LANGUAGE OH LANGUAGE

HERE IS AN EXTRACT from The First Learning is Best in Mother
Tongue by Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, published in The Times of India,
http://www.hvk.org/articles/0210/25.html, 17/11/2010):

“Global research shows that children should learn reading and writing in
their mother tongue first. Only after they can read fluently at a minimum of 45-
60 words per minute can they absorb what they are reading. Such fluency is
most easily achieved in the mother tongue. Once that is established, learning a
second language becomes easier.

In ‘Efficient Learning for the Poor: Insights from the Frontier of
Cognitive Neuroscience’, educationist Helen Abadzi shows that human short-
term memory works well for up to 12 seconds. So, within 12 seconds, a person
should be able to read a sentence or complete grammatical unit, process its
meaning and classify and file it within his or her mental library – what experts
call “cognitive networks”.

Research shows that proficiency in one language makes it easier to
master a second. Learning the first language expands the cognitive networks of
a child’s mind, making it easier to grasp the same concepts in a second language.

Rich children with pre-school education enter school with a vocabulary
of 3,000 words, but poor children may have a vocabulary of just 500
words.
ENGLISH is important. But even more important is reading and
writing in your mother tongue.”

LANGUAGE COMES WITH MATURITY. As we grow older, we read more.
We have wider experience. When we have more words stored in our mind, we write
and speak better.

As we aged, we become mature and calmer. These allow the brain to
produce more alpha brainwave. This brainwave provides optimum learning state. For
those who practice meditation and pray a lot, their brain produces theta brainwave as well. Such benefits in increasing theta brainwave are the ability to pick up new
languages so quickly and the ability to retain over 300% more information.

Thus the process of retrieving becomes easier resulting in proper ideas and the
right words chosen.

My point of view is:
*English schools for those who prefer
National schools for those who suffer
*(International/private)

Poetic language sounds nice, huh? But people don’t buy books because of the
beauty of the language. People seek for information. We read story books
because of the plot of the stories.

Although English language is widely used in business corporations, employers
seek for employees who have strong self-esteem and high confidence level. Such
qualities like showing respect towards others, obeying the superiors, knowing what to do and how to do it without being told are most preferred.
Those qualities are not taught in schools.

Learning institutions also do not teach children how to master their own minds,
emotions and bodies, how to avoid stress and how to cope with it – S.M.Mohd Idris,
President,CAP.

SITI JUWAIRAH ABD WAHAB
Meridian Psychotherapist, ICHM.