On September 6, the Latvian school in Reykjavik, Latvian group in Móðurmál, invited the Latvian speaking community to a lecture given by a well known linguistic specialist in Latvia, Ina Druviete, who was the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia in 2004–2006.
To begin the lecture Ms Druviete spoke about psycholinguistic theory and social aspects of language learning, paying attention to the important role of attitude to a certain language and motivation for learning it. Unfortunately, the low motivation for the ability to know or learn Latvian language is not only a problem among Latvian people living abroad, but also in Latvia itself, which should become a political matter. When we look at the statistics of world languages, we see that the Latvian language is not a small language and it is not on a verge of disappearing, so it’s disappointing that this myth of the extinction of the Latvian language is actually very strong in Latvian minds.
We as parents and teachers are very much responsible for making children understand that language is a valuable thing and knowing Latvian can bring them lots of benefits. Ms Druviete also showed us research results that indicate that bilinguals and multilingual are not only cognitively smarter but also socially and emotionally smarter than monolinguals. One of Ms Druviete’s objects of interest is Latvian language schools abroad, so for her, this was a chance to meet Latvian people in Iceland, learn about the Latvian school in Reykjavik and its experience. She revealed she has learned new valuable information to use on her further work and research in linguistics.
Professor Ina Druviete is visiting Iceland these days to work as a guest professor in Icelandic Language Institute. This lecture was given in cooperation with Latvian school in Reykjavik and was her voluntary work that we appreciate a lot.
We also thank Gerðuberg Multicultural Centre and Móðurmál for their support in organizing this event.