English versus Native Language for Higher Education in Computer Science: A Pilot Study

Abstract

While the official language of instruction for higher education programs in Pakistan is English, in practice it can vary from English-only, to some combination of English and a native language, to native language only. There is a lack of consistency not just across institutions, but also across classrooms in the same institution. We have conducted a pilot study based on a small cohort of computer science students, who happened to have some of the lectures of the same course delivered in Urdu, and the others in English. Based on a questionnaire response with both quantitative and free text questions, we investigated students’ self reported oral and written communication skills, as well as their preference of language for lectures. We found, albeit based on a limited, pilot study, that using Urdu, the first language of most of our students, as the medium of oral communication (lectures, general classroom communication) should be preferred, whereas English should remain the language of choice for written communication. We expect to expand this study to multiple classrooms across institutions in Pakistan and other countries operating in a similar context, so that more definitive conclusions can be derived, potentially leading to better informed, evidence-based policies and practices in the future.