Day 11

6 Min. Mother Tongue Promotion for a Migrant Child in Thuringia

Every Language is a Treasure  Every Language is a Treasure

6 Min. Mother Tongue Promotion for a Migrant Child in Thuringia
Day 11
Become strong in all languages through confidence in your native language

"The family of our father lives in Lebanon. We want to learn Arabic so we can talk to them too." This is what Layla and Amirah (11 and 14 years old) say, who have been learning their native language in an Arabic course for almost two years. Layla and Amirah are sisters and live in Erfurt. Every Sunday morning, they attend a language school. While newly arrived people learn German there during the week, the Arabic course takes place on the weekend. Layla and Amirah practice speaking, writing, and reading. They are making quick progress and can now read and understand longer texts. They enjoy the lessons. They even write in Arabic with their school friends now. When they call their grandparents in Lebanon, they are really proud of them. Just imagine, you couldn't call your grandparents because you didn't understand them!

Become strong in all languages through confidence in your native language
Become strong in all languages through confidence in your native language
need
Promoting heritage languages for children and young people to enable better educational opportunities, integration and personal development
activity
Professional, long-term course offering for students together with native-speaking lecturers and migrant organizations
Measurable performance
Number of initiated courses for native language teaching with planned teaching units
Result
More children and young people communicate confidently in their mother tongue and gain confidence in multilingualism
Systemically relevant impact
Improved educational opportunities for the children receiving support; increasing social recognition and appreciation of multilingualism
background

Like Layla and Amirah, around 21% of all children and young people in Germany grow up with one or even multiple languages (Federal Statistical Office, 2022). In Thuringia, this is about 20,000 children and young people. They speak languages such as Arabic, Turkish, Ukrainian, or Polish with their parents, grandparents, and siblings. Here, we differentiate between mother tongue or first language (which was learned first as a child, and there may be more than one) and heritage language (the language spoken in the country or region where the family originally comes from). Being able to speak and write their heritage language properly is very important for these children to communicate with their families. Improving their heritage language even makes it easier to learn other languages, whether it's German or another language. When we learn a new language, we can build on existing knowledge that helps us in the language learning process. For example, we can make connections between word meanings when they are similar, or understand grammar rules more easily when we compare them to languages we already know. For this to work well, it's important that children are encouraged to use their multilingualism as a resource and incorporate their prior knowledge (Kuhn A., Schnitzer K., 2022). But it's not just about communication with one another. Children who are supported in their heritage language also have better chances of achieving a higher school graduation. This language proficiency is also a resource later in life, as foreign language skills are becoming increasingly important in almost all professions. Moreover, the heritage language is an essential part of their identity. By valuing their multilingualism, immigrant children and young people experience greater acceptance of their linguistic and cultural identity (State Integration Council NRW, 2016).

Jena Germany
Day 11 Day 11 Day 11 Day 11
The good deed

With your donation, at least 85 children and young people in Thuringia will be able to improve their reading, writing, and speaking skills by participating in a course in their mother tongue. Some children may already speak their mother tongue well but need to practice writing. Others may be able to write in German but not in Arabic or Ukrainian, even though they speak these languages at home. In the offered courses, the children continue where they currently stand. They learn, improve, and consolidate their language skills. This also includes learning about the culture of their country of origin. Additionally, they learn that their first language is very useful to them and is an important part of their identity. The native-speaking, also immigrant, instructors are professionally supported and further trained. All participants experience themselves as part of a community through their collaboration and can support each other.

About Germany
Berlin
Berlin
Capital city
84,482,267
84,482,267
population
as of 2023
52,745.8
52,745.8
Gross domestic product per capita per year in USD
as of 2023
0.950
0.950
Human Development Index (Human Development Index)
as of 2023/2024

Many innovative educational ideas come from Thuringia, e.g. the school hiking day (Stoy), the world's first kindergarten (Fröbel) and the Jenaplan School (Petersen).