RESILIENCE STRATEGIES OF PAKISTANI STUDENTS IN NAVIGATING LINGUISTIC BARRIERS IN E-LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract

This research is aimed at examining how Pakistani students can overcome language barriers in online educational settings, where English is frequently seen as dominant, and non-native individuals are frequently excluded in terms of their digital education. To fill this knowledge gap on how to research resilience solutions in polylinguistic higher education settings in Pakistan, this study is aimed at explaining the process of adaptation using socioecological and technology perspectives. A qualitative phenomenological design was employed that included interviews in semi-structured format, focus group, and analysis of artifacts involving 25 purposely selected students in urban and semi-rural universities and thus presenting a wide range of linguistic and proficiency groups. Results revealed that vocabulary breakdowns, accent bias, and platform language were the biggest impediments that would unfairly affect rural and low-ability students and disrupt intelligible communication and engagement. The resilience strategies were that of individual self-translation through digital tools and social networks of peer translanguaging and institutional advocacy of bilingual resources in, the practices of rural translated collectivism and gender-social economic moderators influence adaptive adequacy. These measures recovered technological-pedagogical-content knowledge integration that puts translanguaging next to the pivotal role of a critical equity mediator. The proposed Digital Linguistic Resilience Framework will combine and harmonize the socio-ecological and translanguaging concepts to serve inclusive e-learning design. The research proposes multilingual interfaces in course format and tools in education policy based on translation as a way of improving equity in Pakistan and in similar contexts in the Global South and suggests longitudinal studies as a methodology to prove resilience pathways.