Sawdo Japakiya is the parent of a kindergarten student attending Ban Prachan School in the Patani Malay MTB Bilingual Education programme in Thailand. He described his child’ s development in speaking and reading the MT and Thai since starting school:
In observing my child, I have found that he enjoys his study. When he gets back from school, he follows all of his teacher’ s instructions, such as doing homework and drawing.... Nowadays, when going shopping at the market, he often asks me to buy him books or drawing notebooks on which he can write for fun. He enjoys studying. 1
Problem: Students are expected to learn to read and write in the official school language before they have learned to understand and speak it.
MTB MLE solution: Students learn to read and write in their MT. At the same time, they begin learning to understand and speak the official school language. When they have developed confidence in reading and writing their MT and can understand and speak the official language, teachers help them transfer their literacy skills to their new language. The Asian Development Bank tells us why that process is successful:
A large body of evidence from different countries, as well as advances in the field of cognitive neuroscience, show that children who have access to mother tongue based multilingual education( MTB MLE) develop better language skills in their mother tongues as well as national languages( ACDP Indonesia, 2014, p. 3).
To summarize, strong MTB MLE programmes that are planned and implemented carefully result in students who are
Multilingual. They are confident in using two or more languages for learning in school and for interacting with people within and outside their home community.
Multi-literate. They read and write with understanding in both or all of their languages.
Multicultural. They maintain their love and respect for their home culture and community and interact confidently and respectfully with people who look, talk and believe differently than they do.
Successful learners. They achieve their educational goals and develop a life-long love of learning.
1 Translated from Pratya To-Itae: Southern News, Isra Institute. Beginning the Third Year of Bilingual School: The Answer for Children’ s Education in the Southern Border Area. Sunday, 03 January 2010 19:10.
Booklet for Programme Implementers
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