Language, Culture, Community: Learning, Literacy Development, and the Flourishing of Young Indigenous Children
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About 221 million young children of indigenous or minority communities lack access to education in their mother tongue. The consequences are incalculable. Children’s cognition, education, well-being, sense of self, and financial prospects all suffer. The effects extend to their communities, economies, and cultures. The loss of language is an existential crisis for indigenous communities and a tragedy that diminishes us all.
On September 23, 2020, a panel of experts from around the world met virtually to discuss early learning in home languages for indigenous children. Language, Culture, Community: Learning, Literacy Development, and the Flourishing of Young Indigenous Children considered ways to help children, families, and communities develop strong practices in early language and literacy in their home languages. The event was hosted by Capita, the Australian Literacy & Numeracy Foundation, and the Living First Language Platform Company.
The United Nations has announced that 2022-2032 will be the Decade of Indigenous Languages. The panel considered what success would look like by the end of this decade and identified actions to help get there. Here are key points that emerged:
Education in indigenous language offers multiple, intertwined benefits.
Decades of research support the benefits of early learning in children’s home language:
Stronger early language skills and healthier early development. Early experiences affect brain development and gene expression. Frequent exposure to rich and varied language experiences is crucial. When that exposure is in children’s home language, they build stronger skills in speaking, listening, vocabulary development, and functional early literacy.
A foundation for academic achievement and positive feelings about education. When children are unfamiliar with the words or gestures they encounter at school, they often feel intimidated or lose confidence. Children benefit from learning environments that respect multilingualism, which includes respecting children’s home languages. When the main language of instruction is not children’s home language, they must have time to navigate between languages. This helps children develop positive attitudes toward education and positively influences their later educational achievements.
Psychological and emotional well-being. Rich early language experiences in children’s home language facilitate opportunities for children to “speak up” and express their own thoughts through a fulsome vocabulary and varied linguistic structures. Being able to verbally engage with others in dynamic serve-and-return communication enhances cognitive development, problem solving, perspective taking, and knowledge giving. As active agents, children develop confidence and a sense of security.
Preservation of languages, traditions, and cultures. The strongest way to preserve a language is to ensure that it is living and vibrant and used every day in lifelong learning. Therefore, early learning in indigenous languages sustains and revitalizes languages. Promoting language use in the early years builds connections to history, identity, and culture, which are social determinants of health, well-being, and education. This strengthens ties between young people and elders and promotes an overall sense of connection among all speakers in a community.
Economic benefits. Investing in early childhood education is a cost-effective, measurable way for countries to promote economic development. The return on this investment is higher when early learning takes place in the home language.
“Being able to read and write is a basic human right that includes the right to be literate in one’s mother tongue.”
Early learning in indigenous languages is a matter of justice.
As one panelist said: “Being able to read and write is a basic human right and that right includes being literate in one’s mother tongue.” Article 13 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states that “indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures.” Panelists lamented the lack of urgency toward investing and committing resources to support early language and literacy, despite the strong research basis for action.
Justice demands that we give young children their best opportunity to thrive—cognitively, academically, psychologically, emotionally, and socially—and that means helping them build skills in their home language. Literacy in indigenous languages is integral not only to children’s flourishing development, but also to maintaining and celebrating the culture to which the languages are inextricably tied.
To promote early learning in home languages, we must focus on families and communities.
Policy is still catching up to the science on early learning in home languages, even though enriched early oral language lays strong foundations for later literacy learning.
“We can make change happen much faster by communicating more effectively with parents.”
As a result, advocates should emphasize that support must be extended to the people who engage with young children every day: parents, families, and caregivers. We must encourage and support parents, as well as grandparents and the broader community, to impart their knowledge to children through their first language. Equally important, children must have opportunities to reciprocate—to engage in the types of language play that set the stage for literacy. The Australian Literacy & Numeracy Foundation and others have developed learning tools for families to use in the crucial early years, setting strong foundations for a successful transition into formal schooling. We must help parents and the community document their language in all its forms (speech, songs, proverbs, lullabies, plus dance and other forms of nonwritten communication), in order to share their language and culture across generations.
Several panelists noted that many parents resist teaching in their home language, in the widespread belief that early exposure to the dominant language offers their children their best route to success in education and life. Thus our messaging must stress that literacy in the first language does not hamper acquisition of a second (dominant) language, but is instead a bridge to that mastery.
Language skills develop in many environments.
Home and school are obviously critical, but it is important to consider all of the environments in which language skills develop. For instance, the healthcare setting is an important touchpoint in the life of young children, beginning in infancy. Primary health providers can play an important role in educating and supporting parents and caregivers. One panelist described how the international program Reach Out and Read trains providers to talk to families about the role of language and literacy in children’s early development.
Technology holds great promise for promoting language and literacy in indigenous language, but barriers remain.
The role of technology in promoting literacy sparked extensive discussion. Technology is shareable and dynamic. Video and audio capabilities complement written communication. Technology excites and unites all generations.
Living First Language Platform
Participants who helped develop the apps Feed the Monster and the Living First Language Platform explained that the apps are adaptable to multiple languages. This adaptability helps solve a longstanding problem with traditional written textbooks: they are too expensive to publish in languages spoken by small numbers of people. New technologies provide flexible solutions that communities can use to develop educational materials and create literacy-rich content in their own languages.
A panelist mentioned how technology has long played a role in documenting indigenous languages, but language speakers often have been separated from the process of driving, developing, and using these conventional technologies. However, advancements in the accessibility of technology can empower indigenous communities to hold on to their own languages—to take charge of how they are recorded and preserved.
“Literacy is a tool to preserve culture and take charge of your destiny and be part of your community.”
But cost and connectivity remain obstacles to widespread adoption of new technologies. To overcome these barriers, a panelist suggested a strategy of “respectful experimentation,” working with communities to develop creative solutions that meet their specific needs. For instance, buyer networks can pool resources for purchasing and distributing tech. Currently, some communities cache the information for later use. In Ghana, users are testing artificial intelligence to translate directly between languages, without the need for an intermediary language. Another option is to keep apps “low weight,” for instance, by giving schools tablets loaded only with educational content. A panelist cited a World Bank experiment involving preloaded smartphones.
More work lies ahead.
Participants outlined several other issues that must be collectively addressed:
We must consider how to support multilingualism in a way that includes indigenous languages and—where they differ—dominant languages (e.g., of classroom instruction) in a region or country.
We must find new ways to attract corporate and foundation funding that is strategic, informed, and coordinated.
We must inspire the tech community to better address the language and literacy needs and aspirations of indigenous communities by providing strategic guidance and investment.
We must consider how to best meet the early literacy needs of children with limited or no access to schools.
We must think through the issue of data (e.g., data sovereignty, legal requirements, and fair use). Who stores all the data that technology records, and where? How do we adhere to the cultural and intellectual property rights of indigenous communities?
Fortunately, as one participant noted, communities have no lack of passion or vision for children and their future. This passion and vision were on display throughout this productive panel. They will help meet these and other challenges as we move into the Decade of Indigenous Languages and beyond.
Thanks to Nicole Biondi of Innovation Edge for facilitating the convening. This summary was written by Nancy Vorsanger with input from Eric Brace and Joe Waters.