ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE: GRADUATE STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES OF ENGLISH SPREAD, POWER, AND SOCIOLINGUISTIC ROLE IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

English has established itself as the world’s hegemonic language. It shapes how people communicate across education, business, science, and technology. The current study explores graduate students’ perceptions of English as a global language. Furthermore, it focuses on its spread, symbolic power, and sociolinguistic implications in Pakistan. In contexts like Pakistan, its presence is deeply felt not only in classrooms and workplaces but also in everyday life, where it holds access to knowledge, opportunity, and social mobility.

This study adopts a qualitative research design, where semi-structured interviews are conducted with 40 graduate students from diverse academic backgrounds at the University of Sindh and Mehran. The findings indicate that participants view English as central to global communication and strongly associated with modern technological development. It is specifically associated with fields such as science, artificial intelligence, and digital communication.

At the same time, students associate English with colonial history. They suggest it as a legacy of British imperial rule that continues to reflect institutional authority, elite status, and social hierarchy. Despite this, English is also widely seen as an opening to global opportunities, enabling access to education, employment, and international mobility. Therefore, this study highlights the dual nature of English as both an empowering resource and a mechanism of exclusion. It contributes to ongoing discussions on linguistic inequality, globalization, and postcolonial language dynamics, with implications for language policy and education in multilingual societies.