Let’s Create a Harmonious and Peaceful World through Quality Bilingual Education! Indigenous Tsotsil Children and Their Languages the Solution!

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to underline the implications that language endangerment has, not only for the speakers of a specific language, but for the entire world as losing a language involves the disappearance of cultural, spiritual and intellectual knowledge as well as cultural identity. Many indigenous languages in Mexico, for example, have been in danger as Spanish, the dominant language of the country, has put them at a disadvantage. Transitional bilingual education has been used to achieve such a goal. Since this has been the case, some indigenous communities have taken the initiative to work diligently to preserve and promote their native language and culture despite the sociopolitical, economic and educational pressures they face. An example of that is the Mayan Tsotsil community in Chiapas in southern Mexico. This paper offers a summary of the findings of the qualitative research study that was conducted to explore the situation of the Tsotsil language at a Spanish-Indigenous Tsotsil elementary bilingual school in Chiapas. Tsotsil children and their teacher show that it is possible to preserve and promote the Tsotsil language when working together as a community. It is concluded that quality bilingual education and inclusive schools can be great tools that can contribute to have a harmonious and peaceful world.