Indigenous Language, Technology-Education and Human Spiritual Potentialities ()
1. Introduction
Hans-Georg Gadamer was known among other things for his theory of philosophical hermeneutics. He holds the position “that all human understanding involves interpretations and that such interpretation is itself historically conditioned by particular cultures and languages” ( Gadamer, 2017 ). This lends credence to the fact that one’s mode of understanding and interpretation of the world is traditionally determined by one’s exposition to given language and cultures as primary avenues of encounter with the world.
This write-up seeks to highlight some indispensable connections. These are those between language and its enfolding culture, between technology-education, and the development that ensues from it, and the integral and holistic spiritual potentialities of man. These potentialities are released by a harmonious grasp and synergy between one’s homeliness in his native language and his discovery of himself, his value, dignity, and meaning in life.
It intends to bring to the fore, the poverty of a world where only a few are productive and others are consumers. The engagement of a richness hidden in indigenous languages will be made to manifest from the moment that all obstacles to their full use are removed. At that point, they become media of not only internal communication but also of technical, professional, technological, and formal instruction in educational institutions and in all facets of the speakers’ lives.
Finally, it presupposes that man is the architect of his innovations. But these will be more positively and beneficially engaged when used in a certain way. One of the best of these ways will be when there is a harmony between his exterior and interior qualities, and a synchrony between his physiological, psychological, and spiritual aspects. That is when the whole spiritual potentialities will be released and the discrepancy between the scientific and the spiritual, between the religious and the secular, between the technological and the merely scientifically advanced, will give way to just the humanistic and the dignifying.
2. Language and Culture as Matrix
2.1. Selecting a Template
Language habours the culture and mental wiring of its speaker. But culture also habours a language. Both enrich each other. What this means is that the mental framework of the speaker is greatly even if imperfectly reflected in his language. This is the reason, at the beginning of their new linguistic formation, secondary speakers often express concepts that appear strange to the original speakers. This is because they bring in the mental formulations of their original and earlier language of thought to bear on the new one. So, till they learn how the different culture domesticating the language expresses the same reality, their mind imposes their earlier psycho-social internalized categories on the new language. Later, after they have mastered it enough, the new language can also impact on their mind.
Thus, a language and its harbouring culture may not be strictly and absolutely divorced from each other in a speaker who lacks a pluralistic cultural experience. Few exceptions to this can be found. This would be in the cases of colonialism, apartheid, slavery, and internal ethnic domination (i.e. local colonialism) where their remnants have left artificial chasms. The gaps are found often between what is spoken and the original culture with a different, probably less diffusely spoken linguistic matrix. An example of this will be in titles of books and movies. They appear in very different ways in various languages to capture the cultural matrix of the receiving audience. For instance, the Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe’s classic in English is titled, Things Fall Apart. In German, the title is Okonkwo oder Das Das Alte Stürz. In Italian, it is titled, Il Crollo. The three titles reveal three different ways of the linguistic expression of the same reality as understood by the translators.
Again, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s Weep Not Child in Italian is translated as Se ne andranno le nuvole devastatrici. These are only titles that reveal the point being sought to be made here. There is a difference between knowing a language because it is an avenue of instruction and knowing it because it is one’s language. This is what is meant by a gap.
Apart from titles of books and movies, in the spoken language, it is more evident. Take for instance, to take a bath in English, in the Igbo indigenous language of Nigeria it (isa ahu) will literally read, to wash the body, or (iwu ahu) to pour the body, or in Italian, to make a bath. In English, when a person sneezes, the exclamation that follows is bless you. In Italian they say salute which means health. In Igbo language, they say, ndu gi (literally, your life).
Similarly, in English on the first of April they say April Fool, In Italian, they call it pesce di Aprile. The first day of the year is called New Year Day in English is Capo d’anno (literally head of the year in English). In the end, these expressions amount to the same actions captured through different concepts. All these facts buttress the points which are found in various ways in different languages.
A particular language exists in every culture in most places. Every culture possesses at least one particular language. This is either in its restricted form as a dialect (depending on the extension of the culture in its particular expression) or in its more diffused form. People who use such a dialect or language as their primary medium of communication perceive it as their indigenous language. Though a situation where one culture habours several languages and not just dialects, is also obtainable. Every culture has at least a language that can be said to be indigenous to it. This has also been lost in some places, so much so that a language is shared by multiple cultures. Language is pivotal to human survival, existence, and the maximization of transmitted human spiritual values. Gadamer corroborates this view by postulating that “nothing exists except through language” ( Gadamer, 2017 ).
However, on neutral metaphysical grounds, this may be contested. This is because it appears to place the priority of language over being or to underline their simultaneity. But this only demonstrates the importance and efficacy of language as employed by humans. Yet, language plays an important role in the identification and communication of conceived ideas to the outside world. It promotes one’s intellectual growth by facilitating learning, unlearning, and relearning of ideas within one’s habitat. Even the ability of someone to learn another language (either as a secondary or totally foreign one) is largely dependent on his proficiency in his first language (most likely his mother tongue).
An indigenous or one’s first language helps one to compare and associate new vocabulary (from the new language being learnt) with the already established repertoire of words in the human brain. This gives one the appropriate sense of direction in learning and understanding another language. One’s indigenous language enables one to either build or create classifications of things or objects in one’s brain for easy recognition, identification, and communication when necessary. This lends credence to the importance of human language, most especially, the irreplaceable roles played by indigenous languages in human development. This is the aspect that connects with the human values that are totally spiritual in the sense of being immaterial but also most often in the sense of forming man’s beliefs and approaches to the immediate and consequently cosmic reality and phenomenon.
2.2. The Nature of Indigenous Languages
The Human mind is always active. It keeps processing information endlessly once a person remains alive and active, whether he is asleep or awake. Human beings dream, reflect, think, speak, and move their bodies even while asleep. Some claim to be spiritually active in any state, their religion, notwithstanding. Whoever dreams, thinks, and reflects must be doing so in a particular language or set of languages (for those who have more than a language as their mother tongue), they are most at home with. The outcome of one’s reflection is always communicated in a particular language; or when the person is multilingual, aspects of his or her thoughts are captured in the language that best expresses the reality. So, they may choose to capture their mind in words in these different languages or to keep them in the closest possible format to reality in a chosen language. Consequently, the communication of the outcome of reflection is not possible without language (though not necessarily verbal).
The language one appears to be most comfortable with is often the one that forms the social background and widest medium of communication where the one grew up and can be considered to be the person’s indigenous language. This is one’s original, homegrown, local, native, or aboriginal language. An indigenous language determines how one thinks and how one’s brain is wired since it is the first language that shapes one’s thought processes and vocabulary. It determines one’s mode of perception of one’s environment. Uzgalis cites John Locke who postulates the theory of tabula-rasa as being the original states of the human mind after birth ( Uzgalis, 2022 ). Locke likens the human mind after birth to a blank slate without any impressions. The empty mind later gets filled up with impressions acquired through experience as the newborn baby’s analytical mind develops. These experiences which entail socialization and interactions with others can only be made possible through human association and best through human language. It is worth noting that language is not limited to oral verbal communication alone though that is the most expressive form of it. Language could equally come in the form of signs and symbols. This first language and the healthy mental capacity together shape and configure a child’s brain from birth to adulthood and determine his worldview and rate of assimilation of new ideas. They determine how people perceive their environment and transform or develop it through technology.
Accordingly, if an indigenous language—understood as the first language of encounter of a human with reality and the widest spread avenue of communication around the individual—determines how one’s brain is wired and how they perceive their environment, then it should be the most appropriate tool for integral education including teaching, research and learning in schools. Secondary, official, or foreign languages are equally good for instructional delivery in schools. However, the most appropriate language for use in formal education should be the native language in order to maximize the intellectual potential of the human brain and improve one’s rate of perception.
Those born where there are no differences between what they speak at home and the instructional vehicle of formal education may not appreciate the enormity of the discourse at hand. But all those born where this discrepancy reigns will understand it. All the former Anglophone and Francophone countries fit into this category. But the reflection is valid for all. The success rate of indigenous languages in fostering mutual disposition to listening, consideration, to understanding, peace and collaboration reveals the latent untapped potency of any mother tongue to the release of faster rates of technological development for man in general.
3. Prepare Your Paper before Styling
The Place of Indigenous Languages in Technological Education
Language is a very important tool in technological formation. Its primacy has given rise to such non-common-person-to-person interactive vocabularies and expressions as a computer language, mathematical language, logical language, technical language, religious language, etc. Each terminology buttresses the specificity of the “sectorial” priority of the field for progress. Language should therefore be given its pride of place in the field of education. It plays an irreplaceable role in the training of the mind. John Dewey is emphatic when he postulates that language is the tool of tools ( Dewey, 2008 ).
However, the emphasis of this work is specifically on the indigenous language of a people; their mother tongue. This could equally be referred to as an autochthonous language; that is which is a language native to a particular province and used as a medium of communication by the aboriginal people. However, this is not to downgrade foreign and other forms of languages, because a language that is foreign to one person is native to another. Yoshi Shimizu equally emphasizes the importance of native languages and their efficacy in preserving human cultural and intellectual heritages. “Preserving indigenous languages—as a reservoir of diversity and an essential component of collective and individual identity—stands as an ethical imperative indissociable from respect for the dignity of the individual. When an indigenous language is lost, not only does the knowledge accumulated by the community of its speakers fade away, but also the world’s cultural and biological diversity is jeopardized” ( Shimizu, 2022 ).
In light of the above, indigenous languages play irreplaceable roles in the sustenance and preservation of the world’s intellectual, cultural, and biological diversities. For the sake of clarity, an indigenous language is a language spoken by a people. This type of language might not be the national language of a country but can equally be adopted as a national language. Consequently, an indigenous language is not foreign but native to a people within a locality. It is advised that native languages should be the mainstay of technology education since the indigenous people are more conversant with it.
Many developed countries have discovered this timeless secret of research, teaching, and learning. They have long adopted it as their main language of teaching and learning. However, most of the developing countries of the world especially in Africa have either not yet discovered this hidden fact or been kept from utilizing it. How can a past colonial power frown because its onetime colony wants to adopt a local language as its official language instead of the colonial one? Unfortunately, most of these past colonies still teach their students in foreign languages imposed on them by their former colonial masters. Their policymakers and the political puppet leaders are yet to overcome the inferiority complex that their native languages are inferior and therefore not good enough for imparting knowledge or even the threat of the withdrawal of strangulating aids at the prospect of this idea. This could also be one of the residual effects of the slave trade.
Indigenous Languages and Instruction in the Developed World
Every sovereign nation of the world is endowed with both national and indigenous languages that are marks of her identity. An indigenous language can equally be adopted as the national language of a country. Citizens of France could be identified through their national language which is French; citizens of England could be identified through their national language, which is English; Germans could be identified through their national language which is standard German, etc. According to Thema-News, the following countries are the top 12 most technologically advanced nations in the world: Japan, the United States, South Korea, Israel, Germany, Russia, Finland, the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, Netherlands and China. However, Marc Getzoff in a rather most recent study, ranks technologically advanced countries differently ( Getzoff, 2023 ).
Additionally, these countries seem to share one other thing in common apart from their enviable technological advancements. The common denominator among them is the fact that all of them use largely their indigenous languages for their technology-education. They all promote their native languages which are used as tools for research, teaching, and learning in technology-education in their various schools. These countries will be analyzed briefly below and this work will concentrate mainly on university education since that is the seat of technological research and learning.
Language of Instruction in the Japanese Universities
The language mostly used in Japanese schools is a homegrown Japanese language. This is a complex language that requires to be learnt from the early stage of a child’s development. This informs why language tutors are mandated to start early enough to teach Japanese children on how to read and write. According to the Japan Educational System, “the complexity of the written language means that Japanese spend many years studying their own language” ( Japan Educational System, 2023 ). This is in order to prepare them for the intellectual tasks and life ahead. The family is usually the first school every child attends and the learning of this language starts from the family. It is worth noting that the Hyojungo native language is used for both education and interactions among her citizens. In J. C. Maher’s words “Japan’s government sees new social factors emerging in the twenty-first century: an aging population, cultural diversification, and the continuing modernist trope of Japan as a ‘monolingual’ and ‘monocultural’ nation. In national language policy, the Japanese government adopted a standard language called hyojungo” ( Maher, 2017 ).
United States of America’s Language of Instruction
The United States of America has American (English) as its national language. It conducts most of its education and research in American. However, the country is like a mini-United Nations. So, virtually people from all parts of the world are represented in the country and this accounts for why Spanish, French, Latin, and German are taught to the native English speakers in the US. Japanese and Chinese languages are equally taught in order to accommodate the influx of citizens of these countries given their economic and political status in the world today. China, for instance, is currently regarded as one of the strongest economies in the world and can dictate the pace of the world economy. According to Corey Mitchell, “across the map, Romance languages are taught most often in U.S. high schools, with 46 percent of all foreign language classes focusing on Spanish and another 21 percent on French. Chinese, German and Latin are the only other world languages that account for more than 5 percent of the courses offered to secondary school students” ( Corey, 2017 ).
So, the United States of America as a nation strives to accommodate foreigners especially students in their countries by teaching their languages as stated above and using them as instruments of teaching, research, and learning. This emphasizes the importance of the usage of native languages for instructional delivery. It is worth noting that the teaching of Chinese language in American schools is being funded by the People’s Republic of China Government (PRC) directly ( Asia Society, 2023 ). The Chinese seem to have discovered the importance of indigenous languages. They have been intentional about propagating their language even in other foreign nations like the United States of America. Among other intentions, this is aimed at providing an intellectual soft-landing for some Chinese students who might decide to further their education in America. This gesture by the Chinese government leaves the observer with one conclusion namely that China wants to popularize her language and make it one of the languages used in teaching Chinese students studying in America. The Chinese government has discovered the value and importance of teaching and learning in one’s own native language. This has impacted positively on their technological advancement and economy today.
As already stated, America is one of the world’s superpowers and conducts the education of her citizens in American (English). This no doubt has facilitated tremendous technological growth in the country. Fast intellectual understanding and assimilation can only be actualized when students are taught in a language of which they are native speakers i.e., one they grew up speaking from the cradle. This is one of the major impacts of an indigenous language.
The Israeli Language of Instruction
Schools in Israel are mostly divided into two. The division stems from the languages used in the instructional delivery in the country. While the Jewish section is taught solely in Hebrew language, the Arab section is taught in Arabic ( Mullis et al., 2016 ). Israel is one of the leading nations today in the field of medicine and they know the invaluable nature of native languages in technology education. Israel is also a leading nation in agriculture and military technology.
Medium of Instruction in German Universities
The medium of instruction in German universities is mostly German. This is because their primary targets are German students. However, some Universities in Germany are bilingual for the sole benefit of immigrants and international students. To elucidate on this, Laura Tucker asserts that “while most programs are taught in German, there are opportunities to study in Germany in English, with a growing selection of English-language programs designed for international students” ( Tucker, 2022 ). This implies that while Universities in Germany teach in German for the sake of German students, English programs are designed to accommodate some foreign students. This is proof that Germany indeed knows the value and efficacy of indigenous languages in instructional delivery in their schools. They teach their citizens in German and teach foreign students in the languages they are equally proficient in. Their primary objective is to improve intellectual absorption of the knowledge being imparted to the students for the technological growth of Germany and the world at large.
The Language of Instruction in Chinese Universities
The Chinese language remains the major medium of instruction in Chinese Universities. According to China Education Info, “Mandarin is used as the language or medium of instruction in China in most of the schools. Schools in areas where ethnic minorities live also teach in their native languages such as Mongolian and Korean. But at the college level, there are many English medium graduate level programs as well” ( China Education Info, 2008 ). It is worth noting that all these (Mongolian, Tibetan, and Korean) are native languages and this may have accounted among other factors for their average level of intelligence and productiveness in the field of technology in China today. However, China considers some foreign students too, especially those coming from the English-speaking nations of the world. Some powerful international languages are equally adopted to attract international students to study in China. So, whenever the English language is considered in Chinese Universities, it is mainly for the interests of some foreign students.
To cap it all, indigenous languages are rooted in the culture of the people. This determines how the brains of the people are wired. The latter in turn equally dictates how they perceive their environment and their world-hood. So, the native language, the people, and their cultures are delicately fused together. The fusion is more metaphysical than physical. This accounts for its positive impacts on technology especially when native languages are used as media of technology-education. No wonder China has been rubbing shoulders with the most technologically advanced nations of the world today where it has not actually overtaken them. They discovered early enough the potency and the importance of native or indigenous languages in education especially in technology.
The same pattern applies to other countries that fall within the category of developed nations like South Korea, Russia, Finland, Canada, Singapore, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. According to Leslie P. Thiele, Martin Heidegger equally demonstrates the importance, the efficacy, and the supremacy of language over man by asserting that “man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man” ( Thiele, 2014 ). Language indeed affects man’s thinking. Through ideas, it controls man. This has the consequence of it controlling the universe and all its knowledge. This confirms the popular saying that ideas rule the world. Asians and the Europeans have discovered the potency and the real value in the use of indigenous languages as the medium of instruction in their various schools. This has propelled their technology to enviable heights. Foreign languages are good but the success rates recorded under indigenous languages are too tremendous to be ignored.
4. Indigenous Languages in Technology Education in Africa
Africa as a continent is grossly backward in the field of technology as a local content. This could be as a result of the negative impacts of colonization among others. Many of the Countries in Africa still rely heavily on the languages imposed on them by their colonial masters as the languages of instructions in their various schools. This has not helped in harnessing the intellectual potentials of Africans as appropriate especially in the field of science, technology and overall development. Technology is culture-bound. It needs the best understandable language to the candidate—in this case, one could say it is an indigenous language—while conducting research, teaching and learning. This is in order to make more appreciable impacts on students. A concrete instance of this could be seen in the three years of the existence of the State of Biafra in Africa where they soared so high in technological innovations that the Western world championed by Britain was amazed that it held off their sponsored genocidal war for three years through locally but effectively technological arms fabrications ( Ubong, 2011 ).
The effects of the colonial mentality are still palpable among Africans today. A French man can be excused by Africans for his inability to speak English. An English man can be forgiven by Africans for his lack of proficiency in Swahili (South African language). A German can be excused by Africans for her inability to speak impeccable Chinese. But Africans cannot excuse fellow Africans who speak native African languages fluently but cannot speak either, English, French, or Portuguese fluently. So, one is still rated today as educated based on how fluently he or she speaks foreign languages like English, French, Portuguese, etc.
Nigeria readily comes to mind here. A sound Engineer, Philosopher, or Physicist can still be rated as poorly educated when he is deemed not fluent in English language. The worst part of this is that when students from these areas have to go to where the language is used as an indigenous language, they still have to be re-subjected to all forms of examinations. One of this is TOEFL for English language speakers. This goes to underline that psychologically, speakers of foreign origin to the native land of these languages are not even considered to be adequately proficient in them. Attention is not often paid to the level of knowledge one has acquired but to one’s ability to speak ‘the’ impeccable and free-flowing English (or any other foreign) language. English remains the language of study in the primary and secondary schools up to the University level in Nigeria. No course is taught in Igbo, Hausa or in Yoruba languages unless one is studying any of them as a course in the University. In French speaking Cameroun, the case is worse where there is almost a death of the indigenous language and life as a whole has to be French even if that would be considered second class by the French themselves.
No wonder some students develop apathy towards some core courses in technology such as Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering. Some of these courses have English scientific terms, formulas and symbols that are often difficult to comprehend by many students especially those not opportune enough to pass through very good schools. This would not have been the case had these courses been taught in their native or indigenous languages. Until African Countries and Nigeria in particular realize the importance of indigenous languages in education especially in technology, their advancements in technology will continue to be elusive. The point is that the colonial language has not been able to penetrate every reality of the colonized people. It is still for that reason, that it is unable to capture the spiritual essence of human drive, urge and development in its users.
However, many developed countries in the world today are already on the fast lane in the field of technology. They saw the importance of native languages in technology education. They are potent tools of education because they are deeply rooted in people’s way of life and in the way they perceive the world around them. They are their first languages of thinking which are deeply rooted in the culture of the people and influence the way the people’s whole life functions. So, whatever knowledge is communicated through native languages is easily decoded, understood, and internalized by the students. Learners do not need the services of dictionaries in extraordinarily burdensome ways in order to understand the meaning of the words used during teaching and learning because the language has become their way of life and identity. One’s native language is naturally linked to one’s culture and how one perceives one’s environment. J. I. Okonkwo lends credence to this by stating emphatically that “failure to perceive the worldhood through the medium of language is, ‘to miss the gateway to philosophy’ and invariably miss the gateway to the philosophy of perception. To this effect, the perception of the possible world is a language or linguistic enterprise and therefore becomes a rescue mission for ‘the meaning of meaning’” ( Okonkwo, sine data ).
So, the interaction and interconnectivity between one’s indigenous language and one’s culture create the enabling environment for technology education to thrive when such education is taught through the instrumentality of the native language. This is because the essence and the end of any language is communication. Implicitly, any language without the ability to communicate effectively has failed. It is believed that when native languages are used; every idea will naturally fall into place and the level of comprehension will be higher among the listening students and audience. One’s usage of his or her native language within their cultural environment perfectly wires one’s brain and makes it more receptive to any new information shared or taught in that native language.
An academic symphony and a fertile ground are created for easy assimilation of new knowledge when one is at home with one’s native language and is immersed in one’s culture. An effort to impart any new knowledge with the native or indigenous language as the medium of instruction would reveal that the students involved would more naturally assimilate the new technological information faster than when such information is communicated in a foreign language.
Consequently, one is then compelled to argue that indigenous languages are more effective in technology-education than foreign languages. Not to be forgotten is the maxim, omnia tradutor traditor, that every translator is a traitor. There may be the tendency for one to consciously or unconsciously misinterpret ideas shared in a foreign language and in the process distort the information being communicated or taught in the classroom. Again, a lecturer who is not proficient in a foreign language may distort or misinterpret some of the ideas being taught and then fail to make the intellectual impact his lectures are expected to wield on the students. All these high-tech and technologically advanced nations of the world seem to have discovered this secret by conducting all their teaching, learning, and technological education through the media of their indigenous languages.
Edward Sapir argues that the real world is crafted on the language traditions, practices and habits of a group. The term group could mean a tribe, a community, a state, a country, etc. To elucidate more on this, he emphasizes that “it is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection. The fact of the matter is that the ‘real world’ is to a large extent unconsciously built upon the language habits of the group. No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached” ( Sapir, 1985 ).
In light of the above, Sapir’s emphasis is on the language habits of a group. If one is to analyze the implication of his comment, one will realize that the language habit of any group or people is nothing but the indigenous language of that group. He equally emphasizes that no two languages are purely the same and can stand as representatives of the same social reality. This could equally be stretched to mean that both the foreign and the native languages are not purely the same and cannot represent the same cultural reality. B. L. Whorf presents Sapir as arguing that “we see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation ( Whorf, 1964 ).
This comment supports the claim that one’s perception of things and one’s experience in life are anchored on the language habits of one’s group. These habits give meaning to certain interpretations that the person attaches to things around him or her. Logically, the language habits of a group being referred to by Sapir could be the native language, the mother tongue, etc. This is as good as saying that the native language habits of a group determine the interpretations and certain choices one makes within one’s group. This is not a calculated attempt to belittle the importance of foreign languages. However, one should not forget that a language that appears foreign to a group belongs to another group as their own indigenous language. So, while Chinese is native to Chinese people, it appears foreign to Igbo people and vice-versa.
Furthermore, native languages are delicately intertwined with culture and world-hood; they create the mold that gives shape, interpretation, and meaning to things within a group. So, one’s brain is naturally wired along this line and it is hoped that any new knowledge or information shared in this type of environment and circumstance will make more appreciable impacts on the recipients of such knowledge. Language is the key to technological education. Nevertheless, indigenous language defines and determines how fast students assimilate what they are taught for the technological advancements of their group or community. Indigenous languages are naturally designed and crafted by one’s culture and thus are the best medium of communication and interactions within one’s culture during technology education for better results.
Even when some Europeans and Asians use multiple languages of instruction in their universities and schools, it is mainly for the benefit of the immigrants in their countries. To be more exact, such action is not necessarily taken for the interests of their citizens but to accommodate foreigners in their respective countries who are bent on studying in their own indigenous languages, or the languages they are more proficient in. It is worthy of pertinent to observe that any form of language other than indigenous language would remain foreign to secondary users either consciously or unconsciously and to the students receiving education through it.
Moreover, indigenous languages can instill some sense of belonging in students and make them feel at home and at ease while learning and researching any topic. Whatever value that belongs to a people is highly treasured, appreciated, welcomed and respected by such people. The same applies to one’s own language when it is used as the means of instruction in schools. Developing and underdeveloped nations especially in Africa should reconsider and adopt native and indigenous languages as media of instructions in their various schools for their technological growth and advancements.
5. Conclusion
Indigenous Language as Most Recommendable for Education
The best thing would have been to educate one in all the grades and levels but more especially at the highest levels, in the language he or she speaks at the most basic level. It is highly recommended that everywhere, primarily, indigenous languages be made the minimal prerequisite courses for admissions into local Universities at all levels. They should equally be made a principal part of the languages of instruction at all levels of formal education. The value and importance of indigenous languages cannot be overemphasized.
Many developed nations of the world as previously discussed have discovered this importance. What the dearth of use of indigenous languages misses is the universal openness to humanity in cultural development and humanistic realization. This is where the academia’s promotion of autochthonous languages as the indispensable tool of human promotion will redound to a healthier, wealthier, more peaceful and more technological world. The valorisation of the positive potency of language—all languages will be the unearthing of immense human potentialities that may occasion an eruption of a hitherto suppressed and partialized volcanic capacity of technological developments innate in language.
To promote indigenous languages, textbooks for instance must be translated into them. The various ministries of culture and ministries of education in various countries where native languages differ from official languages could be encouraged to work together for the development of the indigenous language.
Grants and funds could be set aside to encourage linguistic artists and writers in these languages. Faculties of humanities in universities could assist in the development of these indigenous languages in linguistic studies. That would assist also in providing employment and enhance pride in one’s natural language. At that point, translation from the mental through the oral-linguistic, to the artistic-technical technological, to the psychological, logo-therapeutic, and spiritual will make a very sound and smooth transition. Man will be the richer.
Instead of being afraid of the harms and dangers of technological innovations falling into the wrong hands, or the risk of misuse by bad actors, like that which recently warranted the AI Summit in the UK, ( Sunak’s Speech, 2023 ) there will only be joy in sharing them. This is given that very superlative human and spiritual values would have been prepared ahead in every language and culture for the reception of the fruits of human potentialities made available through technology.