Vanishing Voices

Quechua woman and child,
Andes, Peru

The International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples is the 9th of August. A version of this post also appears in the August 2023 issue of the Azim Premji University newsletter Forests of Life.

The Esperanto version of the essay is called "Made-to-disappear voices" ("Malaperigataj voĉoj"). The Esperanto title makes clear that these Indigenous languages are not vanishing  "voluntarily" - they are being made to disappear! Read on....

Imagine that you speak the following languages:

• You can have 13 consonants in a row! The Salishian language Nuxalk (pron. nuhalk), spoken in British Columbia in Canada, has the word clhp'xwlhtlhplhhskwts', which means "then he had had in his possession a bunchberry plant". Do tell us: how do you pronounce that word?! ("Nuxalk", Wikipedia)

• You don't say "my left arm". Instead, you say "my north / south / east / or west arm", depending on your actual orientation! Speakers Warlpiri in Central Australia use the cardinal directions; an absolute frame of reference. (Levinson and Wilkins, 2006)

• You must use one of 10 genders! The Yuchi in Oklahoma, USA, use "six [genders] for Yuchi people (depending on kinship relationships to the speaker), one for non-Yuchis and animals, and three for inanimate objects (horizontal, vertical and round )"! (The Guardian, 2008)

Those are just three of the strange and wonderful (for me!) world-descriptions from the approximately 7000 languages ​​of the world. And these are vanishing voices - we are making these Indigenous languages disappear! This article explores why this is happening, what we are losing, and one definite "must-do".

Half of the world speaks
these 25 languages.
Source: Terralingua.org

Half of the world speaks one of 25 major languages: Mandarin Chinese, English, Spanish, Hindi, Bengali.... The other 50% speak all the other 6975 or so languages! So, there are a lot of small languages in the world. For example, Aiton (1500 speakers), Muot (930), Zangskari (12,000) - all three are Indigenous languages ​​from India. (Do also remember that we only have approximate numbers for many Indigenous languages - they just aren't important enough!)

All over the world, these small languages ​​have been in contact with the larger ones around them. However, historically, rarely has this contact been peaceful. Speakers of big languages ​​have come with modern weapons in search of slaves, natural resources, and land. Indigenous peoples who survived (many, many were killed) have had to abandon their language and culture (along with their land). This continues. Their children are forbidden to speak their languages ​​in school, and the government and the courts do not speak their languages ​​either. With no alternative, speakers of Indigenous languages shift to dominant languages. This is why the shift is not "voluntary". It is no wonder that of the 424 languages ​​spoken in India (according to Ethnologue), 131 are "Endangered", that is, "it is no longer the norm for children to learn and use this language".

Places of high biodiversity are also
places of high linguistic diversity.
Source: Terralingua.org

What do we lose when we lose a language? As our initial examples show, each language is a unique way of looking at the world. But here's another thing: look at the places of high biodiversity in the world; for example, Papua New Guinea (839), Indonesia (704), Arunachal Pradesh (90). The figures in parentheses are the number of languages ​​spoken there. Biodiversity diversity correlates with linguistic diversity! The biocultural link is that the knowledge to sustainably take care of this biodiversity is encoded in these Indigenous languages. So, even for purely "selfish" reasons, the world must ensure that Indigenous languages ​​flourish.

It's also an ethical question, is it not? Linguistic human rights are as important as other rights. And the freedom to practice one's own culture includes its languages. Plus it is also about education. Tons of research (as well as common sense!) tells us that children learn best in the language they know best. Depriving a child of that is cognitive violence! For society, the cost is twofold. One, repeated years, dropping out of school, and low economic productivity - a massive waste of resources! And two, poorly prepared citizens for democratic participation - perhaps an even more serious cost!

So what should we do? Many things need to be done, but clearly education has to be one of our starting points. Bringing mother tongues ​​into education will make all education more effective. This will revitalize Indigenous languages ​​as languages ​​of modern knowledge. Meanwhile, their speakers will continue to take pride in their cultural heritage. However, in addition to learning in their own languages, children also need high-quality teaching in the other languages ​​they need to know - the regional language and English, for example. This idea is at the core of Mother-Tongue Based Multilingual Education (Mohanty et al., 2009).

In itself, that proposal is not enough. The rights of Indigenous peoples need to be strengthened in many other domains as well. But whatever strategy society adopts, education should be among its main components. Only then will there be generations who will continue to marvel at these diverse ways of being human!

References

Levinson, S. C. and Wilkins, D. P. (eds.) 2006. Grammars of Space: Explorations in Cognitive Diversity. Cambridge. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486753

Mohanty, A. K., Panda, M., Phillipson, R., Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (eds.) 2009. Multilingual Education for Social Justice: Globalising the Local. Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan. https://orientblackswan.com/details?id=9788125036982

The Guardian, “Peter K Austin's top 10 endangered languages”. 27 August. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/aug/27/endangered.languages

Wikipedia. “Nuxalk”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuxalk_language#Syllables.

Multilingual education in India report coming in July 2018

The "early research findings" of the language and literacy project MultiLila will be announced and discussed in a two-day seminar in New Delhi in July 2018. The project's formal title is Multilingualism and Multiliteracy: Raising learning outcomes in challenging contexts in primary schools across India. This four-year UK-India project with its extensive, multidisciplinary network of partners (including institutions and people we have met often in this blog) began in 2016. Its primary question is "Why do some children in India not benefit from being multilingual or bilingual to the same degree as children in other ESL/EFL contexts?" (ESL is English as a Second Language, and EFL is English as a Foreign Language.)

As Mukhopadhyay (see below) notes, the project covers:

• 1200 children in 4th standard [i. e. 10-year-olds] to be tested at two time points (4th and 5th standard)
• 800 children living in urban areas in Delhi and Hyderabad (200 in slums, 200 in non-slums)
• 400 children living in rural areas in Bihar-Patna (200 in semi-urban, 200 in urban areas)
• Average ability children, no history of learning disabilities
• No children from upper end of middle class or above

Some of the other questions the project asks are:

• Is there a relationship between basic literacy and numeracy levels and school drop-out rates on the one hand, and language of instruction and support for MT education provision on the other?
• Is multiliteracy associated with better skills in critical thinking and problem solving when MT literacy is available?
• Are critical thinking and problem solving skills in the medium of instruction transferred in the child’s use of English for similar tasks?
• Do multilingual children show comparable developmental knowledge of semantic fluency, syntactic knowledge, reading and retelling skills across MT and English?

One of the project's co-investigators, Lina Mukhopadhyay, amplified some of the objectives in the Language and Development Conference in 2017 (PDF):

• To explore how the complex dynamics of social, economic and geographical contexts affect the delivery of quality of multilingual education in India.
• To investigate how educational policy regarding the role of mother-tongue education (the three language formula) is implemented in schools, and how the language(s) of instruction impact on learning outcomes in basic literacy and numeracy but also higher level literacy skills expressed through critical thinking and problem solving in the language of education and in the development of English as a second language.
• To evaluate how negative consequences of [structural inequality]... on learning outcomes can be attenuated when mother-tongue education is available.

We look forward to learning more about the seminar and the project's report, Multilingual classrooms: opportunities and challenges for English medium instruction in low and middle-income countries.

Language and Education resources at Early Literacy Initiative

In September 2017 I argued for MTME -- Mother-Tongue Based Multilingual Education -- in a blog post titled "Why Mother Tongue Medium in a Multilingual Context?"

The post is part of the recently launched website, Early Literacy Initiative (ELI), of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). As the ELI website states:

ELI is working broadly towards accomplishing:

1. Research: To conduct new research in early language and literacy in India; and to disseminate knowledge that is already available.
2. Teaching: To create a cadre of knowledgeable and well-prepared professionals in the area of early language and literacy.
3. Advocacy: To provide visibility and leadership to work in early language and literacy by engaging in national level dialogues with scholars, policy-makers and other professionals working in allied areas. ELI will also provide networking support for practitioners and scholars working in the domain through a variety of means, such as, a visible and dynamic web presence, offering short-term workshops and courses, collecting and disseminating relevant information, and so on.

The blog is organized thematically. Their first theme is multilingualism. The website's Resources are organized around general interest, themes, handouts and publications, and talks and presentations.

All in all, ELI promises some interesting conversations!

MTME needed beyond early grades

In his fortnightly column, Anurag Behar has just published 'The focus for education in 2017' - a comprehensive 'cheat-sheet' of 'approaches and issues, which will be worked upon and fought about, this year and next'. The list of 25 issues range from the high-minded (constitutional values) to the everyday (inadequate water in schools).

About mother-tongue education, he says:

21. Mother tongue is the most effective medium of education in early grades. However, given the reality of the social capital of English, all children must have the opportunity to learn the language.

In fact, mother-tongue medium (MTM) education is most effective not just in early grades. It is most effective throughout the schooling years. Several studies show that length of time spent in mother-tongue (L1) schooling is the best predictor of academic performance. This includes performance in the second language (L2). In the world's largest longitudinal study of minority education (over 210 000 students), Thomas and Collier (2002: 7) conclude that 'the strongest predictor of L2 student achievement is the amount of formal L1 schooling. The more L1 grade-level schooling, the higher L2 achievement'. Early-exit to a dominant language does not yield good outcomes. What is needed is a mother-tongue based multilingual education (MTME).

Regarding this study and another, Skutnabb-Kangas and Dunbar (2010: 96) note, 'The length of MTM education was... more important than any other factor (and many were included) in predicting the educational success of bilingual students. It was also much more important than socio-economic status.' We've blogged earlier about their excellent overview of education of indigenous peoples, tribals and minorities. In the context of this post, see especially Chapter 8, 'What forms of education would be consistent with law and research?' (and section 8.1.3 therein).

Earlier in their monograph, Skutnabb-Kangas and Dunbar also cite Kathleen Heugh's study (2000) in South Africa (which we've blogged about too) which shows that even under the racist policies of apartheid,

secondary school pass rate rose, with 8 years of MTM, to 83.7% by 1976 and the English language as a subject pass rate rose to over 78%. When after the Soweto uprising MTM education went down to only 4 years, with an earlier transition to English-medium, the secondary school pass rate declined to 44% by 1992, with a parallel decline in English language proficiency. (p. 53)

A final pair of examples for this post are from Assam and Odisha in India, from the work by Ajit Mohanty and his colleagues. In a well-controlled study, Bodo children learning in Bodo-medium outperformed Bodos studying in the regional language Assamese. In Odisha, Kui-speaking tribal Kond children in Kui-Odia bilingual programmes 'in their later grades (i.e. the high school grades) were found to perform in Odia language tasks at the same level as the Odia-only monolingual children'. (Skutnabb-Kangas and Dunbar, pp. 97, and 70-71)

So, a more accurate phrasing of Behar's point would be:

21. Mother tongue is the most effective medium of education. Given India's multilingual reality and the social capital of English, all children must have the opportunity to get a mother-tongue based multilingual education.