Human Rights Education and Language Learning in Pakistan: An EFL Perspective

Abstract

This paper explores the dissemination of human rights through English language learning in Pakistan and builds on the knowledge that contributes to the development of democratic educational outcomes. Textbook discourses have long been the domain of critical linguistics; critical linguists understand textbook discourse primarily as a language in the context of schooling while the discourse analysts understand such discourses as systems of knowledge and ideology. The question of how the learners are expected to engage with the subject knowledge is explored from two theoretical perspectives: linguistic analyses are executed using tools such as choice of pronouns, mood, and modality from Systemic FunctionalLinguistics (Halliday et al., 2014), a social semiotic theory of language as a meaning potential, and reinterpreted according to the intercultural paradigm (Piller, 2010) to familiarize the ways interactants choose to build relations in the textbook narratives because in exploring interpersonal meanings it is very easy to focus on what is said and why. Additionally, the image analysis is done by representational analysis that of how images reflect ideologies (Kress & VanLeeuwen., 2006). The contributions of this study are of particular importance to make visible elements of interpersonal meaning-making which were explored in the context of cumulative knowledge building in humanities.