Literacy, identity and citizenship: a rationale for using a New Literacy Studies approach to exploring language and education policy in Pakistan and the UK

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Abstract

Though few Pakistanis speak Urdu as a mother tongue, it continues to be used as the medium of instruction in government schools: how does this affect the language learning of first, second and third languages? This paper provides a rationale for using a New Literacy Studies approach to researching the literacy practices of Pakistanis as a means of investigating the links between reading and writing and the social structures in which they are embedded. What are the implications for Pakistani emigrants given that the socio-cultural function of language frames beliefs about citizenship? This paper explores this question through the lens of New Literacy Studies as a means of re-conceptualizing literacy as social practice, rooted in conceptions of identity, knowledge and being.