[WATCH] Education minister says different languages enrich the country

Council of Europe study shows that Malta provides a very positive context for multilingualism • Video by Ray Attard

At the launch of the Language Education Policy Profile earlier today, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said that languages were the basis of learning and that an effective language policy would aim to strengthen all the languages learned without taking away from any one of them.

“I believe that strengthening one language should never come at the detriment of the other,” Bartolo said explaining that the new language education policy would aim to address this issue without imposing a one-size fits all attitude.

This view was confirmed by the study carried out by Council of Europe experts  at the request of the Ministry of Education. The study, entitled the Language Education Policy Profile outlined the country’s current linguistic position and possible developments of language education in the future.

Chair of the Maltese Language Policy in Education Committee Charles Mifsud also explained that the study had involved various stages including the production of a country report by the relevant authorities, a week’s study visit by a group of experts from the various member states of the Council of Europe.

“The visits started in February 2014, and then again in June and November of 2014, as well as earlier this year, where the group of experts, made up of Elidir King from the UK, Jean-Claude Beacco from France, Marisa Cavalli from Val d’Aosta and Philia Thalgott as a representative of the Council of Europe. The visits saw the experts visit various schools on the island and also talk to various educators and stakeholders on the subject,” Mifsud said.

He added that the visits had revealed a strong willingness to strengthen language learning, but that there was not one single solution to be employed throughout the country.

“The study is aimed merely as a self-evaluation and it does not offer a definitive list of potential decisions,” said Rapporteur Elidir King.

Discussing the results of the study, King said that one of the most universal issues in the country was how to manage bilingualism, code switching and the new phenomenon presented by migrant languages.

King commented that the issue of code switching, whereby Maltese people tend to switch from one language to another, could be used as an asset rather than the liability it is currently treated as.

“Code switching can be used by educators to consolidate certain explanations that may be problematic to students,” Bartolo added to the observation.

Referring to the issue of migrant languages, King said that this was a relatively new issue around the world, but that countries like Malta could stand to gain a lot from learning world languages that were enjoying an increased presence in the country like Arabic or Chinese.

The study revealed that some of the main issues that needed to be addressed where the general perception that standards in language learning were dropping, the languages of schooling as well as gaps in teacher training programmes.