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June 2002 |
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EDUCATION |
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Education of mother-tongue
By Dr. Harnek S. Kaile Language
is an essential element in the culture of a society. It is the flesh and
blood of culture. It helps in the preservation of culture and development
of civilization. According to Bloomfield, "Language is a learned
arbitrary system of vocal symbols through which human beings interact in
terms of their common cultural experience". Without language, human
development would come to a standstill. In fact, we cannot imagine a human
society without language. Though
an individual should learn as many languages as possible, apart from his
mother-tongue, yet it cannot be denied that he can express his views in
the best possible manner only in his mother-tongue. Ballard rightly says,
"A child thinks and dreams in mother-tongue". Thus, mother-
tongue has much more importance than all other languages and special
attention should be paid to
its teaching. It
was previously thought that academic achievement of a child depends solely
upon his intelligence i.e. the higher the I Q, the more the marks. But in
1962, the achievement of highly creative and highly intelligent groups was
studied by Gatzels and Jackson by sorting (a)
the highly creative group comprising top 20% on the measure of creativity
but not commensurately high on the intelligence measure and (b)
the highly intelligent group representing top 20% on intelligence but not
commensurately high on creativity measure. Despite
the difference of 23 points in I Q, these two experimental groups were
found equally superior in test achievement to
the total parental sample to which they belonged. Later, it was
concluded in a large number of studies that, alongwith intelligence,
creativity contributed significantly towards academic achievement. The
author of this article conducted a study upon 250 students of different
schools and came to the conclusion that achievement of children in
mother-tongue depended as much upon creativity as upon intelligence. It
was also found that the achievement of children of high socio-economic
group was not commensurable with their creative talent. Generally, parents
of such children have
preference for English and carelessness towards mother-tongue and
ultimately, the children feel disinterested in the mother-tongue. Also, it
was found that the achievement of children belonging to low socio-economic
group was far less than expected. Lack of adequate facilities and proper
environment become obstacles in their academic growth. Here
are a few suggestions for education of mother-tongue: 1.
Proper attention should be paid to the development of creative talent in
children. 2.
Parents of high socio-economic group and their children should be educated
about the importance of mother-tongue. 3.
The attitude of the teacher towards children belonging to low
socio-economic status should be sympathetic and such children should be
helped in the purchase of books, clothes etc. 4. Special prizes should be given to high achievers in mother-tongue.
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