Multilingual Philippines

							Language for Itself – and In
  and For Development

      Sheldon Shaeffer


 Cagayan de Oro, Philippines
      March 18, 2010
          Linguistic Diversity in Asia
    Country     Languages       Country     Languages
   P.New Guinea 830           Uzbekistan     39
   Indonesia     722          Tajikistan     33
   India         445          Kyrgyzstan     32
   China         296          Bhutan         35
   Philippines 181            Singapore      31
   Malaysia      145          Turkmenistan 27
   Nepal         127          Cambodia       25
   Myanmar       116          Timor Leste 19
   Vietnam       108          Brunei         17
   Lao PDR        89          Japan          16
   Thailand       85          Mongolia       15
   Pakistan       77          Sri Lanka       7
   Iran           79          Korea, South    4
   Afghanistan    52          Maldives        2
   Bangladesh 46              Korea, North    1
   Kazakhstan     43
                            TOTAL:        ~ 3572
    (30 countries)          (Source: Ethnologue 2009)
     Number of Languages
       spoken in Asia




- Of the world’s more than 6000 languages, 50% are “dying”, 40% are
endangered, and only 10% are “safe”.
- 96% of these languages are spoken by only 4% of the world’s population.
- Most of the endangered languages are spoken by ethnic minorities.
- If nothing is done, these languages and their cultures will likely die.
Why languages cannot be allowed to die…
• When a language dies -- we lose a piece of
    knowledge, of human thought, and of world-
    view – and it cannot be replaced.
•   Languages in danger must be revitalised and
    further developed because:
      they are needed to maintain cultural and
       linguistic diversity for a sustainable future
      they express identity, “hold” history, and
       transmit culture
      they contribute to the sum of human and
       cultural knowledge
      they are essential for human and social
       development – and for the fulfillment of
       human rights
          What do we know? (1)
• A language can survive and thrive only if it
  has a strong presence in the education
  system.
• But most education systems are
  inappropriate for, or even hostile to,
  indigenous and minority groups and their
  languages.
• Large numbers of learners are forced to learn
  in a language (official or international) that is
  different from the language they speak at
  home.
         What do we know? (2)
• People only learn to “read” once.

• It is therefore essential – both to keep
  cultures and their languages strong and
  intact and to increase school success –
  that early education and initial literacy be
  provided in the learner’s first language or
  mother tongue – which then makes it easier
  to master national and international
  languages.
             What do we know? (3)
• Learners must begin school from where they
    “are” – in their home language -- and NOT in
    a language they do not know.
•   It is very difficult to teach people to read and
    write in a language they don’t understand.
•   The starting point of learning how to read
    and write is the language of the learner –
    beginning with the known and moving
    progressively to the unknown.
•    Skills in the first language of literacy should
    be consolidated before the second is
    mastered - preferably during at least three
    years of study.
          What do we know? (4)
• A strategy of multilingualism beginning
  with mother-tongue mastery produces
  better learning outcomes and higher rates
  of internal efficiency – higher enrolment,
  less repetition, lower drop-out rates, higher
  achievement.
• Education for All can only be achieved
  with a strategy of mother tongue-based
  multilingual education – without it, too
  many children will not enter school, will fail,
  and will drop out – or be pushed out -- of the
  education system.
           What do we know? (5)
• Using mother tongue also:
  builds initiative and participation in learning
  stimulates the production of materials in
    home languages
   inserts local knowledge into the classroom
   facilitates integration into broader social,
    cultural, and economic contexts
   contributes to the individual and collective
    development of often excluded people
   can improve relations between political
    leaders and the multilingual population of a
    country
Learners whose
mother tongue is
the language of
instruction and
literacy in
education.

Learners who do
not speak the
standard school
language used
when they enter
school
MLE for building a strong foundation and
 a good bridge in multilingual contexts
     The development of MLE in Asia
• Slowly, over time, MLE based on mother-
    tongue is making progress in Asia.
•   Supportive Ministry of Education policies exist
    in Cambodia, Singapore, China, Bangladesh,
    India, Nepal, Afghanistan, New Zealand,
    Australia, and – especially! -- the Philippines.
•   Many private systems use the approach in
    Myanmar.
•   Ministries in Malaysia, Indonesia, Timor Leste,
    Central Asia, and the Pacific are showing
    greater willingness to experiment with MLE.
•   And a new national language policy in Thailand
    supports minority languages in education.
          Problems and solutions (1)
• The lack of orthographies and alphabets
   BUT new alphabets can be developed, at
       relatively low cost, often using the script of the
       national language
•   The cost and expertise to create instructional
    materials and to recruit and train teachers
    from, or in, minority languages
     BUT materials and texts can be produced
       locally and cheaply, especially for the early
       grades, using teachers and community
       members as resources
     AND teacher trainees from linguistic minorities
       can be found and trained
        Problems and solutions (2)
• The so-called “underdevelopment” of
    some languages and their inability to
    express complicated ideas and concepts
     BUT most can express the ideas and
      concepts needed for gaining initial literacy
      – and languages, too, can grow!
•   Indifference and even opposition from
    within minority communities themselves
     BUT they can be convinced that:
       oral use of a mother tongue is not the
         same as – or as good as -- literacy
       mother tongue literacy can lead to
         greater mastery of the national language
       Problems and solutions (3)
• Indifference – even active opposition –
  from dominant political and economic
  groups -- the fear of divisiveness and conflict
  and the overriding goal of national unity
   BUT recognising and valuing linguistic and
     cultural diversity can reduce inter-cultural
     strife and make excluded groups feel more
     loyal toward the state
   AND gaining initial literacy in mother
     tongue can lead to greater mastery of the
     national language and greater contributions
     by linguistic/cultural minorities to the social
     and economic development of the nation
       Language and development
Languages and the cultures that go with them are:
• important in themselves
• essential in the immediate development process
  – to ensure that development programmes are
  appropriate for, and “owned” by, indigenous,
  excluded communities
• necessary for longer-term development by
  guaranteeing that cultural and linguistic diversity
  are part of our sustainable future
   “Food cooked in borrowed pots never kills
                       hunger”
          Sozinho Francisco Matsinhe, Mozambique
             So what to do?
            Internationally…

The United Nations Declaration on the
  Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Article 14)
  – states that:
  “indigenous individuals, especially children,
   have the right to all levels and forms of
   education of the State, without
   discrimination...where possible...in their
   own culture and provided in their own
   language”
The Universal Declaration on Cultural
Diversity recognizes a strong relationship
among biodiversity, cultural diversity, and
linguistic diversity. UNESCO’s action plan for
this Declaration recommends:
• sustaining the world’s linguistic
   diversity and supporting the expression
   and dissemination of the greatest possible
   number of languages
• encouraging linguistic diversity at all
   levels of education
• incorporating traditional pedagogies into
   the education process
• recruiting and training teachers familiar
  with the life of their people and able to
  teach in their mother tongue
• supporting bilingual and / or multilingual
  education at all levels as a means of
  promoting both social and gender equality
  and as a key element of linguistically
  diverse societies
• respecting the educational rights of
  minorities and indigenous peoples
• using mother tongue education to raise
  awareness of the positive value of cultural
  and linguistic diversity
           Nationally and locally
• create networks of researchers, practitioners,
  NGOs, government officials, and politicians
• legislate to ensure mother tongue-based MLE
• advocate at all levels, from politicians and
  policy-makers to community leaders and parents
• collect evidence of the impact of MLE on
  academic, social, economic, and cultural
  outcomes
• develop orthographies and support MLE-
  based school curricula and texts and popular
  literature
• adopt affirmative action for recruiting and
  educating teachers from ethnic minorities
  Desired outcomes of this conference (1)
To understand and appreciate that:
• diversity is a treasure -- not an obstacle to, but
  rather essential for, development
• diversity is preserved by the spread of literacy
  both in indigenous and minority languages and
  in the national language
• literacy in the home language is an effective
  and efficient approach to learning to read and
  write in the national language
• literacy in both indigenous languages and the
  national language will have an integrative
  effect on society -- economically, socially,
  politically, culturally -- not a disintegrative effect
Desired outcomes of this conference (2)
To understand and appreciate that:
• through greater integration, excluded indigenous
  communities can contribute more to economic
  and social development
• local communities need to have a significant
  influence on the governance of their education
  programmes and the determination of the
  content and methods of instruction
• language development and revitalisation are
  useful entry points for broader-based
  development and essential for the full realisation
  of the Education for All targets and the
  Millennium Development Goals
Advocacy Kit for Promoting MLE
           • To facilitate awareness
             raising on the value of
             mother tongue-based
             multilingual education
           • To understand how to
             overcome the major
             obstacles and objections to
             MLE
           • To encourage readers to
             think about the importance
             of mother tongue-based
             multilingual education
             issues and to investigate
             them further
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