Jammu February 22:(KNS) Department of Linguistics and Literature from the School of Humanities and Liberal Arts, CLUJ celebrated International Mother Language Day by organizing an online program titled “Recitation and Narrations in Mother Language” to spread awareness and importance of mother languages which are nowadays facing a threat of extinction and endangerment all over the world. Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, Prof. Bechan Lal was the chief patron under whose patronage and inspiration the programme was successfully conducted. Prof. Bhopinder Singh, Dean Academic Affairs, patron of the event provided his unflinching support and motivation for the conduct of the online event.
The keynote speaker in this online celebration was Dr. Joginder Singh, Head- Department of Dogri, Govt. MAM College who emphasized the importance of speaking mother tongue in our lives, though we can use Hindi and English to remain connected with the national and global world. Learning to speak in the mother tongue is necessary for a child’s overall development. To improve the quality of education, language policies need to take into account the mother-tongue learning. UNESCO declared year 2019 to be “the year of indigenous languages” in order to raise the awareness. It also laid stress to introduce mother language as medium of instruction in the initial years.
Around 20 students of the department of Linguistics and Literature presented their recitations and narrations in their mother tongue which included languages like Gojri, Purgi, Pahari, Urdu, Dogri, Punjabi, Kashmiri and Hindi. Assistant Prof. Akanksha Sharma, faculty of the department also presented Dogri poems composed by herself. Dr. Reena Salaria, Course Coordinator/HOD, department of Linguistics and Literature welcomed the keynote speaker, Dr. Joginder Singh and gave an overview of the linguistics programme running in the department and the importance of promoting the local languages by documenting and preserving them.
Dr. Geetanjali A. Rana, Dean faculty of Arts was the special guest on this occasion who addressed the students and exhorted them to use their mother languages in their day to day activities and promote it as they connect us to our past heritage and traditions. The programme was immaculately compared by the students of semester I namely Alvin, Suvanshi and Arshiya. The formal vote of thanks was presented by Assistant Prof. Bharti Magotra, faculty in the department.(KNS)