Children Learn Better in Their Mother

Tongue
Advancing research on mother tongue-based multilingual
education
February 21, 2014|

Globally, there are 50-75 million marginalized children who are not enrolled in school.
Children whose primary language is not the language of instruction in school are more
likely to drop out of school or fail in early grades. Research has shown that childrens first
language is the optimal language for literacy and learning throughout primary school
(UNESCO, 2008a). In spite of growing evidence and parent demand, many educational
systems around the world insist on exclusive use of one or sometimes several privileged
languages. This means excluding other languages and with them the children who speak them
(Arnold, Bartlett, Gowani, & Merali, 2006).

The risks of a foreign language of instruction

(resiko belajar menggunakan bahasa asing)

It is not hard to grasp (menangkap) all that is at stake (memancangkan): parents not
enrolling their children in school at all, children not able to engage successfully in
learning tasks, teachers feeling overwhelmed by childrens inability to participate, early
experiences of school failure, and so on. Some children do succeed, perhaps through a
language transition program that helps them to acquire the language of instruction. But there
is the risk of negative effects whereby children fail to become linguistically competent
members of their families and communities and lose the ability to connect with their cultural
heritage.
While some children continue to develop proficiency in their first language while succeeding
in school in a second language, this does not happen automatically.
Increasingly, it leads to an inability to communicate about more than mundane matters with
parents and grandparents, and a rapid depletion of the worlds repository of languages and
dialects and the cultural knowledges that are carried through them.

Preserving mother tongues

Many linguistic groups are becoming vocal about the need to ensure that the youngest
members of their communities keep their linguistic heritage. Some governments, such as in
the Philippines, have recently established language-in-education policies that embrace
childrens first languages. A compendium of examples produced by UNESCO (2008b) attests
to growing interest in promoting mother tongue-based education, and to the wide variety of
models, tools, and resources now being developed and piloted to promote learning programs
in the mother tongue.

Children learn better in their mother tongue

UNESCO has encouraged mother tongue instruction in primary education since 1953
(UNESCO, 1953) and UNESCO highlights the advantages of mother tongue education right
from the start: children are more likely to enroll and succeed in school (Kosonen, 2005);
parents are more likely to communicate with teachers and participate in their childrens
learning (Benson, 2002); girls and rural children with less exposure to a dominant
language stay in school longer and repeat grades less often (Hovens, 2002; UNESCO
Bangkok, 2005); and children in multilingual education tend to develop better thinking
skills compared to their monolingual peers (e.g., Bialystok, 2001; Cummins, 2000; King
& Mackey, 2007).
Some educators argue that only those countries where the students first language is the
language of instruction are likely to achieve the goals of Education for All. Research also
suggests that engaging marginalized children in school through mother-tongue based,
multilingual education (MTB-MLE) is a successful model (Benson & Kosonen, 2013;
Yiakoumetti, 2012). We are beginning to get answers to some key questions: Under what
circumstances and with what resources can education in the mother-tongue combined with
multilingual education be an effective approach whereby children become proficient in their
home language while laying the foundation for learning in additional languages? What are the
costs and benefits of alternative approaches directed at the individual, family, community,
school, region, and nation? What are meaningful yet efficient ways to measure costs and
benefits? What are the implications of MTB-MLE for recruiting, educating, and mentoring

teachers and teacher assistants and for creating and evaluating curricula in diverse language
classrooms? What are the contributions of family and community in formal and non-formal
MTB-MLE, and how can these be measured?

More research needed

Investment in a coordinated program of research could advance knowledge about these kinds
of questions in order to inform national language in education policies, teacher training, and
local approaches.
More research is needed on steps that can be taken in the early years and during the transition
to school to prepare children for the mix of language(s) that will be used in primary school.
Questions need to be explored about what are the most important outcomes and how best to
measure them in various teaching and learning contexts. How should assessment of
pedagogical effectiveness take into account the different pace of childrens growing
competence in core skills including reading, writing, numeracy and problem solving when
they learn through multiple languages?
There is also a gap in research on effective approaches for successful transitions of mothertongue educated children to secondary school in a dominant language.
Family members play an important role as childrens first teachers and research should
explore the roles of informal and non-formal education and family interaction in promoting
literacy, numeracy, and higher order cognitive skills using the mother tongue.
We need to involve community members with diverse language skills in formal school and
train teachers with varying language capacities and levels of education to be effective in
MTB-MLE classrooms. As knowledge develops, we must get better at communicating
research findings so that practitioners, policy makers and donors are informed and motivated
by evidence about how the potential of MTB-MLE can be harnessed to achieve Education for
All.
References
Arnold, C., Bartlett, K., Gowani, S., & Merali, R. (2006). Is everybody ready? Readiness,
transition and continuity: Reflections and moving forward. Background paper for EFA Global
Monitoring Report 2007.
Benson, C. (2002). Real and potential benefits of bilingual progammes in developing
countries. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 5 (6), 303-317.
Benson, C., & Kosonen, K. (Eds.) (2013). Language issues in comparative education:
Inclusive teaching and learning in non-dominant languages and cultures. Rotterdam: Sense
Publishers.
Bialystok, E. (2001). Bilingualism in development: Language, literacy, and
cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power and pedagogy. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Hovens, M. (2002). Bilingual education in West Africa: Does it work? International Journal
of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 5 (5), 249-266.
King, K., & Mackey, A. (2007). The bilingual edge: Why, when, and how to teach your child
a second language. New York: Collins.
Kosonen, K. (2005). Education in local languages: Policy and practice in Southeast
Asia. First languages first: Community-based literacy programmes for minority language
contexts in Asia. Bangkok: UNESCO Bangkok.
Malone, D. L. (2003). Developing curriculum materials for endangered language education:
Lessons from the field. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 6(5),
332.
UNESCO (1953). The use of the vernacular languages in education. Monographs on
Foundations of Education, No. 8. Paris: UNESCO.
UNESCO (2003). Education in a multilingual world. UNESCO Education Position Paper.
Paris: UNESCO.
UNESCO Bangkok (2005). Advocacy brief on mother tongue-based teaching and education
for girls. Bangkok: UNESCO.
UNESCO (2007). Strong foundations: Early childhood care and education. Paris: Author.
UNESCO (2008a). Mother Tongue Matters: Local Language as a Key to Effective
Learning. Paris: UNESCO.
UNESCO (2008b). Mother tongue instruction in early childhood education: A selected
bibliography. Paris: UNESCO.
Yiakoumetti, A. (Ed.) Harnessing linguistic variation to improve education. Rethinking
Education Vol. 5. Bern: Peter Lang.

http://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/children-learn-better-their-mother-tongue
Penggunaan bahasa Ibu memiliki keuntungan pada pembelajaran secara khusus
untuk siswa di kelas rendah seperti: siswa belajar membaca lebih cepat (UNESCO
Bangkok, 2005); siswa berpartisipasi secara aktif dalam pembelajaran (UNESCO,
2008a); hasil belajar siswa meningkat (UNESCO, 2008a);

dan siswa melakukan

aktivitas pembelajaran dengan sangat baik (Mashiya, 2010). Jadi, siswa belajar secara
optimal ketika menggunakan bahasa Ibu.