A USQ academic travelled to East Timor recently to help launch an exciting new national education policy document promoting the use of children’s mother tongues in the classroom.
Dr Kerry Taylor-Leech, a member of the Linguistics Team within the Faculty of Education, joined the country’s President and educational leaders at the launch, which was held on UNESCO International Mother Language Day. This event is celebrated annually to promote linguistic and cultural diversity.
Dr Taylor-Leech has been co-operating with the National Education Commission and the Ministry of Education in Timor-Leste to help draft the new policy.
She said that until recently, teachers had been expected to use the official languages of Portuguese, the former colonial language, as the language of instruction along with Tetum, the national lingua franca, as a pedagogic aide.
“However, many children do not use these languages in the home and were not achieving the desired literacy results so the government is now considering the use of local languages for teaching in pre-primary and primary schools to help children acquire the basic foundations for literacy development in their first language,” Dr Taylor-Leech said.
“This is an exciting and brave initiative. Children learn from what they know. Learning in a language spoken at home makes it easier for children to achieve a strong foundation in basic literacy and communication skills which they can then transfer to additional languages.
“This initiative supports the learning of Tetum and Portuguese as well as other languages like Indonesian and English.”
Dr Taylor-Leech said the East Timorese were excellent language learners, with many people speaking up to five languages in this highly diverse society.
During the launch Dr Taylor-Leech presented a seminar entitled: First language first: A bridge to peace and prosperity.
“My main message in this seminar,” she said, 'is that by using and valorising children’s home languages and cultures in the classroom, teachers can promote social inclusion and contribute to peaceful nation building.”
Members of the Linguistics team in the Faculty of Education strive to apply their academic expertise to real world language issues and problems. More details about Dr Taylor-Leech’s work in East Timor can be found at: http://ktlweb.wordpress.com
Join the Community.
Get your local news, your way.
Update your news preferences and get the latest news delivered to your inbox.