International Mother Language Day acknowledges that languages and multilingualism can improve inclusion and support the Sustainable Development Goals on leaving no one behind.
The Day is an essential platform to promote the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity, and multilingualism for peaceful and sustainable societies.
Multilingualism contributes to the development of inclusive societies that allow multi-cultures, worldviews, and knowledge systems to coexist in harmony. Not only that but also the use of mother languages in education is important to preserve linguistic diversity, promote rights to quality education, and improve inclusion.
As the theme of the 2023 International Mother Language Day, “Multilingual education – a necessity to transform education” aligns with recommendations made during the Transforming Education Summit, where an emphasis was also placed on Indigenous people’s education and languages.
A United Nations report outlines that “Globally 40% of the population does not have access to an education in a language they speak or understand. But progress is being made in multilingual education with growing understanding of its importance, particularly in early schooling, and more commitment to its development in public life.”.
International Mother Language Day 2023: technology for inclusion
Technology is a game changer both in the inclusion and accessibility arena as we have also discussed the benefits of speech-to-text technology in our article ‘Write and speak with speech recognition tools’.
Whether it is used to transcribe and make content accessible in other languages for foreign students to help them follow lectures without any worry, or support students with hearing impairment by subtitling of the lecturer’s speech in real-time letting them read and follow the conversation easily, advance technologies play a great role in both multi-lingual and inclusive environments.
CABOLO Solutions for inclusion
To give an example, we can consider CABOLO solutions. Cabolo One, Subtitle, and Podium products provide automatic transcription of lectures from universities and training courses, this way the voice of professors and teachers become a part of the lecture materials.
Studies have shown that students understand the content better when lecture text is available for reading and not just for listening. Therefore, correct transcription and even translation of lectures become important for any course of study. Students at any level and on any course can progress quicker in their studies with increasing confidence and motivation.
Everyone has their own and unique method of studying and understanding information. With the automatic transcription of lectures, the voices of professors and teachers become a part of the lecture material and can help take notes, revise faster, retrieve key points from lectures, learn and memorise easily.
Another supportive functionality of CABOLO solutions is the real-time translation function. This way every student can understand what is being said by the lecturer while other students can read the transcript translated into their own language. AI-enriched solutions like CABOLO break down the language barriers.