Psychological Consequences of Mother-tongue Maintenance and the Language of Literacy for Linguistic Minorities in India

A number of studies comparing the cognitive, linguistic and academic performance and the sociolinguistic integration of bilingual and monolingual Kond tribals have been discussed to show that Kui-Oriya bilingualism, based on the maintenance of the indigenous Kui language, has positive consequences compared to Oriya monolingualism, resulting from a shift of Kui. It has been shown that there are empirical and theoreti cal supports for the maintenance of minority mother-tongues and that this goal can be achieved by a language-shelter oriented, bilingual education of initial literacy in the mother-tongue, followed by instruction both in the mother-tongue and the majority language. The bilingual transfer model of tribal education has been shown to be inadequate as a language maintenance programme.