The value of the mother tongue

R

remnant

Legacy Member
Recent research suggests that learners who have mastered their mother tongue gain proficiency in the English language faster and more easily. This has to do with the fact that the various parts of speech like verbs, adjectives and prepositions can be cross married between the two languages in a comparative way.
 
Mother tongue teaching method is important. It allows a nation to have their countrymen appreciate and love their language aside from language learning purposes. In the Philippines, the teaching of mother tongue has been implemented in elementary level. This is to allow younger generation to get acquainted to local language within the community before learning English. Learning mother tongue though, had sparks controversy and is still being questioned because some of the word are not anymore used. In other words, it has gone archaic that even elderly people were having difficulty conversing using the language. In a contextualized point of view, this is also helpful because it relate more to the ordinary life and little children could be able to translate a word not just in imagination both also relate it in the environment around them. Faster recognition of the conceptual meaning of certain things will make it easier once English becomes a subject for them.
 
Mother tongue is important as much as the universal language. For me, being an inhabitant of that certain place then you must also master you own dialect/language so that you can also have a foundation and idea for comparative ways in learning other languages. It will make learning easier and mode of communication clearer when you understand your own language by heart. Practically, you will be communicating with the people around you with the first language common among you so we must not let the younger generation be a foreigner to their own place.
 
I also believe that it is true that children who are aware of what involve grammatical figures in their own language, have a greater ability to extrapolate that knowledge to learning other languages.
 
Most definitely! Especially in the case of languages which have similar origin – there are words that are identical in some languages, making them easier to remember. Grammatical structures may also appear similar in some contexts, so when you're already familiar with your mother tongue (obviously ;)), you will need less effort to learn another language.

But we shall not forget about false friends which, at first, look completely normal and valid, until you find out that other tongues use different phrases. There is a popular joke in Poland – thank you in advance is translated as dziękuję z góry. Some Poles, not familiar with with the English phrase, directly translated our Polish version as thank you from the mountain. Such cases may cause a lot of confusion! So, as much as perfecting our mother tongue is a great help in the case of communication with foreigners, it can also end up with some funny situations.

As for the children, let's remember that small kids assimilate languages rather than learn them. It's a longer topic for discussion, but when a child is exposed to a bilingual environment from their early years, he or she will be able to master two languages. Because of the assimilation that happens in the child's critical period of life.
 
In our language we call our native tongue: madalon avzag, meaning language of mothers. There's a reason for it. Because the child when he is until aged 6, according to our customs and traditions, is raised with his mother, only then he heads out to do manly things with his father (if it's a boy, obviously).
 
I have heard that being able to speak your mother tongue fluently will help you learn English faster and better but I never gave much credence to that notion. It is interesting to read it here. My mother tongue is Yoruba and unfortunately, I can't speak it as fluently as I can English. I am determined however that my children will learn to speak it fluently by encouraging their father and everyone around who can speak it to do so with them while I teach them to speak English fluently.
 
Students who are learning English as a second language tend to study English more systematically, abiding by the rules of grammar and spelling instead of playing it by ear like native English speakers do. ESL students would have a more logical approach to the language; they may be able to explain why a word or a grammatical structure is used, which someone who intuitively learned English may not be able to do.
 
I agree. Most of the languages have a direct translation not only by words but also in grammatical order of the sentence. For example, in some languages the order of the subject and predicate is the same which makes it easier for you to translate once you've been familiar with sentence construction per language.
 
Most Definitely. Mastery of one's native language is critical for someone who is interested to learn English as their second language. Although some languages do not have direct translation, this allows someone to easily understand contexts for certain words. This also enables people to widen their vocabulary and use words for correct grammatization. Certain levels of mastery also gives people ability to learn English faster which makes them connected at a cultural level. This makes them understand ironic, jokes and sarcasm statements with ease.
 
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Our mother tongue has a great role in our lives. It is our first communication device in order to understand the world we have and to satisfy our curiosities within us. And as we grow older, it still serve as a pillar of the many more language that we may learn.
 
From my humble experience with langues I would say that is partially right, in my case for case for example I speak 4 languages, French, English, Arabic, Berber, and learning Korean at the moment, Latin based language are more easy to learn cause I tried to learn Spanish at a certain time and felt that It would be better to leave it after and use the current moment where I have much free time to learn a different language that could take a bit longer time, but in this case the language that I chose was nothing like I've ever tried before the sentence structure is much more different, if you try to do a literal translation to the sentence it would make absolutely no sense.
 
I have to agree with this. The knowledge of the mother tongue generally helps children understand English when it is taught in school. In our country, thankful, the curriculum adds the emphasis of Mother tongue in lower years.
 
I agree. When you master your native language, it is much easier for you to learn any other language. Off course, some languages are harder and some are easier to learn. Some languages may have more similarities with your native language and some less. But generally, you are have the advantage over someone who hasn't mastered his native language.
 
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