Mother tongue and mother tongue education
Year: 2003
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Without going into much historical detail, in this chapter I will try to shedsome light on the intricacies connected with concepts of ‘mother tongue’
and ‘mother tongue education’—henceforth ‘MT’ and ‘MTE’. In this task I
take the mosaic of contemporary multilingual societies as a main frame of
reference, since it is in this context above all that the concepts just referred
to are gaining importance. The chapter starts by distinguishing analytically
between different meanings of MT and MTE. Then it gives an account of
two different versions of MTE, from a majority and a minority perspective
respectively. It then outlines the difficulties that the process of inclusion of
MTs in multilingual classrooms has to face. The final section deals with
MTE and linguistic human rights. In its examples, and maybe in its basic
thinking, this chapter may well reflect a Western European, especially a
Dutch, bias. It is hoped, however, that the concepts and practices dealt with
will be recognizable in other contexts as well.
Author: Sjaak Kroon
Language: English
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1536119277