READING - 302

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 3
below.

The Significant Role of Mother Tongue in Education

One consequence of population mobility is an increasing diversity within schools. To illustrate, in
the city of Toronto in Canada, 58% of kindergarten pupils come from homes where English is not
the usual language of communication. Schools in Europe and North America have experienced
this diversity for years, and educational policies and practices vary widely between countries and
even within countries. Some political parties and groups search for ways to solve the problem of
diverse communities and their integration in schools and society. However, they see few positive
consequences for the host society and worry that this diversity threatens the identity of the host
society. Consequently, they promote unfortunate educational policies that will make the “problem”
disappear. If students retain their culture and language, they are viewed as less capable of
identifying with the mainstream culture and learning the mainstream language of the society.

The challenge for educator and policy-makers is to shape the evolution of national identity in such
a way that rights of all citizens (including school children) are respected, and the cultural linguistic,
and economic resources of the nation are maximised. To waste the resources of the nation by
discouraging children from developing their mother tongues is quite simply unintelligent from the
point of view of national self-interest. A first step in providing an appropriate education for
culturally and linguistically diverse children is to examine what the existing research says about
the role of children’s mother tongues in their educational development.

In fact, the research is very clear. When children continue to develop their abilities in two or more
languages throughout their primary school, they gain a deeper understanding of language and how
to use it effectively. They have more practice in processing language, especially when they develop
literacy in both. More than 150 research studies conducted during the past 25 years strongly
support what Goethe, the famous eighteenth-century German philosopher, once said: the person
who knows only one language dose not truly know that language. Research suggests that bilingual
children may also develop more flexibility in their thinking as a result of processing information
through two different languages.

The level of development of children’s mother tongue is a strong predictor of their second language
development. Children who come to school with a solid foundation in their mother tongue develop
stronger literacy abilities in the school language. When parents and other caregivers (e.g.
grandparents) are able to spend time with their children and tell stories or discuss issues with them
in a way that develops their mother tongue, children come to school well-prepared to learn the
school language and succed educationally. Children’s knowledge and skills transfer across
languages from the mother tongue to the school language. Transfer across languages can be two-
way: both languages nurture each other when the educational environment permits children access
to both languages.

Some educators and parents are suspicious of mother tongue-based teaching programs because
they worry that they take time away from the majority language. For example, in a bilingual
program when 50% of the time is spent teaching through children’s home language and 50%
through the majority language, surely children won’t progress as far in the latter? One of the most
strongly established findings of educational research, however, is that wellimplemented bilingual
programs can promote literracy and subject-matter knowledge in a minority language without any
negative effects on children’s development in the majority language. Within Europe, the Foyer
program in Belgium, which develops children’s speaking and literacy abilities in three languages
(their mother tongue, Dutch and French), most clearly illustrates the benefits of bilingual and
trilingual education (see Cummins, 2000).

It is easy to understand how this happens. When children are learning through a minority language,
they are learning concepts and intellectual skills too. Pupils who know how to tell the time in their
mother tongue understand the concept of telling time. In order to tell time in the majority language,
they do not need to re-learn the concept. Similarly, at more advanced stages, there, is transfer
across languages in other skills such as knowing how to distinguish the main idea from the
supporting details of a written passage or story. Studies of secondary school pupils are providing
interesting findings in this area, and it would be worth extending this research.

Many people marvel at how quickly bilingual children seem to “pick up” conversational skills in
the majority language at school (although it takes much longer for them to catch up with native
speakers in academic language skills). However, educators are often much less aware of how
quickly children can lose their ability to use their mother tongue, even in the home context. The
extent and rapidity of language loss will vary according to the concentration of families from a
particular linguistic group in the neighborhood. Where the mother tongue is used extensively in
the community, then language loss among young children will be less. However, where language
communities are not concentrated in particular neighborhoods, children can lose their ability to
communicate in their mother tongue within 2-3 years of starting school. They may retain receptive
skills in the language but they will use the majority language, in speaking with their peers and
siblings and in responding to their parents. By the time children become adolescents, the linguistic
division between parents and children has become an emotional chasm. Pupils frequently become
alienated from the cultures of both home and school with predictable results.
Questions 27 - 30
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.

27 What point did the writer make in the second paragraph?

A Some present studies on children’s mother tongues are misleading.

B A culturally rich education programme benefits some children more than others.
C Bilingual children can make a valuable contribution to the wealth of a country.
D The law on mother toungue use at shool should be strengthened.

28 Why does the writer refer to something that Goethe said?

A to lend weight to his argument

B to contradict some research
C to introduce a new concept
D to update current thinking

29 The writer believes that when young children have a firm grasp of their mother tongue

A they can teach older family members what they learnt at school.
B they go on to do much better throughout their time at school.
C they can read stories about their cultural background.
D they develop stronger relationships with their family than with their peers.

30 Why are some people suspicious about mother tongue-based teaching programmes?

A They worry that children will be slow to learn to read in either language.
B They think that children will confuse words in the two languages.
C They believe that the programmes will make children less interested in their lessons.
D They fear that the programmes will use up valuable time in the school day.
Questions 31 - 35
Complete the summary using the list of word, A-J, below
Write the correct letter, A-J, in boxes 31-35 on your answer sheet.

Bilingual Children
It was often recorded that bilingual children acquire the 31 ..................... to converse in the majority
language remarkable quickly. The fact that the mother tongue can disappear at a similar 32
..................... is less well understood. This phenomenon depends, to a certain extent, on the
proposition of people with the same linguistic background that have settled in a particular 33
..................... . If this is limited, children are likely to lose the active use of their mother tongue.
And thus no longer employ it even with 34 ....................., although they may still understand it. It
follows that teenager children in these circumstances experience a sense of 35 ..................... in
relation to all aspects of their lives.

A teachers B schools C dislocation D rate

E time F family G communication H type
I ability J area

Questions 36 - 40
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 36-40 on your sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts with the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

36 Less than half of the children who attend kindergarten in Toronto have English as their
mother tongue.
37 Research proves that learning the host country language at school can have an adverse
effect on a child’s mother tongue.
38 The Foyer program is accepted by the French education system.
39 Bilingual children are taught to tell the time earlier than monolingual children.
40 Bilingual children can apply reading comprehension strategies acquired in one language
when reading in the other.