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தமிழகத்துக்கும் இலங்கைக்கும் வெளியே நாமும் நமது தாய்மொழியும் / பாரம்பரிய மொழியும்
Mother Tongue, Heritage Language, First Language and Second Language have their unique and in-depth meanings in today’s globalization. In Singapore, we have a special arrangement in our bilingual education. Ideally, a child acquires its first language i.e. its mother tongue, at home and come to the school to learn English. Under our Singapore’s meaningful bilingual policy, a child learns English at School as first language and mother tongue language at second language level. Mother tongue acquisition provides a strong foundation to itself and for the facilitation of English language. It is an additional resource for a child to use its mother tongue language to learn and acquire English. Parents can believe this to introduce mother tongue language and English at home. Without the mother tongue language acquisition, the child will lose its invaluable ancestors’ language and its rich cultural benefits. Outside Tamil Nadu (India) and Sri Lanka Tamil language has its official language status in Singapore along with Chinese, Malay and English. Government continuously supports all of its initiatives towards Tamil. Let us continuously let a Tamil child to acquire its cultural language, that is, its mother tongue language (Tamil) and also to develop its character and confidence. As educators, we can try our best to facilitate them to use Standard Spoken Tamil (Spoken Tamil), create interesting story books and design our lessons based on their interesting topics. In today’s globalization, it is unique and important for a child to know its Mother tongue language to understand its linguistic and cultural features and develop itself as a confident user of its cultural language. And also, to stand on its own without losing the identity. This also provides a great opportunity to be bilingual and a bicultural citizen.