Language barriers
Imagine learning everything in a completely unfamiliar language, where all the books are incomprehensible. You have to answer a question from the teacher, but you don't know what you're being asked and can't reply in the right language anyway.
Adults often think that children will ‘pick up’ any language used in school. But the evidence shows it doesn’t work that way. Faced with such a struggle, many children just drop out.
In honour of International Mother Language Day on 21 February, Save the Children has produced this short animated video showing why so many children suffer when the wrong language is used in school. You can share the video with colleagues, partners, teachers and parents.
In Vietnam we took one small pilot project and turned it into national policy, with the potential to make minority ethnic children across the whole country comfortable in the classroom.
Education officials agreed to allow local language speakers to work alongside teachers so that children are taught in their own language and given the help they need to learn Vietnamese. We adapted the curriculum, prepared new training and language materials, and launched our pilot in nine primary schools. Officials could see the difference: vibrant and happy children, delighted that they knew the answers, compared to tense, confused and silent children straining to understand.
The Ministry of Education has now formally recognised that Vietnamese is a second language for many children, and that it’s better for children to learn in their first language. Our approaches are now being used in all schools with minority ethnic children in 40 provinces. That’s more than 1.5 million children each year in grade I alone.
And in Bangladesh, where two-thirds of minority ethnic children drop out of primary education, we helped nearly 10,000 children learn to read and write in their mother tongue in 2009.
To find out more, take a look at Save the Children’s research and guidance on language and this article.
We would love to hear your comments and questions on how language is used in education, please send these to Helen Pinnock, Education Advisor, Save the Children UK.