Maltese

This paper explains the process of developing a Maltese reading scheme which also involved the implementation of a teaching programme. The scheme is intended for five to six-year old children at Year One Primary school level, that is, at the stage when they are introduced to literacy. Until this project came into being there had never been any scientific studies that provided a sound linguistic basis for the development of reading schemes in Maltese. On the other hand, there were a couple of psycholinguistic investigations and classroom observation studies that gave us basic background information about the acquisition of literacy in Maltese. In the Maltese context this research study is unique and provides a road-map for the further elaboration of initial reading material. It brings together two fundamental strands: approaches to literacy; and the choice of vocabulary that is most suitable for this purpose. This article describes the linguistic spade work that was necessary for the structured build-up of syllabification, word and sentence reading, and illustrates the pedagogical approaches to literacy, such as storytelling and multi-sensory activities, all of them being an integral part of the reading programme.

This article describes an initial analysis of the acquisition of Maltese as a foreign language by adult learners. It specifically looks at four verbal tense and aspect forms. Three intermediate-to-advanced level learners were asked to carry out a set of tasks, and the resulting data was compared to that produced by three adult native speakers of Maltese. The main finding was that on production tasks (unanalysed knowledge) the most commonly used tense/aspect by foreign learners is the ‘imperfett’ (unrestricted habitual aspect) which native speakers (NSs) use only half as much as the foreign learners (NNSs). On the other hand, native speakers use the ‘perfett’ (past tense) twice as much as the foreign users of Maltese. Another interesting finding is that on tasks that require analysed knowledge the main difference between NSs and NNSs was that the NNSs had greater difficulty with the progressive and the restricted habitual, but did not show significant variability with regard to the ‘perfett’ and ‘imperfett’. Thus, the results indicate that (i) there is a difference in the performance of NNSs in quantity rather than quality with regard to the ‘perfett’ and ‘imperfett’; and (ii) that on tasks requiring analysed knowledge NNSs have difficulty with regard to the progressive and restricted habitual forms.

The importance of technology in education has increased enormously in recent years. As a result of the ongoing developments in ICT both teaching and learning are being transformed. This article starts by giving a brief overview of the main advantages of ICT in teaching a language. It then outlines the milestones in the introduction of ICT in Maltese state schools, which include the distribution of laptops to all teachers, the installation of interactive whiteboards and the introduction of a virtual learning environment that connects all primary and secondary state schools into one virtual network. Then, this article identifies the most popular ICT resources and makes reference to the ones that are more easily accessible by the teachers of Maltese. However, the implementation of ICT in schools has not come about without difficulty. The article discusses the local teachers’ concerns related to the introduction and use of ICT in the classroom. Finally, some practical suggestions are put forward with the aim of making the use of ICT in the local educational sector more successful and beneficial in the educational process.

English literacy assessments in Malta are mainly based on tests standardised among English speaking populations. Such practice raises questions as to its suitability within the Maltese bilingual context. This study explores the implications of such practice by evaluating the performance of Maltese students on a widely used test, namely the Neale Analysis of Reading Comprehension – Revised (NARA II). The test was individually administered to a total of 224 students, representing developmental processes through three age-groups between 7-14 years, and two different home language backgrounds also reflected in two different types of school, State and Independent. Analysis of variance and correlations were used to highlight differences between the scores of the three age-groups and the two types of school and home background. The results indicate that comprehension levels improved sequentially with age; however, the norms derived from a monolingual English population do not represent appropriately the varying bilingual contexts of Maltese students. Moreover, particular discrepancies in the participants’ scores on the three subscales of the test - namely Reading Comprehension, Reading Accuracy and Reading Rate raise questions about the profile of competencies in English reading comprehension that are being acquired by Maltese students.