successful if they teach them as a language rather than as a
subject. The study concludes that the policy about native language needs to be reviewed, taking
into account their importance in the learning of subject matter easily and quickly. In the end, the
study proposes a dynamic policymaking mechanism where all the stakeholders from both the top
to bottom could coordinate in the policy formulation about native languages and its effective
implementation.
Zia-ur-Rehman, Syed Abdul Manan, Muhammad Khan, Jaffar Shah, Afzal Khan. (2019) 4Native Languages and Education in Balochistan: A Bottom-Up Analysis of Theory and Practice, Balochistan Journal of Linguistics, Volume 7, Issue 1.
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