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

Capacity to Learn the National LanguageMastering the Chinese writing system by learning as many as 6,000 distinct characters is a long, dauntingprocess, even for Han children. The idea that minority children will improve their learning of Chineseliteracy by developing their literacy skills in their mother tongue through preschool and grades 1 to 6seems absurd to many people. How can you take away that much time and have the learners do better?As illogical as it sounds, it works. The confidence, knowledge, and skill the children develop in readingand writing their own language prepares them for learning a second language much better and morethoroughly than if they were “submerged” in the second language immediately.Headmaster of Zaidang Primary SchoolPeople aged above 50 or 60 in Zaidang cannot speak local Mandarin correctly, never mindstandard Mandarin. In practice, some women cannot communicate at all in Mandarin. Inthe school, grade 1 and 2 students do not understand Mandarin. This is a great hindranceto education. In light of this situation, after implementation of the bilingual educationpilot project in the village, Grade 1 students only studied Dong. 8 By the time they reachedGrade 2, students studied both Dong and Mandarin, comparing and contrasting the two.In this way, progression was from simple to complicated, step by step, and easier for thestudents to grasp. This has been advantageous for the Mandarin levels of the children,and standards have clearly improved. For example: before the project, the averageMandarin language mark in Grade 1 was 42%, and average mathematics mark was 53%.After the project, the average Dong language mark in Grade 1 was 81% and the averagemathematics mark was 79%. The first ever project children have now reached Grade 4,and have always been producing good examination marks. You can already see the goodeffects of bilingual education on Mandarin Chinese.Mid-Project Report by Yang Shengqi, Headmaster at Zaidang Primary SchoolSocio-economic Impact on LearnersKam people are among the poorest in China. They work very hard, day-by-day, to maintain a subsistencestandard of living. Their hard life and the difficulty of earning cash income make employment outsidethe Kam geographic areas a strong temptation.A recent investigation shows an amazing phenomenon taking place in Zaidang village (and likelyelsewhere in the Kam nationality): the migration of villagers to paid employment in the economicallybooming large cities within traveling distance.Both parents at home: 59 (21 in Zaidang, 38 in Jiasuo)Both parents working outside the village: 65 (38 in Zaidang, 27 in Jiasuo)Father working outside the village, mother at home: 31 (19 in Zaidang, 12 in Jiasuo)Mother working outside the village, father at home: 3 (3 in Zaidang)Total: 158 children (N. Geary, personal communication, July 2006)8 For the first six years of the Kam/Han Bilingual Education Pilot Project, the curriculum for Grade 1 of primaryschool was taught almost entirely in Kam. Beginning in the 7th year, the curriculum for Grade 1 was weightedmore towards Han Chinese, with children studying the usual Mandarin textbooks used by all their contemporaries.[ 88 ]