This is a model answer. Your answer might be different.

Recent research points to the importance of early experiences with language as a formative part of brain development. If the home language is Scots, then any negative attitudes towards the way a child speaks could be damaging to self-esteem and therefore achievement in school. So, I think that learners should have the right to engage with their mother language in school as part of their learning to improve literacy, confidence, learning skills and knowledge of their own culture. Who knows how many learners’ self-esteem has been damaged in the past by adults’ and peers’ judgements about the way they speak? Learners should be given the space to question society and power relations related to these issues, and at the very least be given opportunities to speak, read and write in their mother tongue.

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