Published Paper Details:

This research investigates the complex tension between the adoption of English-medium education and the sustained vitality of the Nyishi language, the largest indigenous community in Arunachal Pradesh, India. As English-dominant schooling becomes the primary vehicle for socio-economic mobility, it simultaneously functions as a powerful agent of linguistic shift, marginalizing Nyishi orality the traditional repository of the community's cosmology, customary laws, and ecological knowledge. Through a qualitative analysis, this study examines how institutionalized English pedagogy inadvertently devalues vernacular oral traditions, creating a generational "proficiency gap" where the mastery of academic English correlates with the erosion of indigenous linguistic competence. The findings reveal that while English proficiency is essential for modern integration, the current educational framework lacks structural mechanisms to integrate, preserve, or validate the oral-centric heritage of the Nyishi people. This paper argues for a decolonial pedagogical approach that moves beyond monolithic language policies, proposing a "bilingual bridge" model that fosters English proficiency without necessitating the abandonment of ancestral orality. By situating the Nyishi experience within the broader discourse of global linguistic homogenization, this research underscores the urgent need to redefine educational success in a way that reconciles professional advancement with the preservation of indigenous cultural identity.