UN International Mother Language Day

"A person without a ‘mother tongue’ is a person without a soul"

To mark International Mother Language Day, February 21st, Malgosia Machowska-Kosciak, PhD, from DCU's School of STEM Education, Innovation and Global Studies, reflects on the topic:

‘A child without a language is a child without a soul’ (Kirwan, 2017). 

It is because Mother Tongue is the ‘default medium’ through which children negotiate their understanding of the surrounding world and their own place in it. 

It is their ‘self- concept, self-awareness, their consciousness, their discursive thinking, and their agency’ (Little, 2015). 

It is the cognitive tool they apply when learning new information. Lack of recognising Mother Tongue as their greatest asset is equal to rejecting the child to live a ‘full life as a child and to realise his/her full potential’ (DES, 1999). 

It is fundamentally against their ‘human rights’.

The 2016 census results show that 612,018 Irish residents spoke a foreign language at home (up to 19 % from 514,068 in 2011), and for pre-school children (aged 3-4 years), the number is more than twenty thousand. 

However, children’s Mother Tongues are still perceived from a deficit perspective by their schools. 

Speaking a different language at home is often seen as something exotic.

We tend to approve and encourage Mother Tongue learning until it gets in the way of performing well during standard monolingual, majority language testing. 

It is important to develop new approaches to teaching and learning that allow unique skills of all children to be used for the wider benefits of all. 

For this to come true, it is critical that teachers are ready to meet up the challenge at both pre-service and in-service levels.

As part of the Department of Justice-funded project 'Strengthening the Practice of Intercultural Education in Primary Schools' (SPIEPS), the Centre for Human Rights and Citizenship Education offers CPD opportunities for schools and teachers. For further infomation, please feel free to contact Malgosia at Malgosia.machowska-kosciak@dcu.ie