Introduction to this booklet
By the time children begin school they have already learned many things. They have learned about relationships as they interact with their parents and others in the community. They know about nature and the environment from watching the world around them and learning the names of the things they see. They sort and classify familiar objects and compare weights and distances as they go about their everyday activities. They evaluate the things that people say and do according to their understanding of what is good and bad, useful and harmful, appropriate and inappropriate.
Also by the time children begin school they are able to use their language for a variety of purposes. They know the correct way to talk respectfully to older people. They know how to ask questions and how to respond to questions from others. They can follow their parents’ stepby-step instructions to do a new task. They talk with family and friends about their ideas. They describe what they see and explain what they think. When they disagree, they know how to argue their point of view.
Through interactions like these, children have become confident in their ability to communicate with others and are excited about learning in school.
But what happens on their first day of school if their teacher does not speak or understand their language?
Many children from minority language communities quickly realize that school is not a good place for communication and learning— at least not for them. They cannot talk about what they know or ask the teacher questions. They cannot use their knowledge and experience to help them understand math or science lessons. For these children, school is an unfamiliar place where the teacher uses an unfamiliar language to teach things that they cannot learn because they do not understand the teacher’ s language.
This booklet is about“ Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education”( MTB MLE) programmes in which children use their home language or mother tongue( MT) as the first language for learning in school. In MTB MLE classrooms, teachers share their students’ language and culture. They know the things that small children learn and do at home and they use the students’ knowledge and experience to help them learn new things in school. The goal of MTB MLE is that all children, from every language community, will be successful in school and become productive members of their community and citizens of their country.
The remainder of this booklet is organized around a set of questions that parents, teachers, school administrators and other community members often ask about MTB MLE. The responses to each question include examples from real programmes in different parts of the world.
Booklet for Community Members
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