Am I Killing Culture?!

As I finished writing up drafts of my literature review I realized that my current state of mind is highly centered on the current topics of language in my development class. I was starting to feel concerned that this mindset while writing the last few days had redirected my purpose in my research away from what I started out intending to do and look for.  Then I realized that's what education is and I am currently engaged in the conversation between subjects of development, education policy, and TESOL programs. I took the classes I did this semester to help me develop a base for what I would do this summer and that is the process happening. I never have any answers, but I've developed a lot of half opinions that long to be given attention so they can form into something, maybe that formation needs the experience of this summer and then some review even after returning so I'm trying to open myself up to what will come. 

The first problem that arose from discussion of langauge rights and the connection of langauge to identy was this idea of killing culture. While talking with my friend who loves languages and also plans to teach English the sudden question was asked, "Am I killing culture?!" At the time of that conversation I didn't have much of a foundation for an answer, nor did I see the statement as very plausible but rather over dramatic, but my thoughts have changed. I won't say I think that teaching or learning other languages is killing culture, in fact I think it is an important cognitive and even social practice, among other things. Language learning requires a person to learn how to think again and gives a new context to life. The problems arise when certain languages become power languages and override the native language. A further problem is when language learning is not a choice but forced upon a people.  Often education programs in areas of the world are doing this, standardizing and consolidating language in education rather than offering the chance for a student to be taught in their first language. This opportunity is vital to cognitive growth and necessary before the major benefits from learning a second or third language that I mentioned above can be realized. 

I was writing about an article on African education policies with regard to language and I think I will share some of the thoughts here to complete this post. My final conclusions are that me teaching English is not killing culture, but me not respecting others and their first language is detrimental and me viewing my own language as a language of power or taking on attitudes that demonstrate this viewpoint is detrimental. I'll post a piece of the paper I'm working on below.  

In Africa the standardization of language is inhibiting the use of local languages as European languages take priority. Because of this approach education systems have alienated groups rather than integrating them into this consolidated or standard country that Africa was aiming for, at the same time creating a perpetuating elite group that keeps those in poverty in the cycle of poverty and diminishes the chances for mobilization within society. Changes must be made in education because relying so fully on languages not familiar to children in settings they are frequently in promotes semi-literacy, incomplete education and limits their understanding and engagement with the world around them.

In my literacy class we discussed the best ways to teach reading and writing and it is an essential step for a child to be taught to read first in their native language where they already have the base and meaning of language down. The process of learning to read is hard enough without being familiar at least with the meanings that the symbols of reading represent. Once the child has been taught strategies to good reading in their first language they can begin to tackle reading in a less familiar language with the tools of how to read already with them, which is much more efficient. Rwantabagu’s article highlights this same theme stating that, “It has been emphasized in this respect that learning to read is most efficient when students know the language and can employ Psycholinguistic guessing strategies” (463).  Literacy is essential to social and economic mobilization because having an educational base of strong literacy abilities is what gives a child the means to educate themselves in whatever way they choose and to learn how to learn. This process of learning how to learn should be the ultimate goal of all education systems, especially in a global and rapidly changing world where the knowledge of today is no longer the same knowledge of tomorrow.  This, however, must begin in a base of key truths that are the knowledge necessary for all humans living in their particular society or culture. 
           
Each society lives and understands these truths in their own way and should be allowed the right to do so. It is the development and learning of these value systems and truth that create the foundation for a child to build all other world knowledge of and give them a base in which to make choices about who they will be and what they will value. A weak foundation in these matters and other matters of education development comes from the imposition of power languages or non native language based education systems, it will never provide the means for a child to take control of their own future and deeper sense of the value and capabilities within the scope of their world, which then leads them into the scope of the larger global world. We must have a sense of the self first to ever conceptualize what the self in the larger context of the world and universe means. Rwantabagu also highlights this concept when explaining steps Africa has begun taking to educate its students in local and indigenous languages. The article says, "particular emphasis has been placed on the learning and use of African languages in school and colleges, as they embody the deep feelings and mental structures of the people." (462). It is the education that focuses on these deep feelings and mental structures that gives place for the motivation to learn to develop in a child. Motivation is an essential key in all learning and especially in language learning.