Published Paper Details:

Languages in a multilingual and multicultural setting form a system network. Each language in this network has a function-determined value. A society or a government can assign a new value to any one of the languages in the system network in terms of its own policy of language planning, but it must realise that this assignment of a new value to a language will provide a chain reaction in the network. The values of the other languages in the network are bound to undergo changes as well. Moreover, effective bilingualism or multilingualism is a powerful way of enriching the linguistic repertoire of individuals. Generally, the learners of English in Manipur are mostly bilinguals or multilinguals. English language to them is a second language after their respective mother-tongues. In their ordinary walks of life, among their respective communities, they carry out day-to-day transactions through regional languages or mother tongues.But when the question of contact with the outsiders arise, they have to render this task in a common link language and that language is not any other region-specific languages but English,because its sphere is not limited to any particular community. Moreover, English is a widely spoken language today. It has often been referred to as the lingua franca of the modern world. It is said to be the world's most important language having communicative and educative-instrumental value. The use of English all over the world now is not out of sheer imposition, but because of the realisation of its advantages. In a multilingal interaction, no single language caters to all the needs of the particular languages and they are rather determined by pragmatic demands of the situation and the institutional factors of identification. The present paper attempts to highlight the social variability and the motivation affecting the teaching and learning of English language in a multilingual social context of Manipur, a small hilly terrain in India's North-East.