Linguistic diversity and multilingual education

By Husna Inayathullah

'If you talk to someone in a language he or she understands, that goes to the person's head. If you talk to somebody in his or her language, that goes to the heart.' - Nelson Mandela

February 21 is a time to celebrate Bangladesh's culture and the Bengali language. The Bangladeshi's purchase beautiful glass bangles for themselves or for their female relatives. They eat a great festive meal and organise huge parties.

They award prizes and host literary competitions in a large scale. The day is also observed with public ceremonies, parades, rallies by citizens, political speeches, fairs, concerts, and various other public and private events celebrating the history and traditions of Bangladesh. Many schools and colleges organise fairs, festivals, and concerts in which citizens from all levels of society can participate.

So this day is the anniversary of a pivotal day in the country's history.

People lay flowers at a Shaheed Minar, a national monument in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was established to commemorate those killed during the Bengali language movement demonstrations of 1952.Today the reason behind the celebration of the International Mother Language Day are the four students who were killed in 1952 in Bangladesh.

They campaigned to officially use their mother language, Bengali, in Bangladesh.

The Shaheed Minar in Dhaka, Bangladesh pays homage to the four students today. These students' deaths in fighting for the right to use their mother language are now remembered on International Mother Language Day.

At the partition of India in 1947, the Bengal province was divided according to the predominant religions of the inhabitants. The western part became part of India and the eastern part became a province of Pakistan known as East Bengal and later East Pakistan. However, there was economic, cultural and lingual friction between East and West Pakistan.

These tensions were apparent in 1948 when Pakistan's government declared that Urdu was the sole national language. This sparked protests amongst the Bengali-speaking majority in East Pakistan. The government outlawed the protests but on February 21, 1952, students at the University of Dhaka and other activists organized a protest. Later that day, the police opened fire at the demonstrators and killed four students.

The unrest continued as Bengali speakers campaigned for the right to use their mother language. Bengali became an official language in Pakistan on February 29, 1956. Following the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, Bangladesh became an independent country with Bengali as its official language.

Language is the human ability to acquire and use multiple systems of communication.

The scientific study of languages is called linguistics. Mother language or mother tongue is one's language with which one first learned and grew up. It is also the language spoken by one's ancestors.

International Mother Language Day (IMLD) is an observance held annually on February 21 worldwide to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism . It was first recorded by UNESCO on November 17, 1999. Its observance was also formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution establishing 2008 as the International Year of Languages.

UNESCO promotes mother tongue-based bilingual or multilingual approaches in education - an important factor for inclusion and qualilty in education.. Research shows this has a positive impact on learning and learning outcomes. The Organisation provides normative frameworks for language policy and education and shares good practices in bilingual and multilingual education and mother tongue instruction.

On International Mother Language Day the UN's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and UN agencies participate in events that promote linguistic and cultural diversity. They also encourage people to maintain their knowledge of their mother language while learning and using more than one language.

Governments and non-governmental organisations may use the day to announce policies to encourage language learning and support.

Each year the celebrations around International Mother Language Day concentrate on a particular theme. The theme for IMLD this year is "Inclusion in and through education: Language counts". Its focus is on one of the main challenges that cuts across many of the goals. It will be observed on February 20, 2015 at Paris, France.

The opening ceremony will include a speech by UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, the Ambassador of Bangladesh to France, the Permanent Delegate of Bangladesh to UNESCO and an Administrator of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.

In some countries, such as Kenya, India, and various East Asian countries, "mother language" or "native language" is used to indicate the language of one's ethnic group.

In Singapore "mother tongue" refers to the language of one's ethnic group regardless of actual proficiency, while the "first language" refers to the English language that was established on the island through British colonisation, which is the lingua franca for most post-independence Singaporeans due to its use as the language of instruction in government schools and as a working language.

J. R. R. Tolkien, in his 1955 lecture "English and Welsh", distinguishes the "native tongue" from the "cradle tongue", the latter being the language one happens to learn during early childhood, while one's true "native tongue" may be different, possibly determined by an inherited linguistic taste and may later in life be discovered by a strong emotional affinity to a specific dialect.

There have been three versions of the martyr's monument. The first version was built from February 22-23 in 1952 but the police and army destroyed it within a few days. Construction on the second version started in November 1957, but the introduction of martial law stopped construction work and it was destroyed during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.

The third version of the Shaheed Minar was built to similar plans as the second version. It consists of four standing marble frames and a larger double marble frame with a slanted top portion. The frames are constructed from marble and stand on a stage, which is raised about four meters (14 feet) above the ground.

An International Mother Language Day monument was erected at Ashfield Park in Sydney, Australia, on February 19, 2006. It consists of a slab of slate mounted vertically on a raised platform. There are stylised images of the Shaheed Minar and the globe on the face of the stone.

There are also the words "we will remember the martyrs of 21st February" in English and Bengali and words in five alphabets to represent mother languages on five continents where people live.

Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. All moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue.