Resources for Awareness Raising and Advocacy

Below are some recommended resources to help with awareness raising and advocacy for the use of non-dominant languages in education.
 

Multilingual Education

This multicolored booklet, produced by SIL, provides a brief overview of several important issues in MLE: advocacy, capacity building, writing systems, resource linking and lifelong learning.

 

Why Languages Matter: Meeting Millennium Development Goals through local languages

An SIL International booklet on the importance of language for the UN Millennium Development Goals. Both Multilingual Education and Why Languages Matter are available in six languages: Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish.


Advocacy Kit for Promoting Multilingual Education

A set of five booklets designed to raise awareness of the importance of multilingual education.



Promoting Literacy in Multilingual Settings

A UNESCO publication written by SIL personnel, this publication gives an overview of literacy issues in the multilingual contexts of Asia, presents case studies from a number of Asian countries, and provides some guidelines for practitioners in conducting literacy and MLE programmes that accommodate minority languages.

 

Why Language Matters for the Millennium Development Goals

“Language is the key to inclusion. Language is at the center of human activity, self-expression and identity. Recognizing the primary importance that people place on their own language fosters the kind of true participation in development that achieves lasting results." UNESCO Bangkok 2012


Why Language Matters for the Millennium Development Goals (Brochure)

UNESCO-Bangkok and LEAD Asia (SIL) produced an abbreviated version (6 pages) of the above. “It is increasingly being recognized that progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is not happening equitably. Many of the low-income communities in which more progress is needed live in complex language situations. Choosing the best language in which to engage with these marginalized communities is key to achieving the remaining MDGs."

 

CONFINTEA VI Brochure (Sixth International Conference on Adult Education)

What do half the world's non-literate adults have in common? They are speakers of non-dominant languages. Languages matter. Of approximately 776 million remaining non-literates in the world, an estimated 50 percent speak non-dominant languages.

 

 

MTB-MLE - Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education: Lessons Learned from a Decade of Research and Practice (Brochure)

The Asia Pacific Multilingual Education Working Group organized 4th international conference in November 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand which brought over 300 practitioners from 30 countries, reflecting the incredible diversity of the Asia-Pacific region and clearly demonstrating the importance of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE).