Today the 21st February marks the International Mother Languages day which was declared by UNESCO in November 1999. This date also marks the remembrance of 21 February 1952 when two students were shot to death by police in the now known Bangladesh, while fighting for the recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the native languages in Pakistan.
It is the duty of every country to preserve their own mother language and promote it equally amongst all citizens. To further emphasise this duty, UNESCO declared 2008 as the International Year of Languages. With this declaration UNESCO wanted to sustain more the importance of multilingualism and multiculturalism.
According to Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director General, mother languages are the fundamentals for education and thus these must be used to empower men and women wherever they are. It is thus imperative that the use of the proper mother tongue starts from the very early ages of children. It will facilitate access to education, promote equality between all citizens, ease communication, while offering many different opportunities for the individual to grow in the way s/he thinks and creates.
The Association of Speech Language Pathologists (ASLP), which represents specialists in human communication, joins the rest of the world to celebrate this important day. For this purpose, a brief informative leaflet, Ilsien pajjiżek = Il-lingwa ta' qalbek is being distributed amongst different schools and child care centres in Malta and Gozo. This leaflet outlines the importance of the use of our mother tongue, the Maltese language, in the context of multilingualism. Ilsien pajjiżek = Il-lingwa ta' qalbek was originally written by the Swiss Association Logopadie Bern which granted permission to ASLP to translate the work in Maltese. This project was financed by the SIS funds administered by the Malta Council of Voluntary Sector (MCVS). For further information contact ASLP on [email protected]