In 1999, at the 30th Session of UNESCO’s General Conference, countries adopted a Resolution that established the notion of ‘multilingual education’ to refer to the use of at least three languages in education: the mother tongue(s), a regional or national language and an international language in education.

International Mother Language Day was proclaimed by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in November 1999. The UN General Assembly welcomed the proclamation of the day in its resolution of 2002.

Since then, UNESCO has been promoting, as and when relevant, multilingual education as a means to improve learning outcomes and give life to cultural diversity. Literacy programs and methodologies are most relevant and respond to the needs of learners when they are context-related, bilingual and support intercultural understanding within the framework of lifelong learning.

Today there is growing awareness that languages play a vital role in development, in ensuring cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue, but also in strengthening co-operation and attaining quality education for all, in building inclusive knowledge societies and preserving cultural heritage, and in mobilizing political will for applying the benefits of science and technology to sustainable development.

Languages, with their complex implications for identity, communication, social integration, education and development, are of strategic importance for people and planet. Yet, due to globalization processes, they are increasingly under threat, or disappearing altogether. When languages fade, so does the world’s rich tapestry of cultural diversity.

On 16 May 2007 the United Nations General Assembly called upon Member States “to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world”. By the same resolution, the General Assembly proclaimed 2008 as the International Year of Languages, to promote unity in diversity and international understanding, through multilingualism and multiculturalism and named the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to serve as the lead agency for the Year.

Multilingual education based on the mother tongue (s) in the early years of schooling plays a key role in fostering respect for diversity and a sense of interconnectedness between countries and populations, which are core values at the heart of global citizenship.

UNESCO has been leading the way and advocating for multilingual education based on the mother tongue from the earliest years of schooling. Research shows that education in the mother tongue is a key factor for inclusion and quality learning, and it also improves learning outcomes and academic performance. This is crucial, especially in primary school to avoid knowledge gaps and increase the speed of learning and comprehension. And most importantly, multilingual education based on the mother tongue empowers all learners to fully take part in society. It fosters mutual understanding and respect for one another and helps preserve the wealth of cultural and traditional heritage that is embedded in every language around the world.

However, there is still a long way to go before guaranteeing all learners their right to education in their mother language. In most countries, the majority of students are taught in a language other than their mother tongue, which compromises their ability to learn effectively. It is estimated that 40 % of the world’s population does not have access to an education in a language they speak or understand. There are about 7,000 languages spoken around the world today. But linguistic diversity is increasingly threatened as more and more languages disappear at an alarming rate. And when a language disappears, it takes with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage.

“To be able to construct a language in oneself requires more than the power of mimicry. Every man has a mother tongue. Of all languages he can only learn his mother tongue well and without mental fatigue … He acquires it in early infancy by mimicry. It is a gift of nature”.

Maria Montessori The 1946 London Lectures, p. 79

When I read this quote from Maria Montessori, I instantly remembered this picture: … As a family, we moved to Venezuela when I was barely 5 years old; being from The Netherlands, the language at home was my mother tongue: Dutch; in Venezuela people spoke Spanish, my sisters went to school as soon as possible, and although my mom did homeschool them for the Dutch Language, she realized that in order to help us all out she had to acquire Spanish as a second language for all of us. She did, with the help of books and specially newspapers, but never, ever did she back away from this challenge, nor the one that she thought was very important: to teach us our “mother-tongue”. Every chance she had, she would repeat so many words in both languages, to us, and to herself!!

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From birth, through the environment, the child is constantly absorbing the sounds around him. The environment into which a child is born will determine its mother tongue. For us this was true, but for me and my sisters it was also true that as we, as a family, travelled so much and our environment was filled with such a diversity of languages, it gave us insight into so many diverse cultures, because one thing cannot be denied: Language, in so many expressions, can lead us to knowledge and understanding of our fellow human beings.

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One of the pioneers in writing about the development of Language was Dr Maria Montessori. She wrote extensively about child’s drive toward acquiring language, and the tools that are a part of human development that assist with that language acquisition: according to Dr. Montessori, this period of time in the human life where language is most easily acquired is in the first plane of development, or better said, from shortly after birth through the age of six. From the perinatal period, humans are keyed into human speech, giving it more attention than other sounds in their environment.

These sounds at first will be confusing and disordered. As the child tries to make sense of these sounds, its muscles become ordered, and it produces a range of sounds: he/she babbles. Children need language around them in order to develop their own idea of language. Soon they are compelled toward attempts to reproduce the sounds they hear from the people around them.

Dr. Montessori wrote that “we humans rarely learn another language as well as our mother tongue, and that this is so because it is typically the language that we are exposed to during pregnancy, and of course from the moment the child is born, in a very direct way” (Montessori, 1967). During the early stages of a child’s life, a mother communicates with the child, not only verbally but through her body language and voice tone. These sounds of language are fixed in the child’s subconscious and become manifest later. The child elaborates that this learning of speech is not isolated to words, but also applies to sentence structure and grammar. (Montessori, 1967).

"The Absorbent Mind" is the child’s tool for learning language. Dr. Montessori wrote:

“By merely living and without any conscious effort the individual abstracts from the environment even a complex cultural achievement like language”. (Montessori, 1997 p61).

Learning to communicate through speech is a huge step toward independence in children, because they are able to make their needs and desires known and are better able to respond to the requests of others. Also, Language is of paramount importance socially and as the basic structure of thought. It enables the child to integrate into society and to deal with abstract concepts.

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