A comparison of empirical situations

in

language loss in educational fields

Tamanna Ferdous

Student, Master of Fine Arts (Creative writing)

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

A comparison of empirical situations in language loss in the
educational field.

“If a culture ends up hurting more people rather than encouraging them
to grow, what is the point of preserving it?”

I was asking a few teenagers about their viewpoints about how an

education system will justify a specific viable language pedagogy where
the question of identity and controlling criteria determines involvement.
Their answers were deeply thoughtful and sometimes almost
uncomfortable, as they brought the issue of shaming techniques applied
in an education system and how that triggered their sense of ineptness
about their mother tongue and hurt them to internalize their own
language. All of these teenagers are part of an education system where
the medium is English.

My own daughter is one of these teenagers. She is a frequent

Bengali-speaking person at home, and she never got a chance to be
literate in written Bengali. I feel responsible most of the time for that.
Although I am a student of creative writing and I am pursuing my MFA,
I never felt aligned in the sense that my innermost yearning of
composing a poem or prose, should be resonated to finetune the
understanding of my two little ones and part of the reason behind it as it
felt less pragmatic in a society where the worldbuilding does not trigger
a prerogative in preserving the mother tongue in the same manner. As a
composer, I confined myself to being a poet with a grown-up mind. But
at the end of the day, when I found them equally responsive in the
question about a potential danger that can lead to a language loss, so far
so Bangla will be involved in the next generation, I found myself
distracted too, living elsewhere, wandering around meaninglessly with
all these creative aims. I could not begin from home, never felt
privileged enough in my own support system with my writer’s mind, a
fundamentally exceptional case, perhaps.

Besides these half-perceived personal realizations, I had a larger

question in my mind. I always believed in giving due diligence to human
dignity. Every conservatism brings an absence in the form of a question,
a basic question of acceptability either in silent gratitude or in
indifference. Religion, culture, and language can tangentially touch the
larger question there, but it can never imply an imposition to eradicate
polarization if it needs to be a true engagement in a bi-lingual or in a
multi-lingual society. So, the next obvious question lies in the proper
understanding of jurisdictional enforcement, a constraint of geographical
boundary, where language maintenance is involved in a significant
manner. In the context of Bangladesh, if a student represents an
education system where the main teaching method functions in English,
and while communicating, that particular student is more comfortable in
code-switching in English, will he/she be conscious enough to protect
the integrity of mother tongue or the geological spatial reasoning will be
the only justifying factor, left out there?

“For me it was how much pressure I was put to perfect Bangla. I would
have to hear comments like “this is your mother tongue, how are you
this bad at learning it” and “this should be basic knowledge, why are you
making this mistake,” which made me feel like there was something
wrong with me when in reality, it was out of my control.”
In this particular sentence, the student showed frustration with two
warning signs, how (Intention) and why (repeated mistakes). Now, when
an established education system institutionalizes a certain language
assigned with the main functionality, the question of protecting mother
tongue and engaging in the language maintenance is obviously a huge
question for that particular student because it is already in the category
of “other” in his/her task list. Needless to say that there is a scope for a
further observational study, as we are only assuming here the degree of
involvement in practicing or maintaining Mother tongue (In this case
Bangla) is limited to a non-administrative engagement. For example,
every school organizes cultural functions elaborating and illustrating
important chronological timestamps in the course of a history of a
particular country, and language, especially mother tongue, is a huge
influence there. Now, in an English medium school situated in
Bangladesh, that is an extra layer of liberty just because of the
positionality, but this is not an applicability for every English medium
school situated in the United States of America. I am assuming here, that
things will be different when we talk about a special Bangla school,
situated in many places in the USA. So, the question is an off-topic in
the primary conversation of curriculum, but the main point is that, is it a
helpful approach for a teenager in the context of being sincere and
interested in particular norms of culture in language or if the pedagogy
will determine it in an empirical manner. A big question for the think
tank, no doubt about it.
Now, to boost motivation, how much resonance will there be between
culture and religion? To clarify culture, I am referring to a certain
locality with their language, attire, festivities, and vernacular which
make them distinct from others. And religion is how that locality is
engaged in their worship and ritual/spiritual practices with the majority
of their population. Now, how do we troubleshoot here to find the
merging point for meaningful propagation? The answer is simple but
huge in responsibilities. We need to work upstream and we need to work
ahead. The most important part of an engagement is the meaningful and
careful technique applied to energize the topic within, not dehumanize
the concept outside if the ulterior motive is solely to find greater
progression.

There are important conceptual standpoints when we are involving the

perspective of control and identity in the direction of pedagogy. In Basil
Bernstein’s article,” Pedagogy, symbolic control, and identity, there is an
important assertion in the chapter of democracy and pedagogy that there
is a dual stake in assigning and perceiving duties and responsibilities to
ensure democracy. This risk can resonate in every aspect of giving and
receiving. To elaborate pedagogy in proper terms one needs to
understand that it is not only the teaching method, but also the optimum
combination of trained mentorship, student participation, and
meaningful propagation regarding objectivity as far as access and
acquisition are involved. Now the interesting deviation from the textual
form of this discipline in day-to-day understanding is stunning and quite
strange. I had a meaningful discussion with one of my neighbors
Michelle, an American citizen, who was referring to assimilation. She
was mentioning that, once you are an immigrant of the United States of
America, you need to assimilate with the expectations of the
requirement, quite the contrary to the statement in the article of Basil
which mentioned that the second condition of Democracy is either
inclusivity or sanction of spaces so that functionality of propagation can
be maintained. When risk-taking is one way and does not earn any
reason for further expectation, how can it be motivational enough, for
both ways? For better understanding, one can refer to this chart.

Rights Conditions Levels

Enhancement Confidence Individual
Inclusion Communitas Social
Participation Civil discourse Political
Source: Pedagogy-Symbolic-Control-Bernstein Pedagogy-Symbolic-Control-Beri

So far, my understanding goes, these involvements are goal-oriented,

and this needs to thrive based on mutual understanding and respect
through appreciation. Without positive reinforcement, one cannot earn
true control in the question of language maintenance or language
revitalization. Therefore, before even progressing down to participation,
one needs to make sure about enhancement and inclusivity, enhancement
being the polishing instrument for logical importance viable enough for
further progression. One cannot motivate oneself on its own term, there
needs to be an option of inclusivity, and it is a must.
Bangla Language

According to Banglapedia ,

“Bangla Language next to Assamese, Bangla (Bamla) is the easternmost of the

languages belonging to the Indo-European language family. This new Indo-Aryan
(NIA) language is historically related to Irish, english, French, Greek, Russian,
persian etc. Bangla is bounded by Oriya, Magadhi and Maithili to the west and
Assamese on the east. It is flanked by various Austric languages like Santali,
Mundari, Khasi and Sino-Tibetan languages like Kachhari, Boro, Garo, Tripuri etc,
each of them encroaching at times on the Bangla-speaking areas.”
Source: https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Bangla_Language

Based on this anthropological chart, it is strongly evident that Bangla

language is derived from the Sanskrit language. There is a hypothetical
conflict about Bangla language about this language for being a language
of more on the side on the Hindu mythology, not so much within
“Islamic influence.”

https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Bangla_Language

Methodology:

The Scientific Method

Every scientific method determines a definite result to gain objectivity in
a clear and concise manner. Sociology deals with human knowledge
regarding societal norms and social values and expectations. These are
not tangible enough like to shift entirely to a data-driven technique.
Therefore, any qualitative or quantitative research methods address the
research with an observational pattern.

Based on the scientific method, the research question is posed as

follows:

The empirical pattern of language pedagogy in educational fields

depends heavily on the question of governmental intervention on the
perception of control and identity.

The literature review facilitated the objectivity of a certain pedagogy,

and it seems a viable solution when on the question on “control” and
“identity”, it is fundamentally different if the geospatial location is not
posing any reinforcement. An immigrant community living in a diaspora
will think differently than a community organized and planned through
societal and cultural norms and regulations, the later ones are seemingly
more seasoned to accept the long term longevity of mother tongue
denying any possibility of language loss.

Formulation of the hypothesis

Students studying in English medium schools, living in Bangladesh,

along with students studying in English medium schools, living in the
USA in a bilingual/ multilingual community, show differences in
patterns on prioritizing Bangla exactly in the same way as English in a
learning system.

Designing and conducting a Study

The scope of an age-based observational study is defined with

methodology here. This prospectus mainly involved students studying in
English medium schools, living in Bangladesh, along with students
studying in English medium schools, living in the USA in a bilingual/
multilingual community. This motive of this observational study
initiated with a prediction that in the first case, students will prioritize
English yet will be able to read and write in Bengali, because of the
controlling question of Identity and predominant code of the
geographical location. But in the second case, a student may only strive
to be equipped in spoken Bengali and could be more comfortable in
code-switching in English as the controlling question of identity is not
that huge.

Questionnaire : For conducting a detailed study, we proposed a

detailed interview involving Bangladeshi students attending English
medium school in the context of Bangladesh and American-born
Bangladeshi students attending English medium school in the USA. A
sample questionnaire served for this purpose is given below:
As part of my prospectus, I am drafting these questions for little ones
like you. You are free to think outside the box, be innovative, and reply
to me as briefly as you feel you are comfortable with. My prospectus is
about language acquisition and language revitalization in a pedagogy
(How a teaching method is justifying the meaningful progression in a
certain applied language and the way the language should thrive if it
faces any threatening situation where a certain audience or the medium
itself is ignored or misunderstood).

My questions to you.

1. Outside the school, if not enforced by family or geological location or

cultural or religious norms, will you be careful at all about your mother
tongue or your forefather's language (manifesting identity and custom)?

2. If you are comfortable in code-switching in English all the time

among your friends and in your support system, what will be your
influence to switch back to Bengali? If you are applying spoken Bangla
only, consider solely that case (applicable for Sameeha).

3. If there is no imposing control on you, about language, do you think

you will show reluctance in giving due diligence to Bangla, or you will
think that in the next generation, the Bangla language will be totally lost
or deviated?
Source:
https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter2-sociologi
cal-research/
Source: https://revisesociology.com/2016/08/02/methods-concepts/

Sample response :
Thank you for choosing me as a candidate for your research. I have a lot
of complex feelings regarding my own language so I always wanted a
medium to express how I felt. Below are my answers to the questions
you have submitted and I hope they will be of aid.

1. Outside the school, if not enforced by family or geological location or

cultural or religious norms, will you be careful at all about your mother
tongue or your forefather's language (manifesting identity and custom)?
A- Personally it is more comfortable for me to use and practice English
because of the way both languages were taught to me. My earliest
memories are in a very “English” environment and while later on I
managed to adjust to my own language, my mother ended up using too
much force in order for me to perfect it in school. This resulted in me
growing fearful of the subject and lead to me never perfecting it the
same way I did with English. I also have an issue where I get confused
when presented a large amount of texr and Bangla letters are a lot more
complex in terms of looks compared to English. While this gives the
language a certain beauty it also makes it even harder to read especially
on computers where the font can be small. Due to it being my mother
tongue, I still try to respect my language and there are some things that
just cannot be expressed in English the same way you can in Bangla, but
as someone who’s internal thinking now happens almost always in
English, I think the answer is very clear

2. If you are comfortable in code-switching in English all the time

among your friends and in your support system, what will be your
influence to switch back to Bengali? If you are applying spoken Bangla
only, consider solely that case (applicable for Sameeha).

A-Assuming the person I’m speaking too is equally fluent in both

languages, I will switch to Bangla whenever I feel like I can’t express
myself in English properly. Like when trying to describe an object or
emotion and I cannot find a suitable English word for it, or the English
word would just not hold the same impact. I will also use whatever
language the person I’m talking to is using, i.e. if they reply back in
Bangla I am more likely to continue speaking Bengali. I am more like to
text in English and typing in Bangla tends to be harder and more time
consuming. In short, I will use whatever language I feel will
communicate my thoughts and feelings to the other party in the most
effective way possible

3. If there is no imposing control on you, about language, do you think

you will show reluctance in giving due diligence to Bangla, or you will
think that in the next generation, Bangla language will be totally lost or
deviated?
A- This question is a bit hard to understand for me but I assume you are
asking me what I think the future of this language is like and how I will
protect it. As for that, I don’t know. It is true that a lot of English
medium kids find it easier to communicate in English, but it is not like
all of us have forgotten Bangla. And maybe we’d do better too if the
education system was more polished and we didn’t feel like we are
shamed for every single mistake we make. And for me its more
important to make a comfortable place for communication and forcing
someone to speak a certain way defeats the purpose. So while I respect
my language and feel ecstatic when I see someone wanting to learn it, I
also don’t feel the need to go out of my way to tell someone how they
should communicate. Especially if it ends up hindering them. And if a
culture ends up hurting more people rather than encouraging them to
grow, what is the point of preserving it?
Conclusion: Although we did not observe a methodical interview, we
observed few patterns in assessing the research questions bd in their
responses. A common trend was prevailing with the state of intimidation
amongst the students both in Bangladesh and in the USA. Students felt
they were questioned and controlled to a negative reinforcement where
they felt almost the cult of discrimination. Mother tongue and language
revitalization, are not an issue to impose on the diversified young minds
of immigrant families. These questions posing real danger of language
loss should be dealt with utmost wisdom and compassion to the target
audience. Engagement needs cooperation and participation involvig
inclusivity. Living in a globalized world, young minds should be e
nurtured enough to assess these questions in a deeper level. I hope this
prospectus will manifest this dire need for wisdom in further research.

Acknowledgement
Source:
https://revisesociology.com/2016/08/02/methods-concepts/
Source:
https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter2-sociologi
cal-research/
Source: https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Bangla_Language

Source:
https://www.amazon.com/Pedagogy-Symbolic-Control-Identity-Bernstei
n/dp/084769576X
earoncluing from all of you!