Exploring Sindhi Parents’ Preference of Communicating with Children in English at Home: A Case Study of Sindhi Families Based in Karachi South

Abstract

This study aims to focus on a class of Sindhi’s parents’ population that communicate with their children in English language at home. The participants for the study were 10 Sindhi’s parents comprising both male and female who have children aged from 1 to 8 years based in Clifton, Zamzama, and DHA, Karachi. The study employed a descriptive qualitative approach. The data was collected through open-ended interviews and the personal observation of the researchers. The result shows English as a preferred language according to the parents’ belief that it will help their children not only get admission in the prestigious schools but ultimately will receive higher education in Pakistan and abroad and eventually get highly paid jobs and settlement anywhere in the world. This study is based on Pierre Bourdieu’s (1977) theory of habitus focusing on its field (capital) and doxa, their internal belief that is related to parents’ expectations that early acquisition of English language helps their kids to achieve both cultural and symbolic capital which provide positive results in achieving the Institutionalized, embodied, and objectified habitus.