Significance of Mother Tongue

As the name suggest, a language is seen as coming from your primary caregiver, the person who looked after you most when you were young, and traditionally this was mothers. So, this is perhaps the point of origin, the starting place, of the metaphorical phrase, mother tongue.
Mother tongue is the language that a child gets to hear after birth and helps give a definite shape to our feeling and thoughts. Learning in the mother tongue is also crucial for improving other critical thinking skills, second language learning, and literacy skills.
Mother tongue is considered to be the most valuable and important aspect of human life, due to several reasons. It is vital in framing the thinking and emotions of people. For a child, learning to speak in the mother tongue is very necessary for it’s comprehensive development. Being fluent in their mother tongue, we can also call it the native language, benefits the child in numerous ways. It provides the child with a sense of belonging and helps him in understanding his roots. It also associates the child to his culture, ensures enhanced cognitive development, and supports in the learning process of different languages.

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How knowledge of Mother Tongue can help in individual’s growth and development

Intellectual Development
Studies have shown that cognitive development and intellectual development are comparatively faster in fluent in their mother tongue. The educational success of a student who is taught in mother tongue is higher than someone who is taught in a language other than their mother tongue.

Connecting people with their culture
Languages are the primary means of keeping our culture alive. Often, the direct translation of one language into another cannot convey the same essence as in the source language. Therefore, the best way to know a culture thoroughly is to understand the language. The mother tongue helps us stay connected to our traditional, cultural values and our roots.

In learning a second language
When a person knows his or her mother language well, it is easier for them to learn a new language. If a child reads in his or her mother tongue from an early age, they will have more substantial reading and writing skills in other languages.
Commercial advantages
Businesses are going the local way, so the importance of mother tongues has increased exponentially. It is beneficial to know your mother tongue to communicate with your local customers if you want to become an entrepreneur. The possibilities of making money with the help of one’s mother language are enormous in today’s economy.
Providing quality education
A child first comprehends what is around them through the language they hear their mother communicating in, from before they are born and thought their lives. Many children across the developing world are learning very little in school, a reality that can be linked to teaching that is in a language they do not fully understand. It is a practice that leads to limited or non-existent learning and acquisition of knowledge and skills, alienating experiences, and high drop-out and repetition rates.
To improve the quality of education, languages policies need to take account of mother-tongue learning. Models of education which ignore the mother tongue in the early years can be unproductive, ineffective and have a negative effect on children’s learning. Mother-tongue education at least in early years can enable teachers to teach, and learners to learn more effectively.

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