List of all days celebrated by the United Nations and its Specialized Agencies: International Days >>
How to celebrate Mother Language Day in your school | Read the full post by Unesco for updates >>
Schoolteachers
- Encourage children to use their mother languages to introduce themselves and talk about their families and culture
- Celebrate culture by having them read poetry, tell a story or sing a song in their mother tongues. Paintings and drawings with captions in mother languages can also be displayed.
Students
- See how many mother languages your fellow students speak. Make a survey of the languages by interviewing them and publish the results on internet.
- Help organize cultural activities such as films, plays and music that celebrate different languages.
Resources
Publications
- Mother tongue-based multilingual education: the key to unlocking SDG 4: quality Education for All, UNESCO Bangkok, 2017
- MTB MLE resource kit: Including the excluded: promoting multilingual education, UNESCO Bangkok, 2016
- Literacy in multilingual and multicultural contexts: effective approaches to adult learning and education, UNESCO-UIL, 2016
- If you don’t understand, how can you learn?, Global Education Monitoring Report Policy Paper 24, UNESCO, 2016
- 2016 Global Monitoring Report section on Languages, UNESCO, 2016
- UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger
UN and UNESCO resolutions
- UNESCO resolution proclaiming “International Mother Language Day” to be observed on 21 February, 1999, following a proposition made by People’s Republic of Bangladesh
- Resolution adopted by UN General Assembly on multilingualism(link is external), 2002
- Report by UNESCO Director-General on a strategy concerning the role of languages in achieving Education for All (EFA) in the context of sustainable development, 2009
- UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples(link is external), 2008
- Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, 2001
- Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic Religious and Linguistic Minorities(link is external), 1992
Videos
Background
Follow us!
- Follow us on social media: #MotherLanguageDay(link is external)
On International Mother Language Day 2018, celebrated every year on 21 February, UNESCO reiterates its commitment to linguistic diversity and invites its Member States to celebrate the day in as many languages as possible as a reminder that linguistic diversity and multilingualism are essential for sustainable development.
UNESCO has been celebrating International Mother Language Day for nearly 20 years with the aim of preserving linguistic diversity and promoting mother tongue-based multilingual education. | Read the full post on the Unesco website >>
Linguistic diversity and multilingual education
Language teaching and particularly multilingual education are a key factor in the development of understanding among peoples and dialogue for peace. Accordingly, during the current biennium, UNESCO has redoubled its activities aimed at promoting linguistic diversity at all levels of education and encouraging the practice of multilingualism. At the same time, it has reinforced its action to protect and enhance the linguistic heritage, especially that of indigenous populations and people belonging to minorities. The LINGUAPAX project has been refocused in such a way as to incorporate these different objectives within a harmonious framework of action. […]An “International Mother Language Day” launched and to be observed on 21 February. | Learn more >>
Source: Approved Programme and budget, 2000-2001
URL: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000120679.page=184
Date visited: 25 January 2019
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