Back in 1999, Bangladesh put forward the idea of celebrating
International Mother Language Day trying to render homage to the martyrs who
fought to recognize the Bengali (Bangla) language. This initiative was approved
by UNESCO and International Mother Language Day is globally celebrated on
February 21. The aim of this celebration is to promote linguistic and cultural
diversity and multilingualism.
Languages are vital to preserve identity, development,
education and integration. Nevertheless, there are many endangered languages
because they are transmitted orally from generation to generation and there are
no written records of them. Very few languages are considered in the
educational systems and fewer are recorded digitally.
Every time a language disappears, a whole cultural and
intellectual heritage vanishes with it. Sadly, a great part of the world’s
population is not educated in a language they speak or understand. There are
some attempts to develop more multilingual education, especially in the early stages
of schooling. Let’s hope this is achieved and languages are kept.
The theme of the 2022 International Mother Language Day, “Using technology for multilingual learning:
Challenges and opportunities”, will discuss the potential role of
technology to advance multilingual education and support the development of
quality teaching and learning for all. I guess many of the people who would be
most interested in keeping their languages alive don’t have access to
technology yet. Food for thought.
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