Opinion - When the UN declared February 21 International Mother Language Day, it must have seen the need for advancing a society that is in touch with its cultural and ethnic responsibilities and promoting a morally sound generation.
Unfortunately, while global trends dictate otherwise, the South African educational system has ignored all rationality and seems to be promoting only certain indigenous languages and has left out those linguistic groups of eastern origin.
Sadly too, people of Indian descent have gladly traded their pedigree for a fancy accent and Western ideologies and we have failed to see the grave injustice it has posed to this morally fractured society.
The injustices therefore arise when we want to experience a taste of our heritage because our patronage has moved from our ethnic simplicity to a grander way of life.
We are living in an age of unmatched tourism, with industrial advances and globalisation offering almost anyone the occasion to explore and live in cultures that are not their own.
Worldwide, schools which have been established for decades, are now rapidly growing in popularity for subscribing to the possibility of studying in the vernacular, particularly among local populations, as they offer easier access to higher education opportunities around the world.
As a consequence, the number of children learning in a language other than their mother tongue is also increasing hastily.
Studies show that having a sturdy mother-tongue basis leads to a much better understanding of any syllabus as well as a more positive attitude towards school, so it’s vital that children maintain their first language when they begin schooling in a different one.
When children advance in their mother tongue, they are concurrently adopting a mass of other indispensable abilities, such as critical thinking and learning skills.
It is this skill set that they take with them into prescribed schooling and investigation tells us that any skills and concepts gained in the learner’s home language don’t need to be repeated when they transfer to a second language.
For example, if a child has developed the ability to guess the meaning of a word through its context or to deduce meaning by reading between the lines, these skills are easily shifted when they are reviewed in a second language.
It is much harder, however, to teach these intellectual skills directly through a second language.
It’s also well known that a strong mother tongue foundation equips children with the skills they need to learn additional languages, allowing them to transfer their understanding of the structure of language to several new languages.
The instinctive use of grammar that develops when children learn their first language can easily be distributed to other languages.
With multilingualism becoming a gradually more sought-after characteristic within the workplace, this advantage cannot be over-elaborated.
Globalisation and amplified co-operation between nations mean that in many societies it has become an obligation to have linguistic skills in addition to being a specialist within a particular field.
Dialectal and mother tongues also play a huge role in the growth of personal, public and cultural uniqueness.
Children with a strong underpinning in their first language often display an understanding of themselves and their place within society, along with an enlarged sense of societal security and confidence.
Unsurprisingly, this flows down into every aspect of their lives, including their academic achievements.
This is one of the reasons why multilingual education systems are receiving growing acceptance around the world and many intercontinental schools are focusing their resources on founding strong mother-tongue programmes.
Parent workshops outlining the importance of the mother tongue are becoming progressively popular, because many parents mistakenly believe that they should only speak to their children in the school’s language of tutoring, often contributing to children not gaining comprehensive eloquence in either their first or second language.
In many parts of the Asian world, as well as developing nations, specialists regularly invite parents into school for workshops.
They display research showing how children learn languages, discuss the school’s teaching methodology for language learning and, most importantly, explain the significance of a strong mother-tongue foundation and the vital role that parents play in developing and maintaining this.
In the South African context, children should be encouraged to bring in books written in their home languages and to share these with the class.
The formal education structure must now take into consideration the elements that provoke the thinking capacity of a learner based on factual studies that have proven records and results in similar nations around the word.
Sometimes, children chose to read small extracts out loud, allowing them to demonstrate more developed reading skills, while building pride in their own culture and developing respect for all cultures within the school.
This is just one small part of the jigsaw that makes up an in-depth mother-tongue programme and ultimately contributes to social cohesion and nation-building.