With this in mind, as psychologists say, it matters tremendously that language expressions and vocabulary are chosen with care when we talk to children. Chinese as mother tongue leapt to one million in 2006 from 100,000 in 1971. A child’s first comprehension of the world around him, the learning of concepts and skills, and his perception of existence, starts with the language that is first taught to him, his mother tongue. Native language links the child with the culture of the society the child comes from and shapes his identity. Mother Tongue: The Language of the Heart. Besides synesthesia, Tammet … Some parents and educators believe that in order for children to learn a second language quickly and succeed at school children should use the majority language not only at school, but even at home. Why can’t we converse in our mother tongue if we are more comfortable in that? A child’s mother tongue is the first language he learns, and it comes as naturally to him as walking. – Nelson Mandela. -Provide contexts where children can use home language such as visits to country of origin, organize picnics, cultural events, or celebrations with families from the same community. by Amy Tan. Mother tongue education refers to any form of schooling that makes use of the language or languages that children are most familiar with. Welcome! It also has a lot to do with your ancestral methods and cultures that your ancestors followed. We can change the World to a better place to live in, Countries like China, the United States and many other countries have made it compulsory to teach their mother tongue in their educational institutions. As children grow up, parents see the linguistic gap between them and their children has widened and leading to an emotional disconnection. Our personality, character, modesty, shyness, defects, skills, and all other hidden characteristics become truly revealed through the mother tongue because the sound of the mother tongue in the ear and its meaning in the heart give us trust and confidence”. Do you also want to inspire the people by your own story? It is a way to work and use the local language and the mother tongue to touch the hearts and minds of the local target audience. MY FAIR SHARE OF STRUGGLES – A Letter to my Future Self, A DIMINISHING HERITAGE : OUR VERY OWN EAST KOLKATA WETLANDS, “Jobs fill your pocket, but adventures fill your soul.” – WANDERLUST. Counts for mother tongue and home language include single response of a language as well as multiple responses of a language with English and/or French. Keeping mother tongue in a foreign country does not happen spontaneously. In some countries, the term native language or mother tongue refers to the language of one's ethnic group rather than one's first language. Moreover, knowing another language has been proven to contribute to helping us understand our mother tongue better. It is not that hard to learn one’s own native language when it is the language used at home to communicate with each other. Everyone definitely wants to read and write in his or her own mother tongue, but these languages are being neglected by our own people. They were the language that I thought and felt and sometimes even dreamed in." When parents or caregivers are able to spend time with their children and tell stories or discuss issues with them in a way that develops their mother tongue vocabulary and concepts, children come to school well prepared to learn the language of their immigrant country and succeed educationally.”. Researches show that children from immigrant families learn the social majority language in the early years at school very quickly, although it takes longer to learn academic language, and can lose their ability to use their mother tongues easily. HTLS 2020 - Debate on 3-language formula, importance of mother tongue in education Ashish Dhawan, founder and CEO, Central Square Foundation, said, “children should learn their mother tongue … The child will get familiarized with the nuances of a language, how to learn it and use it, and this will enable him or her to learn other languages as well. Jim Cummins also underscores the importance of preserving mother tongue: “Children who come to school with a strong foundation in their mother tongue develop stronger literacy abilities in the language used at school. The study revealed surprising differences in brain activity when the subjects were shown words in their native language versus in other languages they spoke. A lot of children from immigrant families, who don’t know their native language well, are at a crossroads of identity crisis. Mother language has such an important role in framing our thinking, emotions and spiritual world, because the most important stage of our life, childhood, is spent in its imprints. However, much research indicates that most children eventually learn a second, or even more, languages to a native-like fluency level, what immigrant families are not often aware of is that many of their children are at risk of losing their mother tongue. Researchers studied English Second Language learners to find why they were met with repeated failures in teaching of English to adults. Your mother tongue = The language of your heart In the fi • Multilingualism = A chance The degree of success in speaking a second language depends a lot on how well one speaks and understands one‘s fi rst language. Mother Tongue: The Language Of Heart And Mind Mother language has a very powerful impact in the formation of the individual. The first language, on the other hand, may refer to the first language that the person learned. What subjects are sure to … Are we forgetting our own culture and tradition in the rat race of Western Culture and Technology. Of the 6,000 individuals who claim Atikamekw as their mother tongue, fully 97 per cent speak it at home, as do 90 per cent or more of those who identify with Montagnais (Innu), Oji-Cree, Dene and Inuktitut. Unfortunately, for many bilingual children who have little mother tongue support at home, once they start school their mother tongue is gradually replaced by the majority or dominantly used language, especially in the early school years. Unfortunately, I often see kids from the same minority community speak the majority language instead of their mother tongue among themselves, even when they are outside school. Mother tongue does not simply mean the language spoken by the mother, but the language that is spoken by the child’s caretakers and sometimes, even the community. Your email address will not be published. A strong foundation in their first language will contribute to learning another language and help them develop stronger literacy skills in the school language, because children’s literacy knowledge and abilities transfer across languages from mother tongue to the language the child is learning at school. Most teachers feel that the … "Mother Tongue: The Language of Heart and Mind" I uttered the words involuntarily. • Speak with your child in the language you feel confi dent in … For this reason, the attitudes and beliefs of immigrant parents are so important in this aspect. "It is the language community of the mother tongue, the language spoken in a region, which enables the process of enculturation, the growing of an individual into a particular system of linguistic perception of the world and participation in the centuries-old history of linguistic production." A language developed by the people, deeply connecting us beyond mere words. These days, things have changed drastically. Government of Botswana pursue a policy of mother-tongue language education in conjunction with national [...] languages of Setswana and English. Mother language has a very powerful impact in the formation of the individual. It is always important to teach own language. Our mother tongue, the language of our oppressors, left many vehemently opposed to speaking Afrikaans. It’s a duty and responsibility to preserve it and pass it down from generation to generation. If you like the content , please drop a comment and share it with your friends over social media. MOTHER TONGUE: THE USE OF ANOTHER LANGUAGE AND THE IMPACT ON IDENTITY IN BREYTEN BREYTENBACH‟S DOG HEART AND NGŨGĨ WA THIONG‟O‟S MATIGARI by DEBORAH SUNDY Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the subject of ENGLISH LITERATURE at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SUPERVISOR: PROFESSOR Z.T. Our first language, the beautiful sounds of which one hears and gets familiar with before being born while in the womb, has such an important role in shaping our thoughts and emotions. -Tell stories and discuss interesting topics such as your childhood-children love to hear about parents’ childhoods-your home country celebrations, because this will develop both their oral and vocabulary skills. Preferring second language to first language most often occurs because children do not know how to express themselves fluently in their mother tongue in certain contexts and situations. Parents must establish a strong home language policy and make consistent efforts to help their children develop good literacy skills in their first language. They lack vocabulary and literal expressions in the mother tongue and find it easier to express themselves in the majority language. -Leave second language to the outside world and speak to children only in your mother tongue at home. Mother tongue is not just a language, but it is a culture and identity that one has in the society. We know children who learn to speak fluently two or three languages in some countries where more than one language are spoken. So what can be done? “Brain activity reveals mother tongue” published on March 23, 2008 in the International Herald Tribune. A child will identify himself with the language and culture he knows best. Available at http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/23/europe/EU-FEA-GEN-Italy-Language-Of-Thoughts.php. Hits reality only when boredom strikes.Believes in positivity and self confidence. Here, mother tongue is basically considered to be the native language. Write the languages on a piece of paper and say the sentence aloud. Watch the following Video to know. This tale has a powerful message and it can be related by every reader. As the number of English first-language speakers is only the fourth highest of all the language groups in South Africa, it follows that the majority of children in the country are taught in a language that is not their mother-tongue.School subjects in South Africa are either taught in English from grade 1 all the way through to matric or the first three years of education are presented in the children’s first language (any of the other ten official o… Our personality, character, modesty, shyness, defects, our skills, and all other hidden characteristics become truly revealed through the mother tongue because the sound of the mother tongue in the ear and its meaning in the heart give us trust and confidence. Amy Tan’s short story,” Mother Tongue” is a wonderful tale that addresses the substance of languages and how language is not only the tool for communication, but a sociological tool for measuring an individual’s worth. Today we are all witnessing an aspect of globalization which is the increasing movement of people from one country to another for different purposes, such as education, desire for a better life, the need for employment, escape from conflicts between groups including oppression of one group by another, or natural disasters. When I had been to the bank, I observed a middle aged person conversing with the Customer Care Department in a language which is … A strong bond between a child and his parents (especially mother) is established by virtue of love, compassion, body language, and also through the most important one, which is the verbal language. It was one of the forms of rebellion against those who ruled us. Learning to speak in mother tongue is very important for a child’s overall development and the language also connects the child to his/her culture, ensures better cognitive development and aids in the learning of other languages too. So, first let us clearly understand what mother tongue exactly is. “Our mother tongue is the language we use to think, dream and feel emotion,” Proverbio said. When a child doesn’t know his language well we cannot say that he will be nurtured with his culture properly for the fact that the relationship between language and culture is deeply rooted. "Mother language has a … [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L3DXUKOqXE[/embedyt]. Reinstating the mother tongue In Teaching Monolingual Classes (1993). Mother tongue is not only about the language that a person learns from birth. People settle in a place, away from their native land and in due course of time, they learn the local language and use that to converse both at home and outside. © Mother tongue: The Language of heart and mind Mother tongue is the language that a person grows up speaking from childhood. When children continue to develop their abilities in two or more languages throughout their primary school years they gain a deeper understanding of language and gradually acquire knowledge about how it can be manipulated and applied in different ways. When a person speaks their mother tongue, a direct connection establishes between … On the Cape Flats, where I grew up, a unique dialect of Afrikaans was the spoken language. Some people even think that our language can change how we see the world. Available at http://www.iteachilearn.com/cummins/mother.htm. This could be that same as the native language and mother tongue, or it could be something different. “The origin of the term mother tongue harks back to the notion that linguistic skills of a child are honed by the mother and therefore the language spoken by the mother would be the primary language that the child would learn.” However, this type of culture-specific notion is a misnomer. We are giving more importance to foreign languages that we tend to forget our own native language. A new language opens a new window in our world view and makes us more aware, open-minded, and respectful to other cultures, lifestyles, customs and beliefs. your username. “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. © Blue Dome Press. The mother tongue may be useful in … She also talks about the purpose and power of language. About 170 milliseconds after a word was shown, the researchers recorded a peak in electrical activity in the left side of the brain, in an area that recognizes letters as part of words before their meaning is interpreted. To children only in your language people speak their mother tongue better him in his language, the..., that goes to heart: mother tongue leapt to one million in 2006 from 100,000 in 1971 with. Fields are marked *, Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress heart! 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