tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/mother-tongue-66469/articlesMother tongue – The Conversation2024-02-22T12:01:17Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2238672024-02-22T12:01:17Z2024-02-22T12:01:17ZLearning in two languages: lessons from francophone Africa on what works best<p>Children living in multilingual communities often learn in a language at school that does not match the language they speak at home. This mismatch makes it challenging for them to participate in classroom discussions and learn to read. In turn, this contributes to poor learning outcomes, grade repetition, and dropping out of school.</p>
<p>Bilingual education programmes that include mother tongue languages have become increasingly popular for improving learning outcomes. Bilingual education is associated with better <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728908003386">language and literacy skills</a>, reduced grade repetition and school dropout rates across the <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/10986/10331">globe</a>. Including mother tongue languages in education also places value on children’s cultural identities, improving confidence, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09500789808666737">self-esteem</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-012-9308-2">learning</a>. </p>
<p>But simply providing bilingual education does not guarantee better learning results. This is the conclusion of a recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2023.2290482">paper</a> we published in which we reviewed bilingual programmes in six francophone west African countries: Niger, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon. </p>
<p>We found mixed results, across and within countries and programmes.</p>
<p>We identified two sets of factors that constrain or contribute to the quality of bilingual education. These were: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>implementation factors, such as teacher training and classroom resources</p></li>
<li><p>socio-cultural factors, such as perceptions of mother tongue languages in education.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Our findings emphasise the need to consider the local context when applying bilingual education programmes. </p>
<h2>Bilingual education in francophone west Africa</h2>
<p>Our research team conducted research in Côte d’Ivoire from 2016 to 2018. We measured children’s language and reading skills in both their mother tongue and in French, and compared outcomes between children attending French-only or bilingual Projet École Intégrée schools. </p>
<p>Children in French-only schools outperformed their peers from bilingual schools on the language and reading <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000723">assessments</a>. Teachers revealed they had better teaching resources and felt better prepared in French-only schools. </p>
<p>We were interested in whether bilingual education programmes in other francophone countries in the region had had similar experiences. In 2022, we searched academic databases for literature in English and French that discussed programme implementation and measured learning and schooling outcomes within bilingual education programmes. We reviewed nine programmes from six countries: Niger, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon. </p>
<p>These countries are former French colonies or territories. French is the official or working language and often the language of instruction in school. However, these countries are highly multilingual. About 23 living <a href="https://www.ethnologue.com/">languages</a> are spoken in Niger, <a href="https://www.languagesoftheworld.info/geolinguistics/linguistic-diversity-in-africa-and-europe.html">39</a> in Senegal, <a href="https://www.languagesoftheworld.info/geolinguistics/linguistic-diversity-in-africa-and-europe.html">68</a> in Mali, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1280625/number-of-living-languages-in-africa-by-country/">71</a> in Burkina Faso, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1280625/number-of-living-languages-in-africa-by-country/">78</a> in Côte d’Ivoire and <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1280625/number-of-living-languages-in-africa-by-country/">277</a> in Cameroon. </p>
<p>Our review showed that children can benefit from learning in two languages. This is true whether they are two official languages like in Cameroon’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-019-09510-7">Dual Curriculum Bilingual Education</a> (French and English) schools, or in a mother tongue and French, like in Mali’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/447544">Community Schools</a>. Children can also benefit regardless of whether they are gradually introduced to a language throughout primary school or whether both languages are introduced at the same time.</p>
<p>But a lack of resources, and a failure to take into account local conditions, affected the outcomes. The programmes that resulted in positive schooling and learning outcomes recognised and targeted common school-related and community-related challenges.</p>
<h2>Teacher training and resources</h2>
<p>One common school-related challenge was teachers not having teaching materials in all languages of instruction.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000161121">Pédagogie Convergente</a> programme in Mali, for example, ensured teachers had materials in both French and the mother tongue. Children had better French and maths scores. </p>
<p>But some teachers from the same programme did not always have teaching <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Patterns_of_French_literacy_development.html?id=MoNnAAAAMAAJ&hl=en&redir_esc=y">materials</a> in mother tongue languages. And some children struggled with literacy and writing skills. </p>
<p>Another common challenge was teachers not feeling prepared to teach in all languages, as teacher training often occurred in an official language, like French. The <a href="https://www.adeanet.org/clearinghouse/sites/default/files/docs/interieur_11_burkina_fre.pdf">Programme d’éducation bilingue</a> in Burkina Faso, for example, made an effort to train teachers in the mother tongue language so they felt confident following the bilingual curriculum. </p>
<p>Children in bilingual Burkina Faso schools had higher than average <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050802149275">pass rates</a> on the primary certificate exam, <a href="https://www.memoireonline.com/06/22/12997/m_Le-rapport-des-enseignants-aux-langues-nationales-en-tant-que-mdiums-et-matires-den.html">repeated grades less</a>, and stayed in school more than children in traditional French schools. </p>
<p>Both examples are in contrast to the bilingual schools in Côte d’Ivoire, where teachers lacked materials and training in mother tongue languages. In turn, children demonstrated worse language and reading skills compared to their peers in French-only schools.</p>
<h2>Socio-cultural factors</h2>
<p>We identified common community-related challenges, particularly related to community buy-in and perceptions of mother tongue instruction. </p>
<p>For example, families with higher socioeconomic status were worried that Niger’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050208667760">Ecole Experimentale</a> schools would hinder children’s French proficiency and compromise their entry into secondary school. </p>
<p>Programmes such as the <a href="https://ared-edu.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/DC-Senegal-Workshop-Findings_04.2019-FINAL-ENG.pdf">Support Program for Quality Education in Mother Tongues for Primary Schools</a> in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1765968">Senegal</a> worked to combat negative perceptions by educating families about the benefits of bilingual education. Children in the Senegalese programme outperformed their peers in traditional French schools in all school subjects.</p>
<p>The same programmes sometimes experienced different outcomes depending on the community. For example, although children in Burkina Faso’s bilingual schooling showed favourable outcomes, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-021-09885-y">parents</a> felt that French programmes were better suited for continuing to secondary school. </p>
<h2>What does this mean for bilingual education?</h2>
<p>Efforts to provide teachers with the resources they needed, and efforts to foster community support, were both consistently linked with positive schooling and learning outcomes in our review. </p>
<p>However, these efforts might work better in some communities compared to others, due to different resource constraints and socio-cultural differences. Studies that found poorer outcomes also found common challenges present. Therefore, bilingual education has the potential to facilitate positive learning outcomes if efforts are made to overcome common challenges based on communities’ needs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223867/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Bilingual education can improve learning outcomes but it’s important to consider local context.Kaja Jasinska, Assistant Professor, Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of TorontoMary-Claire Ball, PhD student, Developmental Psychology and Education, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2224032024-02-19T13:36:02Z2024-02-19T13:36:02ZNervous Conditions: on translating one of Zimbabwe’s most famous novels into Shona<p>The publishing journey of Zimbabwean writer and film-maker <a href="https://theconversation.com/tsitsi-dangarembga-and-writing-about-pain-and-loss-in-zimbabwe-144313">Tsitsi Dangarembga</a>’s <a href="https://www.google.co.za/books/edition/Nervous_Conditions/UyZjAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0&bsq=Nervous%20Conditions">Nervous Conditions</a> wasn’t easy. Yet the novel is today considered by many as one of <a href="https://library.columbia.edu/libraries/global/virtual-libraries/african_studies/books.html">Africa’s 100 best books</a> of the 20th century and is studied at <a href="https://africasacountry.com/2020/08/african-literature-is-a-country">universities</a> around the world. </p>
<p>When she submitted the manuscript to publishing houses in Zimbabwe in the early 1980s, they all turned it down. Dangarembga felt <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1345839">at the time</a> that it was “very difficult for men to accept the things that women write and want to write about: and the men (were) the publishers”. It was eventually published to critical acclaim in 1988 by <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803124519397">The Women’s Press</a> in London. This made Dangarembga the first black Zimbabwean woman to publish a novel in English. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1745039029970595991"}"></div></p>
<p>Now a new translation of the book into Zimbabwe’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shona">Shona</a> language has been released, marking another milestone for Nervous Conditions, because African classics are seldom translated into African languages. Translation of African literature happens often, but mostly in European countries. Nervous Conditions itself has <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/formats-editions/1230558464">already been translated</a> into a dozen or more languages including Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish. </p>
<p>The new Shona translation, titled Kusagadzikana and released by Zimbabwean publishers <a href="https://houseofbookszim.com/">House of Books</a>, was done by <a href="https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poets/poet/102-7808_Mabasa">Ignatius Mabasa</a>, an acclaimed novelist who also wrote the first <a href="https://www.ru.ac.za/facultyofhumanities/latestnews/africanlanguagesstudentwritesfirst-everchishonaphdthesisatrhodesuniver-1.html">PhD thesis in Shona</a>.</p>
<p>Even more remarkably, Dangarembga’s follow-up novel, <a href="https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/book-not">The Book of Not</a>, has also recently been translated into Shona as Hakuna Zvakadaro by writer and academic <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Tanaka+Chidora&btnG=">Tanaka Chidora</a>. This leaves just the last book in the trilogy, <a href="https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/tsitsi-dangarembga">the Booker shortlisted</a> <a href="https://jacana.co.za/product/this-mournable-body/">This Mournable Body</a>, untranslated. </p>
<p>For a reader and <a href="https://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/cpt_people/mushakavanhu-dr-tinashe/">scholar</a> of Zimbabwean literature, encountering Nervous Condition’s story of a rural girl called Tambudzai in Shona is like waking up in a dream. I spoke with Mabasa about his translation journey and why it matters.</p>
<h2>Can you describe the process of translating the book?</h2>
<p>I started translating Nervous Conditions around 1999 when I was a visiting Fulbright scholar in the US, where I was teaching Zimbabwean literature. Nervous Conditions was one of the books I was teaching. Coincidentally, 1999 is the year that my first novel <a href="https://www.google.co.za/books/edition/Mapenzi/qLMaAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Mapenzi&dq=Mapenzi&printsec=frontcover">Mapenzi</a> was published and I used to talk to my students about the sad situation that there was more Zimbabwean literature in English than in indigenous languages. </p>
<p>I pointed out that the majority of the ordinary women whose story Nervous Conditions was telling would not be able to buy, read and understand Nervous Conditions in English, because of their literacy levels. I thought perhaps I could try to translate the book into Shona as a way of repatriating and decolonising the story. I then dived in and started translating the first chapter, tackling one paragraph at a time. </p>
<p>I was intrigued by how beautiful and sincere the story sounded in Shona. Tambudzai sounded more heartfelt in Shona than in English – I guess because Shona was her real voice. As someone who grew up in a village myself, I strongly identified with Tambudzai and, in translating, I faithfully became her in order to capture the pain and injustice in her family and the national politics in the story. I translated the book up to chapter three and had to stop because Dangarembga was involved in a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/ayebia-clarke-publishing-help-tsitsi-dangarembga-regain-the-rights-to-her-novel-nervous-conditions">legal battle</a> for its rights. I only resumed in 2022, but because I had lost the mood and feeling that I had when I initially started, I had to rework the translation from the beginning.</p>
<h2>Were there difficult parts and how did you deal with them?</h2>
<p>The title was one of the most difficult things to translate. Nervousness is something deeper, it’s beyond nerves. It’s a reflection of the physical, the psychological and the spiritual. The level of disturbance in Nervous Conditions is traumatic, immediate and long-term. I had to think really hard about the words that would capture all that. I’m pleased with Kusagadzikana as the final title because when I read Tanaka Chidora’s Shona translation of The Book of Not, I noticed that he uses the term <em>kusagadzikana</em> the same way I did.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/animal-farm-has-been-translated-into-shona-why-a-group-of-zimbabwean-writers-undertook-the-task-206966">Animal Farm has been translated into Shona – why a group of Zimbabwean writers undertook the task</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Another difficulty I faced was to do with the differences in the storytelling style of the two languages, English and Shona. Dangarembga does go into the human psyche in a complex and deep manner that is not usually found in Shona writing, and that needed to be handled delicately – there were times when it was like deboning a fish. An example is Tambudzai’s trauma caused by Babamukuru’s facilitated wedding of her parents. Also Nyasha’s emotional rollercoasters are key to the story – I had to slow down and make sure that I didn’t miss the metaphorically loaded twists and turns. Then there are some very English descriptions including elaborate colours, ways of dancing, fashion designs, foods that I had to deal with cleverly but without aborting the meaning.</p>
<h2>Why was it important for you to translate this book?</h2>
<p>Nervous Conditions is our story as indigenous people. The story had to be decolonised by making it come back to speak to the people who are victims of colonial injustices in a language that would enable them to tell “when the rain started to beat them” (as the saying goes) in order for them to start drying themselves. </p>
<p>The novel is an important documentation of our history and the translation makes it accessible and able to be discussed under a tree by ordinary folk, and not just by academics in air-conditioned conference venues. It is a form of liberation struggle – the liberation of many things that remain colonised, including our minds.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222403/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tinashe Mushakavanhu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It reads powerfully in the Shona language, and is one of two of her books newly translated into it.Tinashe Mushakavanhu, Junior Research Fellow, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2040502023-06-19T14:05:44Z2023-06-19T14:05:44ZTanzanian students who struggle with English feel bullied - a major barrier to learning<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529329/original/file-20230531-17-88ouf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students at Mtitu Secondary School in Kilolo district, approximately 500 kilometres south-west of Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar-es-Salaam.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In many postcolonial contexts, early learning is conducted, and assessed, in a language that is unfamiliar to learners. About <a href="https://en.unesco.org/gem-report/if-you-don%E2%80%99t-understand-how-can-you-learn">40%</a> of the world’s population cannot access schooling in a language that they understand and that is regularly used in their communities. This figure may be as high as <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/537645d3-981c-5137-836d-f7cfd8ac46d6">80% in sub-Saharan Africa</a>. </p>
<p>Language policies in some countries preserve a role for mother tongue or other familiar local languages in the first years of schooling. This is the case for example in Kenya, Botswana and Ethiopia. In Tanzania, the national language – Kiswahili – is the <a href="https://www.journals.esciencepress.net/index.php/IJES/article/view/725/404">language of instruction</a> in primary schooling. The use of Kiswahili at this level was seen as integral to forging a new national Tanzanian identity after independence. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.unicef.org/esa/sites/unicef.org.esa/files/2018-09/UNICEF-2016-Language-and-Learning-FullReport.pdf">nearly all countries</a> switch to English, French or Portuguese by the start of secondary schooling. </p>
<p>Tanzania is no exception. Although there was a shift in the wording of the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3389821">language policy</a> in 2015, there was <a href="https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/news/Tanzania-has-no-plans-of-scrapping-English-as-a-language-/1840340-5154162-11xcx0c/index.html">strong opposition</a> to change. Young people continue to experience an <a href="https://journaljesbs.com/index.php/JESBS/article/view/60">abrupt transition</a> to English when they enter Form 1 of secondary school from 14 years old. </p>
<p>There is clear <a href="https://hakielimu.or.tz/download/does-language-of-instruction-affect-quality-of-education">evidence</a> that the compulsory use of English makes learning more difficult and contributes to poor outcomes. Research has also <a href="https://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/JEP/article/view/5752/0">found</a>, however, that many students and teachers wanted to retain English as the language of instruction. </p>
<p>To try to unpick this perplexing confusion, I sought to explore students’ experiences of language in school, alongside their broader attitudes and aspirations relating to education and language. My <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2022.2093357">study</a> confirmed previous findings that compulsory use of English limits learner comprehension and participation. More significantly, I found that underlying student fear of poor expression in a new language – and being laughed at or mocked by teachers and fellow students – was a prevalent barrier to learning and participation. </p>
<p>The findings from this study are a clear pointer that any new approaches must include changes to classroom management. Laughter and humiliation should not be allowed as responses to mistakes. </p>
<h2>The study</h2>
<p>This study was conducted over eight months in two secondary schools in the Morogoro region of central Tanzania. The urban school had more than 1,500 students and included both lower and advanced secondary level, forms 1-6. The rural school was a newer, community school, with 600 students in forms 1-4. This study was designed for depth of understanding, so it focused on only two schools. There may be differences in learners’ experiences in different schools and regions across the country, but the challenges found in these two schools were similar to those reported in the wider literature. </p>
<p>The research approach was ethnographic – through observation in and out of class as well as formal and informal interviews with students and teachers. During this research, young people were free to speak Kiswahili, English or a mix of these two. Although there were other local languages used in the communities, they were not widely used in school. This is perhaps different in other regions of the country where there is a more <a href="https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/items/08a9f569-fb93-4c68-8802-83760e16cf77">dominant local language</a>. </p>
<p>I trained and worked with a group of pupil researchers from the two schools. They conducted their own interviews, co-facilitated workshops and helped to interpret the findings and explain their meaning in the Tanzanian context. I wanted to recognise the importance of their accounts and explanations. </p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>The vast majority of pupils in this study had not used English as a language of instruction before starting secondary school at age 14 or above. They also had limited exposure to English outside school. Only a small number of pupils at the urban school had attended private, English-medium primary schools. </p>
<p>To enable learners to understand, most teachers translated lesson content into Kiswahili. This happens elsewhere too, but it is much less common for teachers to allow students to answer questions in a familiar language. In this study I observed learners asking to speak in Kiswahili and being told that this was not permitted. Students had to translate their knowledge into English to respond.</p>
<p>Many students explained that they preferred to remain silent. This is because if they tried to answer and failed to express themselves, they risked being laughed at and perceived as unintelligent by their teachers and classmates. A female Form 2 student in the urban school said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You will be laughed at, which means we are afraid of the shame … fear, again. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Students’ fears were not unfounded. I recorded many instances of laughter punctuating student responses in class. These include some which were led by teachers who seemed to be using humiliation and fear of failure as strategies to motivate learners to work harder. In some cases, threats of physical punishment were also used against students who were unable to complete a task. </p>
<p>This study found that girls were particularly worried about cruel comments from other girls that they termed “gossiping”. Learners’ experiences of negative emotions may <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01434632.2022.2159031">differ based on gender</a> but this was not the focus of my study. </p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>Requiring young students to use an unfamiliar language to participate in learning works against the global aspirations for <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4">inclusive and equitable quality education</a>. In Tanzania and other sub-Saharan African countries, some important work is <a href="https://talast.ac.tz/processes-of-pedagogic-change-2/">being done</a> with local teachers and teacher educators to develop multilingual, translingual and language supportive approaches to teaching. </p>
<p>The key feature is the use of a familiar language for exploratory discussion and to support learning of both subject content and the target language. Currently on a small scale, it is happening in a several countries, including <a href="https://www.ejmste.com/article/practice-in-teaching-and-learning-of-invertebrates-evaluating-the-effectiveness-of-pedagogical-9697">Tanzania</a>, <a href="https://perlinguam.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/628">South Africa</a>, and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342368321_Pushing_linguistic_boundaries_translanguaging_in_a_bilingual_Science_and_Technology_classroom">Zimbabwe</a>. Research is also <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/education/documents/bristol-working-papers-in-education/working-paper-bowden-barrett-2022.pdf">under way</a> to explore opportunities for expanding to a larger scale. </p>
<p>Students must feel safe to talk and experiment with language and ideas without fear of shame.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204050/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laela Adamson has received funding from the Education Development Trust (Tim Morris Award) and the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council, grant number: ES/W005484/1. </span></em></p>Students’ fears were not unfounded. I recorded many instances of laughter punctuating student responses in class.Laela Adamson, Lecturer, University of Strathclyde Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2050122023-06-12T20:01:22Z2023-06-12T20:01:22ZA silver lining from the pandemic: how lockdowns helped kids learn the languages their parents speak<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524804/original/file-20230508-21-tsmues.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>None of us is a stranger to the downsides of the pandemic. For families with kids, kindergartens and schools closed during the lockdown, and parents had to manage schooling and working from home. </p>
<p>Yet there is a silver lining: <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/multi-2023-0011/html">our research</a> shows that, in families where a parent’s mother tongue is not the language spoken in wider society, children learned more about that language during lockdowns.</p>
<p>Let’s call the language these parents speak the “home language” and the language society uses the “societal language”. Take me as an example: at home I speak Shanghainese with my mum, Mandarin with dad, and Telepath with my cat. But in the community and at work, I speak English, the societal language. </p>
<p>To many multilingual families, our kids’ home language often comes second to the societal language, which dominates their language development as they grow up. When parents witness this transition, they fear their children will gradually lose the ability to use the language they speak. They fear that, as a consequence, their children will lose touch with their roots.</p>
<p>Along with my colleagues, <a href="https://linktr.ee/eligarciag">Elisabet García González</a> and <a href="https://www.hf.uio.no/multiling/english/people/core-group/elanza/index.html">Elizabeth Lanza</a>, we conducted a survey of around 200 multilingual families in Norway (published in the journal <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/multi-2023-0011/html">Multilingua</a>). Parents expressed their concerns about their children’s development of home and societal languages. For example, one said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Since our daughter mostly speaks [home language] with her father and [societal language] with me and at kindergarten (although her father and I exclusively speak [home language] to each other), her [home language] is generally less advanced than her [societal language] […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Multilingual children rarely use all their languages in the same contexts or with the same frequency. This is often perceived as being more or less “advanced” in one language than the other, but in reality multilingual speakers use their languages as best fits their needs. </p>
<p>Despite these concerns, there was a silver lining. Our study found children’s home language literacy improved during the pandemic. The parents who reported the concern above later said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’ve clearly noticed that her spoken [home language] has developed during the lockdown.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another family told us: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>With the two-year-old, I noticed an improvement in her [home language] vocabulary while kindergarten was closed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What is the reason for this improvement in the home language? As one family shared: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>My children started to be interested and speak more [home language] during the lockdown. Assume this is a result of (us) working from home for an international company and them hearing mum use this (home) language.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>My kids have started using more [home language] in their [societal language] speech with parents and each other during the lockdown, because they are watching more YouTube and playing Minecraft, Animal Crossing and Zelda. Words from the games are difficult to translate into [societal language].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our statistical analyses had something even more interesting to say: the improvement of a child’s home language made their parents feel more positive about their children being multilingual. Parents see it as a source of wellbeing, especially when they notice their child is picking up their mother tongue. Overall, family relationships, resilience, cultural connection and hope are boosted even in the darkest days of the pandemic.</p>
<p>Is this at the expense of the societal language, one may ask? Indeed, some parents were worried about the development of kids’ societal language, especially when it was not spoken at home. Others said the societal language was still being used during the lockdown, such as in online media. One parent said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>My son is a bit behind the level of the class. He really improved his [societal language] reading during the lockdown, since we had more time to individually support him in a positive way. Before, he was much more negative.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another family told us: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The difference (in language use) was noticeable when the kindergarten reopened. [Societal language] came back for the kids as easily as restarting to ride a bike.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The societal language is often strong in young children – sometimes so strong that it can bully the home language into a corner. The key task for many multilingual families is not so much to find a balance between the two languages, but to make sure the home language is being actively used and not being overshadowed by the societal language.</p>
<p>Unity is important in society. Being able to speak a common language is important, but equity and diversity are important too. The ability to speak one’s mother tongue can become a source of belonging and wellbeing. </p>
<p>In addition, children growing up in a culturally and linguistically diverse environment tend to be more flexible. Their neurocognitive plasticity shines across developmental domains, from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006914566082">language learning</a> to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-016-0780-7">music perception</a>.</p>
<p>So the pandemic lockdowns were bad, but not all bad. Our kids adapt and adjust to the new environment, and can surprise us with stronger skills that make mum and dad proud.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205012/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liquan Liu receives funding from uropean Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 798658 hosted by Center for Multilingualism across the Lifespan at the University of Oslo, financed by Research Council of Norway through its Centers of Excellence funding scheme grant agreement No. 223265; and from Western Sydney University School of Psychology 20820 83181.
The corresponding academic publication will be published on journal Multilingua. DOI details to be added. Co-authors are Elisabet Garcia Gonzalez and Elizabeth Lanza.</span></em></p>Amid all the stresses of lockdowns, our research found there was some good news: children had the chance to better develop their home language.Liquan Liu, Senior lecturer, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1962662023-01-08T13:26:21Z2023-01-08T13:26:21ZSupporting minority languages requires more than token gestures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503327/original/file-20230105-12-dlbbtf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C77%2C7315%2C4825&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Language policy in Canada suggests misunderstanding among government officials and the general public about language use, international language rights and their implications.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In August 2022, Statistics Canada released the latest census data on languages in Canada. According to the data, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220817/dq220817a-eng.htm">over nine million people — or one in four Canadians</a> — has a mother tongue other than English or French (a record high since the 1901 census). </p>
<p><a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-627-m/11-627-m2022051-eng.htm">Twelve per cent of Canadians</a> speak a language other than English or French at home. Statistics Canada observes that the country’s linguistic diversity will likely continue to grow into the future.</p>
<p>Yet, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bill-96-explained-1.6460764">recent developments</a> in language policy and practices in Canada reveal that there is confusion and misunderstanding among government officials and the general public about language use, international language rights and their implications.</p>
<p>In Canada, there must be greater understanding of the cultural and linguistic rights of minorities. According to universally accepted human rights, persons belonging to majorities and minorities should have equal rights. Minorities are entitled to equal conditions and services to enable them to maintain their identity, culture and language.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white street sign in the English and Inuit languages that reads: Mittimatalil." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A street sign in the English and Inuit languages at Pond Inlet on Baffin Island, Nvt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The 1966 <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-covenant-civil-and-political-rights">International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights</a>, a human rights treaty to which Canada is a party, provides that “In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own language.”</p>
<p>The 1992 <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/declaration-rights-persons-belonging-national-or-ethnic">UN Declaration on Minorities</a> clarifies and expands on this treaty provision. It stipulates that UN member states should enact legislative and other measures to protect minority identities.</p>
<h2>Confusing words</h2>
<p>Two words <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-003-1024-0">are often confused</a> in Canada: integration and assimilation. When speaking about immigrants and refugees, <a href="https://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-2.5/page-1.html#h-274085">Canadian law’s stated objective is integration</a>. And the default framework for integration is the majority culture and language. </p>
<p>Non-anglophone and non-francophone immigrants are expected to adapt and conform to the Canadian way of doing things, learn Canadian history, celebrate Canadian holidays and speak in one or both of Canada’s official languages.</p>
<p>But these languages reflect the cultures of Canada’s two historically dominant groups. For many Indigenous people and immigrants, histories, holidays and languages differ from the majority of Canadians.</p>
<p>Involuntary assimilation is <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G05/133/85/PDF/G0513385.pdf?OpenElement">prohibited under international law</a>. This is a colonialist and imperialist practice which ultimately forces people to alter or surrender their identity, culture and dissolve into the majority. </p>
<p>Canada’s notorious <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools">residential schools</a> were one of the harshest examples of such assimilationist policies. Other essentially assimilationist practices continue to this day. For example, the law states that provinces must provide education to English or French-speaking minorities <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/check/art23.html">in their own language</a>. But there is no similar legislation for Indigenous languages, nor for those spoken by people who immigrate from all around the world. These policies will increasingly conflict with growing diversity as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63643912">Canada seeks to welcome 1.5 million immigrants</a> over the next three years.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/language-learning-in-canada-needs-to-change-to-reflect-superdiverse-communities-144037">Language learning in Canada needs to change to reflect 'superdiverse' communities</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In contrast, <a href="https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/0/9/96883.pdf">integration</a> is based on recognition of diversity. Integration is a two-way process through which minorities and majorities learn about and engage with each other’s cultures and languages. </p>
<p>While maintaining their own distinctiveness, majority and minority groups contribute to shared foundations and institutions of the society out of common interest and for mutual benefit. This is important for the many individuals who possess multiple or overlapping identities.</p>
<p>In 2012, the <a href="https://www.osce.org/">Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe</a>, of which Canada is a participating state, released <a href="https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/0/9/96883.pdf">Guidelines on Integration of Diverse Societies</a>, in which it explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Integration is a process that requires that all members of a given society accept common public institutions and have a shared sense of belonging to a common State and an inclusive society. This does not exclude the possibility of distinct identities, which are constantly evolving, multiple and contextual. Mechanisms aiming at mutual accommodation are essential to negotiate the legitimate claims put forward by different groups or communities.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Integration requires accommodation of diversity. It also means that governments should invest proportionally in the promotion of majority and minority cultures and languages with a view to facilitating full lives in dignity and equal rights for everyone. This requires more than token support for cultural activities such as traditional food and dance.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People at a protest carry signs featuring the number 96 with a red line across it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People take part in a protest against Bill 96 in Montréal. Québec’s language law reform, known as Bill 96, forbids provincial government agencies and municipalities from using languages other than French.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is also confusion around the issue of minority language status. In Canada there is a common belief that the only minority language(s) entitled to protection are the ones with official or other recognized status. But according to international human rights principles, all minority cultures and languages should be protected <a href="https://ap.ohchr.org/documents/E/GA/report/A_74_160.pdf">regardless of whether they hold “official” status</a>. </p>
<p>This means that the languages of Indigenous Peoples as well as of other people living in Canada should be acknowledged and facilitated. This is essential for their well-being and for genuine equality in rights.</p>
<h2>Not a zero-sum game</h2>
<p>Genuine integration should respect and promote diversity in the languages used in various contexts of public life. This does not necessarily require changing the number and status of official languages; it’s not a zero-sum game. But it does require adjusting language policies to reconcile with existing realities in reasonable and meaningful ways. The aim is real and effective equality. </p>
<p>Technological innovations (such as easily accessible <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/02/05/translation-tech-solutions-language-barriers-google-translate-interpreter/4596091002/">real-time translation</a>) make this more possible and cost-effective than ever.</p>
<p>In order to live together peacefully and embrace diversity, Canadians need to understand that languages are not just a means of technical communication, but are often at the core of people’s identity and culture. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/residential-day-school-survivors-who-lost-language-and-culture-seek-redress-1.3032862">Taking away a person’s language</a> often amounts to taking away their sense of self, dignity and community belonging. It also suppresses the remarkable linguistic assets that Canada possesses.</p>
<p>Building a Canadian nation through assimilation of minorities in the face of increasing diversity only generates social tensions and conflicts. It is not democracy, it is majoritarianism. It is contrary to fundamental human rights and signals social regression rather than progress. </p>
<p>Instead, Canada should foster a forward-looking, human-centred and dynamic society that embraces diversity, multiculturalism and multilingualism. This is to our advantage. Canada’s rich linguistic diversity is an asset that should be valued. We must cast off the old colonialist thinking and seize the rich possibilities that are at hand.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196266/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Veaceslav Balan is a member of the University of Ottawa Human Rights Research and Education Centre.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frederick John Packer receives funding from SSHRC. He is affiliated with a number of human rights NGOs including Human Rights Watch (Canada Committee) and the International Commission of Jurists (Canada Section). </span></em></p>Canada’s population is more diverse than ever, with many different languages represented. Government policy must reflect that diversity and offer meaningful support to minority languages.Veaceslav Balan, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaFrederick John Packer, Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1638762021-07-07T15:04:17Z2021-07-07T15:04:17ZNew Kiswahili science fiction award charts a path for African languages<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409866/original/file-20210706-21-17nf4h6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The 6th edition of <a href="https://kiswahiliprize.cornell.edu/">The Mabati Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature</a>, suspended last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is back. Founded in 2014, the prize recognises writing in African languages and encourages translation from, between and into African languages. Kiswahili is widely spoken across the east coast of Africa. This year’s prize also offers a special award designed to promote and popularise a Kiswahili vocabulary for technology and digital rights. We spoke to the prize founders – literary academic Lizzy Attree, also of <a href="http://shortstorydayafrica.org">Short Story Day Africa</a>, and literature professor and celebrated <a href="http://www.mukomawangugi.com/books.html">author</a> Mukoma Wa Ngugi – on the challenges of growing literature in African languages.</em></p>
<h2>What’s the idea behind the special Nyabola prize?</h2>
<p><strong>Lizzy Attree:</strong> The <a href="https://kiswahiliprize.cornell.edu/special-prize-for-2021/">Nyabola prize</a> gives us the opportunity to work in a new area that is really exciting for us. <a href="https://www.nanjalawrites.com">Nanjala Nyabola</a>, the Kenyan writer and activist, approached us with the idea and the funding to target vocabulary for technology and digital rights. This was particularly interesting to us for two reasons. Firstly, we have long wanted to offer a short story prize, but have stuck with longer works because of the opportunity it gives us to focus on <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Swahili-language">Kiswahili</a> literature as a fully mastered form. But we are aware that a short story prize is a good place to start for those who are only beginning to write. Secondly, Kiswahili is often considered to be steeped in archaic, or historically poetic technical words and forms. These must be updated to accommodate the modern language of science and technology. It has been an interesting adventure to find out which words can be adapted or amended to fit with modern digital and technological advancement.</p>
<p><strong>Mukoma Wa Ngugi:</strong> There is also the idea that African languages are social languages, emotive and cannot carry science. Most definitely not true. All languages can convey the most complex ideas but we have to let them. There is something beautiful about African languages carrying science, fictionalised of course, into imagined futures.</p>
<h2>Mukoma, you also write speculative fiction; what is its power?</h2>
<p><strong>Mukoma Wa Ngugi:</strong> At the height of dictatorship in Kenya under president <a href="https://theconversation.com/daniel-arap-moi-the-making-of-a-kenyan-big-man-127177">Daniel arap Moi</a>, when writers and intellectuals were being <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4186808">detained and exiled</a>, and their books <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1991/02/13/in-kenya-animal-farm-corralled/136feeb9-6d5b-421a-a6a2-72072e15e8ff/">banned</a>, it was the genre writers who kept the politics alive. In fact I dedicated my detective novel <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/212059/nairobi-heat-by-mukoma-wa-ngugi/"><em>Nairobi Heat</em></a> to two such Kenyan writers, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/441171.David_G_Maillu">David Mailu</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Meja-Mwangi">Meja Mwangi</a>. We inherited a hierarchy of what counts as serious literature from colonialism, the division between minor and major literatures. It is important for us to blur the lines between literary and genre fiction – they are both doing serious work but in different styles. And the same goes between written literature and orature (spoken literature). Orature is seen lesser-than but, as writers and scholars have <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3820568">argued</a>, orature has its own discipline and aesthetics.</p>
<h2>How has African language publishing changed since the prize began?</h2>
<p><strong>Lizzy Attree:</strong> Sadly I don’t think African language publishing has advanced very much in the last seven years or that there are enough academic studies focusing on this area. The demise of the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/5194-noma-award-for-publishing-in-africa">Noma Award</a> for Publishing in Africa was part of the decline, or indicative of it. However, book festivals are <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1684458/the-rise-of-literary-festivals-in-african-cities-lagos-hargeysa/">growing</a>, and we hope that in time this will lead to more awards and more publishing in African languages. Mukoma’s father, <a href="https://theconversation.com/tipped-to-win-nobel-literature-prize-kenyas-ngugi-misses-out-again-67009">Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o</a>, is a pioneer in this area, and it’s been wonderful to see his novel shortlisted for the International Booker Prize recently. Although there are many other good examples of where changes are happening, considering the size of the continent and the number of languages, there is still a huge gap.</p>
<p><strong>Mukoma Wa Ngugi:</strong> <a href="https://jaladaafrica.org/">Jalada Journal</a> is a good example of how attitudes to writing in African languages have changed for the better. In 2015 Jalada took a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/29/jalada-africa-short-story-ngugi-wa-thiongo-translated-over-30-languages-publication">short story</a> written by Ngugi in Gikuyu and self-translated into English and had it translated to close to 100 languages. This made it the most translated African short story. But the genius of their initiative was that most of the translations were between African languages. The Jalada example is important for two reasons – it shows that innovation can happen when African languages talk to each other. And that for the younger writers, African languages do not carry the same sense of inferiority – English is just another language. All in all I don’t think the Nyabola prize, for example, would have been possible 10 years ago. A lot has changed where it matters the most; the ideology around African languages is shifting.</p>
<h2>Do awards work and why are there so few major literary prizes in Africa?</h2>
<p><strong>Lizzy Attree:</strong> I think awards certainly work in raising the profile of writers and their work, but it is difficult to find funding for these kinds of projects.</p>
<p><strong>Mukoma Wa Ngugi:</strong> It is all about setting up a viable and thriving literary ecosystem for writing in African languages. Literary agents, publishers, readership, critics, literary prizes and so on. Prizes are just one aspect. We realised that from the onset so our winners, in addition to the monetary awards, have also been published by <a href="https://mkukinanyota.com">Mkuki na Nyota Press</a> in Tanzania. We have been trying to get them translated into English but as Lizzy points out, funding is a huge problem. We were lucky to partner with Mabati Rolling Mills and the Safal Group. We have a de facto slogan: African philanthropy for African cultural development. But all the living parts of the African literary ecosystem have to be thriving. In this, we all have work to do.</p>
<h2>Why is African language literature so important?</h2>
<p><strong>Lizzy Attree:</strong> It’s been clearly demonstrated that learning in one’s mother tongue brings huge advantages to students. And where else must we find ourselves reflected if not in our own literature, in our own languages?</p>
<p><strong>Mukoma Wa Ngugi:</strong> You can think of language as the sum total of a people’s history and knowledge. We store history and knowledge in language. To speak only English is to be alienated from your past, present and future. It is a pain we should all feel deeply. In my <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/9724578/rise_of_the_african_novel">book</a>, <em>The Rise of the African Novel: Language, Identity and Ownership</em>, I give the example of how early writing in South African languages remains outside our literary tradition. I talk about how that leads to truncated imaginations. We write within literary traditions, but what happens to your imagination when you cannot access your literary tradition?</p>
<p><em>The shortlist will be announced in October/November 2021, with the winners announced in Dar es Salaam in December 2021.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163876/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There is something beautiful about African languages carrying science, fictionalised of course, into imagined futures.Mukoma Wa Ngugi, Associate Professor of literatures in English, Cornell UniversityLizzy Attree, Adjunct Professor, Richmond American International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1575372021-03-29T14:44:08Z2021-03-29T14:44:08ZLandmark study shows how child grants empower women in Brazil and South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391480/original/file-20210324-13-9o4x3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C458%2C2955%2C1535&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Grants were found to help improve the health, including mental health, of women</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Aaron Ufumeli</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the mid-1990s, new approaches to poverty reduction have been introduced in countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Some have involved income transfer programmes that target poorer citizens based on various means tests. Most have targeted female caregivers, primarily mothers.</p>
<p>The most expansive child and family grants are in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and South Africa, which has put in place the biggest social provision net in <a href="https://www.unicef.org/french/files/Social_Protection_for_Children_and_their_Families_-_A_Global_Overview.pdf">Africa</a>. </p>
<p>The focus of our study was on Brazil and South Africa, two of the countries that have the largest programmes globally. The programmes were all designed to enhance child welfare. But as academics who have studied social policy in these countries, we felt it was important to assess the impact of income transfer programmes that move beyond a focus on child well-being only. In particular, we set out to examine if such transfers also elevated women in their homes, societies and political systems.</p>
<p>We set <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1468018120981421">out to compare</a> South Africa’s <a href="https://www.sassa.gov.za/Pages/Child-Support-Grant.aspx">child support grant</a> and Brazil’s <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/---sro-new_delhi/documents/presentation/wcms_175274.pdf">Bolsa Família</a>. </p>
<p>Bolsa Família was launched in 2003 and is the largest cash transfer programme for children and families in the world, reaching more than <a href="https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/case-study/bolsa-familia-in-brazil">46 million people a year</a> in Brazil. The country has a population of <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/brazil-population/">212 million people</a>. </p>
<p>South Africa’s child support grant system was launched in 1998. It makes monthly disbursements to 12.8 million children of a total population of <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/south-africa-population/">59.6 million people</a>. </p>
<p>Though they have different population sizes, Brazil and South Africa have a great deal in common. They have similar economic profiles and demographic characteristics. For example, among other similarities, they have the highest <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/">levels of income inequality</a>. </p>
<p>We conducted fieldwork in Doornkop, <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/soweto">Soweto</a>, a large, densely populated black urban settlement which comprises one third of Johannesburg’s population. We also looked at three municipalities across two states of Northeast Brazil. </p>
<p>We <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1468018120981421">found</a> that regular income assistance boosted the self-esteem and agency of women recipients in both countries. Our findings also underscored the added benefits of Brazil’s cash transfer programme because it is embedded in a stronger public health and social service network than is the case in South Africa. </p>
<p>The broader lesson we took from our findings was that income transfer programmes must operate in deliberate coordination with ancillary social service institutions to deliver the maximum benefits for women’s empowerment.</p>
<h2>Three dimensions of empowerment</h2>
<p>Our analysis centred on the impact of child and family cash transfers on three dimensions of empowerment. </p>
<p>First, whether adult women beneficiaries experienced heightened independence in financial decision making; second, whether they experienced enhanced control over their bodies; and, finally, whether they experienced psycho-social growth. </p>
<p>This was a departure from the way in which empowerment is usually conceptualised in academic research where the focus tends to be on how and whether gendered norms are changing. Instead, inspired by economist and philosopher <a href="http://heterodoxnews.com/ajes/readings/Sen1999-intro.pdf">Amartya Sen</a>, we viewed empowerment as the expansion of assets and capabilities that give women more control over their lives, enhancing agency to eliminate inequities and to unleash greater freedoms.</p>
<p>We listened closely to the voices of women recipients, in focus groups, individual conversations and surveys. </p>
<p>In the case of Bolsa Família, we also set out to understand the broader context in which the child support grant system connected with other social services. Brazil attaches conditions to its child support grants. These include children having to attend school regularly, children under five receiving standard immunisations and prenatal care for pregnant women. </p>
<p>To cover all these bases we interviewed teachers and principals, social workers and primary health care officials. </p>
<p>In South Africa, grant receipt is largely unconditional, except that a child should attend school. We assessed the impact of the child support grant on a range of social and economic indicators such as school attendance, access to health and other services, food security, income and livelihoods and women’s empowerment. </p>
<h2>Enhancing women’s status</h2>
<p>Our findings suggest the social grants triggered positive dynamics for women’s empowerment in both countries, even though the programmes were not intended for this purpose. </p>
<p>For example, the cash transfers contributed to advancing the standing of women beneficiaries. We found that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>women were more able to meet basic needs, which reduced stress because they were better able to cope with the precariousness of living in poverty;</p></li>
<li><p>most women recipients experienced heightened financial control and decision making vis-à-vis their partners. They withdrew the money themselves and exercised control over spending decisions; </p></li>
<li><p>the grants helped boost self esteem and agency. Beneficiaries in both countries reported an increased sense of status in their communities.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>In both countries the grants helped reduce poverty levels, particularly among the lower quintile of earners. Both systems helped reduce the depth of poverty among female versus male-headed households.</p>
<p>But it was also clear that Bolsa Família went further than the child support grant in some key areas. For example, it induced beneficiaries to get basic identity documents, which <a href="https://www.unicef.org/southafrica/media/1226/file/ZAF-removing-barriers-to-accessing-child-grants-2016.pdf">improved access to a wider system of health and social work services</a>. Having documents also meant that women could better navigate bureaucracies and gave them a sense of social recognition and hope. </p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>The findings suggest that social grants can unleash positive dynamics for women’s empowerment even though the programmes were not intended for this purpose. Cash transfers don’t in and of themselves transform gender roles. Nevertheless, they help improve the standing of women beneficiaries in important ways. These include increasing social recognition, reducing levels of poverty and increasing financial control, decision making and agency. </p>
<p>But there are areas in which both Brazil and South Africa could improve. Cash transfers need to be combined with active labour market policies that boost job creation, livelihoods support and social services to enhance the economic inclusion of women. </p>
<p>There need to be skills and training programmes, as well as the provision of childcare and transportation.</p>
<p>Finally, our findings point to the need for South Africa to emulate Brazil by getting other government ministries and agencies on board to coordinate the delivery of other social services alongside the grants to boost results.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157537/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leila Patel receives funding from the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation for her Chair in Welfare and Social Development.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natasha Borges Sugiyama and Wendy Hunter do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Findings show that income transfer programmes must operate in deliberate coordination with ancillary social service institutions to deliver the maximum benefits for women’s empowerment.Leila Patel, Professor of Social Development Studies, University of JohannesburgNatasha Borges Sugiyama, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeWendy Hunter, Professor of Government, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1194032020-06-02T14:36:05Z2020-06-02T14:36:05ZHow Uganda is failing to help rural children learn languages<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285853/original/file-20190726-43153-1fc0vrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children make their way to school in Fort Portal, Uganda.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The government of Uganda introduced the mother tongue education programme with hope of improving literacy levels 12 years ago. But the training of teachers at colleges was not modified to match the introduced programme. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10228195.2020.1717587">recently published study</a> we conducted in 2018 in three rural schools in Northern Uganda, Gulu District, we found that teachers complained about inadequate training in the mother tongue, Acoli. Teachers said they weren’t taught the local language as subject at college and this made them feel inadequate to teach in the language. </p>
<p>This limited training affected the teaching of the learners’ mother tongue and ultimately, the level of literacy acquisition, which is both slow and poor. For instance in 2016, Uwezo, an East African organisation that reviews learners’ progress, <a href="http://www.uwezo.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/UwezoUganda2015ALAReport-FINAL-EN-web.pdf">found</a> that pupils in Grade 3 and 7 had a competence rate of 25% when assessed in reading English and numeracy. </p>
<p>National <a href="https://uneb.ac.ug/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/UNEB-EGRA-Report-2017_-Midline.pdf">exam data</a> from 2017 where children in Grades 1 to 3 were assessed in English and local languages in government schools, showed that only 27% of the pupils could identify 4 out of 5 Acoli letters. Acoli is the dominant language spoken in Gulu and the language taught as the mother tongue and used as the language of teaching and learning.</p>
<p>Another <a href="https://www.globalreadingnetwork.net/sites/default/files/eddata/EGRA_Uganda_FINAL_121410.pdf">international study</a> used the Early Grade Reading Assessment tool to assess learners in northern Uganda. The results were even more discouraging. Between 90% and 91% of the learners in the north did not understand what they read in their mother tongues. The paper argues that if the assessments were done in English, the results would’ve been poorer.</p>
<p>Some teachers in our study said they preferred teaching in English because that’s how they were taught. They argued that they didn’t see much value in teaching the mother tongue while learners will be sitting English exams at the end of primary schooling. </p>
<h2>The challenges</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249024753_Do_We_Expect_Too_Much_of_Bilingual_Teachers_Bilingual_Teaching_in_Developing_Countries">Studies</a> have shown that teachers should be trained at college in accordance to what the practice in schools demands. Our findings clearly mean that teachers have a negative attitude towards mother tongue education. This inevitably affects their classroom practices and the process of literacy acquisition.</p>
<p>Another challenge that teachers at government schools experience relates to the absence of pre-primary sections at government schools. For example in our study, one teacher said they receive learners “from home direct” – meaning they receive children who have not gone through pre-primary. Grade 1 teachers therefore have a huge task of teaching not only Grade 1 content but also pre-primary classwork that children should’ve learnt between the ages 2 and 3 years. This slows the process of literacy acquisition in these schools.</p>
<p>Another problem in Uganda has been the <a href="https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/uganda.htm">threat of violence</a>. The Lord’s Resistance Army rebels destroyed infrastructure in a area with few schools to begin with. This meant that learners walk long distances to school. </p>
<p>Teachers reported that some pupils walk for close to 5km to and from school. If they must reach school by 8AM, they start their journey at around 5AM. Some of these learners are as young as 5 years old. By the time they get to school they’re tired and their concentration in the classroom is affected.</p>
<p>Classrooms at these schools tend to be overcrowded. At the three government schools we visited, Grade 1 and 3 classes had learners ranging from 70 and 190 in a single classroom. Many of the learners didn’t have desks. Some classes didn’t have desks at all. </p>
<p>When it was time for them to write, the chairs turned into desks while learners knelt and put their books on the chairs. In such circumstances, it’s difficult for learners to grasp the skill of writing.</p>
<p>During the rainy season the teachers said learners’ books were soiled. As such, some come to school but without any materials. Our study also found that when teachers give exercises or notes to take down, learners use pens and pencils in turns. In the process, those who have no books and pens cannot properly practice the skill of writing and therefore lag behind those who do.</p>
<p>Teachers also reported there were limited teaching and learning materials in Acoli. </p>
<h2>There is hope</h2>
<p>As much as our study highlighted difficult circumstances, there are various organisations that have joined hands with government to help learners in this area. The organisations doing work in Gulu District, for example, include <a href="https://uganda.savethechildren.net/">Save the Children</a>, Northern Uganda Basic Education and <a href="https://blog.naver.com/hoelove1129/220909521120">Hope is Education International</a>, among others. </p>
<p>These organisations are involved in various activities such as teacher training, provision of teaching and reading materials and sensitising the community about the value of mother tongue education. </p>
<p>In addition, these organisations, like Save the Children, set up clubs in the community where children learn to document their traditional stories. Such stories are later edited and published and returned to learners. </p>
<p>Another <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-76822019000100006">programme</a>, the African Storybook Project, is aimed at supporting multilingual literacy for young African children through the provision of open access digital stories in several African languages. By June 2019, the African Storybook <a href="https://www.africanstorybook.org/">website</a> had over 1,000 storybooks in 182 languages with more than 5,000 translations. </p>
<h2>Government action needed</h2>
<p>The government of Uganda needs to plan for pre-service teacher training. Teachers need to be acquainted with skills that match what their teaching practices demand. They should also be prepared to defend mother tongue education when it faces opposition from the community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119403/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Medadi Ssentanda received funding from Makerere University Directorate of Research and Graduate Training under the Nurturing Emerging Research Leaders Project (NERLP) to conduct research on the implementation of mother tongue education in northern Uganda, from which this article was written. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allen Asiimwe works for Makerere University as a Lecturer in the Department of African Languages. She received funding from the university's Directorate of Research and Graduate Training under the Nurturing Emerging Research Leaders Project (NERLP) to conduct research on the the implementation of mother tongue education in northern Uganda. This article is based on the findings from this research.
</span></em></p>The fact that teachers in Uganda’s rural schools weren’t trained in the local language means they can’t teach children in their mother tongue and this leads to poor literacy acquisition.Medadi Ssentanda, Lecturer, Department of African Languages, Makerere UniversityAllen Asiimwe, Lecturer, Makerere UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1322322020-03-02T21:26:25Z2020-03-02T21:26:25ZHow a child’s first language includes more than words<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317670/original/file-20200227-24668-nm8121.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4198%2C2580&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">From Indigenous languages to how migrants stay connected, mother languages are becoming the norm. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This International Mother Language Day (Feb. 21), Canadians celebrated their multilingual heritage by recognizing flexible uses of languages. According to UNESCO, “Mother tongue or mother language refers to a child’s first language, <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000161121">the language learned in the home from older family members</a>.” As a linguistic anthropologist who studies language use in diverse communities, I know that multilingualism is part of our general human capacity for language.</p>
<p>In a globalized world, many associate multilingualism with mobility and migration. Increasingly, multilingualism appears to be the new norm.</p>
<p>But more than that, linguistic anthropology shows that multilingualism is an essential aspect of how we form belonging and difference. Research on language learning, especially heritage language learning and language revitalization, shows the universality of our capacity for multilingualism.</p>
<h2>Multilingualism, globalization and colonialism</h2>
<p>Many Indigenous communities in the Americas practised multilingualism in economic, political and familial activities before European contact. As one of the most densely multilingual regions of the world, the northwest Amazon region is notable in this regard. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317187/original/file-20200225-24680-epe5mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317187/original/file-20200225-24680-epe5mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317187/original/file-20200225-24680-epe5mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317187/original/file-20200225-24680-epe5mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317187/original/file-20200225-24680-epe5mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317187/original/file-20200225-24680-epe5mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317187/original/file-20200225-24680-epe5mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tibetan students study in their mother language.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shannon Ward)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since the 1970s, anthropologist Jean Jackson has conducted research among the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511621901">Tukanoan people in the northwest Amazon</a>. Jackson revealed widespread multilingualism in a small-scale society. People marked belonging to their kin groups through more than 16 distinct languages. </p>
<p>Due to restrictions on intermarriage, keeping languages separate helped to uphold the Tukanoan kinship system. With little contact from outside communities, the Tukanoan people used their diverse languages as a resource for building and maintaining kinship bonds.</p>
<p>The case of the northwest Amazon shows that contact is not essential for multilingualism. In fact, contact arising from settler colonialism has led to widespread language endangerment in the Americas. </p>
<p>Today, the Tukanoan people face language loss alongside colonial domination, climate change and globalization. Negative language attitudes towards Indigenous people who have lost the ability to speak their mother languages <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2015.04.001">have compounded language loss</a>. Amid stigma and changes to kinship structures, efforts to revitalize these diverse languages <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2016-0013">have proved particularly difficult</a>.</p>
<h2>Language recognition as a human right</h2>
<p>Recognizing a language is the first step to supporting its speakers. Each International Mother Language Day, we should celebrate marginalized languages and language varieties in addition to major world languages. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g2HiPW_qSrs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In this Tedx Talk, Lindsay Morcom explores why Indigenous languages are matter to linguists and to Indigenous communities.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Language recognition has material consequences for communities. It is associated with increased access to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2017-3045">socio-economic stability and mobility</a>. Communities that speak recognized languages receive supports, including representation in language policy, formal education and access to media. </p>
<p>In contrast, some communities speak unrecognized languages. These languages are viewed merely as broken forms of a dominant language rather than as complex codes in their own right. Members of communities who speak unrecognized languages face stigma over their mother languages. Their language capacities are viewed as a hindrance rather than a valuable skill set, and they cannot access resources to support language vitality.</p>
<p>Because language is part of cultural heritage, scholars include language recognition within basic human rights standards. Understanding language rights as human rights links language recognition to <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/resources/periodicals/diversities/past-issues/vol-3-no-1-2001/language-rights-as-an-integral-part-of-human-rights/">freedom of expression and non-discrimination</a>. </p>
<p>Language recognition contributes to community well-being. Even when a language is recognized, however, a lack of acceptance of internal diversity poses considerable challenges to language vitality. When a community values one standard language, flexible ways of speaking may not be celebrated. </p>
<p>Standardization negatively impacts languages and language learners. For example, in the Yukon, linguistic anthropologist Barbra Meek found that an emphasis on elders’ ways of speaking unintentionally <a href="https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/we-are-our-language">excluded children from language revitalization activities</a>. The complexity of learners’ responses to language standardization challenges us to recognize languages without reifying them. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317873/original/file-20200229-24664-s7mxm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317873/original/file-20200229-24664-s7mxm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317873/original/file-20200229-24664-s7mxm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317873/original/file-20200229-24664-s7mxm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317873/original/file-20200229-24664-s7mxm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317873/original/file-20200229-24664-s7mxm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317873/original/file-20200229-24664-s7mxm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When language learning programs pushes children away from their regional mother tongues and indigenous languages, they are left out of vital parts of their cultures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How to foster flexible multilingualism</h2>
<p>Canada prides itself on our multilingual heritage. Our government provides funding for multilingual education including the revitalization of Indigenous languages, heritage language learning and second language learning. We can enhance these programs by <a href="http://www.multilingual-matters.com/display.asp?K=9781783091980">shifting attention from languages to learners</a>.</p>
<p>My own research with Tibetan families living in urban centres shows that parents encourage children to speak a standard language <a href="http://salsa.ling.utexas.edu/proceedings/2015/Ward.pdf">rather than their regional mother language</a>. Despite the significance of regionally diverse mother languages to adults’ identities, Tibetan communities face pressure to unify heritage language learning around a single standard variety. </p>
<p>In this case, <a href="https://search.proquest.com/docview/2290798048">language standardization has prevented Tibetan children</a> from accessing forms of linguistic belonging available to adults. It has also unintentionally contributed to a language shift away from Tibetan mother languages and to dominant languages, including Mandarin and English. </p>
<p>In such situations, immigrant and minority children face two forms of linguistic marginalization. First, a nation’s official languages exclude their recognized heritage language. Second, a standard language spoken within their community excludes their native, mother languages.</p>
<p>These challenges can be overcome with flexible multilingualism which refers to the ongoing validation of diverse language repertoires and acceptance of language change. </p>
<p>Scholars have noted that when children can freely innovate with their language repertoires, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511620652.006">they transfer skills and knowledge across languages</a>. When adults validate and celebrate children’s diverse language abilities, they create <a href="https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/CJAL/article/view/19739">more productive and engaging learning environments</a>. These abilities include language mixing and innovation.</p>
<p>In short, flexible multilingualism contributes to the vitality of diverse mother languages and brings tangible benefits to language learners.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aMDxUFbkE_M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">UNESCO celebrates the mother languages of people all over the world on International Mother Language Day.</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132232/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shannon Ward received funding from The National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>On International Mother Language Day, Canadians can celebrate multilingual heritage by recognizing flexible uses of languages.Shannon Ward, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1248232019-10-14T12:49:34Z2019-10-14T12:49:34ZWhy Uganda’s English language policy is failing rural children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296640/original/file-20191011-96257-qbjxyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Uganda's English language policy isn't applicable to schools in the the country's rural areas.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Uganda’s language <a href="https://nutrition.opm.go.ug/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Revised-Education-Sector-strategic-plan.pdf">policy</a> requires that rural schools should choose a dominant local language to use as the language of learning and teaching for the first three years of primary school while English is taught as a subject. The fourth year of schooling is a transitional year in which English as the language of learning and teaching is introduced. English then becomes the medium of instruction. </p>
<p>In areas where it’s not easy to choose a dominant language, as is the case in urban schools, English as the medium of instruction is recommended.</p>
<p>We <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10228195.2018.1536162">investigated</a> the circumstances under which children learn and acquire English in central Uganda’s rural Rakai district. </p>
<p>We set questions related to the learning and teaching support materials for English, the challenges rural Ugandan learners face in learning English, the differences between government and private schools on vocabulary teaching and learning as well as opportunities available for learners to acquire English in rural schools.</p>
<p>We conducted the study in 2012 in four rural schools. The results of this study are still relevant because the language-in-education policy hasn’t changed. Teacher training and curricula are also still the same. </p>
<p>We found that learners faced various challenges in learning and acquiring English. It was difficult for them to reach the vocabulary levels set out by the country’s National Curriculum Development Centre. For example, they are expected to learn at least 800 English words after three years.</p>
<p>The essence of the mother tongue policy was partly to enhance the teaching and learning of English in Uganda. But our findings point to a host of difficulties faced by learners in private and government schools. We conclude that Uganda needs to rethink how English is taught in rural contexts. In addition, the time of transition to English as a language of learning and teaching should be reconsidered. </p>
<h2>A difficult subject</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/publications/paul-nation/1992-Hirsh-Vocabulary-reading.pdf">Studies</a> show that vocabulary is a crucial element in reading and comprehension. According to some <a href="https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/cmlr.63.1.59">studies</a>, learners of English need knowledge of the 3000 most frequent words to read and understand graded readers. </p>
<p>But nobody has studied whether that is realistic in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10228190701794608">poorly resourced learning environments</a>, such as those in Uganda. </p>
<p>The curriculum development centre also considers “words” when speaking about vocabulary learning. However, <a href="https://www.lextutor.ca/cover/papers/nation_2006.pdf">studies</a> refer instead to word families – “the word and all its inflected and derived forms”, counted as one. </p>
<p>In Africa, there are numerous <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01434631003658073">studies</a> of language-in-education policies. But there is a shortage of research on <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312915353_The_politics_of_mother_tongue_education_The_case_of_Uganda">vocabulary learning</a> in both first and second languages. </p>
<p>As far as we know ours is the first study in Uganda that evaluated the number of words children acquire in the process of learning English. </p>
<h2>How English is taught</h2>
<p>The curriculum development centre set guidelines on how English should be taught from grade 1 to grade 3. It suggested presenting at least five new words every day, using short dialogues, presenting new sentence structures, pictures and wall charts, and using songs, games, acting, rhymes, exercises and speech.</p>
<p>The centre discourages teachers from using learners’ mother tongues while teaching English – an approach not supported by <a href="http://perlinguam.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/689">research</a>.</p>
<p>The centre expects the curriculum to be well-structured and supported by appropriate materials. But teachers in our study viewed the curriculum as <a href="http://spilplus.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/163">poorly structured, repetitive and inadequate</a>. They said they didn’t have the right materials and that learners weren’t able to learn the desired vocabulary in each school year.</p>
<p>We didn’t see recommended methods like role play and speeches being used. Instead, teachers asked learners to read after them and to chorus. </p>
<p>Another challenge we encountered related to training. The National Curriculum Development Centre recommends a one-teacher-one-classroom policy. So there is no specialist English teacher for grades 1 to 3. </p>
<h2>State schools versus private school</h2>
<p>Teachers also pointed to a big disparity between schools funded by the state and private schools – for example, in the materials provided and in exposure to English.</p>
<p>In private schools, it’s compulsory for all children to speak English at school all the time. But government school learners only encountered the language in English lessons.</p>
<p>Also, children in private pre-primary schools <a href="http://perlinguam.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/547">encounter</a> English learning at the age of 3 or 4 while those in government schools do so only at 6 (when they join grade 1).</p>
<p>It was clear from our classroom observations that the two sets of learners were at different levels of communicative English. Those in private schools were able to answer questions posed by the teachers while those in government schools found responding in English challenging. Some learners in government schools responded in Luganda (their mother tongue) to questions posed to them in English.</p>
<p>We saw that teachers used their class time differently. The curriculum development centre guidelines stipulate that English lessons last 30 minutes. But those in private schools were between 40 to 60 minutes. Government school teachers were also less punctual. </p>
<h2>Going forward</h2>
<p>We conclude that the targets set by the curriculum development centre need reviewing for two reasons. The first is that they are unrealistic, given the environment in which English is being taught in rural Uganda. The second is that they fall below what’s required for a learner to be able to comprehend English texts and access the curriculum in English.</p>
<p>The recommended two years to acquire basic communicative skills and four years to acquire cognitive and academic language proficiency is only possible in well-resourced environments. Our study shows that children in rural Ugandan schools can’t acquire these in three years only. </p>
<p>There are broader issues to consider too. Learners need more time to be exposed to the language before they can learn through it. But children in government schools mostly use their mother tongues and aren’t exposed to media in English. Moreover, teachers in rural areas are not very proficient in English.</p>
<p>The government needs to review the policy. It also needs to employ qualified and specialised teachers in English language and support materials for English need to be thoroughly evaluated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124823/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Medadi Ssentanda receives funding from Makerere University Directorate of Research and Graduate Training. He is affiliated with Makerere University and Stellenbosch University. </span></em></p>Uganda’s English language policy is at odds with the situation on the ground in the country’s rural schools.Medadi Ssentanda, Lecturer, Department of African Languages, Makerere UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1243042019-09-30T12:39:31Z2019-09-30T12:39:31ZSouth Africans prefer their children to be taught in English<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294577/original/file-20190927-185383-1h3ey2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A majority of South African school children are in the process of learning English by the time they start their schooling. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>English is only one of 11 official languages spoken in South Africa. It’s currently the preferred language of education and is used in many of the nation’s schools. But most children entering the education system are not native English speakers and many are still in the process of learning English by the time they arrive at school. </p>
<p>The main language of instruction in education influences <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S027277571630022X">academic</a> and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20780389.2014.955272">career progress</a>. Oral language proficiency is a foundational skill that’s required to develop the ability to read which in turn is required, together with writing, for <a href="https://www.globalreadingnetwork.net/eddata/landscape-report-early-grade-literacy-skills">all types of learning</a>. </p>
<p>Language use in schools has been a focus in both national and international research. It is largely <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10228190903188559">agreed</a> that learners should be taught in their home language. However, many countries continue to promote English instruction including <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-embracing-indigenous-languages-could-have-major-benefits-for-kenya-111846">Kenya</a>, <a href="https://qz.com/india/494396/indias-obsession-for-english-is-depriving-many-children-of-a-real-education/">India</a>, and <a href="https://nicspaull.com/2013/10/27/languages-of-learning-in-south-africa/">South Africa</a>. The conflict between what is being implemented in schools and what is recommended by the available research remains unresolved. </p>
<p>There is a strong body of work that shows that learning problems can develop if the language in which a child has oral proficiency is not the same as the language of instruction. As a result, policymakers in most countries now <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2013-10-18-mother-tongue-classrooms-give-a-better-boost-to-english-study-later">recommend home language instruction</a> for the first years of education after which a gradual transition to another language can be made. </p>
<p>But the policy won’t succeed unless there is buy-in from the general public. In designing and implementing education language policy, it’s therefore necessary to understand peoples’ preferences. </p>
<p>We set out to find out what these are in South Africa. We <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09500782.2018.1488865">examined</a> public attitudes towards main language of instruction at different levels in the South African education system. Preferences for language of instruction at different stages of education was examined for the period 2003–2016 and this allowed us to map any changes in attitude.</p>
<p>We found that a majority of the population favoured English as the language of instruction at all levels of education. It is clear that people are unaware of the benefits of home language instruction and may resist efforts to promote the teaching of African languages in South African schools. </p>
<h2>The research</h2>
<p>We used data from the <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/departments/sasas">South African Social Attitudes Survey</a> for this study. The survey series is nationally representative and is used to track public attitudes on important social and political issues. The series is administered by the Human Sciences Research Council and has been conducted annually since 2003. </p>
<p>In each round of the survey, people were asked: “What do you think should be the main language of instruction in: (1) grade 1–3; (2) grade 4–9; (3) grade 10–12; and (4) higher education?”</p>
<p>In 2003 about half (55%) of the population preferred English as the language of instruction against about two-fifths (41%) selected home language at the foundation phase (grades 1-3). </p>
<p>Thirteen years later popular support for English as the language of instruction during the foundational phase had gone up to 65% – the highest level since polling began. The most recent survey, the results of which have not yet been published, found little change in 2018. </p>
<p>The preference for English extended into later years of education too. In fact, we found that the number of people supporting English rose the higher up the education ladder went. In other words, the more advanced the phase of education the smaller the share of the public supporting options other than English. </p>
<p>There was remarkably little variation in attitudes for the last decade indicating the durability of these preferences. And over the ten years attitudes among South Africa’s population groups remained very similar. </p>
<h2>The best way forward</h2>
<p>A preference for English over home language may be motivated by economic concerns. Research has shown that English proficiency in South Africa is linked to socio-economic <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053535711000400">advancement</a>. </p>
<p>Another reason for the popularity of English as a language of instruction could be the general lack of school resources and training required for educators to teach in many of the country’s African languages. When compared to other languages, greater <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09571730903208389">resources</a> are devoted to helping teachers educate learners in English. </p>
<p>The disparity in resources could, in turn, reinforce the view that English is superior to African languages.</p>
<h2>What next</h2>
<p>We believe that post-colonial education policies should nurture multilingualism and promote all languages. This will require a well-resourced programme to overcome common misconceptions about the alleged inferiority of African languages. The development of compelling teaching materials for African languages is required as well as educating teachers on how to use such materials. Although there may be opposition from some, learners will ultimately benefit from such a programme.</p>
<p>The government is moving in this direction. The Department of Basic Education recently <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/329879/government-moves-ahead-with-plans-to-decolonise-south-african-schools/">launched</a> the Incremental Implementation of African Languages programme which aims to strengthen the teaching of African languages in South African schools. </p>
<p>The goal is to reach 3,558 public schools across all grades by 2029. </p>
<p>But, as our research shows, South African policymakers must convince the public to support home languages as the main language of instruction if the programme is going to succeed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124304/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Gordon receives funding from the DST- NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development University of the Witwatersrand. He works for the Human Sciences Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jaqueline Harvey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>South African parents want their children be taught in English despite the fact that research shows that academic progress is hindered if a child is taught in a language they aren’t proficient in.Steven Gordon, Senior research specialist, Human Sciences Research CouncilJaqueline Harvey, Researcher, Human Sciences Research CouncilLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1145142019-04-07T11:00:47Z2019-04-07T11:00:47ZA new language doesn’t hamper kids learning. Other things do<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267570/original/file-20190404-123410-7tx28w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many South African children are still in the process of learning English by the time they first start going to school.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa is a linguistically and culturally diverse country. There are 11 official languages and several other minority languages. But English continues to be preferred as the <a href="http://www.praesa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Paper6.pdf">language of learning and teaching</a>. </p>
<p>Many South African children are still in the process of learning English by the time they first start going to school. In a single English-medium classroom, one can find children with various levels of English proficiency; from children with English as their mother tongue to children who have never learnt English before. </p>
<p>This situation poses a range of challenges for both the teacher and the children. One of the biggest challenges is that a certain level of proficiency in English is required for the children to be able to perform well academically in an English-medium school. It’s a <a href="https://www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/product/Owens-Language-Development-An-Introduction-7th-Edition/9780205525560.html">widely known fact</a> that academic success is very much dependent on language competence and proficiency. </p>
<p>This means that there’s a great need to understand how language develops in children’s early school careers. It is also important to understand the cognitive mechanisms that underlie language learning. To further explore how this happens in the early years of schooling I did a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13670050.2019.1571009">study</a> involving pre-primary children in an English-medium school in Cape Town.</p>
<p>The group consisted of children who were still learning English as well as children whose mother tongue was English. The children were very diverse – there was a total of nine different home languages in the group of children who were still learning English. </p>
<p>The findings showed that the ability of children to develop their language skills didn’t depend on whether they were proficient when they started out. Their ability to learn and advance – or not – was in fact dependent on a range of other factors, none of which had to do with English language proficiency.</p>
<h2>The findings</h2>
<p>The research aimed to understand the link between language and working memory development. I did this by tracking how working memory developed for the children chosen to take part in the study.</p>
<p>Working memory is the ability to store and use information in the short-term and is important for our everyday lives. For example, we use working memory when we need to remember an address that we just heard while we are looking for a pen to write it down. Working memory also underlies many important academic competencies, like reading and mathematics. </p>
<p>The children were broken into two groups: those with English as their primary language, and those still learning English. They were given the same tasks; these were an English language assessment and working memory tasks. They were assessed three times over the course of the year – at the beginning, middle and end. </p>
<p>The results showed that both groups improved over the year on the assessment of English language abilities. The results also revealed that great improvements were made in language development during the first year of formal schooling. Results from the working memory tasks indicated that children who were still learning English, as well as the children who have English as their mother tongue, performed the same on these tasks and achieved comparable scores. Children in both groups saw their language abilities and working memory abilities improve over the year. </p>
<p>The most interesting finding is that the route, or trajectory, the children’s cognitive and language development followed was the same for both groups, regardless of the English abilities they had at the beginning. </p>
<p>Importantly, the result that working memory scores between groups were comparable also indicated that the amount of knowledge of English that a child had didn’t affect their working memory abilities. </p>
<p>What this points to is that, if a child’s working memory scores are low and the trajectory of the development is not the same as their peers, there may be cause for concern. In this case, the children should be referred to an occupational or speech therapist for further assessment. Our research shows the fact that they’re struggling can’t simply be explained away as a “symptom” of the child not knowing English well enough. </p>
<h2>Falling through the cracks</h2>
<p>Studies like these are important for giving professionals better ways of seeing if a child has a disorder or is only struggling because they have not acquired a sufficient level of English yet. </p>
<p>In the context of a classroom with various languages and proficiencies of English, it is easy for a child with a disorder to be overlooked. </p>
<p>Along with the under-resourced schools and over-burdened teachers, heterogeneity among learners results in them not receiving the support that they need, be it academic or linguistic. Those whose primary language is English as well as those learning English suffer alike. The upshot is clearly seen in the worsening educational crisis in South Africa.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle White received funding from the National Research Foundation of South Africa. </span></em></p>The ability of multilingual children to learn and advance academically from pre-primary has little to do with their English proficiency.Michelle White, Postdoctoral Fellow, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1118462019-02-20T14:36:52Z2019-02-20T14:36:52ZWhy embracing indigenous languages could have major benefits for Kenya<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259679/original/file-20190219-43267-1f31ose.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Early education based on a child's mother tongue gives them a head start in their literacy and language learning.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kenya is a multilingual country with over 42 different indigenous languages. In addition, foreign languages are used by minorities in major towns and in some learning institutions. The most dominant foreign language is English which is an official language alongside Kiswahili.</p>
<p>Foreign languages – especially English – enjoy the highest positive attitudes in regard to their acquisition and use. To many Kenyans, the <a href="https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/5702">perception</a> is that a knowledge of English is a true sign of having good school education.</p>
<p>Kiswahili, the national language, enjoys widespread acceptance and use. It’s an inter-ethnic language of communication and generally it is used as a lingua franca. It is the most common language in Kenyan towns and market centres.</p>
<p>The lowest group of languages in the preference scale is indigenous languages that majority of Kenyans acquire and know well. They are used in homes, in open-air markets across the country, in worship services and to some extent in pre-primary and primary schools as co-languages of teaching. </p>
<p>But perceptions might gradually shift with the inclusion of these indigenous languages in Kenya’s new curriculum. The country’s language-in-education policy states that indigenous languages should be used to teach children from grade one up to three. This policy has been in existence from 1976. But the lack of enforcement means that discussions about the importance of the use of indigenous languages in schools is still hotly debated.</p>
<p>Kenyan language scholars have for decades advocated and written about the role mother tongues should play in the country. The challenge has been that those who champion this approach don’t control public resources. The result is that nothing ever gets done about it.</p>
<p>But that might be about to change with the launch of the competence based curriculum already under implementation in grades one up to three. The new school system places emphasis on developing learner abilities rather than preparing learners to pass national examinations as has been the case. It is an approach that puts the learner at the centre of learning activities and in which mother tongues are likely to assume fresh significance. </p>
<p>The importance of the rebirth of the use of indigenous languages in schools in Kenya cannot be overemphasised. It could have a profound effect on children’s educational outcomes, as well as much broader beneficial effects on the Kenyan society.</p>
<h2>The case for mother tongue</h2>
<p>Research <a href="https://eujournal.org">shows</a> overwhelmingly that mother tongues are the most ideal tools for early child education. In a variety of countries, such as South Africa, Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea, studies indicate that the mother tongue medium is the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41480152">best for early school education</a>. This is particularly true in sub-Saharan Africa where research has shown that early education based on a child’s mother tongue gives them a head start in their literacy and language learning.</p>
<p>A study conducted in Ethiopia recently, for instance, indicates that pupils who transition to English medium of instruction in grade five <a href="https://www.riseprogramme.org/">perform better in mathematics</a>. The findings corroborate findings in <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234741570_Crossing_the_Threshold_into_Standard_Three_in_Black_Education_The_Consolidated_Main_Report_of_the_Threshold_Project">South Africa</a>.</p>
<p>Research findings commissioned by international organisations including UNESCO and World Bank concur that a mother tongue is the best language in early school learning. For instance, UNESCO <a href="http://www.unesco.org/education/EFAWG2009/LanguageEducation.pdf">indicates</a> that mother tongues are the best sociologically, psychologically, and educationally for children entering primary school.</p>
<h2>Impact of the new curriculum</h2>
<p>Kenya’s new curriculum could boost the use of mother tongues quite significantly.</p>
<p>Firstly, the methodology itself is likely to affect language use. The curriculum is designed to build learner capacities by putting pupils at the centre of learning activities. This implies the use of language to name things, to discuss with the teacher and fellow pupils. Majority of lower primary school pupils usually enter school with their mother tongues and this is the only resource they have to negotiate ideas. </p>
<p>The use of mother tongues to do this makes a great deal of sense. And also suggests that using English at grade one for children in rural and other areas is inappropriate.</p>
<p>Secondly, new various languages have been published to meet the demands of the new curriculum. At Kisii University recently, a publisher launched literacy books in the Ekegusii language, which is the predominant language in both Kisii and Nyamira Counties of western Kenya. Materials for other indigenous languages for use in the new curriculum are being developed. </p>
<p>The publication of literacy materials promises a rebirth of the use of these languages in the school system. This might help preserve many local languages from extinction. </p>
<p>There could be broader benefits to society too.</p>
<p>Firstly, children will have an opportunity to acquire and develop their mother tongues. Very early introduction to second languages is in some cases to blame for the poor language mastery of most young people – they do not know any of the languages they speak competently. </p>
<p>Secondly, it will improve early literacy outcomes in primary schools. Recent research indicates that majority of pupils entering grade four have literacy skills below expectations. Researchers <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1467-9817.12052">attribute</a> this to premature introduction of pupils, especially from rural areas and informal settlements-into the English medium </p>
<p>Thirdly, the new curriculum provides for the study of indigenous languages as career subjects later on. This implies that learning the languages might be sources of employment like in working as interpreters, book writers, teachers, and as linguists. </p>
<p>Fourth, it will make Kenya a truly multilingual society. Contrary to arguments about many languages breeding tribalism, a country with a multilingual and multicultural ethos is a truly cohesive society; the population grows to appreciate others as different and not as good or bad. </p>
<p>Finally, counties might consider making some indigenous languages as additional official languages in their territories. This might give millions of Kenyans a voice to negotiate development issues. Currently, the use of Kiswahili and English only excludes some people from participating in public affairs specifically in projects that require public participation. This isn’t an optimal state of affairs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111846/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Peter Mose does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Research shows that mother tongue teaching is the most ideal tool for early child education.Dr Peter Mose, Post-doctoral fellow. Rhodes University, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1084302019-02-20T14:36:38Z2019-02-20T14:36:38ZMigrant children buck the trend when it comes to mother tongue teaching<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259059/original/file-20190214-1758-atv7zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Parents and guardians play a vital role in a child's academic success.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>School success amongst immigrant children is not the <a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/03/the-education-crisis-among-children-of-immigrants/554531/">norm</a>. However a small percentage do manage. Some even outperform locals. What can we learn from their experiences? </p>
<p>Language skills are generally regarded as being critical in an immigrant’s integration into the new countries they move to. And <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180517194747.htm">research</a> has shown that better language skills lead to better performance. A good example of this is the finding from many first generation (those who migrate with their parents) and second generation (those born in the new country) comparisons: that school outcomes do typically rise between these two generations.</p>
<p>However, one particular phenomenon called “immigrant paradox” contradicts this. “Immigrant paradox” refers to the fact that achievement often reaches a plateau – or even <a href="https://cis.org/Report/Immigrant-Paradox-Stalled-Progress-Recent-Immigrants-Children">declines</a> – from the third generation onwards. Research conducted in the US shows that this paradox is more pronounced among the children of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5555844/">Asian and African migrants</a>, is <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2011/04/trend_watch_immigrant_paradox.html">stronger for boys</a> than for girls and more consistent in <a href="https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2010.01672.x">secondary schools</a> than in primary schools. It’s <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/article/446007">prevalent</a> even after improved social economic status or language ability.</p>
<p>To understand this, we did an extensive <a href="http://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/pie/article/view/3457">literature review</a> on how migrant children overcome language barriers and succeed. In the review we identified factors that explained these children’s success or failure. We focused specifically on what strategies families used to overcome language barriers and other inherited factors such as social economic status. </p>
<p>In addition to reviewing international migration literature, we also examined literature about school effectiveness in South Africa. We found that most South African literature studies continue to emphasise conventional and tangible factors, such as school resources, teacher qualifications and experience, class size and language of instruction for academic success. Factors such as aspirations and expectations are seldom explored. </p>
<p>Our findings point to a need for schools and parents to pay greater attention to non-conventional factors such as aspirations and expectations. </p>
<h2>Against the odds</h2>
<p>Language skills have helped to improve school performance between 1st and 2nd generation migrants. But when language skills are no longer a barrier, what else sustains or hinders academic performance? </p>
<p>Immigrant paradox suggests that language might be a necessary but insufficient factor for academic success. Alternatively, there’s a limit to what language competence can contribute. Other factors can either compensate for insufficient language capability, or may even become more important than the language ability.</p>
<p>What we found through the literature review is that parental involvement, especially in the form of parental expectation, plays a huge role. This applies to 3rd generation, but also 1st and 2nd generation parents. The huge impact of parental expectation is even more salient for parents with lower social economic status, or those unable to get directly involved in school related matters due to language or cultural barriers. </p>
<p>Although these parents may not be able to attend school meetings or read school reports, they can still be supportive of their children’s academic progress and instil high education values and aspirations in their children. It is this consistent insistence on educational value and aspiration that propels children to succeed, and to keep succeeding.</p>
<h2>Examples of possible strategies</h2>
<p>Often, the motivation children need is someone showing interest in their schooling and listening to their challenges. Parents can facilitate home learning by allocating time and space for homework, ensuring homework is complete and setting limits on watching TV. </p>
<p>Homework help proved to be useful but not essential. Instead support could also take the form of supervising homework or establishing explicit expectation of which grades a child must aim for. Some parents also turned their own experience to teaching the children the importance of hard work and endurance. </p>
<p>Another strategy is reading. If parents can’t read themselves, they can ask the children to read to them. </p>
<p>Sometimes more extreme single-mindedness in pushing performance was used by parents. This included, for example, reducing all non-academic related activities such as household chores, TV watching and other extracurricular activities unrelated to academic performance.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>Migrants, despite difficulties in adapting to a new environment, tend to see their adjustment as temporary. And this might be different for poor local families who have become disillusioned with the educational system and have given up on the dream. However, the same can precisely reinforce the importance of having a different mindset that any changes have to start with believing that things can change. Expectation and aspiration matter.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108430/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ke Yu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Children need more than school resources and qualified teachers to attain academic success.Ke Yu, Associate Professor, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.