SOCIO-CULTURAL IDENTITY AND LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPES: A MIXED-METHODS SENTIMENT ANALYSIS OF ESL LEARNERS' ATTITUDES TOWARD REGIONAL ROAD SIGNAGE IN PUNJAB

Abstract

This mixed-method study explores the sociolinguistic perceptions of young Pakistani English as a Second Language (ESL) learners regarding the institutional installation of regional language signboards (Saraiki and Punjabi) in urban areas. This empirical framework investigates the ideological journey of the youth through the economic capital (global) and native language (indigenous) preservation. The data were collected through stratified digital questionnaire among a group of university level students (N=200) in four different districts of Punjab, including Bahawalpur, Multan, Faisalabad and Lahore. Quantitative attitudinal metrics processed in SPSS demonstrated high descriptive consensus regarding regional signage as an institutional safeguard against language death (μ = 3.96), though constrained by an acute awareness of the socio-economic monopoly of English (μ = 4.12). Statistically significant correlation between geographic context and attitudinal alignment was found through inferential testing (χ2= 10.66, p = 0.0048). At the same time, a Natural Language Processing (NLP) program that was run automatically using the standalone Sentiment Analysis Add-in in Microsoft Excel indicated that positive sentiment tokens had a very high representation in the qualitative corpus (64.5%). Independent samples t-test affirmed that South Punjab text profiling had a much heavier emotional and subjective load as compared to Central Punjab discourse (t = 5.34, p ˂ 0.001). Triangulated through Bourdieu's linguistic capital and Norton's investment model, the findings reveal that learners do not reject regional signage; instead, they successfully negotiate a dual identity, balancing essential economic investments in English with protective cultural commitments to their native roots.