Learning in Mother Tongue

I vividly remember my childhood! My mom used to buy me English story books and I loved reading the folk stories in them.

Strangely, I used to enjoy connecting to them even better when my grandma narrated the exact stories in our Mother Tongue! Back then, I never realized why I used to be excited to listen to the same old stories from her. Unbelievable, but the stories are still beautifully registered in my mind.

Now, why did this happen?

Have you too experienced this at some point of your life?

Why do particular moments get engraved in our minds prominently if we face them in our local language or mother tongue? What makes it feel so relatable? Why do we feel so close to that incident?

Simple! That’s because the mother tongue is perhaps the first set of sounds and written symbols that a child is exposed to since his/her birth. Thus, it serves to be a source of identity and origin for each one of us.

The new National Education Policy ( NEP 2020 ) makes a special provision for the idea of learning-in-mother tongue. The NEP quotes: “Wherever possible, students till Class 5 in schools should be taught in mother tongue/regional language/local language.”

Why Learning in Mother Tongue could be a game-changer?

Primary Benefits

Grasping faster and retaining longer: ‘Centre for Economic and Social Studies and UNICEF’ conducted a study with a set of Telugu medium school students. They found that ‘Effects of medium of instruction on Learning Levels’ were much faster and better in the language the students spoke at home.

Children happen to enjoy the learning process and hence understand even the most complex of concepts quite smoothly while retaining them for a longer span of time. 

Connect to local culture: With mother tongue incorporated in regular academics, children build up a knack towards knowing more about local culture  and grow connected to their background, traditions, upbringing, heritage and personal history.

Early Reading: Whether it is his curriculum book, pictorial story book book or just a general awareness book, it makes a huge difference if a child is able to access them in his home-language especially in the early years. He develops a natural love for reading from a very young age encouraging him to pro-actively explore more.

Furthermore, children enjoy an open access to books having local flavour. Books in various verticals like poems, regional authors, biographies all become available on a single dashboard on mobile learning digital platforms.

Over and Above

Multiple Sensory Impact on Child Psychology: When a child realizes that he knows in and out about his mother tongue, it brings in a sense of belongingness. It nurtures self awareness leading the child to gain confidence and a strong and positive self-esteem.

Moving upward, when the child learns one or two more languages, he becomes multilingual. This brings him an edge exposing him to several opportunities irrespective of his status or ethnic backdrops. This empowers him with a strong and positive attitude to generate new ideas and lead from the front when he goes out into the practical world.

Prevents historical learning gaps: Learning in mother tongue can effectively prevent historical learning gaps to occur as children learn fast and on time. There are lesser chances of ambiguity in concept clarity sessions. Even if a child is unable to grasp a particular topic, he doesn’t feel hesitant to come out and ask.

Also Read: Convert Old Mobiles into Learning Devices

Takeaway

At a personal level, I strongly believe in the idea of early learning of children. And as you see, local languages in academics can beautifully accomplish the same. To follow this concept diligently; our organization, iDream Education has launched an  innovative mobile learning platform – iDream Learning App which facilitates access to digital learning content for classes 1st to 12th in all major languages used in school education in our country.

You can download the app, try out some content and then refer it to anyone who is looking for digital content for a relevant and lively academic engagement of students who learn in their local languages.

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