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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML+RDFa 1.0//EN" "http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/DTD/xhtml-rdfa-1.dtd"> <html lang="en" dir="ltr" xmlns:fb="https://ogp.me/ns/fb#" xmlns:og="https://ogp.me/ns#"> <head profile="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml/vocab"> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/sil-favicon_0.ico" type="image/vnd.microsoft.icon" /> <meta name="description" content="In successful Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB MLE) programs, students learn to read and write in their mother tongue or first language (L1)—the language they know best. They begin learning the official school language (their school L2) orally, first by listening and responding to directions and then, when they are ready, by engaging in dialogue. With a good" /> <meta name="generator" content="Drupal 7 (https://www.drupal.org)" /> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.sil.org/literacy-and-education/language-education" /> <link rel="shortlink" href="https://www.sil.org/node/62997" /> <meta property="og:site_name" content="SIL Global" /> <meta property="og:type" content="article" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://www.sil.org/literacy-and-education/language-education" /> <meta property="og:title" content="Language Education" /> <meta property="og:description" content="In successful Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB MLE) programs, students learn to read and write in their mother tongue or first language (L1)—the language they know best. They begin learning the official school language (their school L2) orally, first by listening and responding to directions and then, when they are ready, by engaging in dialogue. With a good foundation in reading and writing their L1 and a good basic vocabulary in oral L2, students are ready to “bridge” to reading and writing the L2." /> <meta property="og:updated_time" content="2024-01-24T20:19:22-06:00" /> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary" /> <meta name="twitter:url" content="https://www.sil.org/literacy-and-education/language-education" /> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Language Education" /> <meta name="twitter:description" content="In successful Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB MLE) programs, students learn to read and write in their mother tongue or first language (L1)—the language they know best. They begin" /> <meta property="article:published_time" content="2013-02-10T22:59:33-06:00" /> <meta property="article:modified_time" content="2024-01-24T20:19:22-06:00" /> <title>Language Education | SIL Global</title> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/css/css_lQaZfjVpwP_oGNqdtWCSpJT1EMqXdMiU84ekLLxQnc4.css" media="all" /> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/css/css_EM9PzeHZt2AxxQ3R05nXINg9akBOG66G3hxOgWtlp2E.css" media="all" /> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/css/css_y-6OGvqwgwpR259lzJYNwvxpJm3Q1qOD_DWt90goRpM.css" media="all" /> <style>.panels-flexible-new .panels-flexible-region { padding: 0; } .panels-flexible-new .panels-flexible-region-inside { padding-right: 0.5em; padding-left: 0.5em; } .panels-flexible-new .panels-flexible-region-inside-first { padding-left: 0; } .panels-flexible-new .panels-flexible-region-inside-last { 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