CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AS MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION DURING SMOG PANDEMIC IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

The study aims at examining the role of English language as medium instruction during smog era in Pakistan. Smog is an infectious air pollution caused by the dirty environment (i.e., burning crops, smoke of chimneys so on and so forth) specifically in Pakistan and India. Smog posed significant challenges to education, public health and society. English has traditionally held a prominent place in Pakistan's education system, with many schools and universities using it as the medium of instruction. The importance of English became evident as the country shifted to remote learning to curb the Smog's spread. While this shift had challenges related to internet access and technology, English language skills played a pivotal role in ensuring that students could access and understand online educational content. For the purposes of this study, the population consisted of all of the faculty members working in three institutions in Multan division. Two Hundred and Ten instructors (teaching English as a medium of instruction) were chosen at random from the whole population by using a method known as the simple random sample approach. The results of the survey showed that, in general, the majority of teachers believe that smog is now effecting in their teaching, and the majority of teachers think that English as medium of instruction (as it is a lingua franca and people all over the world can easily understand it especially in contrast to all other languages of the world) have a good influence on students, teachers and people’s ability to know smog’s effects on education. As a result, it was suggested that the government should educate teachers on effective methods (direct method) by providing them with the appropriate training courses and seminars. It was also suggested that collaborative, efficient, and speedy efforts should be done in order to provide institutions with the greatest facilities that should be available for all.