General Methods of Teaching-6400/1+2-AIOU solved

Mother Tongue and Education in Other Countries

In the response of my article mother tongue and education many people thought that it is the right decision of the government because in many countries education is provided in their mother tongue. After viewing these types of responses I decided to search the countries which are well-known about giving education in mother tongue. After looking into this matter I got the following data.

CHINA

China’s many different ethnic groups speak many different languages, collectively called Zhōngguó Yǔwén (中国语文), literally “speech and writing of China” which mainly span six language families. Most of them are dissimilar morphologically and phonetically and are mutually unintelligible. Zhongguo Yuwen includes the many different Han Chinese language variants (commonly called Chinese) as well as non-Han minority languages such as Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur and Zhuang. According to Ethnologue, China has a total of 293 different languages, with 292 living languages and 1 extinct language (Jurchen) (Wikipedia,)

Chinese language policy in mainland China is heavily influenced by Soviet nationalities policy and officially encourages the development of standard spoken and written languages for each of the nationalities of China. However, in this schema, Han Chinese are considered a single nationality, and official policy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) treats the different varieties of the Chinese spoken language differently(Wikipedia,)

It is also considered increasingly prestigious and useful to have some ability in English, which is a required subject for persons attending university.

However, languages other than English are now considered as “minor languages” (小语种 xiao yu zhong)and are only really studied at university level. (Wikipedia,)

English is taught in the public schools starting in the third year of primary school.

The Economist, issue April 12, 2006, reported that up to one fifth of the population is learning English. Gordon Brown, the former British Prime Minister, estimated that the total English-speaking population in China will outnumber the native speakers in the rest of the world in two decades. (Wikipedia,)

Now the situation is that one fifth of the population is learning english.it was a time when they dislike english but now they ralised that it is the need of time to learn english.if anyone  now say that there is only education in mother tongue in china I think he will be misguiding the others.

ENGLAND

It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him George Bernard Shaw,

There are many dialects of english in england. Every one thinks his dialects to the original but BBC dilect is consider as the standard.

FRANCE

There are a number of languages of France. French is the sole official language and is by far the most widely spoken, but several regional languages are also spoken to varying degrees

The official language of the French Republic is French (art. 2 of the French Constitution), and the French government is, by law, compelled to communicate primarily in French.

The 1999 Report written for the government by Bernard Cerquiglini identified 75 languages that would qualify for recognition under the government’s proposed ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. (Wikipedia,)

Although ratification was blocked by the Constitutional Council as contradicting the Fifth Republic’s constitutional provision enshrining French as the language of the Republic, the government continues to recognise regional and minority languages to a limited extent (i.e. without granting them official status)

The topic of the teaching of regional languages in public primary and secondary schools is controversial. Proponents of the measure state that it would be necessary for the preservation of those languages and to show respect to the local culture. Opponents contend that local languages are often non-standardised(Wikipedia,)

GERMANY

The official language of Germany is Standard German, with over 95% of the country speaking Standard German or German dialects as their first language

Most Germans also learn English as their first foreign language in school. Sometimes French or Latin are taught first, but usually English is, with French and Latin as common second or third foreign languages. Russian, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Dutch, classical Greek, and other languages are also offered in schools(Wikipedia,)

JAPAN

The languages spoken by the native peoples of the insular country of Japan at present and during recorded history belong to either of two primary phyla of human language:

* Japonic languages
* Ainu languages

In addition to these two indigenous language families, there are significant minorities of ethnic Koreans and Chinese in modern Japan, who respectively constitute approximately 0.5% and 0.4% of the country’s population and many of whom continue to speak their respective ethnic language in private contexts. There is also a notable history of use of Kanbun (Classical Chinese) as a language of literature and diplomacy in Japan, similar to the status of the Latin language in medieval Europe, which has left an indelible mark on the vocabulary of the Japanese language. Kanbun continues to be a mandatory subject in the curricula of most Japanese secondary schools even today. (Wikipedia,)

Iran

Different publications have reported different statistics for the languages of Iran; however, it is important to point out that these studies are not based on any official census and that statistics presented by different sources vary significantly. (Wikipedia,)

There are dozens of languages spoken in Iran. The following are the languages with the greatest number of speakers (Data from the CIA World Factbook):

* Persian, Luri, Gilaki and Mazandarani 58%
* Azeri and other Turkic languages 26%
* Kurdish 9%
* Balochi 1%
* Arabic 1%
* Other languages which comprise the remaining 5%, include Armenian, Assyrian and Brahui, etc.

Today, there are an estimated 150-200 million native speakers of Iranian languages.The Ethnologue lists 87 Iranian languages.Persian has about 65 million native speakers, Pashto about 40 million, Kurdish about 25 million, Lurish about 3.3 million, and Baluchi about 7 million. (Wikipedia,)

All the above facts shows that the countries famous for giving education in their mother tounge are infact giving education in their main language,as is pakistan doing.