Guardian: Donors need multilingual understanding

Dear MLE friends,

Do you have a need to convince your donors to support your efforts in MLE? Here is a good article published in The Guardian, with donors as its target audience: Donors need multilingual understanding. Some quotes:

Evidence of education failure among children denied teaching in their first languages should inform a new approach to development aid

Unfortunately, this push for international language isn't working for those most in need of the economic opportunities it brings. In many countries a large proportion of children's school drop-out rates and poor performance is caused by their inability to understand the English used in class. Teachers don't have good English themselves, which stops them using interactive teaching approaches. A lack of textbooks worsens the problem.

For several years it has been accepted that children who don't already speak a language such as English won't learn well in English-medium education. Children learn language based on context and communication. In rural areas, children who grow up with one language will not "pick up'" another language for the few hours they spend at school, especially when most lessons involve passively listening to a teacher.

The article is written by Helen Pinnock  of of Save The Children.

Regards,

Karsten

Karsten van Riezen
Education Consultant, LinkedIn Profile
SIL Int., South Asia Group

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