The importance of the Mother Tongue

The mother tongue is a factor for unification and sympathy. It unites people with a common culture, common traditions and ideals. The common bond becomes so strong that any division is almost impossible. The sufferings of some members of the same community who speak the same language make all the rest sad, while the success of some elates the whole. This attitude of mind towards the members of one’s own community is unconscious. Even the suppression of this feeling in the interests of all human beings is possible only by thinking beings. Unfortunately the number of such widely sympathetic human beings is all too few.

The influence of the home on one’s tongue begins during infancy. The home is the place where love and sympathy reign supreme and where they are the means of instruction. It is a place where freedom of thought and action are encouraged, and practiced both by direct and indirect methods. Throughout the day instruction in speech is given. Indistinct, unconnected utterances are checked, corrected and transformed into clarity of expression,. The child’s ability to talk or to make statements is developed by conversations with the parents, thus the child’s natural shyness and the fear of committing mistakes are overcome. The natural gift of expression is developed.

This home influence plays a very important part in inculcating and enlarging the ideas of the child. These ideas are gathered through pictures, photographs, from articles and by all things in the child’s home and surroundings. The child’s curiosity compels him to ask questions and gather information concerning everything. Enquiries about their names and uses follow. This unending stream of questions on a multitude of topics and the degree of sensible replies or explanations given to him by his parents increases his ideas and vocabulary, and likewise his thoughts begin to settle and his power of listening intelligently and understanding the spoken word develops.

Folk and fairy tales, and the adventures of heroes and heroines told by the mothers and grandmothers have a unique value. Related in a homely manner their chief ideas are easily understood. Such tales not only develop the character of the little one, but also improve his own power of recounting what is heard. Very often one finds little children acting such stories. Religious instruction given at home is another aid to progress in the mother tongue. Women are more religious minded usually than men. They remember the words and music of hymns and songs. At a very young age the child learns these by heart and later recites them before the members and friends of the family. And sometimes the child is bold enough to repeat them before strangers. Religious hymns and songs make an appeal to his religious instinct. All this early learning lays a good foundation for the development of the mother tongue.

In illiterate families the influence of the mother tongue may not be so effective in the improvement of the vocabulary, pronunciation and the enlargement of ideas, but there is no lack of clear expression of some sort.

When the child enters school he is quite familiar with words, expressions and their uses in his daily life. Words and ideas do not seem dry and lifeless to him, as they are often used in his life. The teacher of the mother tongue is not vague in his expression and in the presentation of facts. The homely presentation of ideas with a definite purpose creates a spirit of reciprocity in children. There is often found a mutual understanding between the children and the teacher and an appreciation of the matter read is expressed. The instinct of curiosity to know about things is satisfied by reading books written in one’s mother tongue. The substance is re-stated in the children’s own words and is turned over in their minds till they understand its meaning well. The strong foundation laid at home and the familiarity of the ideas make the student better fitted to cope with the difficulties in the school. The school supplements and regulates the knowledge gained by indirect ways. The minds of children are thus prepared and ready to enter upon more advanced stages in their educational career.