Cult & Society/International Perspective

Culture & Society- International Perspective Language and Language Policy

A Global Perspective INTL 101

Language policy in formal education II

University of California, San Diego Justin D. McIntosh

Portions of the slides were adopted from Priyanka Biswas & Gabriela Caballero

Language Policy in Education

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This week: Language Policy in education – Walter & Benson’s: Language Policy & the medium of instruction in formal education We will cover the following concepts: • Language ideology • Other reasons for brining languages into formal education • Claiming of legal rights • Proper advocacy • Rights based arguments • Research on the impact of first language instruction • Costs and effectiveness

Language and education

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Mother-tongue-based multilingual education

• Search for regional national coherence and/or identity • Belief that each nation-state should have one single unifying language • Led colonizer countries to suppress their own linguistic diversity • e.g.: Welsh, Irish, Basque, Catalán, Breton, Frisian …

• Colonized peoples have been robbed of the opportunity to express themselves in their own languages, particularly in writing.

(Mazrui 1997, Ngūɡī 1987, Prah 2003)

• Eritrea policy makers made choices about the use of language in early education to maximize effectiveness of education – address low achievement and high drop out rates

Language and education

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Mother-tongue-based multilingual education

• Product of political ideology • School use of mother tongue has been a product of political ideology • Tanzania • Indonesia • Ethiopia • Guinea

• Radical approaches yielded positive results for education • Development of consistent ideologies involving people’s languages • Enrichment of school curricula that responds to societal needs • Development of indigenous languages in education and public life

Language and education

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Mother-tongue-based multilingual education

Product of political ideology • Guinea - national language ended with Touré’s administration • Tanzania - Kiswahili offers access to basic education and social

participation but spaces have not opened-up for learners’ mother tongues • Public seems to be leaning towards English-medium education

• Ethiopia – Use of Amharic has led to public demand for other national languages in education – • Adopted in mother-tongue-medium education for 8 years

• Eritrea – Political leaders found it ‘educationally expedient’ to propose a model of universal first language education to unify the country • Resulted in use of first language in education for 95% of school aged population

Language and education

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Mother-tongue-based multilingual education

Other reasons for bringing languages into formal school system To reclaim social and cultural identity • European regional languages (Basque and Irish)

• Thailand and the use of Chong (1999) • Community initiated project to promote and revive the use of Chong

• Aim: - To raise the status of the language

- To increase its usage

- To pass it on to the younger generation

Language and education

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Mother-tongue-based multilingual education

Other reasons for bringing languages into formal school system To reclaim social and cultural identity • Thailand and the use of Chong (1999)

• With the technical assistance of Thai university linguists • Adult Chong speakers developed a writing system’ • Produced instructional materials • Trained to become teachers

• In 2002 Chong became the first minority language in Thailand to be taught in formal education

• Subject of study as part of the ‘local curriculum’ component

Language and education

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Mother-tongue-based multilingual education

Other reasons for bringing languages into formal school system The claiming of legal rights

• European regional minority language communities • Basque –

• Gained autonomy through the Spanish Constitution of 1978 • Officially recognized in 1979 • Developed educational programs with Basque-medium education

• 1992 European Charter for Regional Minority Languages • Subject of study as part of the ‘local curriculum’ component

Language and education

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Mother-tongue-based multilingual education

Other reasons for bringing languages into formal school system The claiming of legal rights

• 1992 European Charter for Regional Minority Languages • Signed and ratified by 24 countries

• Calls for governments to recognize and promote regional and minority languages • Eliminate all forms of discrimination against them and their speakers • Provide opportunities for their use in educational programs at all levels (Article 8) • Allowed for many linguistic communities to move forward even where national

policies have been inconsistent • Universal declaration of Linguistic Rights (1996 UNESCO)

• Supports the rights of endangered language communities to acquire a full command of their own language

Language and education

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Mother-tongue-based multilingual education Proper advocacy

Advocacy for dominant official languages & mother tongues in education

• Stakeholders are sensitive to language status issues

• Parents wish for their children to gain access to the language of power/prestige • Which they believe will best prepare them for success and social mobility

• Bilingual education programs demonstrate that languages of power can be learned by starting with learners’ first languages

Language and education

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Mother-tongue-based multilingual education Proper advocacy

Advocacy for dominant official languages & mother tongues in education Experiments in countries like Bolivia and Mozambique create new demand for mother tongue based multilingual education

• Bolivia – NGO sponsored experimentation • Support for Bilingual intercultural education (EIB) • Education reform and national implementation of EIB

• Mozambique – 5 years after initiation of bilingual experiment in Gaza and Tate • Created local buzz of the regions’ families in anticipation • In 2002 education reformed allowed for bilingual education attendance was greatest

from these regions – • Bilingual schools currently operating in 16 Mozambican languages

Language and education

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Mother-tongue-based multilingual education Proper advocacy

Advocacy for dominant official languages & mother tongues in education When poorly implemented can cause parents to lose faith in mother tongue use –

• Niger – • Chronically low resourcing of bilingual schools which were called ‘experimental’ for

more than 30 years caused many parents to move their children to French-medium education –

• Oaxaca, Mexico – The Chatino region • Underprepared ‘bilingual’ teachers (not bilingual in the local language) • Teach so-called ‘bilingual’ education only to Castilianize community youth –

• In the former Spanish colonies, the term is used in the linguistic sense of the Spanish language replacing indigenous languages.

Language and education

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Mother-tongue-based multilingual education Rights based arguments

UNESCO – Mother tongue position is widely cited (1953) Supported initial literacy and learning in the child’s home language on psychological and pedagogical grounds

• Strengthened by other international conventions • The 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

• Article 27 recognizes the right of minority people to use their own languages • The 1989 ILO convention 169, Article 28 gives indigenous children the right to be

taught in the language most used by their communities • The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 29 calls for education to

respect the child’s cultural identity, language and values • The 1992 Declaration of the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic,

Religious and Linguistic Minorities • 2001 Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, Article 6, defines the educational

role of the mother tongue in promoting multilingualism

Language and education Mother-tongue-based multilingual education Research on the impact of first language instruction in a developed nation (Thomas and Collier 1997, 2002)

– Students receiving not instructional support in their first language completed their education way below the norm – 11th percentile in the worst case

– Those receiving six or more years of instruction in their first language finished above the national norm for all students including native English speakers

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https://www.thomasandcollier.com/articles

Language and education Workplace consequences of student performance Research on the impact of first language instruction in a developed nation (Thomas and Collier 1997, 2002) – NCE equivalent divides the range of performance

into blocks based on the standard deviation (21 in this case)

– Hypothetical blocks of 10,000 students are computed for each level of performance

– ESL pullout model (no instructional support in 1st language) > 10% scored 50% or higher – Minimum for attending university

– Below this level is associated with blue-collar jobs, manual labor, or unemployment

– 70% of students educated in two-way bilingual programs scored at or above the mean – Potential access to university and higher level of

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Language and education Cost and cost effectiveness – Guatemala

1981 bilingual intercultural education in 4 largest Mayan languages in Guatemala – Beginning on the left

– Column 1 = # of children enrolled/grade – Column 2 = # of children promoted/grade – Column 3 = Percentage promoted (persistence rate) – Column 4 = Total cost in US dollars

– Based on ministry of education per-pupil expenditure of 145 US dollars

– Final column = cost/student promoted to the next grade

– Bottom figure = total cost of producing one primary school graduate in each model – = total cost of 6 years / number of graduates

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– Cost of educating a primary school graduate from a Spanish-medium school is $500 higher $3,077-$2,578 – First language education saves about $500 dollars per child

Language and education

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Mother-tongue-based multilingual education Conclusions:

Language policy and its way of specifying or privileging the use of certain languages over others

• Because education is one of the most critical functions of language it is, perhaps, the domain most sensitive to the choice made about language

• Reasons are various: • Convenience • Colonial influence • Numerical superiority • Political ideology • Social prestige and advantage • Religion and nation building • Others…?

Focus on the following questions while watching Speaking in Tongues

• What are some pros and cons of bilingualism and/or Language immersion programs?

• What are some main reasons (i.e., experience and expectations) for the parents to send their kids to these schools?

• How does it relate to the retention of a heritage language in the US?

• How would policies like the ones in the film be enacted globally or in other nations?

Questions?

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