- Mother Tongue, Other Tongue, and Education
It would be proper to first look at the international experience and scholarship with regard to relationship between language and education, the most important domain of present times, and with regard to the relationship between language and science and knowledge in general. The following statement from the book titled ‘The Use of Vernaculars in Education’ published by the United Nation’s Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1953; The book presents the essence of international research and wisdom on the issue:
“It is axiomatic that the best medium for teaching a child is his mother tongue. Psychologically, it is the system of meaningful signs that in his mind works automatically for expression and understanding. Sociologically, it is means of identification among the members of community to which he belongs. Educationally, he learns more quickly through it than through an unfamiliar linguistic medium. @ (UNESCO, 1953:11)
This opinion of UNESCO was the result of a very comprehensive research. The UNESCO had stated this again in 1968:
“……..the use of mother tongue be extended to as late a stage of education as possible. @ (UNESCO, 1968:691)
The following is recorded in UN’s developmental report of 2004:
“In the Philippines students’ with the proficiency in the two languages of the bilingual education policy (Tagalog and English) outperformed students who did not speak Tagalog at home. @ (UNDP Report 2004:61)
The following statement is about the US, a country where the overwhelming majority speaks English:
“In the United States, Navajo students instructed throughout their primary school years in their first language (Navajo) as well as their second language (English) outperformed their Navajo-speaking peers educated only in English.” @ (UNDP Report 2004:61)
I would personally and earnestly request the Indian Anglo-maniacs to take the trouble to know in what a big number the non-English medium schools exist even in mainly English speaking countries such as the USA, Canada and New Zealand. The statements presented below are from the studies carried out throughout the world on the issue :
“Thus, the results of research reported by Modiano (1968, 1973) in Mexico; by Skutnabb-Kangas (1965) in Finland; as well as those from diverse studies summarized by Gudschinsky (1975) for Latin America where a higher proportion of children who are introduced to schooling in their vernacular and later bridged into the second language, develop literacy in their mother tongue, achieve higher level of content mastery and second language proficiency and remain longer in school than children who are schooled exclusively in the second language. @ (Tucker, 1977:3). (Read ‘second language’ as ‘foreign language’).
The following citation is from the study carried out on the Finish children who had migrated to Sweden:
“The Finish-language skills shown by the test results are fairly closely connected with the grade in mathematics. In the upper level, Finnish seems to be even more important for achievement in mathematics than Swedish — in spite of the fact that mathematics, too, is taught in Swedish. This result supports the concept that the abstraction level of the mother tongue is important for mastering the conceptual operations connected with mathematics…. Subjects such as biology, chemistry and physics also require conceptual thinking, and in these subjects migrant children with a good mastery of their mother tongue succeeded significantly better than those who knew their mother tongue poorly. @ (Skutnabb-Kangas and Toukomaa, 1976).” (quoted in Paulston, 1977:94)
Let us have a look at another statement about the USA :
“Likewise, in the United States, there has seemed to emerge a gradual awareness that many non-English residents are not best served by being submerged in a monolingual English education system where no attention is paid to the development of their native language.” @ (Tucker, 1977:3)
This one is from a study on Ghana:
“Bokamla and Tlou (1977:45) report that in Ghana only 5 percent of all children who leave elementary school go on to secondary school. In Zaire, only 30 percent of the children who enter elementary school complete the first four grades. The authors attribute this to inability to master the language of instruction. @ (Fasold, 1984:306)
Further, “It is not true, however, that students will not learn science and mathematics if they do not know English. The ideas of science are not bound by one language and one culture. The Russians, Germans, and French boast of excellent scientific discoveries without using English. The top five performers in the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS), namely Singapore, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, and Japan, are countries where English is not the first language.” @ (Ricardo and Nolasco, 2009:6). In 2012 again, none of the top ten performing countries was the one where English was the first language.
All of us know that ancient India and the Arab world held a proud place in the field of knowledge without English. In a sense, English was not even born then.
The Norway’s Global Monitoring Report (Benson, 2005) states thus:
“The Six-Year Yoruba Medium Primary Project (Fafunwa et al. 1975; Akinnaso 1993; see Adegbiya 2003 for other references) demonstrated unequivocally that a full six-year primary education in the mother tongue with the L2 taught as a subject was not only viable but gave better results than all-English schooling. It also suggested that teachers should be allowed to specialize in L2 instruction.”
“More recent work demonstrates similar findings and goes beyond these to illustrate the positive aspects of mother tongue-based bilingual programs listed above….” @ (Benson, 2005). (The mother tongue-based bilingual education means that the education be imparted in mother tongue and the foreign/second language be taught as a subject).
Thus, we find that it is proved time and again throughout the world that the success in education which can be achieved through mother tongue medium cannot be achieved at all through a foreign language medium. Hence, it is not incorrect to state that successful education is possible only when it is mother tongue based. The following statement brings out some of the reasons for this:
“One’s own language enables a child to express him/herself easily, as there is no fear of making mistakes. MLE (multilingual education – the education method where mother tongue is the medium of instruction and other language(s) are taught as a subject – JS) encourages active participation by children in the learning process because they understand what is being discussed and what is being asked of them. They can immediately use the L1 to construct and explain their world, articulate their thoughts and add new concepts to what they already know. MLE empowers the teachers as well, particularly when they are more fluent and adept in the local language than in the languages of wider communication. Because the students can express themselves, the teachers can more accurately assess what has been learned and identify areas where students need further assistance, MLE creates the conditions for the integration of the people’s community knowledge—the knowledge that informs their lives and give them meaning—into the school system. MLE makes it possible for the community to produce its own culturally relevant reading materials and teaching aids, together with the local writers, illustrators, cultural groups and other stakeholders in the community. MLE also empowers the parents who can take an active part in the education of their children because the school’s and the community’s language are also their language. MLE brings the community closer to the school and its programs.” (Ricardo and Nolasco, 2009:4)
The experts on language and on education opine that if the child’s mother tongue is not the medium of education, child wastes many of his/her years in learning the language, because in this way,“…the young learners and their teachers will concentrate on the language, not on Science and Math and literacy (that is more fundamental to learning). The best way to learn basic science and math, problem solving skills, and reasoning skills is through the L1. @ (Ricardo and Nolasco, 2009:11)
We have seen above that the worldwide research and the expert opinions provide a definitive proof that success in education is possible only through the mother tongue medium. But, here in India, the people in control of language and education policies are hell bent on English and are keeping their eyes and ears shut. They are ruining India’s education, language and culture beyond redemption. As we have stated behind, a humble aim of this write up is to remove the blinders off their eyes and the thick wax off their ears.
The findings of the international research being described below will further help in piercing this dastardly ignorance. These findings show that the mother tongue medium is essential for success not only in education, it is better than foreign language medium even for learning a foreign language.
Joga Singh, Ph.D. (York, U.K.), Mobile: +91-9915709582; E-mail: jogasinghvirk@yahoo.co