Multilingual Education: Supporting Language Diversity in Schools

Abstract

This essay delves into the role of multilingual education in promoting and sustaining linguistic diversity within educational institutions. In a world where language endangerment is a growing concern, multilingual education presents an opportunity to integrate heritage and community languages into mainstream schooling, thus preserving cultural identities and fostering inclusivity. By analyzing the benefits of using local languages as mediums of instruction, this essay highlights the cognitive, social, and economic advantages of multilingual education. The discussion extends to the challenges of implementation, particularly the need for teacher training and resource allocation. Case studies from various regions, including Ghana and Guatemala, illustrate successful strategies and best practices in multilingual education, emphasizing the importance of context-specific approaches in diverse linguistic environments.

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Multilingual Education: Supporting Language
Diversity in Schools
Kawesi Joshua I.
Faculty of Education, Kampala International University, Uganda
ABSTRACT
This essay delves into the role of multilingual education in promoting and sustaining linguistic diversity
within educational institutions. In a world where language endangerment is a growing concern,
multilingual education presents an opportunity to integrate heritage and community languages into
mainstream schooling, thus preserving cultural identities and fostering inclusivity. By analyzing the
benefits of using local languages as mediums of instruction, this essay highlights the cognitive, social, and
economic advantages of multilingual education. The discussion extends to the challenges of
implementation, particularly the need for teacher training and resource allocation. Case studies from
various regions, including Ghana and Guatemala, illustrate successful strategies and best practices in
multilingual education, emphasizing the importance of context-specific approaches in diverse linguistic
environments.
Keywords: Multilingual Education, Language Diversity, Mother-Tongue Instruction, Bilingual
Education, Cognitive Benefits, Teacher Training.
INTRODUCTION
This thematic essay explores the potential to use multilingual education to support language diversity in
schools worldwide. Although mainstream narratives often highlight the negative aspects of language
endangerment, heritage and community languages are increasingly included in policy agendas to
maintain institutional linguistic diversity. However, if schools are to truly recognize and value diversity,
they must equip teachers and students with the linguistic resources they need to engage meaningfully
with one another across languages – including those spoken by minority and migrant populations.
Supported by research showing cognitive, social, and economic benefits, many advocate using local
languages or additional languages as media of instruction in multilingual schools [1, 2]. The late 20th
and 21st centuries have seen a number of proposals for addressing linguistic diversity in educational
settings. "Bilingual" is an inclusive term. Some actors and proposals in the field explicitly use the term
"bilingual education," whereas others may avoid it based on variations in the term's sociopolitical
baggage, restricted to English-dominant settings, with a particular research and policy history linked to
particular conceptualizations of bilingualism, and a strong tradition of elite or heritage language
maintenance. However, the most inclusive definitions we found characterize bilingual education as using
two or more languages as media of instruction up to and including the secondary level for all students in
a given school, school system, or nation. This characterization has broad implications for the definition's
analytical use value since it makes room for a diverse range of settings, including semi-enclosed or
predominantly "additive" bilingual communities where most or all children are acquiring more than one
language [3, 4].
IMPORTANCE OF MULTILINGUAL EDUCATION
Linguistic diversity is central to the identity of many societies, yet the value of multilingualism is often
not promoted while teaching practices are often monolingual. Generally, several languages are spoken
within the same family or community, despite the fact that the language of instruction in schools is
typically based on a dominant language. Multilingualism encompasses a range of skills and competencies,
including a wide variety of languages, literacies, and reading. Students develop linguistic and cognitive
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skills as multilinguals, supplementing the development of their mother tongue with another language.
There are a lot of benefits to having multilingual children. Children who speak more than one language
are more adaptable and largely show cognitive advantages [5, 6]. As a result, families, schools, and
governments should support multilingual children and encourage them to sustain and improve their
ability to speak in diverse languages. Bilingualism should not be seen as a problem but as a way of
supporting and building school systems and general societies by encouraging students to preserve and
build on their linguistic heritage while developing the language skills they need to succeed in academic
and social contexts. Immigrants and minorities' linguistically diverse families are increasingly focusing on
how to nurture, boost, and help their children retain their mother tongue, as well as how to provide late -
learning families with assistive housing. When applied in schools, multilingual instruction will enhance
quality education by improving cognitive abilities and promoting academic accomplishment by allowing
for the exchange of skills, strategies, knowledge, and assets [7, 8].
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN IMPLEMENTING MULTILINGUAL EDUCATION
To implement mother-tongue medium-scaled multilingual education, two main challenges should be
considered. First, primary teachers are not proficient enough in the children's remaining mother tongues,
among other languages, to teach all or most of the curriculum through those languages. The limited
resources available to support teachers' further training and skills development need to be allocated
strategically. It is widely acknowledged that it is not feasible for teachers to learn all the languages they
need in the classroom. Therefore, education systems can improve their human resource deployment by
developing linguistic resource teams comprised of identified and proficient community members. These
members are indigenous and script-literate or semi-literate indigenous persons [9, 10]. The primary
teacher training curriculum relevant to mother-tongue literacy and education is patchy in many countries.
The skills, knowledge, and desire to teach through the learners' developed and developing languages from
the early stages of primary school are not addressed in the trainers' curriculum. Parents may have
negative experiences due to earlier assimilative programs and biased and inequitable treatment in schools.
It is not exogenous from the identity, and thus holiday taking should be interactive and done with the
broader community with their consent. There are several steps that fluidly merge local celebrations with
the demand to make children learn in the mother tongue. There is a better chance for market research
and community consultation before the curricula or particular methodologies are initiated, which involves
respondents reflecting philosophically and thus being part of it. Also, local government officials must
undertake intercultural training to understand the SDGs and participate practically in equal support and
interaction within the government for the effective implementers in education [11, 12].
BEST PRACTICES IN MULTILINGUAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS
Best practices in multilingual education programs involve a complex web of practices and theories to help
students learn in and through multiple languages. While research in this area is still developing, some
effective strategies have been identified to promote the learning of all students, even those who speak
non-dominant or national languages in diverse educational settings [13]. Approaches to multilingual
education include: - Indigenous schools: Biliteracy education programs that teach students about
traditional knowledge in addition to essential skills such as literacy and numeracy in their home
languages. - Dual language programs: A highly effective method of language education which teaches
students core subject knowledge across two languages from an early age. - Ethnic minority schools:
Curriculum and policy designed contextually to reflect the long history and multilingual linguistic
landscape of the country, from kindergarten up to college and university. - Refugee settings: School
curriculum that focuses on language education and societal integration [14]. Innovative teaching
approaches include: - Project-based learning: A style of learning with authentic, real-world applications. -
Critical pedagogy: A teaching approach that helps teachers and students to question what they see and
work together to create more equitable and just educational spaces and learning [15]. Curriculum and
policy should: - Develop curriculum materials that are more locally specific, and honor the student (and
the school's) linguistic heritage and traditions. - Reflect a commitment to valuing, promoting, and
educating in all languages, particularly non-dominant, ethnic minority, and indigenous languages. -
Create real opportunities and workplaces for the language and academic aspirations of multilingually
educated students [16]. Successful examples of multilingual education programs include: - Sinthian
Schools in Senegal. - Tharaka Language Revitalization efforts in central Kenya, which involve reverse
transfer as children who go to Swahili medium schools are also learning Tharaka [17]. Multilingual
education (MLE) is long-term and graduated, with incrementally increasing fluency in a language of the
immediate community being a fundamental aim of primary education. Language policy in support of this
is an essential aspect of multilingual education, particularly creating an enabling environment in which
the status of all languages spoken in a child's life are recognized. A second aspect of this policy is ensuring

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what might be termed pluripotency, the capacity of any individual to learn multiple languages to a high
degree of fluency, and to develop bilingual or multilingual identity [18]. Given these principles that
situate working in smaller, less commonly spoken languages within a multilingual and rights-based
educational framework, effective practices in MLE can only be presented as conceptually contested at
best. As Kimani (2007:57) wrote, "everything works somewhere, but nothing works everywhere". To
practice MLE is to engage with culturally rich and diverse process of how humans learn and devel op in
their communities, and thus connects both with popular education movements, inclusive education, and
child-centered pedagogy. "Most of the problems identified in education and literacy promotion would not
exist if our own perceptions of children learning and development were at the center of our thinking and
action." (May and Holmes, 2007: viii) [19].
CASE STUDIES AND SUCCESS STORIES
Ghana’s approach to literacy in mother-tongue, 1970s-2007: One of the first countries to introduce
literacy in the mother-tongue, the practice was widespread among many Ghanaian communities by the
1990s. Indigenous Ghanaian languages were used in school, but English was the language of instruction
from secondary level. This case study highlights achievements and challenges of using mother-tongue in
education, showing that academic and social skills grow better when abilities are originally nurtured in
one’s mother-tongue [20, 21]. Guatemala: USAID Sponsor UPRIM: Bilingual Education Project, 2016-
present: The USAID project provides high quality bilingual and intercultural education to marginalized
indigenous school children, developing primary school models and teacher training centers and producing
materials, while also monitoring government of Guatemala commitments around indigenous languages,
lifelong learning, cross-cultural exchange, non-discrimination, and the democratic governance of schools.
According to the 2013 Encuesta Nacional de Condiciones de Vida (Encovi, National Survey of Living
Conditions), conducted by the National Statistics Institute and related bodies, 41% of the population of
formal education age do not enter the education system. National literacy is 75% for people aged 15 years
and up. In 2015, nevertheless, mercifully, the unnamed program manager confirmed that some schools are
running a two-year section: In the Schaffhausen region, for instance, there are indeed schools with dual
beginner classes (with incentives) [22].
CONCLUSION
Multilingual education is a crucial component of fostering linguistic diversity and inclusivity in schools.
As societies become increasingly diverse, education systems must adapt by incorporating multiple
languages into the curriculum. While challenges such as teacher proficiency and resource limitations
exist, the benefits of multilingual education—ranging from cognitive and social development to the
preservation of cultural identities—are significant. By learning from successful case studies and best
practices, schools can create an environment where all languages are valued, and students are empowered
to thrive in both their academic and social lives. Ultimately, the implementation of multilingual education
not only enhances educational outcomes but also contributes to a more equitable and culturally rich
society.
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CITE AS: Kawesi Joshua I. (2024). Multilingual Education:
Supporting Language Diversity in Schools. Eurasian
Experiment Journal of Arts and Management, 5(3):15-18