Write points and counter points on the following topics :
You should study all subjects in your mother tongue.
You must memorise the rules of grammer.
Answers
Studies have found evidence to suggest that mother-tongue education leads to better academic performance. In their paper “Estimating the impact of language of instruction in South African primary schools: A fixed effects approach”, Taylor and Coetzee find that “among children in schools of a similar quality and coming from similar home backgrounds, those who were taught in their home language during the first three years of primary school performed better in the English test in grades four, five and six than children who were exposed to English as the language of instruction in grades one, two and three. This finding seems to be in line with the thinking of education specialists, who have for many years promoted the advantages of mother-tongue instruction in the early stages of children’s education.”
Michael le Cordeur points out in a Stellenbosch University article that “the 1996 Hague Recommendations Regarding the Education Rights of National Minorities proposed that ‘in primary school, the curriculum should ideally be taught in the minority language (mother tongue)’.” And that, “The principle that children should be taught in their mother tongue for at least the first six years of their schooling life, is universally acknowledged”.
Socio-linguist Thabo Ditsele is quoted in the Daily Maverick as saying that “that teaching younger children in a language that is not their mother tongue appears to disrupt cognitive ability and interferes with the learning process”.
Mother-tongue education might also actually make the acquisition of a second language easier. Earlier this year, during a talk on the topic at the he African EduWeek conference, an associate professor of the City University of New York, Immaculee Harushimana, said that, “The acquisition of language becomes easier when literacy in the home language has been achieved.” Engineering News further reports that according to Harushimana, “Mother-tongue instruction and foreign-language instruction are mutually supportive.” Taylor and Cloete also point to linguistic theories that support what Harushimana posited.
Furthermore, being educated in their mother-tongue can give children a sense of pride in their heritage and identity. Earlier this year, former Minister of Arts and Culture Paul Mashatile rightly remarked that, “languages are the most powerful tools of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage,” reports eNCA. This is something that is close to Harushimana’s heart as she made a plea to: “Let us teach our children to love themselves and their heritage first before we introduce them to the languages and cultures of other people. Let us enable the acquisition of foundational school knowledge through the language they know best — their mother tongue – like all other countries are doing.”
Unfortunately, as Tolika points out, there are people in South Africa who think that “speaking and learning in English means you are ‘well-educated’, and so they, often unwittingly, support the abandonment of their children’s mother tongue”.
Arguments AgainstThe perception mentioned in the previous paragraph is an example of resistance to the idea of mother-tongue education, which is clearly prejudiced. But there are also some arguments that are a bit more substantial.
In the Daily Maverick Stephen Grootes presents the argument for schooling to happen in English, as it “has emerged triumphant as the global language“. Certainly it is the language of the labour market. But does that mean that the first six educational years should not be in the children’s mother-tongue?
In a video for eNCA, Elijah Mhlanga of the Department of Basic Education says that there is a school of thought that suggests that “learners must take English right from when they start school so that they don’t struggle having to adopt it at a later stage“. But Taylor and Coetzee point out that starting with English might actually not give learners the head-start one would hope for. They reiterate that “many linguists argue that when it comes to learning a second language it is crucial to first have a solid foundation in one’s first language”.
Grootes further argues that mother-tongue education could lead to racially divided schooling. “Linguistically segregating our classrooms will only lead to more trouble in the long run. It won’t help anyone to be kept apart. And surely what South Africa needs now is integration, sweet integration,” he writes.
And of course there are the practical problems of training teachers, developing academic vocabulary in some of the languages and ensuring the availability of resources such as textbooks in all languages.