The roles of English in Afghanistan

Abstract

This paper examines the roles the English language is expected to play in contemporary war‐torn Afghanistan. It identifies 12 roles – some functional, others aspirational. English has a role to play in the development of Afghanistan, albeit limited, and it is believed to provide a means of escape, both literally and metaphorically. On the other hand, in some sections of society, English is seen negatively. In other contexts, English is required to play a neutral role between the two national languages. Analysis of the way that English is used in aspirational contexts suggests a parallel with shamanistic language: it does not need to be understood but, for its audience, the intended beneficiaries, that does not make it any less effective as a symbolic language, at least in the short term. In the longer term, however, as promised benefits fail to appear, English may increasingly be perceived negatively.

The Cost of Change: How Ideological Shifts Impact Afghans' Investment in Learning English

“…The cultural capital of English functioned in an educational sense, as it provided access to information that was bound to the language. These functions were seen as mostly aspirational in an ideological sense due to the participants' perceptions that English had developmental potential for not only themselves, but also the country itself (Coleman, 2021).…”

“…The presence of English in Afghanistan is said to have different functional and ideological roles (Coleman, 2021), where functional roles describe how English is used as a tool for communicating with foreign communities, especially when choosing to study, work abroad, or work locally with foreign companies or military personnel.…”

“…Ideological roles of English in Afghanistan have been generalized into the aspirational, such as when promoting development and modernism in education, English as a lingua franca, and commercial and political discourses. Less aspirational roles see it as a threat to conservative traditions (Coleman, 2021).…”

“…Countering this is the view that learning English in newer contexts often preserves traditional inequalities, while exaggerating its benefits (Phillipson, 1992(Phillipson, , 2009. As of yet, little is known about the impact that English has had in the last 20 years on people living in Afghanistan, and less is known about how recent political shifts have impacted people's perceptions on the role of English (Coleman, 2021). Researching and collecting the narratives of the Afghan people is challenging due to the fluid nature of stability in the country.…”

“…T he multilingual reality of Afghanistan is reflected in the presence of 48 officially registered languages, with the Pashto and Dari languages operating as the lingua franca amongst the different regions (Coleman, 2021). Within this multilingual landscape, English had traditionally existed peripherally.…”