International Mother Language Day was launched 25 years ago, but I only discovered it this year. To learn more about it, check this out: International Mother Language Day | United Nations.
This is an opportunity to share with you some of the reasons why I believe it is essential to at least take an interest in the students' mother language, even if we cannot speak it ourselves.
The mother language is the language that speaks to the heart, and in order to keep motivation high, you need to interact with individuals, not just address the brain.
Moreover, this gives the opportunity to establish connections and parallels helps accelerate the learning process.
It also helps to understand where the difficulties lie, enabling us to pay special attention to these points and provide opportunities to reinforce them by revisiting them regularly. What cannot be learned by association with already known concepts can be acquired through repeated exposure.
When I did my initial training as a language teacher, the message I received was to use the target language as much as possible, aiming to maximize exposure and create an immersion effect. The problem was that this put many students in a stressful or even failure-inducing situation, completely blocking them. Stress and learning don’t mix well!
Ideally, I would love to know the mother tongue of each person I support in their learning journey. This would allow me to help them better, but it is not always possible.
If a mother language is new to me, I always try to learn a little more about it. This helps me initiate conversations about the connections that exist and the parallels that can be drawn. It also sparks curiosity. And curiosity is a driving force.
The following website is a great resource for understanding the challenges of learning French depending on one’s mother tongue: LGIDF.
So when I can I use the mother language in the learning process. It allows me to offer a welcoming and supportive space that encourages risk-taking. And yes, taking risks and stepping out of one’s comfort zone is essential to learning a foreign language.
I owe the most useful and effective tools that I use to Neurolanguage Coaching®️.
😃 Happy learning and have a wonderful International Mother Language Day!
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