Evarist Bartolo, Minister for Education & Employment, wrote this for us while Shadow Minister and a lecturer in communications at the University of Malta. Here, he writes about how the education curriculum in Malta is struggling with bi-lingualism. His sentiments are as pertinent today, 2014, as a couple of years ago when he penned this.
Malta has two official languages: English and Maltese. Thousands of Maltese children are being brought up in families where English is not spoken regularly. We have also thousands of children living on these islands whose first language is not Maltese. Although we are officially a bilingual society Maltese and English are taught in our schools as if these are two native languages that our children acquire automatically through schooling and socialization.
We have a one-size-fits-all language policy for all our children and schools. This has not worked as on average only 56% of our students walk away with passes in the Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) in English Language and Maltese. At least 44% of our fifth formers still do not manage to become competent in English Language and Maltese after at least 12 years of schooling. SEC and Junior Lyceum examiners still refer to poor spelling, weak grasp of grammar and syntax, poor reading habits and lack of imagination and creativity in their year reports on students’ performance in English Language and Maltese SEC and Junior Lyceum examinations.
To change all this we need to design appropriate curricula, examinations, syllabi, content and pedagogical methods in the teaching and learning of English and Maltese.
The Maltese SEC and MATSEC examination needs to be split into two different papers: a language component and another in literature. Our students should be given the option to choose one of these papers and a pass in the Maltese Language SEC and MATSEC exam should be enough to qualify them for a course at the University of Malta. Steps should be taken to modernise the teaching of Maltese and choose content that is more relevant to the young people going through their education now.
Forcing thousands of our teenagers to do a Maltese SEC syllabus that is closer to a pre-industrial Malta 80 years ago than to their daily life makes them hate Maltese literature and gives them the sensation that Maltese is a strange and remote language.
We have very good writers who are creating literature that is very relevant for young people growing up today but this literature is kept away from our schools.
Teaching material and methods have been developed to help foreigners learn Maltese but our schools do not make any use of these experiences. The same goes for the teaching of English where the success we have achieved in teaching the language to over a million foreigners has not been transferred to our schools to teach our own youngsters.
We should use the know-how and experience we have built in the sector of the teaching of English as a foreign language to improve the teaching of Maltese and English in our primary and secondary schools.
Let people decide what language they want to speak themselves. If you do not teach your kids English from an early age at home, they might never get the chance to learn it at all. No one knows the level of intelligence his kids are born with so unless you teach them English from a young age yourself, they will end up struggling. Living in Malta, one cannot miss on English. It is not just a question of acquiring a learning tool or communicating with foreigners. It also determines your social status. Try finding a Maltese person of good standing who does not speak English well. Here in Malta people will make fun of you if you can’t speak English well. English is not just an official language here, it is more than that, whether we like to admit it or not.
Il-kaz tal-Belgju huwa dinja ohra ghall-dak li hawn f’Malta. L-unika darba li l-Franciz u l-Fjaming jithaltu huwa f’Brussel, f’ tahlita artificjali. Il-Qbijja tal-pajjiz ma ssibx lingwa f’naha minn naha l-ohra.
Il-Malti huwa parti mill-identita taghna, l-ingliz xhieda ta’ hakem barrani, li ghandna nisfruttaw ghall-beneficju taghna. F’kemm l-ingliz jigi injorat ghall Malti ghadndi d-dubji tieghi. Iktar li bil-kontra fejn nahseb li l-Malti jbghati fi skaptu ghall-Ingliz. Qed ngergru ghat-toroq ghax qed nghidu triq flok’street’? Mela l-isem fil-maggor parti tal-kazi mhux ha jiqba’ l-istess?
Jien quddiem ghajnejja ngib dawk il-genituri li jaghlmu l-ingliz biss, jew xi hadd li tkelmu bil-malti u jiqba jikkonversa bl-ingliz (ghavolja qed jifhmek) jew l-applikazjonijiet ghall-xoghol jew istituzjonijiet edukattivi, li ghandek iktar cans issibhom bl-ingliz.
Dak li hu deskritt fil-ligi, li l-Malti u l-Ingliz huma lingwi ufficjali huwa fatt, izda jaf jqarraq. Ghall xejn jipprovaw jergaw jiktbu r-realta, meta dak li qieghed jigri fit-toroq maltin il-Malti huwa l-protagonist assolut. Mela le m’ghandux jigi mghallem l-ingliz, izda mhux ghall-skaptu tal-Malti.
prova mur fil-Fjandra jew fil- Wallonia (in-nahat lingwistikament divisi fil-Belgju) u ara jkelmikx bil-lingwa tan-naha l-ohra. Ghandek iktar cans tismal-ingliz (la darba ma tkunx taf tal-post)!
What really gets my goat is this notion that English and Maltese are both “our national languages” when they are not treated that way in day-to-day life.
In Brussels, which is French/Flemish, all street names are written in both languages. I’ve seen street names written in Maltese, rarely in English but never in both languages. Also, in Brussels, all adverts and billboards are bilingual – I’ve never seen this in Malta.
The result is that in Malta, one language is used over another based upon the perceived notion of the target market or political/social values which may be far from correct.
When is someone going to stand up and insist that things be done in both languages? This will go a long way to teaching kids that both of them are needed.
How very true! The EFL method of teaching could be put into such good use in primary schools, especially in schools where one language is stronger than the other.
Unfortunately for the Maltese language the primary school books that I’ve seen on the market promote Minglish rather than Maltese with words like ‘Hellow’ being used and accepted. This word is neither English nor Maltese but a hybrid of both languages both of which are being ruined in this country.
A complete upheaval of the Maltese language authority is needed with new people being elected to the board – people whose aim and interest is the revival of the Maltese language rather than the introduction of misspelt English words disguised to look like Maltese.