The following article from the Ghanaian paper, Daily
Graphic, was seen on ModernGhana.com and lgpolicy-list. Aside from a mistake
about the name of the occasion - technically it's International Mother Language
Day - this is a very interesting discussion of issues relating to use of
Ghanaian languages, such as popular attitudes, policy, and education. (Some
minor reformatting done to article.) Don
International Mother Tongue Day
By Daily Graphic
http://www.graphicghana.com/
Wed, 20 Feb 2008
Feature Article
February 21 every year is International Mother Tongue Day.
The day was declared by UNESCO in 1999 to be celebrated world-wide. The mother
tongue is so important in the upbringing and development of the child that the
day was instituted in recognition of its value and for the promotion of its
usage as an instrument for transmitting culture in the socialisation of the
child.Since its inception, however, this very important day has not been given
its due recognition in Ghana. Due to the prominence which ought to be accorded
to the use of the mother tongue in transmitting culture and the development of
the child, the Bureau of Ghana Languages, a department under the Ministry of
Chieftaincy and Culture, wishes to associate itself with the International
Mother Tongue Day.
This is the first immediate step in preparing the minds of
the Ghanaian public towards the celebration of the Day in Ghana in grand style.
In the ensuing years, the programme, which will be well-packaged, will mirror
and deal with issues pertaining to the local Ghanaian languages.
Value of the Mother Tongue
Whether to use the mother tongue or not has been a big
linguistic issue and has attracted a lot of discussions when it is raised by
concerned individuals. There are two major schools of thought: those who
support its use, and those who think otherwise.
The mother tongue of a child is closely associated with
his/her growth and development. As a child matures, his/her language develops
and, through language, the child gains personal experiences.
It cannot be disputed that language is the epitome of
culture. The mother tongue conveys and transmits culture. It is through the
language that the folktales, similes, proverbs and other literary forms of the
society are conveyed to teach societal morals and values and eventually
socialise the individual.
A person's mother tongue is, therefore, a compendium of what
society regards as important; and this language provides the means by which the
individual can study and understand the values and concerns of society.
This is why some language enthusiasts believe that no
greater injustice can be committed against a people than to deprive them of
their language.
To quote Vigdis Finnbogadotter, UNESCO's Goodwill Ambassador
for Language, and former President of Iceland, "Everyone loses if one
language is lost because then a nation and culture lose their memory, and so
does the complex tapestry form which the world is woven and which makes the
world an exciting place."
Educators are increasingly convinced of the value of
multilingual education, and studies show that children learn better in their
mother tongue.
The latest publication, Education in a Multilingual World
(2003) corroborated this fact and admitted that the most suitable language for
teaching basic concepts to children is the mother tongue. Indeed, UNESCO
declared this finding as far back as 1953 in its report, The Use of Vernacular
Languages in Education.
Indeed, we must be conscious of the mother tongue, which
gives us identity. Mother tongues are repositories of cultures and which, in
the final analysis, make people what and who they are.
"If we start speaking other languages and forget our
own, we would not be we, we would be clones of an alien people; we would be
aliens to ourselves", the statement declares.
In spite of these values, the Mother Tongue is looked down
upon by many. Therefore, most of us are not taking advantage of its immense
benefits to teach our children.
The international level
As the world went through modernisation, the smaller and weaker
mother tongues around the world started dying. The formal schooling system, the
media and the jobs, all demanded the language of power — the language
used in the domains of power, that is, administration, government, commerce and
education, which had to be learned by people if they want to be accepted.
As globalisation increases, languages die, and English is
the Great killer language because the media and the corporate sector use it. As
a result of this, half of the world's 6,000 to 7,000 languages are in danger of
extinction.
According to a BBC report on January 24, 2008, a research
conducted in America has revealed that a language in Alaska called Ear has
recently become extinct because the last speaker died recently. According to
the report, though the speaker, a woman, had eight children, they were not
permitted to speak Ear but English.
This can happen to any of our languages in Ghana, so there
is the need for us to protect our mother tongues by promoting their usage.
The Ghanaian situation
In Ghana, some people consider it prestigious to speak or
write the English language at the expense of local languages. Many Ghanaian
intellectuals are also prejudiced to the teaching of local languages,
particularly the formative periods in our basic schools.
The impression created is that our languages are not worthy
of any scientific analysis and study and are therefore not worth studying. This
situation is worrisome indeed.
Consequently, in our homes, in schools and at public places,
we see evidence of how Ghanaians look down on their own mother tongues. Some
Ghanaians feel shy to speak their mother tongues but rather communicate with
their children in the killer language, English.
The school situation
In schools, some authorities are waging silent wars on the
teaching and learning of local languages. In order to improve the teaching and
learning of the English language, school authorities often discourage their
pupils from speaking local languages on their premises. Offenders are
humiliated accordingly.
Teachers, in most cases, use Ghanaian language periods to
teach other subjects, another way of killing local languages.
It is quite unfortunate that in areas where schools are keen
at teaching the Ghanaian language, qualified persons do not make themselves
available to teach the language for the mere fact that the mother tongue is not
accorded due respect.
Schools, therefore, fall on anybody who speaks a particular
language and who they feel can teach to do so. Such teachers, more often than
not, teach the wrong orthography to the children; and this eventually results
in disaster.
In senior high schools, students who want to learn a
Ghanaian language are ridiculed by their peers. On occasions when new staff are
to be introduced in the schools, the Ghanaian language teacher is given a raw
deal. He is either welcomed with a murmur or a boo.
Teachers and pupils do not take the teaching and learning of
the Ghanaian language seriously. The consequence is the poor performance of
most of our children in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and
the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
Chief Examiners' Reports on candidates' performance at these
levels attest to this. These developments have resulted in the proliferation of
different orthographies in the same language.
The irony of this situation is that those local languages
were used to bring us up to the positions some of us find ourselves in now.
The value of the first language is well established. It is
optionally efficient as a teaching tool as the first language is the tool of
thought. One cannot think effectively in someone else's language.
Furthermore, the use of the local language contributes to
the building of self-esteem and self-consciousness in the child as it creates
receptiveness in education.
In the Northern Region of Ghana, a Danish NGO School For
Life is trying to improve the situation through teaching programmes.
In their classes, pupils are given instructions in the local
languages to achieve the desired results. The experiment has proved that as a
result of their competence in the first language, children who enter the formal
school system through school for life perform better in other subjects than
their other classmates.
Government's commitment
The New Education Reform recommends that, "the child's
first home language should be used as the medium of instruction at the
kindergarten and first three years at the basic level".
The Government has realised the importance of the child's
first language as an effective communication tool at this level hence the
directive.
It is my belief that education authorities will take this
directive seriously and employ qualified teachers to instruct the children to
achieve the desired results.
The Cultural Policy of Ghana recognises the importance of
language as an instrument of Culture and the Ministry of Chieftaincy and
Culture is bent on promoting language as a vehicle for expressing modern ideas
and thought processes towards national development.
The Cultural Policy of Ghana also seeks to support and promote
the writing and publication of books in the Ghanaian languages.
Wrong language usage in public places
The Bureau of Ghana Languages has for sometime now taken
note of some misrepresentations in our languages. As an institution charged
with the development of Ghanaian languages, particularly the eleven government
sponsored ones, we are concerned and are obliged to ensure that the correct
thing is done to save our languages and work towards their promotion.
We have of late observed that all around us, most of the
writings in books, on sign posts, on vehicles, on kiosks, on music albums, on
textiles and footage of movies and what have you, do not conform to the
orthographies of the languages in which they are presented.
This situation has come about as a result of our negative
attitudes towards the mother tongue. This is the situation, and we cannot allow
it to continue.
We also hear the airwaves, unpardonable instances of code
mixing by some presenters in some of the Ghanaian language programmes. While
commending our Ghanaian language presenters on the use of the local languages,
we also advise that the right thing is done in order not to send wrong signals
about the languages concerned.
Fortunately, the Bureau of Ghana Languages, which is
responsible for the promotion of the local languages, has sufficient literature
in the Ghanaian Languages for readers.
It is however very pathetic to note that while schools
complain of lack of Ghanaian Language books which affects the teachers'
delivery of lessons and consequently the performance of their pupils in their
schools, publications of the Bureau are locked up in our ware houses in Tamale
and Accra and are not being patronised.
As we celebrate International Mother Tongue Day with the
rest of the world, the Bureau wishes to use the occasion to appeal to the
Ministry of Education, Science and Sports to come into agreement with the
Bureau of Ghana Languages to purchase Ghanaian Language books in bulk for
distribution to schools to enhance the teaching and learning of Ghanaian
Language in our schools. This arrangement we believe will enhance the teaching
and learning of the Mother tongues.In order to ensure that the local languages
are protected and accorded the attention they deserve.We also recommend that:
*The government passes a law that makes it mandatory for any
writer of the Ghanaian Language to seek orthographic approval from the Bureau
or any recognised language institution before exposing it for public
consumption.
*The Ghana Institute of Journalism integrates Ghanaian
languages in their Course content to update the skills of presenters in the use
of the Ghanaian Languages.
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