Mother tongue and second language

Title

Language

English

Source

Volume XIX (6) June 1967

Year

1967

Subject

Native language

Native language and education -- Philippines

Native language -- Study and teaching -- Philippines

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

[Experts in education and language are unanimous that school children or young students can learn faster when the vernacular or their mother tongue is used in teaching them to as late in their schooling as possible. The following article on this subject is taken from a report of UNESCO scholars.]

Fulltext

■ Experts in education and language are unanimous that school children or young students can learn fastef when the vernacular or their mother tongue is used ift teaching them to as late in their school ing as possible. The following article on this sub ject is taken from a report of UNESCO scholars. MOTHER TONGUE AND SECOND LANGUAGE It is through his mother tongue that every human be ing first learns to formulate and express his ideas about himself and about the world in which he lives. This lan guage in which he first learns to express his ideas need not be the language which his parents use; nor need it be the language he first learns to speak, since special cir cumstances may cause him to abandon .this language more or less completely at an early age. Every child is born into a cultural environment; the language is both a part of, and an expression of, that environment. Thus the ac quiring of this language (his 'mother tongue’) is a part of the process by which a child absorbs the cultural environment; it can, then, be said that this language plays an important part in moulding the child’s early concepts. He will, therefore, find it difficult to grasp any new concept which is so alien to his cultural environ ment that it cannot readily find expression in his mother tongue. If a foreign lan guage belongs to a culture very little different from his own (as for example French is to an English child) the child’s chief difficulties in learning that language will be only linguistic. But if the foreign language belongs to a culture very different from his own (as for exam ple English to a Nigerian child), then his learning dif ficulties are greatly increased; he comes into contact, not only with a new language, but also with new concepts. Similar considerations apply to adults. 10 Panorama Ideas which have been for mulated in one language are so difficult to express through the modes of an other, that a person habitual ly faced with this task can readily lose his facility to express himself. A child, faced with this task at an age when his powers of self expression even in his mo ther tongue are but incom pletely developed, may possi bly never achieve adequate self-expression. For these reasons it is im portant that every effort should be made to provide education in the mother tongue. On educational grounds we recommend that the use of the mother tongue be ex tended to as late a stage in education as possible. In particular, pupils should be gin their schooling through the medium of the mother tongue, because they under stand it best and .because to begin their school life in the mother tongue will make the break between home and school as small as possible. Even when the child has been at school long enough to be familiar with school life, he still has to cope with the incessant stream of les sons in many different sub jects. He will find a lesson in geography or almost any other subject easier if he it taught it in his mother tongue. To expect him to deal with new information or ideas presented to him in an unfamiliar language is to impose on him a double bur den, and he will make slower progress. The use of the mother tongue will promote better understanding between the home and the school when the child is taught in the language of the home. What he learns can easily be ex pressed or applied in the home. Moreover, the parents will be in a better position to understand the problems of the school and in some measure to help the school in the education of the child. Several objections often urged against the use of the mother tongue as the me dium of instruction, which we consider unsound. Later we examine others which do in fact limit the extent to which the mother tongue June 1967 11 can be used in certain cir cumstances. 'This language has no grammar and no alphabet. Frequently someone who has not analyzed the languages of people without a modern technology or civilization is of the opinion that a lan guage which has never been written has no grammar. This is not true. Every lan guage, even an unwritten one has its consistent pat terns or rules by which its speakers combine words into sentences, and so on. Often such grammatical structure is as complicated or as re gular as those of any world language. In fact, we hold that there is nothing in the structure of any language which precludes it from be coming a vehicle of modern civilization. 'The child already knows his mother tongue.' The second objection is that the child already knows his own language before he comes to school, and that there is no need for the school to teach it to him. There are two replies to this. In the first place, he has not completely learnt it before coming to school. He has learnt it enough for his own childish purposes, but he will still need to develop his know ledge of it as he grows older. The English or French child devotes a great part of his time throughout his school career to studying his mo ther tongue. In the second place, the school is not mere ly teaching the child his mo ther tongue; it is using his mother tongue as the most effective means of teaching him other things. ‘The use of the mother tongue will prevent acquisi tion of the second language.’ Some people claim that it is impossible for children to acquire a good use of the second language unless the school adopts the second lan guage as a medium of in struction from the very be ginning. In fact, it is on the basis of this action that some schools in the past have actually forbidden any use whatsoever of the vernacular anywhere in the school. However, recent experience in many places proves that an equal or better command of the second language can be imparted if the school 12 Panorama begins with the mother tongue as the medium of instruction, subsequently in troducing the second lan guage as a subject of instruc tion. ‘Using the vernacular im pedes national unity.’ It can not be denied that the busi ness of government is easier in a monolingual than in a multilingual nation. How ever, it does not follow that legislation or school policy requiring the use of the of ficial language at all times will give the same results as actual monolin^ualism. On the contrary, it is fair ly, likely that absolute insis tence on the use of the na tional language by people of another mother tongue may havq a negative effect, lead ing the local groups to with draw in some measure from the national life. In any event, it seems clear that the national interests are best served by optimum advance ment of education, and this in turn can be promoted by the use of the local language as a medium of instruction, at least at the beginning of the school programme. There are, however, cer tain practical difficulties — some temporary, some per manent — which may com pel the school authorities to abandon the use of the ver nacular as the medium of instruction at some stage. Inadequacy of the vocabu lary. The first difficulty is that the language may not yet have a vocabulary suffi cient for the needs of the curriculum. In this case a second language will have to be intrdouced at an early stage, and as soon as the pu pils have learnt enough of it the second language can become the medium of in struction. The transition to a second language should normally take place gradual ly and should be made as smooth and as psychological ly harmless as possible. Thus, if the second language is completely different from the mother tongue it should be taught as a subject for some years, and until such time as the child has an adequate working knowledge of it, be fore it is brought into use as a full teaching medium. Shortage of educational materials. One of the most important and difficult pro June 1967 13 blems connected with the use of the vernacular lan guages in education is that of providing reading ma terials. It will often happen that even a language which is quite capable of being used as a medium of instruc tion will be almost or en tirely without school books or other materials. Multiplicity of languages in a locality. If a given lo cality has a variety of lan guages it may be difficult to provide schooling in each mother tongue simply be cause there are too few stu dents speaking certain of the languages. In sudi cases it may be necessary to select one of the languages as the medium of instruction, at the 'cost of using a language other than the mother tongue of some of the stu dents. Before accepting this necessity, the school should seek ways and means to ar range instruction groups by mother tongue. It must be recorded that there h a wide variation in the strength and validity of these reasons for not using the mother tongue. In some areas they are indeed very strong; in others they are advanced without complete justification. We must here lay down as a general principle what must have already been made apparent by our general ap proach to the problem: that in order to ease the burden on the child, the mother tongue should be used as the medium of instruction as far up the educational ladder as the conditions permit (in other words that the transfer to a second language, if ne cessary, should be deferred to as late a stage as possi ble); and that authorities should do evertyhing in their power to create the condi tions which will make for an ever-increasing extension of schooling in the mother tongue, and make the tran sition from mother tongue to second language as smooth and as psychologically harm less as possible. — Excerpts from The Use of Vernacular Languages i n Education (UNESCO). 14 Panorama

pages

10-14

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