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Pupils learn best in local languages, say
Education and language experts have said that elementary school children would benefit from being taught in their local language
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ducation and language experts have said that elementary school children would benefit from being taught in their local language.
Sheldon Shaeffer, former director of UNESCO's Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau in Bangkok, said that Indonesia, which has more than 700 languages, was one of the most linguistically diverse countries in Asia.
'However, 47 percent of [Indonesia's languages] are endangered because Indonesian people rarely use local languages in formal institutions,' Sheldon told the audience at a seminar in Jakarta entitled 'Using Local Language to Raise Elementary School Students' Competency'.
He added that first and second grade elementary school students would learn their school subjects better if they were taught in their mother tongue.
'Then, in the third or fourth grade, the children can start to learn in other languages such as Indonesian or English.'
Felicia Nuradi Utorodewo, director of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization's Regional Center for Quality Improvement of Teachers and Educational Personnel, who also attended the seminar, said that children who used their mother tongues in the learning process developed stronger cognitive skills.
'Pupils should learn in their first language, which in most cases is a local language. This will help to shape their characters before they get ready to learn in Indonesian,' she said.
She added that Indonesian was the mother tongue for children who live in big cities like Jakarta, who, in the third or fourth grade of elementary school, could learn English or another foreign language.
'Grade schools must provide their pupils with the right conditions for effective learning by using local languages or Indonesian in teaching and learning activities,' she said.
Sheldon also said that by using local languages in school, teachers and students would also contribute to preserving local heritages, which currently face a tough challenge due to the fact that many Early Childhood Care and Education (PAUD) institutions in this country use English as their medium of instruction.
'Schools need to teach the curriculum in a language pupils understand, because teaching a second language at an early age will only make a child semilingual instead of bilingual,' Sheldon explained.
He added that if parents wished their children to become bilingual, the perfect approach was to continue teaching in the child's mother language and then introduce him or her to a second language at a later stage.
Secretary-general at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Ainun Na'im, said that he agreed that Indonesians needed to learn local languages in order to preserve them.
'We should protect our local cultures if we do not want to see them replaced by modern or foreign cultures,' Ainun said.
However, he said that the ministry did not intend to make local languages compulsory in elementary schools in the near future since children already used local languages in their daily activities.
'There are many ways to teach children a local language. They can't only be learned in school,'
he insisted. (idb)
