Abstract

In Pakistan, most of the population is multilinguals. The ethnic identities of these multilingual Pakistani citizens have an additional layer of linguistic identity associated with their regional languages, i.e., Saraiki, Balochi, Punjabi, Sindhi, etc. However, it has been observed as the research problem that the mainstream communication languages in Pakistan, i.e., Urdu and English, are more prestigious than regional languages. The present study has focused on one of regional language which represents one of the largest ethnic communities, i.e., “Saraiki Language”. Owing to the importance of parents’ role of ‘socialization’ in developing native language skills among their children, the present study has selected ten “Saraiki” speaking parents from urban working-class parents, who are settled in “Multan” city. The data was collected through a Likert scale questionnaire and semi-structured interviews conducted through video and audio calls, by applying mix-method approach. The thematic analysis attempted in the light of “theoretical framework taxonomic model” by Karan (2008), to identify the motivational factors involved in the Saraiki language shift. Though findings from questionnaire have shown the positive views of parents towards Saraiki language, yet, it has been evident from the results that the parents do not use native language while communicating with their children. The findings obtained through thematic analysis of interviews’ data have confirmed the results of questionnaire. Moreover, the respondents have appeared to retain their linguistic ethnic identity as their cultural values. But these parents think that the accomplishment of their children’s future progression are related with “Urdu” followed by “English”. Hence, these parents have expressed that in order to prepare their children for educational, occupational and social pursuits, they need to develop their communicative competence in Urdu language rather than in “Saraiki”. The study has recommended to organize “linguistic literacy programmes” for parents’ awareness with regards to the importance of Saraiki language to encourage them to provide maximum exposure of “Saraiki” language to their children in order to slow down and then to reverse the process of “Saraiki” language shift.