The Imagined Communities of English Language Learners in a Pakistani School

This article reports a 2001-2002 study conducted among middle-school students in Karachi, Pakistan, in the wake of 9/11. In the context of their involvement in a global community-building project, in which students sought to develop the literacy and English skills of a group of Afghan refugees, students were asked to reflect on their perceptions of literacy and the English language, as well as their hopes for the future. Students saw the development of literacy, competence in English, and technological advances in the future as desirable and interdependent. They imagined a future society in which Pakistan was peaceful, true to the principles of Islam, and a contributing member of the international community. The authors suggest that the students' imagined communities are best understood with reference to a "politics of location" (Canagarajah, 1999) in which the English language coexists with vernacular languages, and local needs are balanced against global imperatives. In such a context, imagined communities are multiple and identities hybrid. The authors conclude that the challenge for educators is to harness our own imaginations in the pursuit of a peaceful and just global community.