MT (Mother Tongue)

Mother Tongue (MT) refers to the first language that a person learns from birth and uses primarily at home. It is the language in which a person is most proficient and comfortable. In language education, recognizing the role of the mother tongue is important for understanding learners' linguistic backgrounds, facilitating language transfer, and addressing potential interference. Educators can leverage students' mother tongues to support additional language acquisition through bilingual education, code-switching, and comparative analysis.