UNESCO recommends multilingual education based on the mother tongue
UN reports: The best leading countries in the world teach in their native languages
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) celebrated International Mother Language Day on February 21 every year. This year, the celebration was under the slogan “Quality education, language of instruction and learning outcomes,” emphasizing the importance of choosing appropriate languages for education.
Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, said in her message on this occasion that “the choice of this topic (quality education, language of instruction and learning outcomes) confirms the importance of mother languages for quality education and linguistic diversity in order to move forward with the implementation of the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as the plan focuses on education.” “Good quality and lifelong learning for all in an effort to enable all people, men and women, to acquire the skills, knowledge and values necessary to achieve all their aspirations and participate in the life of their societies to the fullest.”
She added that this is very important for girls and women, as well as for minorities, indigenous people and people in rural areas. This issue has been taken into account in the Education 2030 Framework for Action prepared by UNESCO, which serves as a road map for the implementation of the Education 2030 Agenda, which encourages full respect for the use of the mother tongue in teaching and learning, and for the preservation and promotion of linguistic diversity. . Linguistic diversity is essential to moving forward in achieving these goals, and it is also very important in the successful implementation of everything stipulated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development regarding growth, job opportunities, health, consumption, production and climate change.
Bokova pointed out that UNESCO similarly focuses on promoting linguistic diversity on the Internet, by supporting appropriate local content, as well as providing media and information literacy, noting that UNESCO, through the Local Knowledge Systems and Indigenous Knowledge Programme, highlights the importance of the mother tongue and local languages as means of To preserve and disseminate indigenous cultures and knowledge, which are rich in teachings and wisdom. Mother languages, in any multilingual approach, are essential elements of quality education, which forms the basis for the empowerment of women and men and their communities.
She continued: “We must acknowledge and strengthen this inherent power in mother languages so that no one is left behind, and in order to create a more just and sustainable future for all. Languages are the most powerful tools for preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. All actions to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will not only help encourage multilingualism and a multilingual culture, but will also encourage the development of a fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world, as well as inspire Achieving solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue. Languages have an important strategic weight in the lives of people and the planet as one of the essential components of language and an essential pillar of communication, social integration, education and development. However, as a result of globalization, they are exposed to an increasing threat or to complete extinction.
Bokova explained that when languages decay, the brilliance of cultural diversity also fades and its bright colors fade, and this also leads to the loss of opportunities, traditions, memory, and unique patterns of thinking and expression, that is, precious resources to secure a better future, pointing out that there are more than 50 percent of the languages currently spoken in the world. The world's 7,000 languages are at risk of disappearing within a few generations, and 96 percent of these languages are spoken by only 4 percent of the world's population. As for the languages that are actually given importance in the education system, their number does not exceed a few hundred, and fewer of them are used in The digital world is about a hundred languages.
In today's world, quality education for all is embodied in taking into account the multiple and diverse cultural and linguistic contexts of contemporary societies. Language, and in particular language teaching and the choice of language of instruction, are major issues that are at the forefront of the debate on quality, and the challenge for educational policy makers is to ensure standards of language teaching for all residents of a country, as well as to protect the rights of those who belong to a linguistic group or group. Specific ethnicity.
UNESCO encourages countries to adopt bilingual or multilingual education based on the mother tongue, which represents an important factor for comprehensive integration and quality in the field of education. For UNESCO, multilingual education refers to the inclusion of at least three languages in education, i.e. the mother tongue, a regional or national language and a world language. Research shows that bilingual or multilingual education based on the mother tongue has a positive impact on learning and its outcomes. In Cameroon, for example, the Global Monitoring Report on Education for All revealed that children who received lessons in their local language, Kom, showed a noticeable advantage in reading proficiency. And understanding compared to children who receive lessons in English only, and other research has shown that multilingual education based on the mother tongue has a positive impact on the ability to acquire a second language.
Bokova stated that multilingualism is a source of strength and opportunity for humanity, as it embodies our cultural diversity and encourages the exchange of views, the renewal of ideas and the expansion of our ability to imagine.
The phrase “mother tongue-based education” generally refers to the use of mother languages in the home environment and in schools, and it is preferable that the process of acquiring language competencies and learning to read and write in the mother tongue be based on written resources, including but not limited to publications, introductory books, and textbooks, because this It supports oral expression. Materials written in mother languages contribute to enhancing learners’ ability to acquire reading and writing skills, and to building solid foundations for learning. There are many unwritten languages in the world today, noting that some progress has been made in developing orthography rules.
It should be noted that many local and international linguists, education specialists, and teachers are cooperating with indigenous peoples in Latin America or with tribes in Asia, for example, in order to develop orthography rules. The use of computers to produce books and the relatively low costs of digital printing are considered promising matters with regard to the production of written materials. At a lower cost, more people can buy and benefit from it. UNESCO encourages bilingual or multilingual education based on the mother tongue in the early years of education due to the importance of this in building solid foundations for learning. Using the mother tongue with young children at home or in pre-school education helps them acquire reading and writing skills in their mother tongue. In an easy way, it may also help them acquire a second language (which may be a national language) at a later stage of their school education.
According to the definition adopted by UNESCO, the phrase “bilingual and multilingual education” refers to the use of two or more languages as a medium of instruction. In 1999, the organization adopted the phrase “multilingual education” to refer to the use of at least three languages in education, which is the mother tongue. , regional or national language, and an international language. The importance of education using the mother tongue in the first years of school education has been emphasized in a number of studies, research and reports, including the Global Education for All Monitoring Report issued by UNESCO every year.
Studies conducted on Malaysia's economic and industrial experience indicate that it has achieved a distinguished renaissance in the world, which was represented by the project to adopt the English language in teaching the principles of science and mathematics instead of the Malay language. This project was described as "the most important concession in the path of Malaysian economic industry." After 6 years of experimentation, Malaysia decided to stop the project of teaching mathematics and science in English and return to teaching in the Malay language. The reason, according to what was stated in the decision, was that studies conducted in more than 10,000 schools proved the failure of the experiment and that teaching in English (other than the mother tongue) ) led to a deterioration in the level of students in the long term, and a deterioration in the level of their performance in mathematics, according to a report published by the official Egyptian Middle East News Agency.
It has been proven since the 1960s that teaching in a language other than the mother tongue, especially at the primary level, has negative consequences on students’ linguistic and emotional development and their loyalty to their language and culture. This is confirmed by many foreign and Arab studies that insist that the mother language is the basis of education.
For its part, the United Nations has indicated in many of its reports that the countries that stand at the global forefront all teach in their mother languages, and there are 19 countries that lead the world technically in which education and research are conducted in their mother languages. In a recent study of the best 500 international universities located in 35 countries, it was found that they all teach in their mother tongues.
American linguist Leonardo Bloomfeller said, “Learning an additional language to the mother tongue has many benefits,” noting that the best age to start learning a second language is between the ages of 10 and 12 years. If it begins before that, the educational process is often slow and useless. He explained that a child’s mastery of more than one language gives him the abilities to analyze, relate, measure, deduce, think, and express concepts in a different way that he masters as a result of learning two languages, and this is something that is not available to a student who learns one language.
He added, “The best evidence of this is the study conducted by researchers (Lambert and Bell) in the Montreal area, Canada, where two groups of 10-year-old children were compared. The first group included children learning French and English together, and the second included children learning only one language. Pointing out that among the results of the study, children who learn two languages are intellectually superior to children who learn one language, and the two studies attributed this superiority to the first group in moving from one symbolic system to another.
For his part, linguist John Chomsky said, “Educational programs that adopt the method of teaching in the mother tongue and later in a second foreign language have proven remarkable success in many regions of the world, and have also achieved important positive results on the psychological, social, and educational levels, because they reduce... It is one of the effects of the cultural shock that the child is exposed to when he enters school, and it strengthens his sense of self-worth and sense of identity, and raises his sense of achievement at the academic level, and it also helps him in employing the abilities and skills he acquired in the mother tongue in learning the second language.”
Others believe that it is scientifically proven that older learners are much better in terms of the speed of learning a foreign language and its final achievement. In addition, a study was conducted in 1988 to find out the pros and cons of teaching a foreign language in the primary stage, concluding that the most appropriate class for teaching a foreign language is the fourth grade of primary school. After the child has mastered the skills of learning his mother tongue.
It is known that issues of cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue, promoting education for all, and developing knowledge societies represent central axes in UNESCO’s work, but it is impossible to move forward in these areas without providing a broad and international commitment to promoting multilingualism and linguistic diversity, including the preservation of threatened languages.
Source: websites