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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Happy New Year, Don.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>It certainly is reprehensible to beat kids for
speaking their language and I'm glad the practice is on the wane.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I too have heard a lot of stories from several
parts of the world about this. </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>Although it would
seem logical that this would stop people from speaking their language, I wonder
if there is any actual evidence. When I lived in Canada, I heard this story a
lot. What struck me was that almost everyone who had been beaten still spoke
Kwak'wala, while those from a later generation, who were not beaten spoke only
English. I realize this isn't great evidence, but still I wonder if having a
clear enemy might help keep a language. </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>I
think sometimes you can kill a language with kindness quicker than with
beatings. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Have a good year,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Stan</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=dzo@bisharat.net href="mailto:dzo@bisharat.net">Don Osborn</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=Multilingual_Literacy@yahoogroups.com
href="mailto:Multilingual_Literacy@yahoogroups.com">Multilingual_Literacy@yahoogroups.com</A>
; <A title=ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
href="mailto:ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU">'Indigenous Languages and
Technology'</A> ; <A title=lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
href="mailto:lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu">lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu</A>
; <A title=MULTIED-L@usc.edu
href="mailto:MULTIED-L@usc.edu">MULTIED-L@usc.edu</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, January 02, 2008 12:16
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> IYL '08: Moratorium on beating
kids for speaking mother tongue?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal>Happy New Year 2008, which is the "International Year of
Languages"! *<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Whatever else might be accomplished during IYL, one modest
proposal I would like to put forward is that during this Year, there be an
absolute prohibition on beating, shaming or otherwise punishing children for
speaking their mother tongue at home or at school.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>All the rest is commentary.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Punishing children for speaking their mother tongue is not
new - one can read a lot about this of this sort of thing in biographical
accounts (formal and informal) from all over the world, and that is just the
tip of the iceberg. What is surprising is that it still continues even in
extreme forms. For example, I just received an email from someone in Tanzania
who mentioned teachers threatening young students with a beating if they spoke
their maternal language. Not long ago there was mention in an article of some
parents in Uganda beating their kids for speaking something other than English
at home. (Those are just two examples from one region.).<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Some people will justify some kind of punishment for
whatever reason (curriculum, language learning, etc.). The kind of punishment
is another issue (important but another issue). But the issue here is that if
learning is the object in an obviously multilingual setting, there are better
ways to achieve it than by condemning maternal languages as out of place and
punishing students who use them in the process f learning.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>This is not to say that language in a multilingual
classroom or community is not a complex issue, but that negative approaches to
children's first languages - which in some places go all the way to corporal
punishment - are negative approaches to learning and to various social factors
in a child's life.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Once the punishing of children for speaking their mother
tongue stops, then maybe some good thinking can go into what are the best ways
to promote learning overall, including in first and second
languages.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>It should also become clear from a moratorium on punishing
children for speaking their mother tongue for the duration of IYL (all of
2008) that the alternative to such punishment is not babel and ignorance.
<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>So can this practice be stopped, at least for just this one
year?<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Don Osborn<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>* see the UNESCO page at
http://tinyurl.com/2u2ewd<o:p></o:p></P></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>