Posts

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&#

[MLE] Multilingual university department in south Serbia

Dear MLE friends, Most people think only of primary education when it comes to MLE. However here is a news-item from  Serbia where they are implementing an MLE strategy at university level: http://www.osce.org/hcnm/84518 Some quotes: A number of courses will be delivered in both Serbian and Albanian, with the proportion of Serbian-language courses gradually increasing during the four-year programme. This will give students from ethnic Albanian backgrounds the opportunity to both access higher education in their mother tongue, while also improving their proficiency in the State language, and is the first such initiative in Bujanovac. "This model is an example of how multilingual education can solve the dilemma of 'either mother-tongue or State-language education'. The educators' and authorities' joint effort here demonstrates that,"

[MLE] Video Clip on UNDP MLE Project in Bangladesh

Dear MLE Friends, You are probably already familiar with the good video clips on MLE on the web. There is now also a 3 minute clip on the UNDP education project in Bangladesh : http://www.beta.undp.org/undp/en/home/ourwork/capacitybuilding/successstories/Bangladesh-indigenous-languages-education.html A quote from the text: Multilingual education allows teachers to gradually introduce the official language of Bengali, so that towards the end of primary school students can switch completely to the national curriculum, which is taught in Bengali.This approach is delivering tangible results in a region where low school enrolment and high drop-out rates have been a problem for years. The change is being felt by all. “Now children are improving their learning in their mother languages and this has made them enthusiastic to come to the school regularly,” said Sujita Tripura, a multilingu

[MLE] MLE Resource Centre in Nepal

Dear MLE friends, A positive development at our northern neighbour Nepal: The establishment of a Multilingual Education (MLE) Resource Centre in Nepal has begun with the support of UNESCO. The Unesco website states here : "The MLE documentation centre will: provide necessary academic and research support to optimize multi-pronged engagement in providing quality MLE in Nepal; guidance for planning and implementation of MLE programmes; coordination between different MLE activities providing documentation and information resources; networking of various MLE interest groups, institutions and individuals; and establishing linkages to optimize effective utilization of expertise and materials for MLE programmes." I found it also encouraging to read the below: "It is expected that with the support of the MoE, the MLE resourc

[MLE] Third issue of the UNESCO Multilingual Education Newsletter

Dear MLE friends, The third issue of the UNESCO Multilingual Education Newsletter is out. You can find it at: http://www.unescobkk.org/index.php?id=12786 In the issues are MLE related news items and articles from all over the world. In the resource section I found e.g. the following publication: ·  Closer to home: how to help schools in low- and middle-income countries respond to children's language needs by Helen Pinnock, Pamela Mackenzie, Elizabeth Pearce and Catherine Young In the events calender I  e.g. saw  ·  2nd Philippine Conference-Workshop on Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education EFA and MTBMLE 2015 and Beyond , Philippines; 16 - 18 February 2012

[MLE] People's Linguistic Survey of India on the way

Dear MLE friends, In the press we have read about the progress on the Ganesh Devy's People's Linguistic Survey of India. In a recent article in the GlobalPost titled " India: fight to preserve dying languages " the potential  educational impact of that survey was also mentioned: "Though various studies have shown that children learn better when taught basic concepts in their mother tongue before attempting to master a second language, India prioritizes just 22 out of the 900-odd languages that Devy seeks to catalogue, and the state's promised free and compulsory education is most often available in fewer still. “In the Constitution of India, there is a special schedule of languages, which alone receive official support,” said Devy. “When the schedule was created after independence, it had 14 languages. Now it has 22. All the funds for

[MLE] Workshop on bridging between languages; Thailand, March 2012

Dear MLE friends, A good transition from the local language to the dominant language is crucial for a good MLE programme. Below is given your chance to learn more about it and plan for a good transition process.