Other languages ‘should be introduced gradually to young children’

Posted 30 Nov 2009

Schools across the world should ensure that their pupils show understanding of their mother tongues before attempting to introduce another language into their repertories, it has been asserted.

Save the Children conducted research which discovered that 221 million children are not taught at school in the language they have been brought up with at home.

The organisation uses China or India – which are both home to a large number of ethnic minority groups – as an example of places where children face discrimination because they find it hard to learn in the languages adopted at local schools.

"In countries where children aren’t taught in their first language, breaking down language barriers is one of the best ways of tackling dropout and poor educational performance," commented Helen Pinnock, Save the Children’s education advisor.

Last week, Vietnam’s education ministry signed an agreement with the University of Cambridge that commits the nation to adopting European standards for learning and teaching English, Thanhnien News cited Vietnamese publication Tuoi Tre as reporting.

Category: TEFL Industry