Mother tongue education for children of immigrants
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2017 5:49 pm
I've recently been thinking about this topic, because it pops up now and again in the media. In my country (Denmark) schools used to be obliged by law to offer the children of foreign parents to receive some kind of classes in their mother language. (Edit: these were supplementary classes, while the rest of the school curriculum were in Danish). Today such classes are only offered to the children of EU citizens (!). The idea was that a better grasp of the language of their original country would help them succeed better in general, helping them use their mother tongue as some kind of foundation and point of reference. It's hard to gather significant scientific evidence for this kind of thing, though, because there hasn't been a control group, and because a lot of other factors may come into play when looking at the successes and failures of immigrant children.
I think, however that it makes sense to try and cultivate any kind of competence that may be innate in with a given student. If someone has a talent for playing music, this talent should be encouraged, if the child is good at math, that, too is something that the educational system tries to push further.. But polyglottery doesn't seem to be considered the same way today - I wonder why? If a child speaks Tamil in his family for example, the educational system ought to seize the opportunity and make sure that he or she also learns to read and write in that language and that the student will be able to build solid foundations in the mother tongue. Often, though, it seems that these language competences that the kids get "for free" are seen as less important. Sometimes they're even discouraged, and the child is expected to only speak the language of the host-country to better "integrate". Normally, polyglottery is something that is respected and admired, but why, in this case is it ignored (or even looked down upon?)
The argument of the Danish government to stop offering these kind of classes were money. They felt that the money was better spent on teaching the children Danish. I can't help but think that this is a very short sighted decision. If it's a question of money, I think that we'll miss out in the long run.
There are several arguments for mother tongue education, like better overall academic success, better communication with the family (who will be able to help the child with his homework, as well as debate some of the subject that might arise when moving to a new country, like discrimination, culture differences, etc) and better self esteem and a sense of identity (rather that being the "immigrant" in the new country and the "emigrant" in the country of origin)
Since this forum deals with language learning, I'd like to hear people's opinions of this subject which might deal with language from a slightly different perspective. How is this kind of thing done in your country? Do you have any experiences?
I've written a little more in detail in a blog post here: mother language education
I hope to hear some of your thoughts!
I think, however that it makes sense to try and cultivate any kind of competence that may be innate in with a given student. If someone has a talent for playing music, this talent should be encouraged, if the child is good at math, that, too is something that the educational system tries to push further.. But polyglottery doesn't seem to be considered the same way today - I wonder why? If a child speaks Tamil in his family for example, the educational system ought to seize the opportunity and make sure that he or she also learns to read and write in that language and that the student will be able to build solid foundations in the mother tongue. Often, though, it seems that these language competences that the kids get "for free" are seen as less important. Sometimes they're even discouraged, and the child is expected to only speak the language of the host-country to better "integrate". Normally, polyglottery is something that is respected and admired, but why, in this case is it ignored (or even looked down upon?)
The argument of the Danish government to stop offering these kind of classes were money. They felt that the money was better spent on teaching the children Danish. I can't help but think that this is a very short sighted decision. If it's a question of money, I think that we'll miss out in the long run.
There are several arguments for mother tongue education, like better overall academic success, better communication with the family (who will be able to help the child with his homework, as well as debate some of the subject that might arise when moving to a new country, like discrimination, culture differences, etc) and better self esteem and a sense of identity (rather that being the "immigrant" in the new country and the "emigrant" in the country of origin)
Since this forum deals with language learning, I'd like to hear people's opinions of this subject which might deal with language from a slightly different perspective. How is this kind of thing done in your country? Do you have any experiences?
I've written a little more in detail in a blog post here: mother language education
I hope to hear some of your thoughts!