How can learners learn in a language they don’t understand?

اليونسكو

2023 - 02 - 21

Multilingual Education based on the mother tongue: a pathway to learning, identity, peace, and sustainable development

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Some countries around the world offer multilingual learning opportunities, whereas others, where multilingualism is perceived as a challenge, do not, and limit education to monolingual contexts. This not only constitutes a great loss to our shared linguistic heritage, but also a barrier to the inclusion and academic, socio-emotional and foundational development of many learners.

Where learning and education are only made available in the country’s official/dominant languages, it is difficult for minorities and indigenous peoples to benefit from available opportunities. Same goes for refugees and displaced people who are left out in host countries that do not offer educational opportunities in their tongue or in a language they speak or understand. As a result, many children and youth cannot access nor properly benefit from learning, which marginalizes them and puts their right to inclusive, equitable and quality education in jeopardy.

To be able to access education and integrate the societies they live in, these children and youth often have to learn the official language of instruction, which is used in most aspects of their life. As a result, due to lack of speakers, 40% of the world’s 6,700 languages is on the brink of extinction. Since languages are a vessel that transmits and preserves traditional and cultural knowledge, many cultures are fading as well.

In light of the above, this year, the 24th edition of the International Mother Language Day, observed on 21 February, was celebrated under the theme ‘multilingual education - a necessity to transform education’, with the aim of highlighting the importance of multilingualism in education and its potential to truly revolutionize and transform education worldwide from a lifelong learning perspective.

The 2023 International Mother Language Day discussions centered on 3 interconnected themes:

Promoting multilingual education as a necessity to transform education starting from early childhood education.
Fostering learning through multilingualism in rapidly-changing global contexts, as well as in emergency and crisis situations.
Revitalizing languages on the brink of extinction.

UNESCO called countries to instill a policy of multilingual education to teach learners, starting from the earliest years of schooling, in their mother tongue, which can be combined with the official language of instruction.

“To help fight the current global learning crisis, while preserving the linguistic diversity which is an essential cultural element, UNESCO urges governments to embrace multilingual education based on the mother tongue from the earliest years of schooling. We know it works – there is empirical evidence to prove it helps children learn.”

Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO

Multilingual education based on the mother tongue not only fosters inclusion, integration and identity, but also helps improve learning and social skills. In fact, according to UNESCO’s World Inequality Database on Education, children, if taught in their home language, are 30% more likely to read with understanding by the end of primary education.

Multilingual education also fosters dialogue and interaction among learners of different backgrounds and cultures, which exposes them to new views, traditions and perspectives, and helps them be more open and celebrate differences and diversity. This promotes peace, tolerance, and understanding, and paves the way for transformative education, global citizenship and sustainable development.

For more information: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/international-mother-language-day-unesco-calls-countries-implement-mother-language-based-education

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