Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Special Content

Desirable multilingual education in Bangladesh

In the 1950s, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis claimed that each language shapes and describes life and the world differently. If true, multilingual education could be more effective and complete than monolingual education. Multilingual education can be either natural or organic, like the Latin-based system in ancient Rome when Latin was alive, or artificial, like the Latin-based system in the Middle Ages when Latin was a dead language. The argument posits that natural multilingual education ensures general and effective education, while artificial multilingual education fails in both aspects. In Bangladesh, a Bengali language-based multilingual education system would be natural and effective since Bengali is the language of the masses. Conversely, an English-based multilingual education system would be artificial because English is not the language of the masses in Bangladesh. Moreover, it might undermine the use of the Bengali language, causing ultimate harm.