UN report proves mother tongue is best
S. Chen rightly observed that many local youngsters cannot compete with mainland students in language proficiency ('Government's language policy has proved to be disastrous', January 21). Assuming that the comparison is between children with the same learning ability, unequal attainment in language proficiency may be attributed to environmental factors such as the medium of instruction.
According to 'Mother tongue education', an education position paper published by [the UN's educational agency] Unesco in 2003: 'It is an obvious yet not generally recognised truism that learning in a language which is not one's own provides a double set of challenges, not only is there the challenge of learning a new language but also that of learning new knowledge.'
On the mainland where mother-tongue instruction is the rule students naturally have an edge over local students studying in an environment of mixed-media of instruction. The Unesco report also observes that the challenges of non-mother-tongue education 'may be further exacerbated in the case of certain groups who are already in [a] situation of risk or stress'. Public disputes over medium of instruction create unnecessary frustrations that are not helping mediocre students who are struggling with their studies.
The correspondent wondered 'what can be done to help our youngsters improve their language skills'. According to the Unesco report: 'Studies have shown that instruction in the mother tongue is beneficial to language competencies in the first language, achievement in other subject areas, and second language learning.'
The correspondent's allegation that mother-tongue education 'has put a whole generation of youngsters at disadvantage when they enter the job market', is groundless. New entrants to the job market compete with contemporaries from the same language education background. Students who fail to get admission to 'good' schools cannot realistically expect that with English as the medium of instruction they could achieve better results.
Public education is for public purposes. Students with a special interest in or need for better English proficiency than what public schools could offer, just like those who wish to learn Japanese or German, should try other means such as attending private tuition, joining an English church, or watching English TV channels.
