January 2009 - Why languages matter
It might seem obvious to state that languages are the lifeblood of education – after all, most schools teach their students more than one, recognising the importance of multilingualism in the modern world.
But beyond the learning of language lies a far more complex web of inter-related issues: students’ ability to learn in their ‘mother tongue’, the use of language as a tool for enablement in the classroom and the preservation of indigenous culture through language.
IB World’s language issue is given over in equal measure to the experts and those who must deliver language learning in real life.
Deborah Tannen uses her formidable experience to advise on methods of teaching, while husband-and-wife team Robert Phillipson and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas claim that loss of the mother tongue is linguistic genocide.
We sample some of the awe-inspiring work that forward-thinking IB teachers are delivering in this field – and the languages and cultures that they are helping to maintain.
