BETWEEN LANGUAGES, BETWEEN SELVES: ENGLISH-URDU CODE SWITCHING AS A SITE OF YOUTH IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

English-Urdu code-switching has emerged as a defining linguistic practice among Pakistani university students. It is functioning simultaneously as a sign of modernity, social prestige, and identity. In the educational institutes of south Punjab, students often switch between English and Urdu during conversation and consider it a sign of modernity as well as a reflection of their identity embedded in social orientations. Present study explored the code-switching practices among university students to understand linguistic patterns for the construction and expression of youth identity. For this purpose, a purposive sampling technique is employed in two universities, i.e. COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari Campus and Education University, Vehari Campus. The study figured out that the students from Education University demonstrated stronger prestige orientation and higher English dominance compared to students at COMSATS University. Moreover, the modernity sub-theme constituted 3.38% of all the coded segments that highlighted participant’s perception of code-switching as associated with the current generation of youth and global connectivity. The study discovered Trojan horse dilemma which refers to the deep personal internal conflict between appreciating the benefits of learning English and rejecting the unwanted ideologies and cultural ideas that come along with it. The study highlighted that youth is not only learning or speaking English language but also adopting English ways of thinking.  It is also observed that due to the educational environment difference participants are unable to understand the code-switching techniques that is demonstrative of their geographical background as well but their ratio was 6.71%.  About 3.46% codes focused on emotional dynamics that were only brought by the linguistic conflict. 3.92% participants showed realization of the appropriacy of language usage in a specific context. This study is significant in getting an understanding that the ideological burden carried with English is not only imposed by the foreign bodies but contested and appropriated by its own local users. The study highlighted that university students employ certain patterns to navigate cultural hybridity, modernity, and belonging