SOCIAL JUISTICE-ORIENTED ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING: A SURVEY BASED STUDY OF PAKISTANI MULTILINGUAL ELT CLASSROOMS
Keywords:
Inclusive Education, Linguistic Inequality, Multilingual Classrooms, Pakistan, Social Justice-Oriented ELTAbstract
This research examines the practices of ELTs aimed at social justice in multilingual classrooms in Pakistan, specifically in the Hazara region. The main objectives of this study were to determine the understanding of teachers and students of linguistic inequality, to evaluate current classroom practices, and to examine how to promote equity and inclusion in the classroom. Structured questionnaires were administered to 392 respondents, comprising 80 teachers and 312 students, using a quantitative descriptive research design. Descriptive statistics were used in the analyses of the data. The results show that most of the participants are aware of the inequalities in languages. Likewise, many people are aware that low proficiency in English affects the confidence and participation of students. When using translanguaging, code-switching, flexible participation, etc. in reality the English-only practices still limit engagement and marginalize non-dominant language speakers. Participants believed that including multilingual resources, local languages and cultural content would enhance learning outcomes. The research indicates that social justice may be promoted through multilingual classrooms only if linguistic diversity is viewed as a resource. Nevertheless, to make classroom practices more equitable and inclusive, institutional support, curriculum reforms and teacher training will be necessary.
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