EN
INA
International Perspective on Ethnic Minority Education: History, Theory, Policy, and Practice
Denpasar - The development of the times has brought changes in social life, one of which is in the language aspect, which over the last few years has become the focus of the government. The threat of extinction of mother tongues, especially regional languages, prompted Udayana Political Science to hold a public lecture with the theme of an international perspective on ethnic minority education, which took place in the Udayana Political Science hall. (09/10/2023)
Language as the main means of human communication is one of the things that cannot be separated in life. There is not just one, but there are thousands of languages in the world. So, it is not surprising if someone has the ability to speak more than one language other than their mother tongue. Especially for those who don't live in their country of origin, like it or not, they have to learn the everyday language there. The habit of using a second language often makes someone forget their mother tongue, until they gradually become speakers of only one language. Seeing this phenomenon that occurs globally, Dr. Dina Mehmedbegovic-Smithrof was present to provide her study material at a public lecture with the theme "International Perspectives on Ethnic Minority Education: History, Theory, Policy, and Practice".
Dr. Dina Mehmedbegovic-Smithrof is one of the linguistic education activists at University College London (ULC). Currently, Dr. Dina was active in the review group that initiated the concept of Healthy Linguistic Diet (HLD), which was also one of the topics of discussion with the public lecture participants. Dr. Dina shares her research on ethnic minorities living in London and the languages they speak. He conveyed how children who are not native English speakers tend to lose the ability to use their mother tongue after mastering English. London itself is a place with speakers of a variety of languages, but the erosion of children's abilities, especially minorities who tend to be bilingual, has resulted in the disappearance of speakers of languages other than English.
Apart from that, historical factors such as war also trigger the disappearance of speakers of other languages. This fact brought Dr. Dina created her method, namely the Healthy Linguistic Diet (HLD), which was developed with the aim of helping improve cognitive abilities in language. Like a physical diet, this linguistic diet method also carries the same concept, namely how to regulate balanced portions in the habit of learning more than one language so that a person does not lose his bilingual abilities. This interesting topic was also accompanied by a warm discussion with enthusiastic participants, guided directly by Gede Indra Pramana, S.IP., M.A. as moderator.
It is hoped that through this public lecture, participants will be able to have a new perspective on language and can serve as an example that can later be implemented in Indonesian society which is also multicultural with its variety of languages. Apart from that, it is hoped that the topics presented will stimulate students to carry out research related to linguistics and the disciplines being studied. (Intan)
FACULTY OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE