Mother Tongue-based Literacy Programmes: Case Studies of Good ...

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Capacity to Learn the National Language“Studying Pwo Karen is beneficial. It has increased my ability to write in both Thai andPwo Karen. If there was something I didn’t understand in Thai the teacher could explain it.I want this program to expand. I would like to be a teacher someday.”Miss Taka, NPKOM studentNumerous studies have documented the effectiveness of well-planned bilingual programmes inimproving the national language abilities of minority language speakers, including the fact that minoritychildren in well-planned bilingual programmes often out-perform minority children in monolingualnational language schools.At this point, it is still too early to empirically demonstrate a link between participation in NPKOM andenhanced achievement in Thai. However, anecdotal evidence points to the benefits of the bilingualapproach. Examples are the accounts of older Pwo Karen students, who began their schooling in Thai,but later were taught to read and write Pwo Karen. Several such students have commented that learningPwo Karen gave them a better understanding of how Thai words were put together. 8 These students’self-confidence has also been boosted by their involvement in materials production, as well as theirparticipation in national and international conferences.Socio-Economic ImpactThe project’s environmental concern is demonstrated in the choice of themes for some teachingmaterials. One teacher expressed sadness that the books talk about healthy forests, but the childrenhave not had the opportunity to see such a forest due to environmental degradation from slash andburn agriculture and firewood collection. The teachers have begun teaching the Thai and Northern PwoKaren names of various plants and trees in the area to develop appreciation for biological diversity andconservation. These and other activities are meant to help children achieve their educational goals and,in the process, develop the capability and confidence to participate actively in the social, political andeconomic (including environmental protection) affairs of the wider society if that is their desire, and alsoto affirm and protect their linguistic and cultural heritage.Cost-EffectivenessHas NPKOM been cost effective? As mentioned earlier, much of the “start up” costs of the project relatedto travel and lodging for project facilitators and consultants headquartered outside the project site area.Because there has been a constant focus on empowering and upgrading the skills of on-site staff, the“start up” costs have been seen as a valuable investment in the future. Materials production costs have8 Similar results have been found in the Chong language revitalization project, coordinated by Mahidol University’sInstitute of Language and Culture for Rural Development. Chong children who already read Thai foundtheir understanding of Thai spelling enhanced by their study of Chong, to the point that Chong children in therevitalization programme have achieved greatly improved scores on Thailand’s national examinations (administeredin the third and sixth grades). Indeed, the pilot project school is the only school in the district where moststudents passed the national exam--a dramatic reversal of past trends (Suwilai, 2006 and Kosonen, 2003). Thesepositive effects may also be due to the teaching techniques used in the multi-strategy approach, with the focuson meaning and creative expression, as opposed to the focus on accuracy and memorization found in the currentmainstream Thai educational system.[ 157 ]
een minimal, as books developed by teachers, students, and members of the community have beenproduced and duplicated at very low cost.Although a detailed socio-economic impact study has not yet been completed, NPKOM teachers andoutside observers have noticed that the NPKOM students are much more engaged in their schoolworkthan minority students in nearby, national-language only programmes. Greater engagement translatesinto increased learning, better attendance, better retention — in short, greater cost effectiveness.Project Sustainability“I am glad that we have our own written language, because if we didn’t have this project,someday we Pwo Karen might lose our language, even though we may not have realizedthis until now.”Ms. Ratikan Boonji, NPKOM Teacher, Nong Ung TaiFrom the outset, ONFEC recognized that, without full community participation, NPKOM would bedoomed to failure. The project has benefited tremendously from the moral support of village leaders.In addition, Pwo Karen villagers were actively involved in the development and testing of both theorthography and reading materials. Many of the older children are helping to write and illustrate newgraded reading materials.ONFEC feels that connecting NPKOM to other projects can contribute to sustainability. For example,ONFEC has recently translated the Asia-Pacific Cultural Center for UNESCO (ACCU) “Planet 3” materialson waste management and hygiene into Northern Pwo Karen. These attractive posters and comic bookswill be distributed throughout northern Thailand, thus promoting the use of Northern Pwo Karen as awritten language and helping to convey important development information.In addition, the NPKOM lesson plans are now being directly linked to the Thai Ministry of Education’sframework for outcomes and indicators. This will lend greater credibility to NPKOM and future projectsin other languages, since it will help educational officials recognize that bilingual programme studentsare able to meet national educational objectives.Although community support is crucial to a project of this type, supportive government policies,understanding local education officials, and on-going financial support are also essential tosustainability.ChallengesAs a groundbreaking project for Thailand, NPKOM has encountered challenges of various types. Theseinclude:• The challenge of introducing a new concept: The bilingual approach is very new to Thailand, andcontradicts the “common sense” view that minority students can only learn Thai by being submergedin it from the first day of preschool. Despite the early successes of NPKOM, some are still skeptical aboutthe bilingual approach, particularly as to how the students will bridge from Pwo Karen to Thai. This hasprompted ONFEC to redouble its efforts to build a strong, carefully documented programme.[ 158 ]
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Mother Tongue-basedLiteracy Program
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Mother Tongue-based Literacy Progra
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ContentsAcronymsviPartI 1Mother Ton
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AcronymsIndiaZSSTLCPLPCEIPCLGZSSSRC
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PartI
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Mother TongueLiteracy Programmesin
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Entrenchment of the common (majorit
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Table 1: Linguistic Contexts of the
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It may be noted that there is no re
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“If we stop using our language, i
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their normal lives and communicatio
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the project ensured that community
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Also, it was important to identify
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conservation. Tharu traditional pra
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In Thailand, participation in schoo
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would there be projects to cover al
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© UNESCO/D. Riewpituk
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BackgroundBangladesh is a delta lan
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As a consequence, literacy rates am
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Orthography DevelopmentDuring early
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and discussion in the plenary, age-
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qualifications in the tribal commun
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Before opening the school, the rese
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Networking with Other Organizations
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A small baseline study was conducte
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parents of the children studying in
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Awareness Creation and Opinion Form
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Table 2: At-a-Glance Status of MT S
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Tasks for National and Internationa
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© POEYS
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BackgroundCurrent Situation of Mino
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of instruction, but the Bunong chil
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Process and Cost of Developing and
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vocabulary, containing only sounds
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Impact of the ProjectImpact on Educ
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NetworkingThe MoEYS and UNESCO have
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Komly Boek: Bilingual NFE TeacherMy
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© Norman Geary
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BackgroundThe Kam 1 of south centra
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‘Rice feeds the body, songs feed
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(Putonghua) in education. Neverthel
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do anything else with Chinese. Now
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eading material in their own langua
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Kam Children SingThe singing classe
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Thus, the book-fees for a child to
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advisers to the Project since its b
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Capacity to Learn the National Lang
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they were persuaded of its value (t
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detached from the village and diffe
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© State Resource Centre Assam
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BackgroundIndia is home to a large
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In the case of adult literacy, we h
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Curriculum and Learning Materials D
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About 70 volunteer teachers were en
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The majority of the learners have c
Page 113 and 114: the regional language and finally t
Page 115 and 116: [ 108 ]© BP-PLSP
Page 117 and 118: In attempting to meet one of the go
Page 119 and 120: Indonesian Policies on Mother Tongu
Page 121 and 122: Nature and LivelihoodCommunity peop
Page 123 and 124: No. Material Time1. The Policy of S
Page 125 and 126: Networking with CommunityMembers, G
Page 127 and 128: BP-PLSP Region II has distributed a
Page 129 and 130: Impact of theProgrammeThe KFBI prog
Page 131 and 132: Phase II. Learning activities inclu
Page 133 and 134: After learning some skills, learner
Page 135 and 136: © BASE
Page 137 and 138: © BASEBackground‘If we stop usin
Page 139 and 140: een forced into bonded labor. Cultu
Page 141 and 142: cows, bulls, sheep, and goats) kept
Page 143 and 144: Most of the NFE programmes implemen
Page 145 and 146: The Key Word Approach was used whil
Page 147 and 148: how to read and write which helps t
Page 149 and 150: In short, the Tharu mother tongue l
Page 151 and 152: © ONFEC
Page 153 and 154: In 2006, Thailand celebrated an aus
Page 155 and 156: Minister of Education Chaturong Cha
Page 157 and 158: All of the NPKOM teachers have asso
Page 159 and 160: simple sentence structures and much
Page 161 and 162: Teaching Plan: Bridging to the Nati
Page 163: Impact of the ProjectImpact on Educ
Page 167 and 168: Annexes
Page 169 and 170: Annex 2: ReferencesMother Tongue Li
Page 171 and 172: Lindholm-Leary, K. 2001. Dual Langu
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