Happy New Year 2008, which is the "International Year of Languages"! *
In general I'm thinking that, among other things, IYL in Africa offers the possibility to continue and advance the effort begun by the Year of African Languages. Whatever the case, one proposal I would like to put forward is that during this Year, there be an absolute prohibition on beating, shaming or otherwise punishing children for speaking their mother tongue at home or at school. All the rest is commentary. Punishing kids for speaking their mother tongue is not new, and has not been limited to Africa. One can read about this sort of thing in biographical accounts, formal or informal, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. What is surprising is that it still continues - for example, I just received an email from someone in Tanzania who mentioned teachers threatening young students with a beating if they spoke their maternal language. Not long ago there was mention in an article of some parents in Uganda beating their kids for speaking something other than English at home. People will justify some kind of punishment for whatever reason (curriculum, language learning, etc.). The kind of punishment is another issue (important but another issue). But the issue here is that if learning is the object, there are better ways to achieve it than by limiting expression and condemning maternal languages as out of place. Once the punishing of children for speaking their mother tongue stops, then maybe some good thinking can go into what are the best ways to promote learning overall, including in first and second languages. It should also be clear from a moratorium on punishing children for speaking their mother tongue for the duration of IYL (all of 2008) that the alternative to such punishment is not babel and ignorance. Any feedback is welcome. Can this idea be spread widely? Don Osborn * see the UNESCO page at http://tinyurl.com/2u2ewd Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
