February 21 is International Mother Language Day
Morung Express Feature In the occasion of the International Mother Language Day (IMLD) 2017, on February 21, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has stressed on the importance of mother languages. IMLD has been observed since 2000 after it was proclaimed by the General Conference of the UNESCO with the objective to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. The UNESCO is celebrating this year IMLD under the theme “Towards Sustainable Futures through Multilingual Education” with an objective, “To foster sustainable development, learners must have access to education in their mother tongue and in other languages. “ “It is through the mastery of the first language or mother tongue that the basic skills of reading, writing and numeracy are acquired,” UNESCO said in a message. Local languages, especially minority and indigenous, transmit cultures, values and traditional knowledge, thus playing an important role in promoting sustainable futures, it added. UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova her message for the day appealed for acknowledging multilingual education everywhere, in education and administrative systems, in cultural expressions and the media, cyberspace and trade. Last year, the UNESCO said that multilingualism is especially important for girls and women, as well as minorities, indigenous peoples, and rural populations. For the UNESCO, it is highlighting the importance of mother and local languages as channels for safeguarding and sharing indigenous cultures and knowledge, which are vast reservoirs of wisdom.What is multilingual education?
According to UNESCO, Multilingual education facilitates access to education while promoting equity for populations speaking minority and/or indigenous languages, especially girls and women:• It emphasizes the quality of teaching and learning with a focus on understanding and creativity;
• It reinforces the cognitive aspect of learning by ensuring the direct application of learning outcomes to the learner’s life through the mother tongue.
• It enhances dialogue and interaction between learner and teacher by allowing genuine communication from the beginning.
• It facilitates participation and action in society and gives access to new knowledge and cultural expressions, thus ensuring a harmonious interaction between the global and the local.
Towards preserving mother tongue
Recognising the importance of mother tongue, the UNESCO, since 1996, has been publishing an ‘Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger’ intended to raise awareness about language endangerment and the need to safeguard the world’s linguistic diversity. The last edition in 2010 listed about 2,500 languages (among which 230 languages are extinct since 1950), approaching the generally-accepted estimate of some 3,000 endangered languages worldwide. The Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger lists 197 languages in India that are on their way to becoming endangered. Around 25 Naga languages appear on the list under the category ‘vulnerable’ including Ao, Angami, Lotha, Konyak, Khiamnuingan, Phom, Pochury, Rengma, Sangtam, Tangkhul, Yimchungru and so on. Kachari is listed as “definitely endangered.” According to the UNESCO, languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. To “appropriate language education” is fundamental to enable learners to benefit from quality education, learn throughout life, and have access to information. And “if nothing is done,” half of the 6000 plus languages spoken today will disappear by the end of this century. Humanity would lose not only cultural wealth but also important ancestral knowledge embedded, in particular, in indigenous languages.