This celebration is designed to promote linguistic
diversity and multilingual education, to highlight greater awareness of the
importance of mother tongue education.
Multilingualism is a source of strength and
opportunity for humanity. It embodies our cultural diversity and encourages the
exchange of views, the renewal of ideas and the broadening of our capacity to
imagine.
Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director General
Linguistic and cultural diversity represent universal
values that strengthen the unity and cohesion of societies. That is why
UNESCO’s Director-General, in launching IMLD 2013, will reinforce the
importance of this core message and specifically highlight this year’s theme of
access to books and digital media in local languages.
UNESCO’s Member States worldwide are key actors in the
promotion of mother tongues through their national institutions and
associations. The media, schools, universities and cultural associations play
an active part in promoting the IMLD goals.
Using the slogan “Books for Mother tongue education”,
IMLD 2013 aims to remind key stakeholders in education that in order to to
support mother tongue education, it is essential to support the production of
books in local languages.
The importance of written materials in mother tongues
Mother tongue education in its broader sense refers to
the use of mother tongues in the home environment and in schools. Language
acquisition and mother tongue literacy should ideally be supported by written
resources such as - but not limited to - books, primers and textbooks, to
support oral activities. Written materials in mother tongues reinforce
learners’ literacy acquisition and build strong foundations for learning.
Today, a great number of languages lack a written form,
yet progress has been made in developing orthography. Local and international
linguists, educationalists, teachers work together with for example Indigenous
peoples in Latin America, or tribes in Asia to develop orthography. The use of
computers to produce books and the relatively low cost of digital printing are
promising ways to produce cheaper written materials to enable wider access.
This video was produced by the UNESCO Liaison Office
in New York in 2010, on the occasion of the International Mother Language Day,
to raise awareness on the importance on languages today.
Mother tongue education
UNESCO advocates for mother tongue instruction in a
bilingual or multilingual education approach in the early years because of its
importance in creating a strong foundation for learning: the use mother tongue
with young children at home or in pre-school prepares them for the smooth
acquisition of literacy in their mother tongue and eventually, the acquisition
of the second (perhaps national) language at a later stage in their schooling.
UNESCO defines bilingual and multilingual education as
“ the use of two or more languages as mediums of instruction. The Organization
adopted the term ‘multilingual education’ in 1999 to refer to the use of at
least three languages in education: the mother tongue; a regional or national
language and an international language.
The importance of mother tongue instruction in the
early years of schooling is emphasized in the findings of studies, research and
reports such as the annual UNESCO EFA Global Monitoring Report.
Activities
UNESCO is launching the IMLD celebration 2013 with an
event at its Paris Headquarters on the theme of the Day: “Mother tongues and
books - including digital books and textbooks”. Experts in languages will
highlight the contribution of mother tongues to the promotion of linguistic and
cultural diversity, and the development of intercultural education through ,
for example, digital archives of the world languages.
UNESCO will participate in a round table at the
University of Evry (France), where the findings of a study, “What languages do
students from the University of Evry speak?”, will be presented. University
professors, students and linguists will address issues concerning languages and
education. UNESCO will present its position on mother tongue instruction in a
bilingual or multilingual education approach.
IMLD 2013 is linked to the World Summit on Information
Society (WSIS). UNESCO is organizing a session on cultural diversity and
identity, linguistic diversity and local content at WSIS on 26 February. The
objective is to increase access to local educational content and related
knowledge and information through the use of local languages in digital
textbooks.
Source:unesco.org
No comments:
Post a Comment