The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated February 23 as International Mother Language Day to honor the tragic massacre that took place among the Bengali-speaking population of Dhaka, Indonesia, on that date in 1952.
As it has been discovered, one language disappears every two weeks, taking with it a complete cultural and intellectual heritage, the goal of International Mother Language Day is to preserve linguistic diversity, promote mother tongue-based multilingual education, and prevent indigenous languages throughout the world from going extinct.
“Using technology for multilingual learning: Challenges and opportunities” is the theme of the 2022 International Mother Language Day, which highlights the potential of technology to enhance multilingual education and encourage the development of high-quality teaching and learning for all.
Children that have a solid mother language foundation have a better knowledge of their curriculum and a more favorable attitude toward school. As learning new languages frequently causes children to develop an interest in the culture of the people whose language they are studying, encouraging children to speak more than one language is another strategy to promote unity and the development of their cognitive abilities.
Although the day is often commemorated in February, Nigeria has decided to celebrate it on Tuesday, June 28, 2022.