MEETING DIVERSITY: LANGUAGE ISSUES

Prepared by: Chrisshalyn S. Pineda

The language challenges vary within and between countries.

Linguistic diversity reflects the existence of the multitude of languages spoken in the world
which is variously estimated at between 6 000 and 7 000 languages. (UNESCO, 2003)

UNESCO GUIDELINES ON LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION

1.UNESCO supports mother tongue instruction as a means of improving educational

quality by building upon the knowledge and experience of the learners and teachers.

 Mother tongue instruction - generally refers to the use of the learners’ mother tongue as
the medium of instruction
 Early or basic science education can be in a language that reflects the local community.
 Mother tongue instruction is essential for initial instruction and literacy and should be
extended to as late a stage in education as possible
 It is an obvious yet not generally recognized truism that learning in a language which is
not one’s own provides a double set of challenges, not only is there the challenge of
learning a new language but also that of learning new knowledge contained in that
language.
 Studies have shown that, in many cases, instruction in the mother tongue is beneficial to
language competencies in the first language, achievement in other subject areas, and
second language learning.

2.UNESCO supports bilingual and/or multilingual education at all levels of education as a

means of promoting both social and gender equality and as a key element of linguistically
diverse societies.
  Bilingual education refers to the use of two languages as mediums of instruction.
 Instructions are subsumed under the term bilingual education. However, UNESCO
adopted the term ‘multilingual education’ in 1999 in the General Conference
Resolution 12
 Multilingual teaching is when teachers use varied languages in the whole duration of
teaching for the reason of accommodating students who do not speak a particular
language and including them in the discussion. This is defined as speaking two or more
languages in a growing worldwide phenomenon (Milambiling, 2011).
 Multilingual language awareness is a necessity for teachers of multilingual students.
(Garcia, 2008)

3.UNESCO supports language as an essential component of inter-cultural education in

order to encourage understanding between different population groups and ensure respect
for fundamental rights.

 Curriculum [should be reformed] to promote a realistic and positive inclusion of the

minority [or indigenous] history, culture, language and identity’.

LANGUAGE ISSUES

1. Absence of books written in mother tongue

 The condition of having no textbooks or dictionaries in the mother tongue that are needed
to accommodate the needs of the learners having different mother tongues.
 Literacy can only be maintained if there is an adequate supply of reading material, for
adolescents and adults as well as for school children, and for entertainment as well as for
study Malone (2007).
 Teaching and learning cannot be effective without adequate and relevant use of
instructional materials (Grant, 1978)
2. Lack of Vocabulary

 There is no wide range of the words or phrases used in discussing the lesson using mother
tongue.
 Attention to vocabulary in science requires more than simply supplying definitions.
 They should be developing understanding first and technical vocabulary second.
 Scientific language has specific demands. There is an extensive vocabulary to learn.
 The teachers need to be a linguist in order to address the needs of the pupils. This makes
their learning interactive and meaningful. This means that the task of educating children
becomes much more difficult when teachers have to face a heterogeneous group with
multilingual and multicultural background (Pai, 2005).
 The language of instruction is not the same as the students’ home language. There have
been many studies on how science uses this vocabulary in ways that tend to be different
from everyday language use (Halliday and Webster 2006).
 The process would be even more difficult if learners have to comprehend in a language
that is not their first language, since research evidence suggests that limited proficiency in
English constrains students‘ science achievement when instruction and assessment are
conducted exclusively or predominantly in English (Lee, 2005).

3. Lack of Teacher Training

 Dutcher (2004) stated the teachers need training in using first language in the
classroom and that the materials have to be appropriate, available, and interesting to
the pupils, as well used.
 With regard to teacher training and mother tongue instruction: ‘All educational
planning should include at each stage early provision for the training, and further
training, of sufficient numbers of fully competent and qualified teachers of the
country concerned who are familiar with the life of their people and able to teach in
the mother tongue. (UNESCO, 2003)
 Communication, expression and the capacity to listen and dialogue [should be
encouraged], first of all in the mother tongue, then, [if the mother tongue is different
 from the official or national language,] in the official [or national] language in the
country, as well as in one or more foreign languages through. (UNESCO, 2003)

The emphasis here on basic science education, on understanding rather than simple
reproduction of information, means that students should be using the language in
which they feel most comfortable, especially when meeting new ideas.

References:

UNESCO Education Position Paper (2003), Education in a multilingual world. Place de

Fontenoy - 75007 Paris (France)
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001297/129728e.pdf

UNESCO Education Sector 7 (2010), Current Challenges in Basic education. Place de Fontenoy
75352 Paris 07 SP. France
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001914/191425e.pdf

Jane K. Lartec, et al. (2014), Strategies and Problems Encountered by Teachers in Implementing
Mother Tongue - Based Instruction in a Multilingual Classroom. School of Teacher Education,
Saint Louis University, Baguio City, Philippines
http://iafor.org/archives/journals/iafor-journal-of-languagelearning/10.22492.ijll.1.1.04.pdf