Mother tongue, multilingualism, and knowledge acquisition
The United Nations has designated February 21st as International Mother Language Day. It views the preservation of one’s mother tongue as a pathway to prosperity, as it serves as a conduit for traditional knowledge and cultural heritage (https://www.un.org/ar/observances/mother-language-day). The organization is concerned that the increasing disappearance of languages poses a challenge to linguistic diversity, given that 40% of the world’s population does not have access to education in their mother languages. This figure may exceed 90% in some regions of the world.
The international organization also emphasizes the many benefits that accrue to learners when their mother tongue is used in education. These benefits include improved education, self-esteem, and the development of critical thinking. In this respect, the mother tongue is the means of transmitting culture from generation to generation, fostering intergenerational learning and cultural preservation. This implies that this language is the primary means of socialization and sustainable development.
Addressing a significant issue in our modern society, the United Nations Organization has highlighted the problem of multilingual education policies for the year 2024. Under the title “Multilingual Education as One of the Pillars of Intergenerational Teaching and Learning”, it outlines the need for inclusive education and the preservation of indigenous languages. The organization suggests that basic knowledge should be in the learner’s mother tongue, followed by the gradual introduction of other languages. This approach aims to prevent a gap between the learner and his family.
In a parallel context, the United Nations considers that multilingual education helps to preserve the languages of minorities or indigenous peoples in multi-ethnic or multicultural societies.
There is no doubt that the issue of the mother tongue, its preservation, documentation, development, and education to younger generations is a key matter in preserving the cultures of peoples and preserving their historical memory. It is one of the basic tools for socialization, as mentioned above. A people who loses its popular culture, which is stored in its mother tongue, is losing its identity and many of its values.
The challenge lies in the need for societies to modernize and acquire exact sciences that may not be available in their mother tongue. This raises the question: How can we acquire skills and sciences produced outside our mother tongue without influencing or even eliminating it through its gradual decay?
Undoubtedly, this issue is “serious”. The state, the intellectuals, and the associations dealing with cultural affairs must be aware of this matter. They must agree on an educational policy that opens society to languages other than its mother tongue, enabling its people to acquire sciences and skills while preserving their language and identity.
A large part of the Arab countries is facing this reality. Lebanon, which historical studies prove has been bilingual since ancient times, is the most multilingual among them. Moreover, it has become trilingual, with the Lebanese learning Arabic, French, and English. University research conducted a few years ago, which included field surveys, has indicated that the Lebanese are largely trilingual.
Taking into account that some of the Lebanese are from diverse ethnicities, we consider that some Lebanese are quadrilingual.
The problem of multilingualism in Lebanon has been a significant part of the intellectual debate for several decades. Some have considered that the adoption of a foreign language would weaken the use of the mother tongue. However, this theory has not been proven correct on the grounds that the acquisition of one language strengthens the knowledge of the other language, regardless of which one is the mother tongue and which one is the acquired language. As for the person who has a weakened mother tongue when acquiring a foreign language, he is a person who either does not like his mother tongue or has not learned it properly.
We must also consider the Lebanese people’s use of foreign languages, especially French and English, with their children in their daily lives. In many public places, such as resort facilities or shopping centers, you hear parents addressing their children in a foreign language, which is surprising and even reprehensible.
It is necessary for a person to learn as many languages as he can, as the popular saying goes, “every tongue is a human being”. However, no language can replace the mother tongue because losing it is a loss of national identity and popular memory. What the younger generations in Lebanon, and in the world in general, suffer from today is not the loss of the mother tongue, but the loss of linguistic sense in general, as many of them find weakness in writing any language, whether original or acquired.
The reliance on software programs or applications has negatively impacted the acquisition of any language worldwide, as evidenced by the quality of French and English written by many youth on social networking pages. Additionally, the introduction of electronic symbols has led to less reliance on verbal expression and sufficiency in symbols provided by electronic software. Sometimes, it feels like being in a primitive cave trying to decipher symbols that have been inscribed on the walls.
Multilingualism is necessary in every society that seeks progress, as it helps to access research and discoveries from their original source, since transferring everything new from one language to another, is faced by many obstacles, the first of which is obtaining copyright, then translation, in addition to the cost of publishing and the speed of spread. This process can take years, during which the information in question may become obsolete and no longer as useful as it was initially.
In a related context, we must emphasize the need for good learning of the language, be it a mother tongue or a foreign language, because of the concentration of thinking and good use of expressions, concepts, and aesthetic images that abound in any language of the world. Each language has its own aesthetic. Our professors and parents have stressed an expressive Arabic expression that “whoever has gaps in grammar will have a perplexed expression of his ideas and his pronunciation will be disrupted accordingly”, emphasizing the need for a good command of the language, regardless of our specialization, whether in the humanities or in the exact sciences. Without a sound language, and possession of its expressions and concepts, self-expression will remain incomplete, and a person will appear as if his thoughts are unclear at a time when ideas are not lacking but the ability to express them is.