Abstract: Languages being endangered has aroused wide concern of the public. UNESCO advocates “International Mother Language Day” to protect endangered languages, inherit mother language culture and protect cultural diversity. Since the concept of mother language was put forward, it has gone through three stages: mother language education, mother language right, and mother language protection. Nowadays, this concept has lately developed into bilingual (multilingual) education based on mother language. This paper appeals to attach greater importance to basic education in its process, strengthen the training of multilingual teachers, and at the same time suggests making full use of net media to update the teaching materials and improve the teaching methods. In the meantime, China can formulate mother language policies for dialects, minority languages and Mandarin respectively in line with national conditions, and innovatively promote bilingual (multilingual) education while resolutely defending Chinese language culture tradition.  

Key words: International Mother Language Day; mother language education; mother language right; mother language protection; bilingual (multilingual) education; multilingual teachers

CONTENTS

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction1

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 UNESCO’s Concepts on Mother Language

2.2 Related Research Home and Abroad

3. Latest Development4

3.1 Evolution of Roles of Mother Language Education

3.2 Transition from Mother Language to National Language

3.3 More Concern on the Importance of Multilingual Teachers

4. Related Enlightenments7

4.1 Training High-quality Multilingual Teachers

4.2 Constantly Updating Textbooks

4.3 Formulating Education Policy in Line with National Conditions

5. Conclusion10

Bibliography.11

Acknowledgements12